In an effort to initiate public dialogue in the City of Arts and Innovation, about cinema as art, the greatest of all the arts nonetheless, a/perture cinema introduced a new screening and discussion series in 2015. This series centers on the notion of “looking at art cinema.” Together, the community and selected speakers, will discuss a curated list of films. Some of these films you have seen and some you may have not, but either way we hope the discussions will allow you to see them anew.
Looking @ Art Cinema 2019 has been generously underwritten by an anonymous donor.
The Actress
with Ben Baker
Ben Baker is a professional actor and director who has lived and worked in New York, Los Angeles and Winston-Salem. He earned his MFA in Acting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and was most recently seen in A Christmas Carol at the Hanesbrands Theatre. Other credits include work for Triad Stage, Paper Lantern Theatre, Sir Peter Hall and the locally produced movie Goodbye To All That. He has taught acting at UNCG and Wake Forest, and is on the board of the New Winston Museum.
Mildred Pierce (1945) [NR] — March 9th
When Mildred Pierce’s (Joan Crawford) wealthy husband leaves her for another woman, Mildred decides to raise her two daughters on her own. Despite Mildred’s financial successes in the restaurant business, her oldest daughter, Veda (Ann Blyth), resents her mother for degrading their social status. In the midst of a police investigation after the death of her second husband (Zachary Scott), Mildred must evaluate her own freedom and her complicated relationship with her daughter.
Network (1976) [R] — March 16th
In this lauded satire, veteran news anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) discovers that he’s being put out to pasture, and he’s none too happy about it. After threatening to shoot himself on live television, instead he launches into an angry televised rant, which turns out to be a huge ratings boost for the UBS network. This stunt allows ambitious producer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) to develop even more outrageous programming, a concept that she takes to unsettling extremes.
Moonstruck (1987) [PG] — March 23rd
No sooner does Italian-American widow Loretta (Cher) accept a marriage proposal from her doltish boyfriend, Johnny (Danny Aiello), than she finds herself falling for his younger brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage). She tries to resist, but Ronny lost his hand in an accident he blames on his brother, and has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls deeper in love, she comes to learn that she’s not the only one in her family with a secret romance.