Diversity Cafe 2011 "Exploring Diversity Through Cinema"

Now Showing: The Fast Runner [ October 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 20th, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 21st, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m. Released: 2002 Rated: R Running Time: Approx. 172 min. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Natar Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Madeline Ivalu The Fast Runner turns the frozen landscape of northern Canada into the stage for an adventure as sweeping as The Odyssey or Beowulf. Adapted from an Inuit legend, The Fast Runner centers on Atanarjuat, a charismatic young hunter struggling for the affections of Atuat, who has already been promised to Oki, the son of the camp's leader. When Atuat chooses Atanarjuat, Oki seems to accept it, but later events turn his anger and hatred into a murderous spite. This story, as passionate and primal as any film noir, is framed by the daily lives of the Inuit--a struggle for survival that is both simple and vivid, foreign yet immediately understandable. No one in the cast is a professional actor, but the performances are direct and compelling, telling a story that is both epic and intimate. --Bret Fetzer

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Now Showing: The Color of Paradise [ September 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 22nd, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 23rd, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m. Rated: PG Running Time: Approx. 90 min. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Hossein Mahjoub, Mohsen Ramezani Majid Majidi, whose delightful Children of Heaven became the first Iranian film ever nominated for an Oscar, returns to the subject of children for this lush and lovely--if contrived--melodrama. A spirited blind boy with a passion for learning and life arrives home for a three-month break. He's loved by his giggly little sisters and adored by his gentle granny, but his widowed, self-pitying father sees him as a burden and is determined to foist him off on someone else before he remarries--specifically, a kindly blind carpenter who welcomes the boy with all his heart. Majidi is at his best exploring the texture of the boy's world--little hands feeling their way through a garden, the sounds of metal pencils punching out Braille pages, the shuffle of fingers on paper--and his imagery is delicate and lush. The story descends into scripted tragedy and a contrived, action-packed climax (unusual for a cinema known for its restraint), and the emotional tenor turns sentimental and cloying, but Majidi turns it all around with an astounding, heartbreakingly powerful final image. If there is one thing many Iranian films have in common, it's an unerring sense of how to end a film. This is one of the most affecting ever: beautiful, moving, simple, a glowing moment that crystallizes the entire movie. --Sean Axmaker

Now Showing: School Ties[ August 2011 ]
Event Details: Thursday the 18th, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 19th, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B"
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: Approx. 106 min.
ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!!
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell, Randall Batinkoff, Andrew Lowery

Brendan Fraser plays a student attending a wealthy boarding school on a football scholarship in the 1950s. When the other kids find out he's Jewish--a fact he's been hiding--his fortunes and relationships instantly change. The film is pretty much what one would expect with that scenario: a story of bigotry, conflict, the hero trying to hang on. In the end, good intentions are the driving force of the movie, but it is not much more than the sum of its obvious parts. Directed by Dick Wolf, creator of television's Law and Order. --Tom Keogh

Now Showing: Snow Falling on Cedars [ July 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 21st, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 22nd, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m. Rated: PG-13 Running Time: Approx. 120 min. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Ethan Hawke, Max von Sydow, Youki Kudoh, Reeve Carney, Anne Suzuki, Rick Yune, Sam Shepard Set in the fishing village of San Piedro, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, a Japanese American war hero (Rick Yune) stands accused of murdering a white fisherman in the years following World War II. His wife is the former childhood sweetheart and lover of a local newspaperman whose bitterness over the loss as well as his helplessness during the internment of Japanese Americans, and the crusading legacy of his journalist father, prevents him from coming to the defense of the accused man. The film shuttles back and forth between the present, in the 1950's, and the past, in the late 30's to 40's. Layered emotions, layered sensations, layered clouds. This is historical fiction of a sort that works best as an experience of time's relativity: flowing, stopping, trickling. Ironically, the film's most commercial element, the trial, is the least interesting aspect, though old pro Max Von Sydow makes those scenes great fun as a wily defense counsel. --Tom Keogh

Now Showing: Latter Days [ June 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 16th, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 17th, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m. Rated: UNRATED Running Time: Approx. 107 min. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Steve Sandvoss, Wes Ramsey, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Amber Benson, Mary Kay Place, Jacqueline Bisset Christian is a waiter, party boy, and first-class man magnet. Elder Aaron Davis is a straight-laced Mormon missionary. When he and three elders, including the uptight Ryder, move into Christian's Hollywood apartment complex, it's clear something's got to give. Christian tries to make his new neighbors feel welcome, but they're put off by his flamboyance--the short-shorts, the rainbow flag in his yard, etc. When Christian's trash-talking pals at Lila's restaurant, including the cynical Traci, bet that he can't seduce one of these clean-cut young men, he takes them up on it and sets his sights on cute, soft-spoken Aaron. As a pretense, he asks to learn more about his Church, but where they really connect is over their love of old movies, everything from Psycho to Tommy. When Aaron accuses him of being shallow, however, Christian starts to wonder if the bet wasn't such a good idea--plus he's starting to fall for the guy. Turns out the closeted Aaron feels the same way about him, but when his roommates find out, he's shipped back to Pocatello where he faces excommunication. Written and directed by C. Jay Cox (Sweet Home Alabama ), a former Mormon missionary, Latter Days features Mary Kay Place as Aaron's disapproving mother and Jacqueline Bisset as the acerbic, yet supportive Lila. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Now Showing: The Kite Runner [ May 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 19th, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 20th, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m. Rated: PG-13 Running Time: Approx. 120 min. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni Like the bestselling book upon which it's based, The Kite Runner will haunt the viewer long after the film is over. A tale of childhood betrayal, innocence and harsh reality, and dreamy memory, The Kite Runner faces good and evil--and the path between them, though often blurry and sorrowfully relative. Director Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) presents a painterly vision of Afghanistan before the Soviet tanks, before the Taliban--lush, verdant, fertile--in its landscape and in its people and their history and hopes. The story follows two young boys' friendship, tested beyond endurance, and the haunting of their adult selves by what happened in their youth--and what horrors befall their country in the meantime. The performances of the two boys--Zekeria Ebrahimi (Amir) and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada (Hassan)--are the film's strongest, unforced and gently evocative. The penance paid by their adult selves is foreshadowed, but never predictable--and the metaphor of innocence lost, a common theme in Forster's work, keeps the film, like the title kites, truly aloft.--A.T. Hurley.

Now Showing: Temple Grandin (Released 2010, Rated PG ) [ April 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 21st, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 22nd, in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Claire Danes, Julia Ormond It doesn't take long to see that Temple Grandin, the main character in this eponymous HBO movie, is, well, different--she (in the person of Claire Danes, who plays her) tells us before the credits start that she's "not like other people." But "different" is not "less." Indeed, Grandin, who is now in her 60s, has accomplished a good deal more than a great many "normal" folks, let alone others afflicted with the autism that Grandin overcame on her way to earning a doctorate and becoming a bestselling author and a pioneer in the humane treatment of livestock. It wasn't easy. The doctor who diagnosed her at age 4 said she'd never talk and would have to be institutionalized. Only through the dogged efforts of her mother (Julia Ormond), who was told that "lack of bonding" with her child might have caused the autism, did Grandin learn to speak; to go to high school, college, and grad school; and to become a highly productive scientist, enduring the cruel taunts of her classmates and the resistance of many of the adults in her life (most of whom are shown as either narrow-minded prigs or macho, chauvinist jerks). Her lack of social skills and sometimes violent reactions to the overstimulation in her environment made it tough to fit in, to say the least. Danes, who is in nearly every scene of director Mick Jackson's film, is remarkable, embodying Grandin's various idiosyncrasies (such as talking, too loud, too fast, and too much) without resorting to caricature. Jackson does a marvelous job of depicting not only her actual accomplishments (among other things, she took the "squeeze machine" created to "gentle" upset cattle and adapted it for herself, using it to replace the hugs she never got as a child; later on, she revolutionized the systems used to prepare cows for slaughter, as well as the design of the slaughterhouses themselves), but also her more abstract talents, especially the extraordinary visual acuity that enables her to remember virtually everything she's ever seen. This is mostly Danes's film, but the whole cast is top-notch, especially Ormond, Catherine O'Hara as Temple's aunt, and David Strathairn as one of the few teachers who saw Grandin's potential. Captivating, compelling, and thoroughly entertaining, Temple Grandin is highly recommended. --Sam Graham

Now Showing: Spinning into Butter (Released 2007, Rated R ) [ March 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 17th, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 18th, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Beau Bridges, Becky Ann Baker, Mark Brokaw A vicious hate crime at an elite New England college thrusts the new dean of students into the investigation. When charged with maintaining order on campus, she is forced to examine her own feelings about race. Based on the critically acclaimed play, Spinning Into Butter is a compelling movie that examines the emotional fallout of prejudice within the cloistered walls of academia.

Now Showing: THE GREAT DEBATERS (Released 2007, Rated PG-13 ) [ February 2011 ] Event Details: Tuesday the 22nd, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Wednesday the 23rd, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker Inspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in ’35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. Washington, who directed The Great Debaters from a script by Robert Eisele, anchors the story with the team’s measurable progress, but the film is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor. But that’s not the way Tolson sees it, as his students serve themselves and the cause of racial equality in America with energetic arguments in favor of progressive government and non-violence as a viable social movement. There are some startling moments in this movie, particularly the sight of a man found lynched and burned to death, and an extraordinary moment in which we see black sharecroppers and white farmers engaged with Tolson in arguments about unionizing together. Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Farmer’s emotionally-reserved father, also a Wiley professor. This is the kind of film where one hopes two great actors such as the elder Whitaker and Washington will have a scene together, and when it comes it’s as powerful as one might hope. --Tom Keogh

Now Showing: GOODBYE SOLO (Released 2008, Rated PG ) [ January 2011 ] Event Details: Thursday the 20th, in the Building 549 Cafe Room and Friday the 21st, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m., Running Time: Approx. 91 minutes ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West and Diana Franco Galindo On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Solo is a Senegalese cab driver working to provide a better life for his young family. William is a tough Southern good ol' boy with a lifetime of regrets. One man's American dream is just beginning, while the other's is quickly winding down. But despite their differences, both men soon realize they need each other more than either is willing to admit. Through this unlikely but unforgettable friendship, GOODBYE SOLO deftly explores the passing of a generation as well as the rapidly changing face of America.

Now Showing: CHILDREN OF HEAVEN (Released 1999, Rated PG ) [ December 2010 ] Event Details: Tuesday 21st, in the Building 549 Conference Room "A" and Wednesday 22nd, in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" Time: 12:00 p.m., Running Time: Approx. 89 minutes ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Mohammad Amir Naji, Amir Farrokh Hashemian Majid Majidi celebrates the immediacy and essence of childhood in this delightful tale of a brother and sister who share a pair of shoes when the boy (though no fault of his own) loses his sister's only pair. Since their parents are too poor to afford a new pair, they keep it a secret, trading them off every day day in a mad rush, jumping gutters and navigating the twisting lanes to their schools and back. Then the boy hatches a plan: the third-place prize in a student footrace is a new pair of shoes, and he's determined to take it. The plot may smack of a Disney film, but the direction couldn't be more different. The family scenes are delicately observed, and Majidi captures the spirit of the children perfectly: proud, emotional, petulant, sweet, and disarmingly sincere. The film has a Western-friendly framework without losing the naturalistic eye and lolling rhythm that gives the best Iranian films their richness. Even as he builds to the climactic footrace (quite unexpectedly turned into a nail-biting contest) the film continues to reveal a wealth of discreet surprises, culminating in a conclusion all the more resonant for its sublime delicacy. His efforts earned the film the honor of becoming the first Iranian feature to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.--Sean Axmaker

Now Showing: DANCE ME OUTSIDE (Released 2008, NR Not Rated ) [ November 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 18th and Friday 19th, in the Building 549 Conference Center, Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m., Running Time: Approx. 91 minutes ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Ryan Black, Adam Beach, Jennifer Podemski, Lisa LaCroix Bruce McDonald's wry adaptation of a Dance Me Outside novel is an engaging, touching story about an awkward passage into manhood and love for an 18-year-old Indian metalhead on the Kidabanesee Reserve in Ontario. Silas Crow (Ryan Black) is a drifting young fellow dragging his feet about entering a school for auto mechanics. While loosely entertaining the idea of writing, Silas unprofitably kills all his time with a thickheaded buddy, Frank Fencepost (Adam Beach), and watches his old girlfriend, Sadie Maracle (Jennifer Podemski), grow away from him as she takes up native issues with admirable commitment. A visit by Silas's older sister, Ilianna (Lisa LaCroix) (with her new, white-and-uptight husband reluctantly in tow), plus the simultaneous reappearance of Ilianna's old flame, ex-con Gooch (Michael Greyeyes), and the unpunished murder of a native girl by a white thug set off a series of events culminating in redemptive acts of love and honor. Big themes, yes, but McDonald (Highway 61) has wisely chosen to emphasize the charm of his characters, make sport of spiritual clichés and Indian chic (there's a funny bit in which Silas gets Ilianna's husband drunk and introduces him to a bogus animal guide), and allow the cruelty of white justice against natives to speak (often comically) for itself. ----Tom Keogh

Now Showing: KISSING JESSICA STEIN (Released 2002, Rated R) [ October 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 28th and Friday 29th, in the Building 549 Conference Center, Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. ADMISSION IS FREE!!! BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY!!! Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Heather Juergensen Blessed by casual charm and sophisticated wit, Kissing Jessica Stein does for same-sex romance what Annie Hall did for straight neurotics. The influence of Woody Allen is keenly felt on this resourceful New York comedy (expanded from an off-Broadway play), especially when cowriter and costar Jennifer Westfeldt channels Diane Keaton's "la-di-da" nervousness as Jessica Stein, a romantically frustrated heterosexual copyeditor who impulsively answers a personal ad from a bisexual woman. Helen (cowriter Heather Juergensen) is as relaxed about lesbian love as Jessica is anxious, but they click as lovers, and so does the movie's delightful exploration of their budding relationship, which is further complicated by Jessica's yenta-like mother (Tovah Feldshuh) and a former boyfriend (Scott Cohen) who's now Jessica's boss. While acknowledging the serious repercussions of Jessica's bisexual flirtation, Kissing Jessica Stein takes its characters on a smart, compassionate journey of self-discovery that's as truthfully observant as it is gently entertaining. --Jeff Shannon

Now Showing: REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES [ September 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 16th in the Building 549 Conference Room "A" & Friday 17th in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: America Ferrera, Lupe Ontiveros While My Big Fat Greek Wedding broke box-office records in 2002, Real Women Have Curves did a better job of keeping it real. Set in the vibrant environs of East Los Angeles, with a breakthrough performance by Latina newcomer America Ferrera, this comedic drama takes a familiar subject--a bright teenager struggling to define her identity--and turns it into an authentic celebration of feminine empowerment. Eighteen-year-old Ana (Ferrera) has scholarship potential, her first boyfriend, and a chubby figure that her similarly overweight mother (Lupe Ontiveros, perfectly cast) won't stop harping about. Mom insists that Ana work in her sister's dressmaking sweatshop, continuing a family tradition that can only break her spirit. How Ana defies this fate--and how director Patricia Cardoso captures the proud tenacity of several full-figured seamstresses--is what makes this film (adapted from a play by Josefina Lopez) so uniquely refreshing. Greek Wedding made more money, but Real Women--which is just as funny--makes a lot more sense. --Jeff Shannon.

Now Showing: PARADISE NOW [ August 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 19th in the Building 549 Conference Room "B" & Friday 20th in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Kais Nashif, Ali Suliman, Hany Abu-Assad Two men, best friends from childhood, are summoned to fulfill their agreement to be suicide bombers for the Palestinian cause. Khaled and Said believe fervently in their cause, but having a bomb strapped to your waist would raise doubts in anyone - and once doubts have arisen, they respond in very different ways. Paradise Now is gripping enough while the men are preparing for their mission, but when the set-up goes awry and Khaled and Said are separated, it becomes almost excruciatingly tense. The movie passes no judgment on these men; impassioned arguments are made for both sides of the conflict. This is a work of remarkable compassion and insight, given the shape and sharpness of a skillful thriller. Its psychological portrait goes beyond the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and resonates with fanaticism and oppression throughout the world, be it related to a religious, nationalist, or tribal cause. A stunning film from writer/director Hany Abu-Assad. Bret Fetzeri

Now Showing: INVICTUS [ July 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 22nd & Friday 23rd in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Morgan Freeman Matt Damon After South Africa elected Nelson Mandela president, the racially divided country could've easily erupted into civil war. In Clint Eastwood's determinedly populist, yet heartfelt look back at that time, the director examines one of the more ingenious steps Mandela (Morgan Freeman) took to prevent that from happening. Knowing that his country was set to host the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela believed the national team could provide an example of reconciliation in action. Led by François Pienaar (Matt Damon), the mostly white Springboks inspired devotion among Afrikaners and disgust among native Africans. Instead of changing their name or colors, Mandela encouraged them to win for the sake of their homeland. During the year leading up to the event, the team learns to work together as never before, just as Mandela's newly integrated security detail, a combination of cops and activists, finds a way to bridge their ideological differences. By the time of the big day, the poorly ranked Springboks are well equipped to hold their own against New Zealand's All Blacks (so named for their uniforms, not their racial composition). Drawing from John Carlin's Playing the Enemy, Anthony Peckham's script takes its title, Latin for "unconquerable," from a British poem Mandela held close to his heart during the 27 years he spent in prison. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Now Showing: I Think I Do - One Wedding No Funerals [ June 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 17th & Friday 18th in the Building 549 Conference Room "A" Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Alexis Arquette, Christian Maelen, Tuc Watkins, Lauren Velez, Marni Nixon In I Think I Do, This "Big Chill" with a gay angle concerns six college friends at George Washington University whose reunion for a wedding leads to all sorts of comic and poignant situations. Alexis Arquette is a soap opera writer who attends the wedding with his dim-witted actor lover while pining for sexually ambiguous Christian Maelen.

Now Showing: Long Life, Happiness and Propsperity [ May 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 20th & Friday 21st in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Sandra Oh ( Oh! - Dr. Yang from Grey's Anatomy ), Valerie Tian In Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity, twelve-year old Mindy Ho (Valerie Tian) tries Taoist magic to fix her single mothers (Sandra Oh) financial situation and seemingly hopeless romantic prospects. Mindys misdirected charms appear to cause an aging security guard to lose his job and a local butcher to win the lottery. The guard, the butcher and her mothers stories all intersect, bound together by Mindys attempts at magic intervention. Set in the Chinese Canadian community, Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity is a story of hope and the importance of keeping faith in this sometimes difficult world. an Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival and a Winner at the Vancouver Film Festival.

Now Showing: Amreeka [ April 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 22ndth & Friday 23rd in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallin, Yusseuf Abu-Warda, Hiam Abbass Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams iof an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illlinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home. Amreeka recalls Dabis's family's memories of their lives in rural America during the first Iraq War. The film stars Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour as Muna, and Melkar Muallen plays her 16-year-old son, Fadi. Also in the cast are Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussef Abu-Warda and Joseph Ziegler. Written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Amreeka was produced by Christina Piovesan and Paul Barkin. Alicia Sams, Dabis and Gregory Keever were executive producers; Liz Jarvis and Al-Zain Al-Sabah were co-producers. Amreeka made its world premiere in dramatic competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and played as Opening Night of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Amreeka made its debut internationally in Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Now Showing: Amelia [ March 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 18th & Friday 19th in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Hillary Swank, Ewan Mcgregor, Richard Gere Two-time Academy Award® Winner Hilary Swank delivers an unforgettable performance as Amelia Earhart, the legendary American aviatrix who boldly flew into the annals of history. Richard Gere co-stars as her charismatic business partner and adoring husband George Putnam. Bound by ambition and love, their enduring marriage could not be broken by Amelia's determination to fly -- nor her passionate affair with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). Equal parts gripping drama, stirring romance and epic adventure, Amelia will take your breath away and send your spirit soaring!

Now Showing: The Pursuit of Happyness [ February 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 18th & Friday 19th in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Thandie Newton A heartwarming film that demonstrates how good, hard-working people can become homeless almost overnight. Based on the true-life story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman forced at times to shelter his young son in a men's room, there is little suspense to the film in terms of Chris' outcome. And let's face it, Hollywood's not too keen on making feel-good movies with unhappy endings. The beauty (and suspense, to a certain extent) of this film is in the way the story is told. Though he is constantly rushing around to get to appointments and pick up his child, things do not happen quickly for Chris. When he accepts an internship with a prestigious stock brokerage firm, there's a catch: The position is unpaid, suitable more for trust-fund children than single parents with no other source of income. In many scenes, the viewer panics along with Chris, wondering how he's going to feed his child. While Smith and his son, Jaden, share many tender moments together, Thandie Newton has the thankless role of playing Chris' shrill wife, who deserts her family early in the film. As for the movie's misspelled title, it's inspired from a scene in the film. (Seeing a mural drawn by the children at a daycare center, Chris points out to the proprietor that "happiness" is spelled incorrectly. She notes that it doesn't matter how the word is written--just that the kids have it.) --Jae-Ha Kim

Now Showing: Lemon Tree [ January 2010 ] Event Details: Thursday 21st & Friday 22nd in the Building 549 Executive Board Room Time: 12:00 p.m. Starring: Amos Lavie, Makram Khoury, Hiam Abbass, Ali Suliman, Smadar Yaaron Hiam Abbass from The Visitor returns as Salma Zidane, a widow who tends the family lemon grove along the Green Line dividing Palestine from the West Bank. When the Israeli defense minister, Israel Navon (Doron Tavory), and his wife, Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael), move in next door, his security detail advices him to destroy it since terrorists could use the trees for cover. After Navon conveys his intentions, Salma springs into action, hiring a recently-divorced lawyer, Ziad Daud, to take her fight to the courts. Initially, Navon has all the power and Salma has none, but Mira, who also suffers from empty nest syndrome, feels for the lonely woman next door--and Ziad finds her compelling in ways that Salma's Palestinian neighbors finds inappropriate (he's younger and rumors link him to a politician's daughter). Then the media gets wind of the skirmish and paints it as a classic David versus Goliath story, but the Israeli Supreme Court will have the final say. Like the The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree presents a parable about the Middle East, but the characters feel more like real people than cardboard cut-outs, and Abbass commands the screen with her calm, determined presence. --Kathleen C. Fennessy