- If you’ve ever wondered “How do I watch experimental films?” the answer is “With your eyes.” If you would like more specific and helpful information, you can join the next Courses offering at Film Streams. The five-week seminar is a new addition to the Courses series, titled “Deep Dive.” I am told you do not need to attend in swimwear, but it probably can’t hurt. The initial Courses: Deep Dive will feature Film Streams’ education director, Diana Martinez, Ph.D., educating participants about how best to approach what many people consider to be “difficult” films. Head to filmstreams.org to register before the pool for the deep dive fills up. Just be careful, as experimenting with films is a gateway to other artistic consumption. Before you know it, you’ll be gobbling up—gasp—poetry…
- Just like the number of people in a nonpolyamorous relationship, I have two options for your Valentine’s Day enjoyment. First, Alamo Drafthouse has a month full of romance for you. I mean, I say romance, but any series with a David Lynch movie in it is really more insane than intimate, right? Their “Twisted Love” series features cinema designed to make you look at your partner and think, “Hey, this isn’t so bad!” The films include Badlands, Leaving Las Vegas, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Piano Teacher, Fatal Attraction, Blue Valentine and Wild at Heart. If you attend all of them and maintain your relationship, you’re legally married. If you’d like something a bit tamer, Film Streams and Borsheims are presenting a free screening of Some Like it Hot on Valentine’s Day. Borsheims gives you a free movie so you have enough to spend on something outrageously expensive for your significant other, like popcorn. If the way to your heart is slapstick and cross-dressing, you’re probably super fun to hang out with, and you should let your lover know that.
- Film Streams is complementing, and probably complimenting, Joslyn Art Museum’s upcoming 30 Americans exhibition with its own This Is America film series. From Feb. 2 to May 5, the Joslyn will survey the work of contemporary black artists over the past three decades. From Feb. 3 to April 2, Film Streams will screen 10 films curated by podcaster and critic Ira Madison III that use unique approaches to represent a spectrum of the American experience. The film series includes two films I consider among the best I’ve ever seen (Moonlight and Pariah,) and kicks off with a discussion with Madison on Feb 9 at 3 p.m. See the list of movies in This Is America at filmstreams.org. Hopefully, the combination of the Joslyn exhibit and the repertory flicks are enough to make you mentally picture an exclamation point after This Is America instead of the question mark we’ve all been putting there lately.
Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send relevant information to film@thereader.com. Check out Ryan on KVNO 90.7 on Wednesdays and follow him on Twitter.