Waitati Film Society 2010 Season screens Tuesdays at 8:00 pm
Cnr Orokonui and Mt Cargill Roads, Waitati
Memberships on sale before all Waitati Film Society screenings

Contact: The Secretary
PO Box 39, Waitati 9069
Otago

Email: swiwi@xnet.co.nz

Tuesday 16 February, 8:00 pm

As It Is in Heaven (Så som i himmelen)

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Kay Pollak, Sweden 2004, DV (M violence, offensive language)
“Internationally famous conductor Daniel Dareus goes from being a big fish in a big pond to being a big fish in a small pond when he returns to his childhood village in search of peace and rest. But he stirs up painful memories and jealousies, when he takes on the role of choir master in the tiny community.

Tuesday 2 March, 8:00 pm

Apron Strings

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Sima Urale, New Zealand 2008, DV (M violence, offensive language)

In her first feature Samoan-born Aucklander Sima Urale brings an ebullient light touch to a script by Shuchi Kothari and Dianne Taylor which traces parallel, richly loaded domestic dramas in two families of cooks: one Sikh, the other dyed-in-the-wool Anglo.

Tuesday 16 March, 8:00 pm

My Winnipeg

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Guy Maddin, Canada 2007, DV (M nudity)
Guy Maddin’s documentary portrait of his native city is intensely idiosyncratic and hilariously unreliable. “Dazzlingly imaginative, flagrantly absurd and yet clearly very heartfelt.” – Sight and Sound

Tuesday 30 March, 8:00 pm

The Five Obstructions (De fem benspænd)

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Jørgen Leth & Lars von Trier, Denmark 2005, DV (PG low level offensive language)
Ever the provocateur, Lars von Trier challenges his mentor Jørgen Leth to remake his classic short film The Perfect Human five times under increasingly bizarre conditions. “A spellbinding mind-teaser, the ultimate game for movie buffs.” – Rolling Stone

Tuesday 14 April, 8:00 pm

Topaz

Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1969, 16mm (PG cert)
One of Hitchcock's lesser seen films, this oft-maligned espionage story takes the cameras to Copenhagen, Paris, New York City, Harlem, Virginia, and a California hacienda that doubles as Cuba.

Tuesday 27 April, 8:00 pm

McLaren the Innovator

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Norman McLaren, Canada 1941-2004, DV (censors rating tbc)
Exploring and discovering new and powerful film techniques was a way of working for Norman McLaren. In completed films, tests and unfinished pieces, McLaren almost always works frame-by-frame, but sometimes paints and scratches directly on the film stock, or manipulates live-action – in-camera or in the processing laboratory.

Tuesday 11 May, 8:00 pm

After the Fall (Nach dem fall)

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Eric Black & Frauke Sandig, Germany1999, DV
Documentary exploring the almost total disappearance of the the wall that once divided and dominated Berlin. “Every town has its ghosts, but Berlin is something special because it has seen so many changes, so much destruction and so many traumas in the twentieth century.” – Brian Ladd

Tuesday 25 May, 8:00 pm

McLaren Dazzlers

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Norman McLaren, Canada 1939 - 1971, DV (censors rating tbc)
This selection of Norman McLaren’s most famous and spectacular work starts with the whimsical Opening Speech (1960), followed by four direct films, each using a different technique – Stars and Stripes (1939), Hen Hop (1942), Begone Dull Care (1949), Blinkety Blank (1955). Chairy Tale (1957) and Pas de deux (1968) reveal an optimistic view of humanity. Finally, McLaren’s ultimate expression of music/movement – Synchromy (1971), and his Oscar-winning, anti-war classic – Neighbours (1952).

Tuesday 1 June, 8:00 pm

Comrades in Dreams (Leinwandfieber)

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Uli Gaulke, Germany 2006, DV
A documentary valentine to the pleasures of cinema that looks at four independent theatre owners in very different parts of the world who dedicate their lives to showing films. This affectionate ode to independent cinema owners the world over demonstrates the universal and unifying power of movies. “A delight.” – Variety

Tuesday 8 June, 8:00 pm

McLaren: Movement Music & Conflict

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Norman McLaren, Canada 1936-1983, DV (censors rating tbc)
Norman McLaren believed movies were about movement. Music was also the foundation of many of his films. This programme shows some of the amazing ways McLaren developed filmic movement and how he achieved an astonishing musical expression. McLaren’s strong political beliefs are also on display. Rarely screened earlier, darker works as well as more exuberant films emphasise the breadth of his achievements.

Tuesday 15 June, 8:00 pm

Berlin Is in Germany

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Hannes Stöhr, Germany 2001, DV (M sex scenes, offensive language)

Thirty-six-year-old Martin Schulz was behind bars when the wall came down. Now, after eleven years’ imprisonment, the former citizen of the GDR has been released from jail and must find his way in reunified Germany.

Tuesday 22 June, 8:00 pm

Sun Alley (Sonnenallee)

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Leander Haussmann, Germany 1999, DV (M sexual references)

“A lively, beautifully played coming-of-ager that takes a comic look at an era usually portrayed through bleak dramas or espionage thrillers.” – Variety

Tuesday 29 June, 8:00 pm

I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále)

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Jiri Menzel, Czech Republic 2007, DV (M nudity, sex scenes)
Based on the best-selling book by Bohumil Hrabal and pleasing crowds wherever it goes, this hugely entertaining saga from veteran Czech director Jirí Menzel follows a diminutive train-station sausage seller over the course of four decades on his journey to bus boy and millionaire hotelier, before ending up as a disgraced Nazi collaborator

Tuesday 6 July, 6:00 pm

Summer in Berlin (Sommer vorm Balkon)

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Andreas Dresen, Germany 2005, DV (M violence, offensive language, sex scenes)
“Andreas Dresen's film follows the friendship of two women in their thirties over the course of a sweltering Berlin summer."“At once natural and designed, funny and sad, Dresen's story approximates the capriciousness of life itself, and that may be the highest praise any work of art could ask for.” – Boxoffice Magazine

Tuesday 13 July, 6:00 pm

Nine Queens (Nueve reinas)

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Fabian Bielinsky, Argentina 2001, DV (M offensive language)
An experienced grifter takes a younger confrere under his wing for the theft of a block of stamps called the ‘Nine Queens’ in Fabian Bielinsky’s caper-within-a-caper film, which runs as smoothly as a well-rehearsed con.

Tuesday 20 July, 6:00 pm

The Mistress of Spices

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Paul Mayeda Berges, USA 2005, DV (M medium level violence)
A brave attempt at that most unforgiving of contemporary genres, magical realism. Starring Aishwarya Rai as an exquisite young Indian woman, who oversteps the boundaries of her powers as a spice dispenser in San Francisco's Bay area.

Tuesday 10 August, 6:00 pm

Len Lye: Art That Moves

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Len Lye, 16mm + DV
Norman McLaren said of the work of Len Lye, the great New Zealand-born film-maker: “Len Lye has shown the way, and shown it in a masterly and brilliant fashion.” Programme includes Roger Horrocks' short documentary on Len Lye and 14 of his best works.

Tuesday 17 August, 6:00 pm

Life Is a Miracle (Zivot je cudo)

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Emir Kusturica, Serbia-Montenegro/France 2004, 35mm (M sex scenes, offensive language)
Serbian maestro Emir Kusturica offers his absurdist, boisterous vision of the outbreak of war in Bosnia in 1992. A brilliantly choreographed three-ring circus, complete with lovesick donkey and home-invading bear.

Tuesday 24 August, 6:00 pm

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d'espions)

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Michel Hazanavicius, France 2006, DV (M offensive language, sexual references)
Fabled French special agent OSS 117 aka Bonisseur de la Bath, introduces his unique mix of espionage and incompetence in this hilariously straight-faced spy movie spoof which plays less like an Austin Powers farce than a lost relic from a sadly deluded time.

Tuesday 31 August, 6:00 pm

No Man's Land

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Danis Tanovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2001, 35mm (R13 violence, offensive language)
At the height of the Bosnian war, two soldiers from opposing sides find themselves stranded in no man’s land in this Oscar-winning black comedy. “A deeply serious and seriously hilarious fable of the lunacy of war.” – Wall Street Journal

Tuesday 7 September, 8:00 pm

To Have and Have Not

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Howard Hawks, USA 1945, 16mm (G cert)
“You know how to whistle, don’t you…” Bogart and Bacall together for the first time in a war movie that plays like a romantic comedy.“An unassuming masterpiece.” – Time Out

Tuesday 14 September, 8:00 pm

The Motorcycle Diaries

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Walter Salles, USA 2003 (M offensive language)
Road movie from Walter Salles, director of Central Station. Starring Gael García Bernal as the young Che Guevara, it’s a love letter to Latin America – and to the wakening vocations of two privileged young men embracing, for the first time, the world outside their comfort zones.

Tuesday 21 September, 8:00 pm

The Italian (Italianets)

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Andrei Kravchuk, Russia 2005, DV (M medium level violence)
Despite the title, the heart-wrenching feature debut of director Andrei Kravchuk has literally nothing to do with Italy, and everything to do with the urgent issue of illegal adoption in post-Glasnost Russia. “A carefully and almost classically balanced combination of ingredients, blending dirty-faced realism (so much more damning because it judges and condemns no one) with mystical fable of quest and homecoming.” — salon.com

Tuesday 28 September, 8:00 pm

Dancer in the Dark

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Lars von Trier, Denmark 2000, DV (R13 violence, content that may disturb)
Bjork stars in Lars von Trier's powerful film about a young woman in rural America who, facing blindness, escapes into the fantasy world of Hollywood musicals. "One of the most aguished, intense, and weirdly brilliant films of the year." — Chicago Tribune

Tuesday 12 September, 8:00 pm

Love in the Time of Cholera

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Mike Newell, USA 2007, DV (M sex scenes, offensive language)
Based on Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ novel and adapted by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), the drama traces the Job-like vigil of Florentino Ariza, who waits for more than half a century to claim the hand of Fermina Daza, the woman he loves.

Tuesday 26 September, 8:00 pm

Beyond the Dark Side

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New Zealand 2004-2008, DV
“A collection of recent short films that continue the tradition of New Zealand's Cinema of Unease.

Tuesday 10 November, 8:00 pm

Asta Nielsen: TheAbyss & The Ballet Dancer

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Denmark 1910-1911, DV
Asta Nielsen made only a few films in her native Denmark before finding international fame in Germany, where she starred in over 70 films between 1911 and 1932. This programme includes her first film, the taboo-breaking Abyss, with its erotically-charged dance sequence restored.

Tuesday 23 November, 8:00 pm

Sex & Lucia (Lucía y el sexo)

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Julio Medem, Spain 2001, DV (R18 explicit sex scenes)
A visually stunning and thematically adventurous look at passion, elusive relationships and deep bonds between people who thought they were strangers. Featuring Paz Vega as Lucia.

Tuesday 7 December, 8:00 pm

Rain of the Children

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Vincent Ward, New Zealand 2008, DV (M violence, offensive language)
Vincent Ward's (River Queen, Map of the Human Heart) deeply personal and incredibly moving film unravels and re-imagines the story of Puhi, the Tuhoe woman he documented in 1978 for his early film In Spring One Plants Alone.

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