The Evil Dead 2
Directed by Sam Raimi
Rated R; 84 minutes; 1987
Time: October 30, 10pm
Cost: $2 members, $5 non-members
Location: Back deck of The Mill, 1026 E. Montague Ave.

Kiss Your Nerves Good-Bye!

Ash – the sole survivor of the original ‘Evil Dead’ – returns with his girlfriend Linda to the remote cabin in the woods. He discovers a tape recorder that a professor had used to record incantations from the Necronomicon XMortis – the Book of the Dead. When he turns it on, the recording releases a dark, sinister force from the woods. It turns Linda into a zombie, her soul possessed by some hideous demon, and then tries to do the same to Ash. Other people come to help Ash, but one by one they are taken over by the Evil Dead force that also possesses Linda, the Professor, and the Professor’s wife…and they try to make sure Ash is…Dead by Dawn!

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The Broken Hearts Club
Directed by Angelo Bell
Rated R; 90 minutes; 2009
Time: October 24, 4pm matinée, 7pm evening
Cost: $2 members, $5 non-members

What does a clinical psychiatrist do when his criminally insane patients are replaced with the clinically heart-broken?

From the official website: Love-lost couples air out their grievances to an apathetic doctor who prefers treating the criminally insane. Dr. Terrence N. Thiebold is a former All-American linebacker and now a leading criminal psychiatrist. He’s a stolid and regimented gentleman but hugely successful in treating the criminally insane. With all his advanced degrees, Terrence is completed unprepared for the never-ending procession of misguided, melodramatic couples in the midst of tumultuous break-ups.

Terrence’s new patients, the foul-mouthed, the sexually unsatisfied, the career-obsessed, the lonely and the hopeless, drag him through an abyss of professional frustrations. The drama intensifies when Terrence is offered a job at a prestigious clinic contingent upon his successful results with his new patients. When Terrence’s wife wants him to take the job his work problems follow him home, placing his marriage in jeopardy.

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The super-popular Lowcountry Indie Shorts day is coming back! We’re collaborating with the Carolina Film Alliance again to put on a fall version of our local shorts-fest. Here is a full list of films to be shown:

5pm

• Brad Jayne – Le Croisement – A man who has lost his way finds it while traversing the city. French.
• Owen Hamilton and Corey Corbett – Fiore – A young girl finds a way to rediscover herself.
• Rodney Rogers – Steamed Milk – A couple of guys playing poker contemplate how they will face their fears.
• Nick Smith – Undead On Arrival – A day in the life of humans and zombies coexisting in the same world.
• Jackson McDonald – Rex – A child befriends a mythical creature.
• John Ford – Patrol – A security guard pretends to be a real police officer in an attempt to impress his son.

7pm

• Jenna Brown – Bottom of the Glass – Two friends discuss a metaphor for life and death.
• Blake Williams – Vertigo – A lonely guy who is watching a presidential parade when he spots a sniper. Animated.
• Mikie Whaley – Disabuse – A couple find themselves pestered by a manaical stranger.
• Lindsey Miller – Rooster Hysteria – Two brothers are attacked in North Charleston by something unexplainable.
• Katie Gatrelle – The Street – A group of people realize the importance of a dollar.
• Owen Hamilton and Cory Corbett – Brief is Love, Life is Long – a man realizes how much he loves and how much  he has lost.
• John Barnhardt – Dust – A recluse in a motel ponders reconnecting with his long lost son.

Our spring show was standing room only, with nearly 200 attendees across the two blocks of films, so come early to get a seat! Members of the Film Society can make reservations in advance to ensure a seat. If you are interested in supporting the Greater Park Circle Film Society, please consider becoming a member or signing up to volunteer your skills.

Daughters of the Dust
Directed by Julie Dash
Not Rated; 112 minutes; 1991
Time: September 26, 7pm evening
Location: Gussie Greene Community Center
Cost: $2

From Netflix: Julie Dash’s landmark film follows a large African-American family moving north in the early 20th century, bringing to life the conflicts and struggles that confront every family leaving their homeland for the promise of a better future. This emotionally charged drama also explores the unique culture of the Gullah people; as the generations struggle with the decision to leave, their rich Gullah heritage and African roots rise to the surface.

“It is all a matter of notes and moods, music and tones of voice, atmosphere and deep feeling. If Dash had assigned every character a role in a conventional plot, this would have been just another movie – maybe a good one, but nothing new. Instead, somehow she makes this many stories about many families, and through it we understand how African-American families persisted against slavery, and tried to be true to their memories.”
Chicago Sun-Times

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The Saint of 9/11
Directed by Glenn Holsten
Not Rated; 90 minutes; 2006
Time: September 9, 7:30pm
Cost: $2 members, $5 non-members

From Netflix: Father Mychal Judge is best remembered as the faithful Franciscan priest who was killed on 9/11. The beloved friar lived a fulfilling life helping the needy and wasn’t your ordinary man of the cloth: he battled alcoholism and was a privately gay man. Through interviews, archival footage and Sir Ian McKellen’s narration, Glenn Holsten documents this extraordinary man’s life until his untimely death.

“Tears and emotions flow freely through the film, which successfully captures a little of the original horror and raw, unpoliticized emotion of that beautiful late summer day.”
Salon

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Late Night Series: The Road Warrior
Directed by George Miller
Rated R; 95 minutes; 1981
Time: August 29, 10pm
Cost: $2 members, $5 non-members

From Netflix: In this sequel to Mad Max, Mel Gibson returns as the heroic loner who drives the roads of post-apocalyptic outback Australia in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by The Humungus (Kjell Nilsson). The post-nuclear future meets the mythological past in this epic of action and carnage.

“What Miller has done here is create a milieu as dense and tangy as Tolkien’s Middle Earth or Céline’s demimonde. This is Australia as the Down Underworld, where character is revealed in the gradations between good and awful.”
Time

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Damaged Care The Musical Comedy about Health Care in America
Filmed presentation of the stage show written and performed by Greg LaGana, M.D., and Barry Levy, M.D.
Time: August 20, 7:30pm evening
Cost: Suggested donations of $2 members and $5 non-members

Written and performed by two physicians, Damaged Care: The Musical Comedy about Health Care in America has been performed in 27 states. The show, now in its 13th year, has been featured in The New York Times, and on CNN Headline News, ABC Nightline, PBS HealthWeek, the Joey Reynolds Show on WOR Radio nationwide, the Healthy Living program of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the front pages of the Boston Globe and the AMA’s American Medical News, and elsewhere.

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We will also be premiering the locally-produced short film Charleston Health Care Stories, created by Mt. Pleasant resident Edward Faircloth. Faircloth, a 12 year veteran of the broadcast industry, interviewed people from Charleston about their healthcare struggles, getting painful and immediate stories about money, pain, and loss. Woven together with elements from the national debate, he has created a compelling, locally relevant look at the issue.

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Mr. Faircloth will talk about his film and take questions, and after the films we will host a community discussion about health care. We have invited panelists representing multiple points of view on this issue and expect a standing-room-only crowd. Doors open at 6:45, so be sure to get there early. There will be an informal group of patrons meeting at EVO at 6pm for dinner and conversation, so feel free to join in that as well!

Nollywood Babylon
Directed by Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal
Not Rated; 74 minutes; 2009
Time: August 8, 4pm matinée, 7pm evening
Cost: $2 members, $5 non-members

From IMDB: Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood, is the third largest in the world — an unstoppable economic and cultural force that has taken the continent by storm and is now bursting beyond the borders of Africa.

Nollywood cinema was born of the street markets of Lagos, Nigerias largest metropolis. Unfazed by low production values and shoe-string budgets, enterprising filmmakers created a brash, inventive, and wildly popular form of cinema that has Nigerians Nollywood-obsessed. In these films, voodoo and magic infuse urban stories, reflecting the kinetic collision of traditional mysticism and modern culture that everyday Nigerians experience.

“Both insightful and sweeping, this doc shows how affordable filmmaking technology and evangelical Christianity has assisted Nigeria, now the third largest producer of movies, to build a fecund film industry that serves a largely impoverished and politically unsupported nation. One hopes it will see more theaters before nestling into its obvious next life on IFC or the Sundance Channel.”
Box Office Magazine

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Dark Days
Directed by Marc Singer
Not Rated; 84 minutes; 2000
Time: July 25, 4pm matinée, 7pm evening
Cost: $2 members, $5 non-members

After being appalled by the number of homeless people in the city, Marc Singer (who had never made a film) learned of a group who lived in an underground railway tunnel.  He spent several months living with them and filming their stories in an attempt to bring attention to them and help them out financially. This documentary about the “mole people” of New York won the Audience prize and Best Cinematography award at Sundance, as well as the Independent Spirit Award.

“[A]s grim as it gets, Dark Days largely shies away from depicting the most hellish aspects of subterranean life. We witness touching displays of grief and sorrow and many flashes of a gritty streetwise humor. But insanity, despair and maniacal drug-induced behavior and violence are barely suggested.”
New York Times

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After the 7pm show we will have a community forum to discuss topics related to homelessness. Panelists include: George Saldana of the North Charleston Housing Authority; Jeff Yungman, staff attorney and a senior member of the clinical team of Crisis Ministries of Charleston; and Arnold Anderson, Director of Residential Services at the Carolina Youth Development Center working with homeless young persons. This will be a chance to react to the film and talk about issues related to current and future development that affects the mosaic of neighborhoods within the community.

Late Night Series: Bubba Ho-Tep
Directed by Don Coscarelli
Rated R; 92 minutes; 2003
Time: July 25, 10pm
Cost: $2 members, $5 non-members

From Rotten Tomatoes: Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep finds Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) alive but not so well, living in a small Texas nursing home. Although he’s preoccupied with his ailments and his memories, the elderly Elvis befriends another resident who thinks he’s John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) when they both begin to suspect that their neighbors aren’t dying of natural causes. Their investigation leads to the discovery of an evil mummy with a fondness for cowboy gear and an appetite for the souls of senior citizens. Armed with little more than a walker and a wheelchair, the King and JFK must take on this ancient evil.

“It has the damnedest ingratiating way of making us sit there and grin at its harebrained audacity, laugh at its outhouse humor, and be somewhat moved (not deeply, but somewhat) at the poignancy of these two old men and their situation.”
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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