002houston August 10:002houston 7/21/10 2:10 PM Page 25
ART FILMS ARE GOOD FOR THE gish at the movies By Sarah Gish
SOUL…
TAKE A FRIEND
TO ONE!
SCREEN DANCING I’ve been fascinated by the life of former Houston Ballet dancer Li Cunxin ever since I heard him speak when touting his bestselling autobiography, Mao’s Last Dancer, a few years back. Lucky for us, that book inspired a movie of the same title, opening August 20 at Landmark River Oaks Theatre (www.landmarktheatres.com). It’s the American dream with a Chinese socialist spin and a little Baryshnikov thrown in: Li is plucked from poverty to attend Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy after which he is discovered by former Houston Ballet Artistic Director Ben Stevenson. Li dances with our ballet troupe for 16 years and, upon marrying an American dancer, enters into a struggle with Chinese authorities who wanted to force him to return to China. The dancer and his family are allowed to stay, thanks to Houston immigration attorney Charles C. Foster (played by Kyle MacLachlan). Meet Li in person at the Junior League of Houston on Sunday, August 1, 4pm for a special book signing event. Speaking of dancing, the Contemporary Arts Museum (www.camh.org) has a new exhibition dedicated to dance and film, “Dance with Camera,” on view August 7 through October 17. The show features film, video and still photography and explores the work of a group of artists and dancers who make choreography for the camera. SCIENCE FILMS & MORE The Houston Museum of Natural Science (www.hmns.org) continues their program of interesting science films with Hubble 3D; Dolphins & Whales 3D; and Wild Ocean 3D. The Hubble film was created by the award-winning IMAX® Space Team and captures the troubled yet amazing and groundbreaking voyage of the Hubble Telescope. Nature is seen up close in the other films: Dolphins & Whales takes viewers from the dazzling coral reefs of the Bahamas to the warm depths of the waters of the exotic Kingdom of Tonga for a close encounter with the surviving tribes of the ocean while Wild Oceans 3D is
an adventure to the Kwazulu-Natal Coast in the oceans of South Africa. On other screens, the “Summer Israeli Film Series” wraps up this month with Five Hours from Paris (8/18, 7:30pm) at the JCC Houston (www.jcchouston.org), and the Aurora Picture Show (www.aurorapictureshow.org) helps you relive your awkward teens with Skip Elsheimer and his “Prom Date with the A/V Geeks” program, which promises a trip down memory lane with 16mm film (8/28, 7pm, Eldorado Ballroom). The following day, APS is hosting a video salon on 16mm film with Skip and fellow collector/artist Luke Savisky at 1pm, also at the Ballroom. The discussion will focus on techniques for presenting and archiving 16mm films. Elsheimer is the founder of A/V Geeks and the owner of a “pool of about 18,000 of the strangest films known to man.” BUT WAIT, THERE’S EVEN MORE… The Angelika Film Center (www.angelikafilmcenter.com) is opening The Concert and Disappearance of Alice Creed (8/6); The Dry Land; Eat Pray Love; Farewell; and Princess Kaiulani (8/13); Cairo Time and Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (8/20); and Life During Wartime (8/27). DiverseWorks (www.diverseworks.org) is host to the Aurora Picture Show program, “Fragments” (8/13, 7pm) and they are encouraging you to have your cell phones on during the screening! Filmmaker Darrin Martin will be in attendance; he’s a Bay Area artist whose work loosely examines how technologies are used in an attempt to measure and augment our daily perceptions. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (www.mfah.org) continues their family summer matinees with Waking Sleeping Beauty (8/4, 11am & 2pm) and Mary Poppins (8/11, 11am & 2pm) and will have a special screening of the Japanese film House/Hausu (8/27 & 8/28, 7pm and 8/29, 5pm). The film has been described as “a hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s house only to come face to face with evil spirits, bloodthirsty pianos and a demonic housecat.” Coupled with The Last Exorcism, opening 8/27, these horror films will be sure to cool your blood! Coming to Rave Yorktown (www.ravemotionpictures.com) this month is Step Up 3-D (8/6); The Expendables; Scott Pilgrim vs. the World; and Eat Pray Love (8/13); The Switch; Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (8/20); and Takers (8/27).
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