Art School Confidential is a 2006 comedy-drama film directed by Terry Zwigoff, loosely based on the comic of the same name by Daniel Clowes. The film is Zwigoff's second collaboration with Clowes, the first being 2001's Ghost World (which was also released by United Artists). The cast includes Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Michael Lerner and Anjelica Huston.
Catalyst presents a showing of the 2002 film Frida, a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera.
Catalyst has joined the nationwide protest over the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s 20-minute film A Fire in My Belly (1986-87) from the “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery on December 1, 2010. Catholic Leader president Bill Donahue and some members of congress including Speaker of the House John Boehner assailed the video as “an outrageous use of taxpayer money and an obvious attempt to offend Christians during the Christmas season.” As a reaction against the death of his lover due to AIDS and his own diagnosis as HIV positive, Wojnarowicz intended the video to serve as a symbolic representation of the unjust sufferings gay AIDS victims had to endure during the time. Due to misconceived interpretations of the piece that were enacted upon by the Catholic League and certain members of Congress, the video was wrongfully removed. One scene within the film of ants crawling over a crucified Jesus, has been misperceived as hate speech against Christians. All the circumstances behind the video epitomizes the constant struggle between free expression within the arts and its censorship from outside contributors.
A disturbing portrayal of teenage life, AIDS, and the Kids of New York City. Controversial in its content, the film exposes the grim reality of a group of skate-boarders in the space of 24 hours. Primarily the story consists of Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) a 17 year old slacker whose mission is to de-flower as many young girls as possible, whilst unprotected. Things turn bad when an old flame finds out she has tested positive for HIV and the only person she has had sex with is Telly. She chases through New York to find him but is too late as he has already de-flowered yet another innocent pre-teen.
"Legendary filmmaker Agnes Varda takes digital camcorder in hand and roams about the French countryside in search of "gleaners." An age-old practice, as depicted in Millet's famous painting, performed traditionally by peasant women, gleaners scavenged the remains of a crop after the harvest. Varda finds their modern-day equivalent collecting rejected potatoes outside of Lyon, fallen apples in Provence, and refuse in the markets of Paris. Along the way, she talks to a man sporting yellow rubber boots who has lived on trash for ten years, a gourmet chef who gleans for his restaurant, a homeless doctorate in biology who teaches literacy courses to immigrants for free, a couple of artists who use trash in their work, and the grandson of early cinema innovator Étienne-Jules Marey. Along the way, Varda discusses heart-shaped potatoes, big trucks on the highway, the waste of consumerism, and the ravages of time." -Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
"An exercise in avant-garde cinema that is freshly humorous and accessible, 'Daisies' is a dark comedy that eschews a traditional narrative for a Dadaist construction of events. Perpetually dressed in vibrantly corresponding costumes and dark black eyeliner, Marie and Marie work together to create mischief. Historically a key film in the Czech New Wave movement, 'Daisies' was banned, and director Vera Chytilová was forbidden to work until 1975." - Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
November 16, 2011