CINE-FILE SELECTS at Doc Films

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 22, 2010 6:20PM

A few years ago I was lucky enough to meet Darnell Witt, who had just decided to launch a new resource for Chicago movie lovers. That site, CINE-FILE, has been churning out weekly previews of Chicagoland screenings and film events ever since. And among the contributors is yours truly. Well, some exciting news: from January 3 - March 7, Doc Films will be presenting CINE-FILE SELECTS, a weekly film and video series organized by CINE-FILE contributors. Prior to each screening, the contributor who programmed the evening will present a short introduction.

Managing editor Patrick Friel puts it best: "In keeping with the focus of our site, the series brings together under-exposed and under-appreciated works spanning many countries, time periods, genres, and formats." It's about the most eclectic program you can possibly imagine. On January 3, for example, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
presents James Gray's Two Lovers, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. The following week there will be a program of animated shorts by the prolific Hubley Family, selected by Michael Castelle (the guy who hipped us to the true origin of Space Jam). Subsequent weeks include John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk, Spread (with Ashton Kutcher!), Uruphong Raksasad's Agrarian Utopia, and Dusan Makavejev's wild Communist whatsit WR: Mysteries of the Organism.

On January 31 I'll be introducing my own selection, TV mastermind Norman Lear's unsung satire Cold Turkey. It's long out-of-print on video (excepting an execrable DVD-R, which should be avoided at all costs) and so I'm really looking forward to presenting the lovely 35mm print we've obtained.

More on that movie later, but on behalf of the CINE-FILE crew, I'd like to invite you to our series. General admission is only $5.

Doc Films is located in the Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall at The University of Chicago, 1212 East 59th Street