City Guide
June Films
Everyone's a Critic: arborweb's culture blog
Ann Arbor District Library. Free. 327-4555. AADL multipurpose room, 343 S. Fifth Ave. 7-8:30 p.m.
June 3: “Restrepo” (Sebastian Junger & Tim Hetherington, 2010). Acclaimed Oscar-nominated documentary about the year the directors spent on assignment for Vanity Fair embedded with an army platoon in Afghanistan.
Ann Arbor Center of Light Conscious Movie Night. FREE. 864-2017. Location TBA, 7 p.m.
June 17: “Climate Refugees” (Michael Nash, 2010). Documentary about populations--totaling over 25 million--that have been displaced by climate-induced environmental disasters. Preceded at 6:30 p.m. by a potluck.
Ann Arbor Docu Fest. Screening of a different documentary film every Mon. FREE. 929-9979. Café Ambrosia, 326 Maynard, 7 p.m.
June 6: “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg & the Pentagon Papers” (Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith, 2009). Documentary about the former Pentagon insider who supplied the New York Times with evidence that presidents had been lying to the American people about the Vietnam War.
June 13: “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood” (Adriana Barbaro & Jeremy Earp, 2008). Documentary about the marketing practices used to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world.
June 20: “Food, Inc.” (Robert Kenner, 2008). Documentary about the dirty underside of America’s corporate food industry. Michael Pollan.
June 27: “GasHole” (Scott Roberts & Jeremy Wagener, 2008). Documentary about the history of oil prices and the future of alternative fuels.
Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth. $5 suggested donation. 327-0270. 704 Airport Blvd., 8 p.m.
June 18: “Spiritual Cinema.” Screening of a feature film or several shorts TBA with spiritual themes. Followed by discussion.
Jewel Heart Buddhist Center. FREE. 994-3387. Jewel Heart (1129 Oak Valley Dr. between Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. & Ellsworth), 7 p.m.
June 24: “Fried Green Tomatoes” (Jon Avnet, 1991). Adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s novel about the friendship between two unconventional Southern women. Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson. Followed by discussion.
Michigan Theater Foundation. Unless there is a live show in the main theater, 2 or 3 different films are shown, usually twice, almost every night. For complete, updated schedules, see michtheater.org or call 668-TIME. Tickets (unless otherwise noted): $9 (children, students, seniors, & veterans, $7; MTF members, $6.50; Wed., $6). Michigan Theater, times TBA unless otherwise noted.
Through June 2: “The Beaver” (Jodie Foster, 2011). Drama that stars Mel Gibson as a troubled husband and executive who starts using a beaver hand puppet has his only means of communication.
June 3-9: “The Double Hour” (Giuseppe Capotondi, 2009). Italian, subtitles. The romance between an ex-cop and a Slovenian immigrant chambermaid takes a dark turn when her murky past resurfaces.
June 5 & 7: “Breathless” (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959). Groundbreaking New Wave tale of a Parisian hood and an American girl. Jean-Paul Belmondo. French, subtitles. 1:30 (June 5) & 7 p.m. (June 7).
June 6: “Winnebago Man” (Ben Steinbauer, 2009). Funny, philosophical documentary about the filmmaker’s efforts to draw out a former broadcast journalist who’s living as a hermit atop a California mountain with his dog. 7 p.m.
June 9: “’Round Midnight” (Bertrand Tavernier, 1986). Story of the friendship between an American jazz saxophone player and a Parisian admirer, based loosely on the life of Lester Young. Dexter Gordon. Followed by a live presentation by Maxine Gordon--Dexter’s widow--on “The Making of ’Round Midnight.” Q&A. $9 (students and kids 12 & under, $6.50) in advance at ticketweb.com and at the door. 7 p.m.
June 10-16: “Trust” (David Schwimmer, 2010). Powerfully emotional drama, shot in and around Ann Arbor, about a teenage girl who’s targeted by an online sexual predator. Clive Owen, Catherine Keener.
“Bill Cunningham: New York” (Richard Press, 2010). Documentary about the beloved New York Times fashion photographer.
June 12 & 14: “Cinema Paradiso” (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988). A film director recalls his boyhood love affair with the cinema. Italian, subtitles. 1:30 (June 12) & 7 p.m. (June 14).
June 13: “Prodigal Sons” (Kimberly Reed, 2008). Documentary about the filmmaker’s complex relationship with her adoptive brother, with whom she grew up as a boy before undergoing gender reassignment as an adult. 7 p.m.
June 17-23: “The Tree of Life” (Terrence Malick, 2011). Drama set in the 1950s that centers around a family with 3 boys. Brad Pitt, Sean Penn.
“Incendies” (Denis Villeneuve, 2010). To fulfill their mother’s last wishes, brother-sister twins journey to the Middle East in search of their roots. French, Arabic, English; subtitles.
June 19 & 21: “The Godfather” (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972). Classic drama about a Mafia family. 1:30 (June 19) & 7 p.m. (June 21).
June 20: “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” (Tamra Davis, 2010). Documentary about the NYC graffiti artist-turned neoexpressionist painter who died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at age 27. 7 p.m.
June 24-30: “Midnight in Paris” (Woody Allen, 2011). Rom com about a young couple who travel to Paris on business and become disillusioned when they discover there may be a life better than their own. Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams.
June 26 & 28: “The Grapes of Wrath” (John Ford, 1940). Adaptation of Steinbeck’s classic novel about Okie dust bowl refugees seeking new fortunes in California. 1:30 (June 26) & 7 p.m. (June 28).
June 27: “Grey Gardens” (Ellen Hovde and Albert Maysles, 1976). Cult documentary about an 82-year-old woman and her 56-year-old daughter, two eccentric socialites--cousins of Jackie Onassis--living alone together in their decaying East Hampton mansion. 7 p.m.
UMMA. FREE. 764-0395, 994-5999. UMMA Helmut Stern Auditorium, 525 S. State, 7:30 p.m.
June 24: “Louder Than a Bomb” (Greg Jacobs & Jon Siskel, 2010). Documentary about 4 Chicago-area high school poetry slam teams who compete in the world’s largest youth slam. Part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival (see 17 Friday Events listing).
U-M Japanese Animation Film Society. U-M campus admission policy: No one under 18 admitted without an adult. FREE. umichanime.com. Michigan Union Pond Room, 4 p.m.-midnight.
June 11: “Animania.” Monthly anime-a-thon of feature films and episodes from Japanese TV series.
WCBN-FM. FREE admission. 763-3500. Arbor Brewing Company (114 E. Washington), 8:30 p.m.
June 8: “Melody Time” (Disney, 1948). Episodic animated feature set to popular and folk music, including a swing-jazz version of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, the Andrews Sisters, Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians, the Sons of the Pioneers, and others.
