Third Thursday
Whiners of all nations, unite in song!
Tallgrass & Ulrich Museum present February’s Tallgrass Third Thursday at the Murdock: COMPLAINTS CHOIR
WICHITA, KAN — Tallgrass Film Association, the Ulrich Museum of Art and the Murdock Theatre have partnered to present February’s Tallgrass Third Thursday at the Murdock screening of COMPLAINTS CHOIR, followed by the debut performance of Wichita’s own Complaints Choir.
The event takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16 at the Murdock Theatre, 536 N. Broadway. Tickets are $10 GA, $8 students, seniors, military, TFA members and WSU faculty/staff; free for Ulrich Museum members.
What are you complaining about? Cell phones and bosses? Bad drivers and crummy weather? Director Ada Bligaard Søby’s docu-musical tells the story of two Finnish artists traveling the world, setting gripes to music. They aim not to pour salt in the wounds of the world’s grumps, but to let everyone vent dissatisfaction in a liberating chorus. Søby takes us from the artists’ home in Finland to Chicago and Signapore where community choruses confront issues as serious as free speech and as mundane as loud neighbors, with compelling frankness and humor.
Third Thursdays starts 2012 in new home
Tallgrass Film Association and Murdock Theater partner to present “Tallgrass Third Thursdays at the Murdock”
WICHITA, KAN, Dec. 20, 2011 — Tallgrass Film Association has partnered with the Murdock Theater, 536 N. Broadway, to present its monthly independent film series throughout 2012. “Tallgrass Third Thursdays at the Murdock.” KPTS is media sponsor.
“We’re very excited to be partnering with the Murdock,” said TFA Director of Programming Nick Pope. “It’s a beautiful historic, downtown venue and our new partnership will allow us to program independent films of the highest caliber and some months, screen them for an extended engagement.”
“And because we know that independent film sparks dialogue,” Pope continued, “We’ve created the ‘Tallgrass Cinema Salon’ — a discussion group lead by Tallgrass Programmers — where attendees will have the chance to join fellow audience members in an informal conversation following the film.”
Wichita Premiere of LESSON PLAN this Third Thursday
“This one blew me away.” — Robert Butler, Kansas City Star
Don’t miss the Wichita premiere of LESSON PLAN this Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the Forum Events Center. Tickets are $10 GA and $8 for students, teachers, seniors, military and TFA Members.
The film’s producer, co-director and subject Philip Carr Neel — an educator in USC’s Cinematic Arts Department and accomplished television editor and producer with multiple Emmy nominations — took the time to answer a few of our questions. This is his first feature film.
TFA: You have done a lot of work as an editor and producer for television. How did that prepare you for your first time directing a feature film?
PN: I think what prepared me the most was the fact that I was in the original classroom experiment. Throughout the years I've had to describe what happened to many high schools, and I've learned that the best tactic is to simply retell the experiment, day to day, moment by moment, so the audience can experience first hand why we did what we did.
LESSON PLAN is November's Third Thursday screening
Wichita, KAN — The Tallgrass Film Association presents the Wichita premiere of LESSON PLAN at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, at the Forum Events Center, 147 S. Hillside.
Screened at more than a dozen festivals across the country, LESSON PLAN tells the story of the Third Wave classroom experiment as told by the original students and teacher Ron Jones. In spring 1967, Palo Alto, CA history teacher Ron Jones conducted an experiment with his class of 15-year-olds to sample the experience and attraction and rise of the Nazis in Germany before World War II. In a matter of days, the experiment began to spiral out of control, as those attracted to the movement became aggressive. This story serves as a teaching tool, to facilitate discussion of those uncomfortable topics of history, psychology, group behavior, intolerance and hate.
“This film encompasses what independent film is all about and we’re really proud to be showcasing the work of emerging directors like Philip Carr Neel who makes his directorial debut with this film,” said TFA Director of Acquisitions Shan Jabara. Carr Neel was a student in the experiment who decided to tell the first-hand account of this world-renowned story some 40 years later. “The film tells the story of a radical, real-life experience — it’s not only a time piece but also a fascinating example of the timeless difficulties of being a young adult faced with peer pressures and the stresses of conformity.”
Tickets are $10 General Admission and $8 for students/teachers, seniors, military and TFA Members. Tickets may be purchased by going to http://tallgrasslessonplan.eventbrite.com/ or by clicking on the ticket box below.
TFA serves HOT COFFEE for September's Third Thursday
“Eye-opening indictment of the way big business spins the media.” — Variety
“Stunning debut…Sends audiences out of the theater thinking in a brand new way.” — Washington Post
“Entertaining, informative … vividly illuminating.” — Hollywood Reporter
Having trouble seeing the trailer? Try going here: http://youtu.be/bBKRjxeQnT4
Aug. 22, 2011, Wichita, KAN — The Tallgrass Film Association presents the Wichita theatrical premiere of Director Susan Saladoff’s HOT COFFEE, 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 15 at the Forum Events Center, 147 S. Hillside. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion — moderated by the Wichita Eagle’s Ron Sylvester — with Randy Rathbun of Depew, Gillen, Rathbun & McInteer, LC, Kevin McMaster of McDonald, Tinker, Skaer, Quinn & Herrington, P.A., and the film’s associate producer (and Kansas-native) Betsy Rate.
Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than 15 years later its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but its that a fair rendition of the facts? HOT COFFEE reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from the spilling hot coffee.
TFA presents the critically acclaimed BELLFLOWER as August’s Third Thursday Selection
“Evan Glodell’s darkly exhilerhating debut is a pre-apocalyptic love story and the most emotionally (even literally) explosive critique of male insecurity since FIGHT CLUB.” – The Village Voice
“If MAD MAX were put in a blender with 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, you’d get something approximating Evan Glodell’s nightmarish, testosterone-tipped feature debut.” - Flavorpill
(Having trouble viewing the trailer? See it here: http://youtu.be/kbZ4EtsjpYA)
July 20, 2011, Wichita, KAN — The Tallgrass Film Association presents the Wichita premiere of BELLFLOWER, 7 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 18 at the Forum Events Center, 147 S. Hillside.
BELLFLOWER premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and has played as an official selection at festivals around the country including SXSW, the Seattle International Film Festival and recently as part of indieWIRE’s 15th anniversary screening series. The film was produced on a shoestring budget and shot with a homemade camera built by Glodell comprised of vintage camera parts, bellows and Russian lenses.
Nearly a Decade After 9/11, TFA presents the Acclaimed Documentary REBIRTH
“Rebirth” is a real emotional powerhouse and a staggering achievement in documentary filmmaking. These people’s experiences serve as a mirror to humankind’s fragility and resilience.” – Moving Pictures Network
April 28, 2011, Wichita, KAN — The Tallgrass Film Association (TFA) presents the Kansas Premiere of REBIRTH, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 19 at the Forum Events Center (147 S. Hillside, Former Hillside Baptist Church) as part of the Tallgrass Third Thursday Screening Series. The film is co-sponsored by the Forum Events Center.
“Every once in a while at a film festival, a movie lands with so much force that you can sense the impact it will have outside the festival bubble before the lights even come up,” said the Los Angeles Times of the documentary, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January.
April Third Thursday: Bag It
Wichita, KAN – The Tallgrass Film Association celebrates Earth Day with a Greengrass screening of BAG IT, the Wichita premiere, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 21 at the Forum Events Center, 147 S. Hillside (the former Hillside Baptist Church).
“I didn’t expect a movie about a plastic bag to change my life in such a deep and profound way. Gripping, funny, intelligent and sure to change your life,” says Louie Psihoyos, Director of Academy Award winning documentary THE COVE.
Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes, disposable bags that they throw away without much thought. But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to the environment, marine life and human health?
March Third Thursday: WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (Somo lo que hay)
March 1, 2011, Wichita, KAN. — The Tallgrass Film Association invites you to spend St. Patrick’s Day with some fine, young cannibals at the March’s Tallgrass Third Thursday screening: the Midwest theatrical premiere of Jorge Michel Grau & IFC’s WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (Somo lo que hay, Mexico, 2010.) The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film. The screening takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 17 at the Forum Events Center (147 S. Hillside, the former Hillside Baptist Church.)
The Los Angeles Times says “an unexpectedly rich exploration of family bonds, blood rituals and the oftentimes zombie-like desire to assume the roles proscribed to each of us, played out with a sharp undertow of political allegory and darkly comic sensibility.”
“It’s not a documentary so don’t let the cannibalistic nature of this film turn you off!” says TFA Co-Director of Programming Gretchen Mitchell. “I am not generally a horror enthusiast but when I saw the film at the Cannes Film Festival, like the audience, I loved it. It explores family dynamics and social issues, cleverly sprinkled with humor and horror.”
3 Questions with MARWENCOL Director Jeff Malmberg on Filmmaking and His Subject
Although Marwencol director Jeff Malmberg won’t be in attendance for the Wichita premiere of the film, he took a few minutes to answer some questions for TFA on the art of documentary making and his relationship with Mark Hogancamp.
TFA: How did your background in movie editing help you find your voice as a director? (Malmberg spent 4 years shooting his subject – that can equal a lot of footage!)
JM: I think knowing how to find the story editorially was a big help in making the film. It meant that as a director I could get into some pretty deep waters so to speak and still be able to find my way out with the heart of it.
TFA: As a first time director, what was your biggest, unexpected challenge?
JM: Just bumping into someone like Mark who I thought I understood at first. And of course the challenge of understanding Mark and that there were all these layers to him and his world. Of course that's the beauty of it all and why it was such a great journey but at the time it was very daunting realizing what I'd stumbled into.
TFA: In one of your interviews, you say you share many of the same characteristics as Mark. What connected the two of you and do you plan any future collaborations?
JM: I think Mark and I pretty early on saw each other as kindred spirits in a way. He's just someone that I immediately found myself comfortable with and he has said the same. We did a lot of hanging out without turning on the camera. Some days we wouldn't shoot anything. In terms of future collaborations, I just know that I want to keep shooting him and see what happens in his life and in the world of Marwencol. He's just a very interesting person to me and I hope I always know him.
For more with Malmberg and his experiences making the film, check out these Q&A’s with Film Threat from the 2010 SXSW Film Fest, where the film won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary.
