The
issue 004 Nov 2015 - Feb 2016
LETTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
1 • THE NICKELODEON
W h e n d e v e lo p i n g o u r f u t u r e programming schedule, the staff and I always strive to find interesting topics and themes of relevance to our community. Little did we know when we sat down last fall to solidify our plan for 2015 that our special programs would resonate so strongly with events taking place outside of our walls. We kicked things off in January with Burn to Shine, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War and beginning to tackle bits of history from that era that we don’t often touch on. From DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation to the controversial C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America to the locally produced work for our Gone With the Wind Redux, the series fostered a number of strong conversations about the legacy of race and the war here in our city. With Indie Grits, we knew we wanted to shift our focus from the past to what lied ahead, so we developed the theme of Future Perfect. Through that we saw nearly two dozen artists explore how art and technology would impact the Southern city of the future and took the concept further by putting our visiting filmmakers and artists at tables with members of the Urban Land Institute of the Midlands to brainstorm solutions to some of the challenges our city faces. Creative ideas ranging from deeply integrating art into our bus stops to reclaiming portions of Assembly Street
to make it more pedestrian friendly, showed how valuable it can be when you bring creative outside minds to the table. But things really culminated in the weeks proceeding our Blaktastik festival. We were all shocked when tragedy came to Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston and we knew that the Nick needed to be a place where the community could gather to begin healing. Two packed screenings of Tom Hall’s Compromised were quickly scheduled and just a few days later the flag finally came down. Suddenly, our Blaktastik festival, which had been in the works for nearly two years, took on a whole new meaning. Intended as a celebration of new Black culture by organizer Sherard Duvall, the festival’s tremendous art, films and music now carried a deeper significance. In no way would I try to attribute the momentous events of this past July to our programming here at the Nick, but on the Saturday night of Blaktastik, when I realized I was sitting on top of a freshly planted patch of grass where a certain flagpole stood just weeks before, I couldn’t have been more proud to be a part of an organization with such a long and dedicated history of using art to bring people together to have important conversations.
Staff
Board of Directors Lynn Stokes-Murray, President
Amos Disasa
Wendi Nance
Duncan McIntosh, Vice-President
Nikky Finney
Anne Postic
Chris Controne, Treasurer
Sam Johnson
Elizabeth Reardon
Lemuel Watson, Secretary
Tracy Jones
Walton Selig
Judy Battiste
April Kelly
James E. Smith Jr.
John P. Boyd
Bob Mason
Scottie Smith
Rick Cutter
Scott Middleton
Dennis Way
Interns
3
Art Docs
7
Dominick Baletta Interview
9
Jewish Film Festival
13
Guest Curated Series: Yates
17
Timeline
22
Holiday Series
24
First Friday Lowbrow Cinema Explosion
28
Blacktastik
31
Staff Picks
NICK MAG DESIGNERS / Savannah Taylor, W. Heyward Sims NICK MAG EDITOR / Kristin Morris
The Nickelodeon Theatre 1607 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29201 www.nickelodeon.org (803) 254-8234 Office Phone Number + Movieline: (803) 254-3433
The Nick serves Columbia, SC, as a focal point for critical dialogue anchored by films that showcase the diversity, challenges, joy and aspirations of its community. A center for enjoyment, enrichment, and education, the Nick provides its community the tools to make, interpret, appreciate, and teach the moving image in all its variety.
2 • THE NICKELODEON
"Painting, sculpture and architecture are finished, but the art
range of filmmaking perspectives complementing the myriad of
habit continues." These fiery words from the the enigmatic land
art subjects and creative forces represented.
artist, Robert Smithson, act as the guiding voice behind a new and
The art we explore is active, not idling by–the captured social
dynamic series, ART DOCS, coming this January and February to
dynamics of the photography in Everybody Street, the blazing
the Nick. Still hungry from the recent Future Perfect art exhibition
indignance of ! Women Art Revolution, the performative grace
at Indie Grits, we will continue our foray into the arts by exploring
of Picasso’s hand in The Mystery of Picasso, the churning,
art habits both new and old that challenge the standard norm
transfigurative marvels in Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art,
with five feature films, three shorts, and a series of live musical
and the frenzied, mobile interdisciplinary collage of Station
performances in the theater.
to Station. Altogether, this series is no still life–along with our
Art documentaries have a history of pushing filmmakers towards
commissioned short films on local artists and live in-theatre
new techniques and processes acting as a fertile ground for
performances, ART DOCS is truly alive.
experimentation. Our series, ART DOCS, encapsulates a diverse
Seth Gadsden, Series Curator
3
JAN - FEB 2016
STATION TO STATION DOUG AITKEN. USA. 2015. 70 MIN. NR. A work of singularly American syncretism, harnessing the disparate impulses of presence and movement, city and country, immediacy and mediation, accidental and composed, reflex and choreography, word and sound, Doug Aitken records, in 62 discrete, oneminute films, a transcontinental series of artistic happenings from coast to coast along that form of transportation that twines a unified past, decrepit present, and idealistic future: the railroad. TUESDAY,
JANUARY 26 @ 6:30 PM. This film will be followed by a post film discussion with series curator and Managing Director, Seth Gadsden.
CHERYL DUNN. USA. 2013. 82 MIN. NR. New York street photography
docs
art
EVERYBODY STREET has always stood for itself. One of the most iconic genres of American visual art created a deep mythology of a city that has transformed from hyper-multi-ethnic foothold to diversified-portfolio urban sprawl. The self-presentation of its radically disparate inhabitants via amateur and deeply engaged visual artists now gets its proper history in this sprightly, thorough document of a mystifyingly candid but beguilingly composed form. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2 @ 6:30 PM. A short documentary from The Nick’s filmmaker-in-residence Josh Yates about SC photographer Dorian Warneck will accompany this screening.
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5 • THE NICKELODEON
JAN - FEB 2016
THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT. FRANCE. 1956. 78 MIN. NR. In a throughcomposed collaboration between two transformative artists, we watch with Clouzot as Picasso adds brush-stroke after brush-stroke to canvas, tracing the slow development of a painting from sketch to masterpiece as a figurative dance of color and line. Every work Picasso composed for the camera was designed specifically for the film, and by the end the two have said as much about cinema as about craft, mystery, or Picasso himself. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16 @ 6:30
PM. Local and regional musicians will provide live musical accompaniment. Film will be shown without sound.
! WOMEN ART REVOLUTION
LYNN HERSHMAN-LEESON. USA. 2011. 83 MIN. NR. This revisionist catalog of late20th century feminist artistic praxis bills itself as a “secret history,” but given the bluntly anatomical sexuality of much radical feminist visual art, we might call it a “secret museum.” For the same reason Victorians tucked Roman porn into a privileged-access archive, so too has the unapologetic work of pioneering feminist artists been “secret” at all. But this film proves how they exploded the horizons of what was acceptable to depict materially, symbolically, and ideologically. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 @ 6:30 PM. A short documentary about local artist Michaela Pilar Brown, directed by Roni Nicole Henderson, will accompany this screening.
6 • THE NICKELODEON
5
TROUBLEMAKERS: THE STORY OF LAND ART JAMES
NR.
and forge new directions against the highly commercial and
Non-commodifiable, often inaccessible, absurdly laborious,
CRUMP.
USA.
2015.
72
MIN.
hyper-speculative art world in the 1960s and early 1970s. Join
and totemically transcendent, land art holds court as one of
us at the Nick for this cinematic journey through an immersive
the most controversial art movements in the 20th-century. Set
and physically transportive experience that you will not forget.
in the desolate, wide expanses of the American Southwest,
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 @ 6:30 PM. A short documentary
Troublemakers is the story of art renegades and bandits risking
from local artists Seth Gadsden and Lauren Greenwald about their
everything including their lives to radically change, experiment,
personal experiences with land art will accompany this screening.
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7 • THE NICKELODEON
our shaping future W I T H
D O M I N I C K
arlier this year, The Nick was accepted into the DeVos Institute for Arts Management’s Next Generation Arts Spaces III program. In addition to providing financial support, the program includes two years of advising from an expert in our field. Dominick Baletta, the Managing Director of Pleasantville, NY’s Jacob Burns Film Center, will once again (he was our advisor during an earlier iteration of the program) work closely with The Nick staff and board over the next couple of years. Our Director, Andy Smith recently had a conversation over email about his relationship with the Nick and the coming years of the Next Gen program. You’ve been working with us at The Nick for more than three years, seeing us through a few big transitions. What strikes you about what’s happened at The Nick during that period? There has been a tremendous amount of reinvention around The Nick in a very short period of time. In particular, The Nick has grappled with how to be relevant and vital
7 • THE NICKELODEON
B A L E T T A
to Columbia and all of its communities. The Nick of today is not The Nick that I first encountered three years ago, both physically (you now have two beautiful theaters on Main Street) and organizationally. The move to Main Street, combined with a heartfelt commitment to the city, has transformed you from a place to watch movies into a center of cultural and civic engagement (with popcorn and beer, of course, because those are the staffs of life). Back in April, your site visit coincided with Indie Grits. How was your festival experience? I had a blast at Indie Grits—it was so great to see the festival and all of its artistic tentacles spread out through the heart of Columbia, and to see the varied audiences for each component. There is an electricity to watching people rush from experience to experience—all of them infused with true independent spirit—that is awesome. The fact that you could claim so many outdoor spaces for free events, from a cinema in a shipping container to hip-hop family day toPamela installations of professional and student Burris
work in the downtown area, speaks volumes about the cooperation and support you receive from artists and business leaders. And films like BROCKINGTON, EVERY BODY HIT SOMEBODY and WESTERN had me texting my programmers nonstop. I’ve always looked up to the Jacob Burns Film Center as a model for what The Nick could be one day. What trends do you and your staff see developing in our field? We see pretty much what you see: the challenge of staying relevant to a wide range of constituencies and of using media in all its forms for the betterment of the community (always with popcorn available . . . we can’t sell beer here in New York). We also see a deep need to develop communities and support networks for filmmakers at all stages of their development. How are you reacting to those trends? Jacob Burns Film Center’s spirit from the beginning was like that of a dojo or a yeshiva, a community center where people from all
walks of life are welcome to meet up with a film and engage with it on their own terms. The nine-year-old, the millennial, the boomer, and the senior all bring their experiences to a screening, and it’s great to watch them cross-pollinate. That is the way that we will define ourselves in the age of tiny screens, six-second videos and 140-character messages. What gives me great hope is that places like Jacob Burns, The Nick, Cinema Detroit, The Belcourt in Nashville, and numerous others, are recognizing the power of the shared viewing experience and doubling down hard on it. There is an urban legend that people don’t go to the movies, and yet we just opened two very sweet new theaters in Pleasantville (5 screens now in a village of 7,000), and people are using them. People want to have dialogues, they want to be engaged . . . and sometimes they just want to get out of the house and enjoy themselves. Just as urgently, the students we have been teaching for the past fifteen years to decode images and tell their own stories visually, they now have different and more mature needs. We have to reexamine the ladder of engagement with all who want and need our support in that arena. How will this phase of the Next Generation Arts Spaces program differ from what we’ve been doing over the past several years?
You’ve had all the meetings, made all the plans, built the new theaters, and expanded programming and your commitment to filmmakers and education. Now the work of sustaining that begins. The thrust of Next Generation Arts Spaces III is to develop ways to ensure that all of the vitality, energy, and success that surrounds The Nick today continues. I look forward to taking this journey with you and all of the stakeholders (audiences, students, filmmakers, teachers, staff, board, funders, and city, state, and federal agencies) who view the health of The Nick as essential to Columbia, to South Carolina, and to the region, and see it as a model to be emulated nationally. If you look into the future, where do you see The Nick once we’ve finished this process? No essential organization ever finishes this process (sorry we didn’t tell you this at the start of the journey). It is an ongoing dialogue around creativity, aspiration, and engagement that will continue to expand and repay you in ways you never dreamed were possible.
For more information about the DeVos Institute go to devosinstitute.umd.edu and for the Jacob Burns Film Center go to burnsfilmcenter.org
8 9 • THE NICKELODEON
fifteenth annual
JEWISH
FILM FESTIVAL a jewish cultural arts event
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Columbia
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E AND BE
DEAR FRIENDS OF THE C O L U M B I A J E W I S H F I L M F E S T I VA L , This year, the Columbia Jewish Film Festival will celebrate its 15th year of showcasing Jewish movies. We are making some exciting changes, including moving the festival to November. This move allows us to have a closer partnership with The Nickelodeon, but more importantly it enables us to spread out the movies over a three-week period, making it easier to see all of the films. Also new this year, we are inviting high school students to compete in a short film competition. Winning entries will be showcased at The Nickelodeon. The theme, “Freedom, at what cost?”, provides a framework for young filmmakers to explore while promoting dialogue and creativity, and addressing issues that are in the forefront of today’s headlines. As always, the goal of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival is to provide meaningful, thought-provoking theatrical content with Jewish themes while creating an enjoyable and exciting experience for all moviegoers. Each year, the festival committee screens dozens of films so that we may bring you the best films available. From the humorous to the serious, the historical to the fictional, the Columbia Jewish Film Festival provides a wide range of films to suit all tastes. We select films that offer opportunities for insight and understanding, celebrate our diversity, and challenge us to explore our similarities. Check us out online for more information about the movies and to purchase tickets. columbiajewishfilmfestival.com
H E I D I A N D D AV I D L O V I T
2 0 1 5 C o l u m b i a J e w i s h F i l m Fe s t i v a l C h a i r s 9 • THE NICKELODEON
TOUCHDOWN ISRAEL
YO
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RU
N B OY RUN
TOUCHDOWN ISRAEL This film will be shown at the Katie and Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center located at 306 Flora Drive. Opening Night Tailgate Party starts at 6 PM. Tickets can be purchased online or at the JCC: 803-787-2023
P a u l H i r s c h b e r g e r . U S A . 8 5 m i n . N R . In the 1980s, expatriates imported full-contact American football
into Israel. Underfunded and confusing to native Israelis, the sport nonetheless took hold of some part of the local psyche and the Israeli Football League was formed. As this documentary shows, the sport serves as a venue for multicultural interaction, drawing players from all over the region regardless of religion or ethnicity.
November 1, 7 PM.
T h e C o l u m b i a J e w i s h F i l m Fe s t i v a l i s a p r o g ra m o f t h e K a t i e a n d I r w i n K a h n J e w i s h C o m m u n i t y C e n t e r 10 • THE NICKELODEON
J F F S C R E E N I N G S (Continued) G O D ’ S S L AV E
BROKEN BRANCHES AND STUDENT FILM COMPETITION
with English subtitles. 9 0 m i n . N R . Based
A y a l a S h a r o t . I s r a e l . H e b r e w w i t h E n g l i s h s u b t i t l e s . 2 5 m i n . N R . This short,
Aires, God’s Slave follows a sleeper Muslim
the eve of World War II. Illustrated by her granddaughter, the now-92-year-old details
extremist and the Mossad agent assigned
how she adapted to her adopted homeland. The winners of the Student Short Film
to track him down before the next attack.
Competition will also be shown on the big screen. This is a free event sponsored by
A nuanced, sensitive portrait of extremism
USC Jewish Studies Program. For more information on the competition check out:
and duty, this film shows how religious
columbiajewishfilmfestival.com/shortfilmcompetition.
Joel No voa. Vene zuela / A rgentina. Spanish on the 1994 A.M.I.A. bombings in Buenos
SCREENING | ADMISSION IS FREE
multimedia documentary animates the story of a young Polish girl sent to Israel on
conflict rages in an under examined theater.
November 3, 6pm. SERIAL (BAD) WEDDINGS
Philippe de Chauveron. France. French
with English subtitles. 97 min. NR. A white Catholic family is already strained
when three of the four daughters marry men of different religions and ethnicities. The parents wish for their last daughter to marry a Catholic man, so when she tells them she has fallen for one, they are on cloud nine. However, no one in the family is prepared for the man’s full identity…
November 3, 8pm.
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Roberta Grossman. USA. 85 min. NR.
During the 1948 War of Independence, Jewish fighter pilots who had served in World War II created a fledgling air force to defend the newly-born country. Hailing from different nations, funded surreptitiously, and in serious danger both physically and discriminatorily, this tiny group finally gets their story of defense told in a documentary produced by Nancy Spielberg (Steven’s sister).
November 8, 5:30pm.
BROKEN BRANCHES
11 • THE NICKELODEON
November 8, 3pm.
2 4 D AY S
R O S E N WA L D
Alexandre Arcady. France. French with English
A v i v a K e m p n e r. U S A . 1 0 0 m i n . N R .
national scandal, in 2006, a young Jewish
Julius Rosenwald amassed a fortune, yet he
man was kidnapped in Paris and held for
dedicated himself to tzedakah—the Jewish
ransom. 24 Days dramatizes the three weeks
tradition of charity—becoming one of the
during which he was held hostage and
most
tortured as his parents tried to convince the
Americans in the midcentury. He founded
police investigators that they were dealing
schools in the Jim Crow South and awarded
with a hate crime. Both a taut thriller and
fellowships to luminaries from Baldwin to
an investigation of rising anti semitism in
DuBois. Part of the Nick’s Civil Rights Sundays
France, 24 Days is a searing historical drama.
series. Admission $1.
subtitles. 108 min. NR. Later to become a
November 8, 7:30pm.
As the chairman of Sears, Roebuck, and Co.,
generous
philanthropists
for
Black
November 15, 2pm.
DOUGH
THE LAST MENTSCH
Pierre-Henri Salfati. France / Germany / Switzerland. German, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Yiddish with English subtitles. 90 min. NR.
An aging Jewish baker struggles to keep his shop afloat in a modernizing Britain. As a last-ditch effort, he enlists the help of a young Muslim refugee from Darfur, who also
Teitelbaum erases the horror of his past
deals weed to make ends meet. When he
by suppressing his Jewish identity. When
accidentally drops cannabis into the challah,
his mortality finally makes itself known, he
the two discover the recipe for success—and
requests to be buried in a Jewish cemetery,
form a peculiar friendship.
only to have his appeal rejected. He asks a
November 17, 6pm.
survived
Auschwitz,
Turkish woman for help, and they set out to find evidence of his past. Commemorating Kristallnacht, this film will be followed by a talkback by award winning author Edwin Black.
November 9, 5:30pm.
R U N B OY R U N
Pepe Danquart. Germany. German, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Yiddish with English subtitles. 107 min. NR. A young boy escapes from the
G E T T: T H E T R I A L O F VIVIANE AMSALEM
examination of a relationship by a rabbinical panel. Gett follows one woman’s appeal to ensuing courtroom chamber drama as one by
from Srulik to Jurek in order to hide his
one witnesses describe their impression of
Jewish identity and disguises himself from
the Amsalems’ marriage.
the Gestapo with Catholicism. Eventually,
November 17, 8pm.
November 9, 8pm.
H
the latter process is a grueling and unsparing
divorce her conservative husband, and the
unembattled life.
SC E L AST MENT
can legitimate a marriage or its dissolution;
continue to survive. He changes his name
his new identity, between persecution and
TH
R o n i t E l k a b e t z , S h l o m i E l k a b e t z . I s ra e l . A ra b i c , F r e n c h , a n d H e b r e w w i t h E n g l i s h s u b t i t l e s . 1 1 5 m i n . N R . In Israel, only rabbis
Warsaw ghetto, but must figure out how to
he must decide between his heritage and
S E N WA L D
John Goldschmidt. Britain. 94 min. NR .
Menachem
Having
RO
GETT
12 • THE NICKELODEON
GUE ST CUR ATE D SERI ES:yates Josh Yates is the Nickelodeon’s first Filmmaker in Residence. Support for the residency has been provided by the SC Film Commission, the Nord Family Foundation, and Beth Slagsvol. He will attend each screening in the series.
This series features a few films I most often revisit. Though disparate in content and form, all of these movies cast some sort of indefinable spell that I hope I never fully understand. Whenever I’m stuck and need creative redirection, or wanting to experience warm childhood nostalgia, or needing to be reminded of the endless possibilities that cinematic meaning-making has to offer, these are some of the films that I turn to first. Before each screening I will provide some historical context and briefly share why the film resonates with me. I’ve seen these movies several times, but never on the big screen amongst the company of friends and strangers. It might be your only chance to see these films in a theatrical setting, so I truly hope you’ll seize the opportunity and come check ‘em out. See you at The Nick!
Harmony Harmony Korine. Korine. USA. USA. 1997. 1997. 95 95 min. min. R. R. Korine, who emerges with a new film every few years—once the furor from his last effort has died down (Spring Breakers still a healing wound in cinephile psyches, we have a few years before a new one)—began his cinematic project of whimsy-anarchyhallucination-ethnography with a roving portrait of depressed, small-town Southern life. Emotions rarely cohere in the town’s residents, emerging instead in subtle interactions with the object around them, and in their disaffection with life and each other.
November 18 @ 6:30 PM 13 • THE NICKELODEON
Joe Pytka. USA. 1996. 100 min. PG. Bugs Bunny + Daffy Duck + the rest of the Looney Tunes + Michael Jordan + liveaction + animation + space aliens + invasion + basketball + Bill Murray + “I Believe I Can Fly” + inspiration + on-court showdown + fun for all ages + best children’s movie of all time + very weird children’s movie + NBA + WB = Space Jam.
December 9 @ 6:30 PM
Vincent Gallo. USA. 1998. 110 min. R. Once a model, Gallo debuted as a director with a movie so stylized the scenes subordinate the story, which scenes are so peculiar and vivid and singular that the narrative—a family-oriented kidnapping and revenge (unrelated crimes) plot unraveled by a personality too pathological by a hair to be “quirky”—becomes a technicality, despite, or because of, a characteristically vivid turn by Christina Ricci. And what scenes . . . January 13 @ 6:30 PM
Bela Bela Tarr. Tarr. Hungary. Hungary. Hungarian and Slovak with English subtitles. 2001. 2001.145 145min. min.NR. NR. A travelling carnival brings a whale carcass to a small Hungarian town, which precipitates its collapse into disorder. Composed of only 39 rigorously controlled takes, Bela Tarr’s serpentine camerawork obsesses over repetition and process, people walking, dancing, running, sitting, slowly tightening the screws and enunciating their inability to prepare for a tragic, sustained crescendo.
February 10 @ 6:30 PM
Chris Smith. USA. 1999. 107 min. R. A powerful, seriocomic documentary about the way that cinema shapes perspectives and offers productive escape from them, American Movie follows a resourceless director’s attempt to finance and film a low-budget horror movie. His efforts to overcome both internal and external obstacles tests out what film can offer people of no particular spectacularity beyond their intense, necessary passion.
March 2 @ 6:30 PM 14 • THE NICKELODEON
15 • THE NICKELODEON
Frame by frame, students in our Stop Motion Summer Camp learned how to create films from scratch. They drew, photographed, edited, and even composed the music for their own movies with their own developing artistic voices.
nickelod eon.org/education
11/01 @ 7 PM
17 • THE NICKELODEON
11/05 @ 11 PM
NOVEMBER 11/08 @ 5:30 PM
11/09 @ 8 PM
11/17 @ 6 PM
11/15 @ 2 PM
DECEMBER
Fiddler on the Roof
12/25 @ 6:30 PM
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
12/24 @ 6:30 PM
12/20 @ 3 PM; 12/21 @ 6:30 PM
12/19 @ 10:30 PM
12/16 @ 6:30 PM
12/13 @ 8 PM; 12/18 @ 10:30 PM
It’s a Wonderful Life
Slacker
Peace Officer
12/04 @ 11 PM 12/09 @ 6:30 PM Batman Returns
Space Jam
Christmas Evil
Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer
12/01 @ 6:30 PM
11/17 @ 8 PM
11/21 @ 10:30 PM
11/18 @ 6:30 PM
The Hidden Fortress
Gummo
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Dough
Rosenwald
A Poem is a Naked Person // 11/13 @ 11 PM
MISE-EN-SCENE: From Script to Screen Workshop // 11/11 @ 6 PM
Run Boy Run
11/09 @ 5:30 PM
11/08 @ 7:30 PM
The Last Mentsch
24 Days
Above and Beyond
11/08 @ 3 PM
11/02 @ 7 PM
Broken Branches & Student Film Competition Screening
10 to Midnight
11/03 @ 8 PM
11/03 @ 6 PM
Serial (Bad) Weddings
God’s Slave
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution
Touchdown Israel
SPECIAL
SCREENINGS + EVENTS
JANUARY 02/24 @ 6:30 PM
02/23 @ 6:30 PM GABO: The Creation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art
Art Docs
02/20 @ 10:30 PM
Guest Curated Series
Thelma & Louise
Staff Picks
02/16 @ 6:30 PM
Civil Rights Sundays
! Women Art Revolution
Holiday Series
02/10 @ 6:30 PM
First Friday Lowbrow Cinema Explosion
Werckmeister Harmonies 0
Jewish Film Festival
02/09 @ 6:30 PM
02/05 @ 11 PM
Docs Now!
The Mystery of Picasso
Female Trouble
02/02 @ 6:30 PM
01/26 @ 6:30 PM
Station to Station
Everybody Street
01/18 @ 6:30 PM
Frame By Frame
01/16 @ 10:30 PM
01/13 @ 6:30 PM
01/01 @ 11 PM
The Way of the Dragon
Buffalo ‘66
Xanadu
RECURRING SERIES SPECIAL SERIES
FEBRUARY
18 19 • THE NICKELODEON
the nickelodeon is now a
Sundance Institute art house theatre Though the Sundance Institute is most famous for the foundational Sundance Film Festival, the nonprofit organization runs many other exciting programs, from filmmaking labs to industry diversity initiatives. One such program is the Art House Project, which accredits art house theaters across the country that have become essential to the community they serve. The Nickelodeon is proud to announce its accreditation in the Art House Project, which will allow us to network closely with other independent theaters from New York to California. In addition to meeting at the annual Art House Convergence and having exclusive Sundance-related programming, we will be able to share strategies and tips for sending The Nick, and indie cinemas everywhere, to even higher plateaux of excellent customer service, creative programming, and community involvement. We’re proud to be a part of this superior and dedicated cohort of community-based, cinephilic institutions.
TakeBreakMake, our newest media education program, kicked off earlier this fall. The program is a partnership with SC Equality’s Gay-Straight Alliance Network and the Women and Gender Studies department at USC. At the beginning of the workshop, students will dive into their first assignment: taking, breaking, and making media. Collecting videos related to LGBT rights, issues, and experience from all over the web, students will cut them down into accessible montages that assess the current state of queer media. After this exercise, students will learn about the history of LGBT youth culture in media and contemporary ideas in queer art. Over the course of the program, each student will create nearly a dozen short works in different genres—documentary, experimental, narrative, or any combination thereof—responding to the work of various queer artists who they will study. Keep an eye out for some amazing work coming from this project later in the school year.
SPRING BREAK CAMP
Shakespeare in ‡he Frame
March 28 - April 1, 2016
I
n 1623, the First Folio was published, combining nearly all of Shakespeare’s plays for the first time; in 2016, the First Folio will travel to each of the
fifty states. To mark the occasion, and to consider the ways in which new media forms can approach the nearly mythical cultural icon, the Nickelodeon’s springbreak camp will adopt Shakespeare as a renewable source of narrative and cinematic inspiration. Assisted by local filmmakers, each student will produce a short film inspired by Shakespeare during this week-long, hands-on workshop in the Helen Hill Media Education Center. Called SHAKESPEARE IN THE FRAME, the camp will allow Midlands high school students to engage with the work of the Bard while learning the fundamentals of filmmaking, participating in a long history of visualizing Shakespeare’s plays as a way and a means to experiment with film. In partnership with USC Libraries’ First Folio project.
Registration deadline:
March 15th 00 Registration fee: $250. for registration information visit : nickelodeon . org / education .
20 • THE NICKELODEON
ou walk up to the box office
and get your tickets. Upon opening the door, you are hit with a full-sensory experience: illuminated posters for upcoming attractions, overheard banter amongst patrons and staff about movies and actors, and the smell of popcorn, the uncontested champion of movie theater snacking. Popcorn is the perfect complement to a giant ice cold soda (or, in our case, beer and/or wine), especially the way we make it. Every night, corn’s ungerminated brethren undergo an intense regimen of hot air, explosions, and repetition. I know what you’re thinking. This is just the recipe for a Michael Bay movie. Quite the contrary. Our popcorn machine is a beloved fixture of the theater and has sparked many debates about the “best” formula. There are
only three ingredients to our formula: corn, canola oil, and salt. The real magic is up to the theater staff. Everyone you ask will unashamedly proclaim that theirs is the “best.” This is one of the rare times where competition is encouraged at our organization. “More kernels, less oil,” “more oil, less kernels,” “extra or light salt every other batch.” All of these techniques result in the crisp and fluffy goodness that you enjoy during your movie. Another debate results in the common request of “movie theater butter.” Having formerly worked at a major theater chain, I can safely say that I Can Believe It’s Not Butter. While I am guilty of vice cravings once in a blue moon, one of
the main things I have made a point to encourage for all patrons and staff is to be aware of what you are actually eating. If the other theaters were half as transparent as we are, I doubt that “processed synthetic MSG-laden liquid topping” would seem as appealing. In an effort to sate our patrons desires, we offer a great and versatile alternative with nutritional yeast. It lacks any catchy moniker, but it gets the job done and then some. Initially most are hesitant to try a healthy alternative on the spot ( understandably--I don’t go to McDonald’s for their salad). However, our faithful converts are growing exponentially.
Come on down and try some!
– Max Clyburn, Projectionist
21 • THE NICKELODEON
SERIES IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
BATMAN RETURNS Tim Burton. 1992. USA. 126 mins. PG-13. The primary information you’re looking for: in this one, Michael Keaton is Batman. Secondly: Tim Burton finds the perfect fit for his gothic neo-expressionism in Gotham (obviously), all spindly Victorian getups, lurching gears, and blatantly artificial monochromaticity. As the Penguin takes over the city during its Christmas festivities, Batman confronts holiday dispirit, a crush on the mysterious Selina Kyle, and threats to the dreamy, storybook celebrations only Burton could imagine. December 13, 8 PM; December 18, 10:30 PM
Frank Capra. 1946. USA. 130 mins. PG. In this through-and-through essential of American cinema and holiday movies the world over, James Stewart contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve, but in an inverted, Dickensian parable, a guardian angel stops him to show him all of the joy he brought to his community. Testing Christmas spirit in extremis, Stewart examines the worth of life and human community in the face of existential despair. A beautiful, heartwrenching holiday film for the ages. December 20, 3 PM; December 21, 6:30 PM
NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION Jeremiah Chechik. 1989. USA. 97 mins. PG13. A slow descent from relaxed vacation into disastrous familial hijinkery, this film set the formula for over two decades of holiday fare that has held on by virtue of Christmas Vacation’s peerless escalation of antic disarray. A revolving door of insistent relatives and visiting coworkers disrupts the Griswold clan’s holiday plans; all the while, Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo shore up their bona fides as great reactors to the disasters that attend Advent celebration. December 24, 6:30 PM
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Norman Jewison. 1971. USA. 181 mins. G. Enjoy a December 25th screening of this classic Broadway musical adaptation. Chiam Topol codified the role of Tevye, a Jewish milkman in a small, fin-de-siècle Russian village. As the Russian Orthodox Christian side of town grows increasingly anti-semitic, he must manage the manual labor of rural, impoverished life and the task of finding suitable partners to whom he can marry off his three daughters, all the while celebrating life and TRADITION! December 25, 6:30 PM
22 • THE NICKELODEON
Adult Workshops with the SC Film Commission MISE-EN-SCENE: From Script to Screen Wednesday, November 11 | 6-8:30pm This workshop unpacks mise-en-scène, incorporating everything from the staging, set, lighting, choreography, and camera movement. In this workshop, called MISE-EN-SCENE: From
Script to Screen, local filmmakers will discuss the concept using clips from cinematic history as well as their own movies to explain the visual choices each director must make at all stages of production to achieve particular and—if done right—indelible effects.
Production Legal with The Nick Saturday, February 20
| Time TBA
In the second workshop, called Production Legal with The Nick, David Pierce of Pierce Law Group, LLP will go over the paperwork necessary to any film production that aspires to leave one’s personal Vimeo page, from music clearances and acting releases to trademarks and guild clearances. David is one of the top entertainment law lecturers, and has worked on productions of all sizes, including The Artist and The Hunger Games.
All workshops will take place at the Nickelodeon, are free and open to the public, but registration is required. Go to nickelodeon.org/education for registration information. 23 • THE NICKELODEON
Xanadu
Ten To Midnight
J. Lee Thompson. USA. 1983. 101 min. R. Charles Bronson stars as an LA cop hot on the trail of a nudist serial killer who has been slashing up young girls. Virtually unknown in horror circles because its advertising billed it as more of a vigilante-cop crime-drama, this is seriously one of the most messed-up ‘80s slasher movies ever made. It’s a tense, taut, well-made thriller that’s at the same time unbelievably WEIRD. November 5, 11 PM
Christmas Evil
Lewis Jackson. USA. 1980. 100 min. R. A child sees his mother being groped by his father, who is dressed up as Santa. Heartbroken, the child rushes up to the attic and cuts his hand with a shard of glass from a shattered snow globe. Years later and all grown up, he becomes a serial killer in a Santa suit. John Waters has gone on record saying this is his all-time favorite Christmas movie. December 4, 11 PM
Robert Greenwald. USA. 1980. 96 min. PG. Olivia Newton-John and The Warriors’ Michael Beck star in the campiest, most over-the-top and coked-out “mushy and limp musical fantasy” of the declining disco era. One of the worst movies with one of the the best soundtracks and a very-muchdeserved cult following. January 1, 11 PM
Female Trouble
John Waters. USA. 1974. 89 min. NC-17. John Waters’s and Divine’s best film. Divine plays Dawn Davenport, career criminal and fame seeker. An addiction to injected liquid eyeliner sends her on a berserk crime spree, ending in art/murder. Not for children or the easily offended. February 5, 11 PM
– Chris Bickel / Series Curator 24 • THE NICKELODEON
Planned Giving
WHY DO PEOPLE GIVE
WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE THE
IN THE FIRST PLACE?
MONEY TO MAKE THE KIND OF
After working with families with variable capacities for financial gifts for the arts
The easiest way to leverage your dollar is to
world, my team and I have found that there
name a nonprofit as the beneficiary on a life
is often an important, non-tangible reason
insurance policy. Life insurance inherently
for giving. Elders within a family care about
turns a small capital investment into a large
the sustainability of their home and of their
sum of money paid out upon death. You may
family’s well-being. Certainly, funding the
simply name the nonprofit as beneficiary to
arts community ensures the viability of
any percentage of a life insurance policy
many organizations, but giving, especially
you already have in place.
as a family, engrains specific values and pride in one’s kin.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
MOST OF MY GIFT?
Most
organizations
It’s good to understand broad concepts, but that
rely
on
philanthropy for funding, including the Nick, are registered with the IRS as 501(c)3 nonprofits,
meaning
they
have
special
tax rules. While the obvious benefit to the donor might be an income tax credit, certain strategies allow you to make the most of the money you gift. For example, if you have highly appreciated stock and owe capital gains taxes on that stock, you
25 • THE NICKELODEON
GREAT, I’M READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
HOW DO I MAKE THE
Frank Braddock, a financial advisor with the Braddock Group at Janney Montgomery Scott, has experience helping high-net worth families support the arts community in Columbia. With a strategy and some basic knowledge, families can maximize their philanthropic impact in the arts community through multiple generations. Frank is on the board of directors for the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, Trustus Theatre, and an avid supporter of The Nickelodeon. When he is not working with a family who calls the Braddock Group their family’s advisory team, you can find Frank strolling Main Street with his wife, Rose.
IMPACT I WANT TO MAKE?
gift the stock outright before taxes. The nonprofit can then sell the stock tax-free because of their 501(c)3 status. One may also name a nonprofit as beneficiary to a retirement account they do not deplete
it is still extremely important to sit down with an advisor and design a philanthropic plan, and to develop that plan with your whole family. Tax concerns vary from family to family, but more importantly, a plan will help you make a difference over a significant long-term period—not just as a one-time thing. We have worked with several families who have gifted money to the Nick and have learned two crucial things: first, a plan makes it a lot easier and affordable to gift over time; and second, involving the family in philanthropy discussions is one of the best ways to transfer morals and values down to the next generation.
before passing.
Interested in making a planned gift to the Nick? Contact our Devevlopment Manager, Carrie Grebenc at carrie@nickelodeon.org– or call (803) 254-8234 ext 1001.
$26
Annual Report TH E N IC KE L O D E O N
For more fun information about our (awesome) organization this year, head over to:
ANNUALREPO R T2 0 15 . NICKELOD EO N . O R G
26 • THE NICKELODEON
Arts
Touched by the Arts It can bring you joy or bring you to tears — whether it’s a timeless painting, a groovin’ guitar riff or a classic ballet. It goes beyond appreciating creativity. These things enrich our lives. That’s why BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is proud to support the arts.
Because it matters how you’re treated.®
28 • THE NICKELODEON
&C
ultu
re
My Blaktastik Experience
“Seeing our work on the big screen and watching our names in the credits were things I never would have imagined doing without Blaktastik.”
I wanted to intern at The Nick to be closer to
films that were all sophisticated art pieces and
film. I never knew just how close I would get.
it made me proud to see them on screen.
I first noticed the Nick’s presence in the film
The weekend of the festival I was able to work
world because of the cool festivals they host. So
with the Artists in Residence Time Spent; two
it only made sense that the Nickelodeon would
roommates who create unique VHS music videos
host a festival like Blaktastik.
for hip hop artists. Using minimalistic tools to
I began interning with the Helen Hill Media
create uncut, untarnished verses, the videos
Education Center in January and by my second
give the artists all the power and showcase their
week I was already included in the planning
raw talent. I was a part of the production crew
of the Blaktastik festival. Over the course of a
that included six Benedict College students,
couple months I assisted in narrowing down the
along with the artists in residence. Seeing our
film list, creating the festival’s web presence,
work on the big screen and watching our names
and reviewing the actual vision of the festival.
in the credits were things I never would have
One of the films I pushed to be included was
imagined doing without Blaktastik. Blaktastik
Girlhood. A French film about young urban
made me feel forever at home in this beautiful
women telling a realistic, yet somehow still,
artistic organization, and I can’t wait to see
magical story. Having a say in what films were
what we can do next.
included in the festival was so incredibly
-Jessa Gaitor
empowering. We were able to choose Black
28 • THE NICKELODEON
BCBS AD
30 • .THE NICKELODEON 30 THE NICKELODEON
INDIE GRITS
APRIL 13-17, 2016 INDIEGRITS.COM "NOTHING'S HALF-ASSED. EVERYTHING IS EQUAL ASSED." - BILLY RAY BREWTON, INDIE GRITS FILMMAKER AND DIRECTOR OF SKANKS
INDIE GRITS HAS BEEN NAMED ONE OF MOVIE MAKER MAGAZINE’S “TOP 20 COOLEST FILM FESTIVALS IN THE WORLD” TWICE IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS.
“ T he Nickelodeon is a cultural beacon of progressive art house cinema. And as a filmmaker, I think Indie Grits gets it right. T he Nick’s staff is down in the trenches with you, and glad you’re making art and sending it to Columbia. It’s more than Southern hospitality. T hey ’re glad you’re making the city a
viable
platform
for
filmmaking.
Filmmakers feel supported, welcome, and return ever y year.” – Steve Daniels, 2011 Indie Grits
“WE COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR A BETTER RECEPTION THAN FROM THE FOLKS AT INDIE GRITS. ALONG WITH HELPING US GET OUR LITTLE FILM SHOWN IN THE BEST FORMAT POSSIBLE, SETH AND THE REST OF THE PEOPLE WE’VE DEALT WITH HAVE BEEN SO SUPPORTIVE OF OUR FILM. EVERY FILM FESTIVAL WE HAVE BEEN TO SINCE, I HAVE MADE A POINT TO TELL OTHER FILMMAKERS THAT THEY NEED TO PUT INDIE GRITS ON THEIR LIST OF FESTIVALS TO NOT ONLY SUBMIT BUT ALSO TO ATTEND”. – JASON BROWN, PRODUCER OF 2013 TOP GRIT MIRACLE BOY
30 • THE NICKELODEON
T
pI iC c KS kS Staff P
hose smiling young whippersnappers handing over your small popcorn and soda are more than just employees here at the Nick: they are the source of our theater’s charm and personality. With our new program Staff Picks, the
lovely, hard-working cinephiles will showcase their favorite films for the Nick community. Each month, a staff member will take over one of our screens, with free rein to make it a night of their own. Combining sure-fire hits and cinematic classics, the program invites you to connect with the Nickelodeon squad in all its diverse and eccentric glory!
The Hidden Fortress
Slacker
M a x C lyb u r n
Akira
Kurosawa.
Japan.
japanese
O ny R at s i mb a h a r i s o n with
english subtitles. 1958. 139 min. NR. A central
Richard Linklater. USA. 1991. 97 min. R. With
total structural finesse, the camera winds around Austin, TX on a
influence on Star Wars and an essential, syncretic action film merging
single summer day and night, settling into someone’s life for five or so
the jidaigeki (Japanese period film, usually concerning samurai)
minutes, then twisting away to another group, as the stories develop
and American Westerns, in The Hidden Fortress, a ragtag band of
more interconnections, more community, but remain personal,
two peasants, a defeated general, and an endangered queen must
peculiar, opaquely significant. December 19, 10:30pm
smuggle royal gold from one boundary of hostile wartime territory to the other. November 11, 10:30pm
The Way of the Dragon J o e N i at i
Thelma & Louise
Laura Godenick
Bruce Lee. Hong Kong. chinese and italian
Ridley Scott. USA. 1991. 130 miN. R. An outlaw film,
with english subtitles. 1972. nr. Bruce Lee’s last
a road movie, an overdue vision of what female empowerment
film traces a minimal plot—much of one would only burden Lee’s
would really look like, this classic rewrites the history of masculine
mythically lithe martial-artistry—of saving his family’s struggling
violence and the buddy movie to follow the societal liberation of
restaurant in Italy from encroaching Mafiosos. But you won’t see
two women who secure their radical freedom on the roads of the
it for that. You’ll see it because, in the final showdown, Bruce Lee
American West. February 20, 10:30pm
fights Chuck Norris. January 16, 10:30pm 31 • THE NICKELODEON
33 • THE NICKELODEON
support for THE NICK MAG made in part by
Covering the
Carolinas “GWB continues to earn praise for its strong litigation practice.”
- Chambers USA
GWB is pleased to join the
Charleston, South Carolina business community with its new office.
40 Calhoun Street, Suite 315, Charleston www.GWBlawfirm.com 34 • THE NICKELODEON
Charleston, SC • (843) 735-7600
Columbia, SC • (803) 779-1833
Charlotte, NC • (704) 552-1712
Greenville, SC • (864) 271-9580 Attorney Johnston Cox, Columbia, SC
Thirsty Fellow Percent Night NOVEMBER 10, 5 - 9PM
Come support the Nickelodeon on Tuesday, November 10th at Thirsty Fellow. Our staff will be there enjoying pizza and libations from 5-9pm! 10% of all sales from that evening will be generously donated to the Nick.
THIRSTY FELLOW
Give a Membership to the Nick! It’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long. Your family member or friend will receive discounts on movie tickets, complimentary tickets, and other special benefits only given to Nick Members. You can purchase online at nickelodeon.org/membership or call 803-254-8234 and ask about purchasing a gift membership.
35 • THE NICKELODEON
the nickelodeon po box 7063 columbia, sc 29202 return service requested
NON PROFIT ORG U.S POSTAGE PAID COLUMBIA SC PERMIT NO. 115
Support for The Nickelodeon is provided by the City of Columbia, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, The Nord Family Foundation, and The South Carolina Arts Commission.