Monthly Film Series at Cotuit Center for the Arts

Cotuit Center for the Arts and the Woods Hole Film Festival are pleased to present a new monthly series of film screenings in the Center’s main theater. The Woods Hole Film Festival, now in its 22nd year, is the oldest film festival on Cape Cod and the Islands. Consistent with its mission, the Festival collaborates with other organizations to expand the community support for film on Cape Cod. The Woods Hole Film Festival and Cotuit Center for the Arts are thrilled to be collaborators and look forward to bringing important independent film programming to this great space throughout the year.

The films selected for the series include an array of award-winning narrative and documentary films. The critically acclaimed films were made by top independent filmmakers. Each screening will be hosted and will include a post-screening reception in the gallery. When possible, the filmmakers will attend the screening. Ticket prices are $12. Tickets are available in advance through the Cotuit Center for the Arts online at www.artsonthecape.org or by calling (508) 428-0669.

2012 LIST OF FILMS

FALL 2012

Friday, November 16th

A Good Man feature documentary by Bob Hercules and Gordon Quinn

Feature Documentary | 2011 | 86 min., USA

A Good Man follows acclaimed director/choreographer Bill T. Jones (Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Still/Here, FELA!) as he and his company create their most ambitious work, an original dance-theater piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s Bicentennial. Through two tumultuous years, we witness raw moments of frustration as Jones struggles to communicate his vision to his dancers and collaborators, as well as moments of great exhilaration when movement transcends the limitation of words. Jones and his company come face to face with America’s unresolved contradictions about race, equality and the legacy of our 16th President. Premiering on the heels of Jones’s Tony Award for FELA! and 2010 Kennedy Center Honor, A Good Man is a window into the creative process and, indeed, the creative crisis of one of our nation’s most enduring, provocative artists as he explores what it means to be a good man, to be a free man, to be a citizen.

Tuesday, December 18th
Becoming Santa feature documentary by Jeff Myers and Jack Sanderson

Feature Documentary |2010 | 82 mins.,USA

When Christmas rolled around again after his father’s death, Jack Sanderson realized he was not looking forward to the holiday. It seemed to Jack that Christmas had become a burden. He had only two choices, avoid it entirely or dive into the deepest part of the Christmas pool. In such a commercial culture, avoiding it seemed impossible so Jack decided the best way to get through Christmas was to be the eye of the Christmas Season storm. Jack would become Santa Claus and do as many of the things Santa is asked to do as possible.

For the documentary “Becoming Santa”, director Jeff Myers followed Jack on his journey to become Santa which entailed getting a custom Santa suit from Adele Saidy of ‘Adele’s of Hollywood’, attending the ‘American Events Santa School’ taught by Susen Mesco in Denver, Colorado and then Santa jobs. Along the way, Santa Jack rides in the 57th Annual Quincy Christmas Parade, rings a bell on a street corner in New York City for Volunteers of America and appears on the Susquehanna Railroad’s ‘Polar Express’ in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

At Mesco’s School, Jack learns that there is a lot more to being a good Santa than a great suit and an excellent ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’. Susen Mesco teaches her novice Claus’ how to answer really tough questions from children (Can you get my parents back together?), the right way to pose for pictures, how to handle screaming babies and petulant parents and proper make-up techniques for Santa.

Rachel Weinstein, at Volunteers of America, dresses Jack in their version of Santa’s suit and sends him out to the streets of New York on the coldest day of the year to ring a bell. John Stocker, a Conductor on the Susquehanna Polar Express, guides Jack through six grueling hours of Santa visits on a moving train. In Quincy, MA, Parade Organizer, George White sacrifices an unsuspecting Santa Jack to a crowd of a hundred tots and then puts him atop a fire truck in a position of dubious safety.

Wrapped around Jack’s journey into Christmas, like the red stripe around a candy cane, are interviews with professional Santas, Santa aficionados and historians who provide the fascinating little known history of Santa Claus in America and how the Civil War helped to shape the Christmas holiday as we know it today.

PAST SCREENINGS

Tuesday, February 7th
Feed The Fish by Michael Matzdorff, a romantic comedy starring Tony Shalhoub (Monk, Cars), Barry Corbin (No Country for Old Men), Kathryn Aselton, Ross Partridge

Friday, March 16th
Pucker Up: The Fine Art of Whistling by Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

Feature Documentary | 2005 | 79 min., USA

This delightful story of the annual International Whistling Competition opens a window on an astonishing world. Including explanations and tips from a sound-effects expert and champion whistlers, hilarious archival footage of whistling in its heyday, and portraits of current contestants, the directors move the film from fun frivolity to a celebration of a fading art form. Follow the efforts of competitors drawn from all walks of life: a turkey hauler, an investment banker, and a Dutch social worker: who share the amazing ability to whistle everything from pitch-perfect opera and Vivaldi to rollicking Texas swing. With great footage of Harpo Marx, Monty Python, and Elvis, as well as the whistling languages of Turkey and the Canary Islands, this family film offers great fun for young and old. You’ll leave the theater ready to pucker up and blow!

The screening will be preceded by an open mic whistling contest with the winners decided by the audience and fun prizes for the best whistlers.

Tuesday, April 17th
The Wavy Gravy Movie: Saint Misbehavin’ by Michelle Esrick click here to purchase tickets

Feature Documentary | 2009 | 88 min., USA

Saint Misbehavin’ reveals the true story of cultural phenomenon Wavy Gravy, a man whose commitment to making the world a better place has never wavered. We experience the impact one person can have and connect to the hope that each one of us can make a difference while keeping our sense of humor. Wavy Gravy is known as the MC of the Woodstock Festival, a hippie icon, clown and even a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream flavor. In Saint Misbehavin’ we meet a true servant to humanity who carries his message through humor, compassion and a song he sings, called ‘Basic Human Needs.’ Saint Misbehavin’ weaves together intimate verite footage, reflections from an array of cultural and counter-cultural peers, and never-before-seen archival footage to tell a story that is bigger than the man himself.

Friday, May 18th
Louder Than a Bomb feature documentary by Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs

Feature Documentary | 2010 | 99 min., USA

Louder Than a Bomb tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare for the world’s largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the tempestuous lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. Louder Than a Bomb is not about “high school poetry” as we often think of it. It’s about language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance. While the topics they tackle are often deeply personal, what they put into their poems – and what they get out of them is universal: the defining work of finding one’s voice.

Tickets: $12/$10 members

To purchase tickets, please click here or call 508-428-0669. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Tuesday, June 19th
Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology feature documentary by Tiffany Shlain- We regret that this screening was cancelled.

Feature Documentary|2011|80 min.

Have you ever faked a restroom trip to check your email? Slept with your laptop? Or become so overwhelmed that you just unplugged from it all? In this funny, eye-opening, and inspiring film, Director Tiffany Shlain takes audiences on an exhilarating rollercoaster ride to discover what it means to be connected in the 21st century. From founding The Webby Awards to being a passionate advocate for The National Day of Unplugging, Shlain’s love/hate relationship with technology serves as the springboard for a thrilling exploration of modern life…and our interconnected future. Equal parts documentary and memoir, the film unfolds during a year in which technology and science literally become a matter of life and death for the director. As Shlain’s father battles brain cancer and she confronts a high-risk pregnancy, her very understanding of connection is challenged. Using a brilliant mix of animation, archival footage, and home movies, Shlain reveals the surprising ties that link us not only to the people we love but also to the world at large. A personal film with universal relevance, Connected explores how, after centuries of declaring our independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence instead.

Thursday, July 12th
Jimmy Tingle’s American Dream feature documentary by Vinnie Straggas and Jimmy Tingle
SCREENING FOLLOWED BY A SPECIAL STAND UP SHOW BY JIMMY TINGLE

Jimmy Tingle’s American Dream is a one hour tour de force of comedy, commentary and conversation with some of America’s most iconic personalities and social critics, as well as family, friends and total strangers as they speak up and speak out on the American Dream.As he weaves his stand up comedy career into the fabric of the American Dream, you’ll meet Oscar winners and comedians, historians and the homeless as he aspires to make us laugh, to make us think, and encourages us to dream.Interviews with Robert Altman, Howard Zinn, Al Franken, Janeane Garafalo, Columnist Margery Egan, Sister Lena Divey, Jimmy’s mother Frances and more.Music by Willy Nelson, The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, The Neighborhoods, and Jimmy Tingle on harmonica.

Tickets $25 Purchase tickets here

Tuesday, September 18th
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison feature documentary by Bestor Cram

Feature Documentary | 2008 | 87 min., USA

January 1968; a year that was saturated in violence and historical change. Tucked away in a gray prison cafeteria in Northern California, isolated from the tumult outside, hard men doing hard time witnessed the making of a legendary album that would catapult a country singer to international stardom. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison remains one of the greatest live albums ever made, and the man himself one of America’s greatest troubadours and advocates for prison reform. Forty years later, the album still resonates today with a rawness and authenticity that few recordings have ever achieved. This film will expose a lesser known “Man in Black” through an exciting, visually compelling examination of this historic concert.

Tuesday, October 16th
The Drummond Will feature comedy by Alan Butterworth

Feature Comedy | 2010 | 81 min., UK

Two prodigal brothers, Danny and Marcus, are reunited with each other and their uncle at their father’s funeral in a remote English village. Marcus, a frustrated would-be businessman, is less than impressed when Danny, his mooching, partially-estranged dilettante of a brother cannot even manage to turn up on time. Their uncle, however, is simply very happy to see them both together, and insists that they stay the night before going their separate ways once more. At the very least, they should stay long enough to meet with the solicitor, and discuss the matter of their father’s will.

So it is that the brothers, hung-over from the wake and already grating on each other’s nerves, find themselves the proud owners of their late father’s dilapidated cottage. As expected, they initially discover precious little of any value inside. What they certainly did not expect to find was an enormous sum of cash hidden in a bag in a cupboard and more surprising still is the belligerent old man they find holding onto it. They have a predicament: knowing their father, the money is highly unlikely to be of legal providence, so simply going to the police presents a problem if they want to keep it. However, they also have the furious and pugilistic Malcolm the Bastard one of the disreputable gang of pensioners who represent the closest thing their father had to friends to contend with. The Drummond Will is a black comedy set in decaying rural England, a collision between old and new. The film follows estranged brothers Marcus and Danny Drummond as they find themselves on a surprisingly dangerous undertaking to unravel the mystery surrounding their father’s unlikely wealth.

HALLOWEEN FILMS

MONDAY OCTOBER 29TH, 7 P.M. – SORRY THIS SCREENING HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO THE FRANKENSTORM!

Calendar Girl

Narrative Feature | 2010 | 99 min.

Calendar Girl is a dark romantic comedy about Ari, a young woman whose poor taste in men may be the death of her when she tries to find love with her would-be killer. The elusive Calendar Girl killer has been terrorizing the city of Philadelphia, stalking and killing a different women each month in order to complete his morose calender full of unwilling pin-ups. The year is nearly over, when a taunting letter to the press has Ari convinced that she’s destined to be Miss December and she can’t help but be a little flattered. Calendar Girl is a fun blend of mystery, horror, and comedy that’s all about finding true love in a very inconvenient December.

To purchase tickets for Calendar Girl, please call the Box Office at 508-428-0669 or click here.

TUESDAY, October 30, 7pm

The Selling

Narrative Feature | 2011 | 88 min.

Richard Scarry is the kind of real estate agent you want to buy a house from . . . just not the one you want selling your house. Honest and good-hearted, he talks his clients out of buying houses they can”t really afford. When his best friend, Dave Ross (Jonathan Klein), tries to convince him buy an old house to flip for a profit, he refuses. But when his sick Mom”s (Nancy Lenehan) insurance claim is denied, Richard goes along with the plan to pay for her medical treatment. It’s not long after Richard and Dave start fixing up the house that the disembodied voices start talking…the walls start bleeding…and, oh yeah, that portal to the spirit realm opens up in the closet. Facing financial ruin, Richard must get rid of the house or its ghostly inhabitants before his world falls apart.

To purchase tickets for The Selling, please call the Box Office at 508-428-0669 or click here.

WEDNESDAY October 31, 7pm

The Legend of Lucy Keyes

Narrative Feature | 2011 | 93 min.

One family comes face-to-face with the forces of the unknown in this supernatural thriller based on actual events. On April 14, 1755, something terrible happened to Lucy Keyes in the forest surrounding Wachusett Mountain. 250 years later, Guy (Justin Theroux) and Joanne Cooley (Julie Delpy) move their family into an 18th century farmhouse at the foot of the mountain to escape the city, and recover from the death of their youngest child to SIDS. It seemed like the perfect place to get a fresh start and raise their two young daughters Molly and Lucy. Upon discovering that the Keyes family had occupied the farmhouse at the time of their daughter’s death, Joanne begins having strange dreams, and hearing haunting cries coming from the woods. After finding a letter admitting to the murder of Lucy Keyes, Joanne becomes convinced that Martha and Lucy Keyes’ spirits are attempting to contact her in hopes that she can set them free from their earthly limbo, and begins to fear that their grieving mother plans to claim Lucy Cooley as a substitute for her own missing daughter. As Guy attempts to convince the townspeople to approve construction of a wind farm project that he’s currently working on, his wife’s sanity begins to slip and their marriage starts to falter. Joanne’s attempt to expose the truth about Lucy Keyes’ disappearance only leads to greater terror, however, when the townspeople turn on the family, and young Lucy Cooley vanishes into the woods one cold and windy night…

To purchase tickets for The Legend of Lucy Keyes, please call the Box Office at 508-428-0669 or click here.

Friday, November 16th