Stranger Than Fiction: Summer Edition

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Sunday, 05 June 2011 10:00

Written by L E Shannon

This year, Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Series (STF) presents its first Summer edition on Tuesday nights from June 7 - August 9, 2011 at the IFC Center in Manhattan, New York.

After 17 successful years, the weekly documentary film series hosts, Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, decided to add a summer series.

"This is the first time STF has presented a summer season, expanding from our slates in fall, winter and spring," said Artistic Director Thom Powers. "We've tried to capture the spirit of the season with films full of adventure and discovery."

"I'm especially excited about two nights of rarely screened classics from the 1960s," said Powers. "These are films never released on home video that shouldn't be missed."

Each event includes a discussion with the filmmakers, followed by a gathering at a nearby bar.

The series leads off with a pre-season screening on June 2 of Liz Garbus‛s documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World.

Other special screenings on Thursday nights:

June 30
Between Two Worlds
dir. Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
The redefining of American Jewish identity and politics has factored in battlegrounds over loyalty to Israel, interpretations of the Holocaust, intermarriage, and a secret communist past.

July 7
You've Been Trumped
dir. Anthony Baxter
An account of Scottish homeowners who fight back when Donald Trump tries to turn their town into a luxury golf resort.

The films in the series are:

June 7 (Opening Night selection)
Senna
dir. Asif Kapadia
This is the story of the Brazilian Formula One race car driver Ayrton Senna. Winner of the Sundance Audience Award.

June 14
Brick City
dir. Marc Levin & Mark Benjamin
Set in Newark, NJ, like a real life version of The Wire. Filmmakers will screen two episodes of the acclaimed series and discuss its making.

June 21
Back to Life / Vuelve a la Vida
dir. Carlos Hagerman (Mexico)
The life of an Acapulco legend, the scuba instructor Hilario Martinez, instructor to the Hollywood stars, and his ways with women. Martinez's biggest catch was his wife, Robyn Sidney, a New York model known in Acapulco as the "Giraffe" for her height, slender grace and fair complexion.

June 28
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History
dir. Chad Freidrichs
With the housing project Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis as a prototype, this film depicts the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, when the national urban renewal program of the 1950s and 1960s resulted in mass suburbanization. The residents of Pruitt-Igoe were among the hardest hit. "The domestic turmoil wrought by punitive public welfare policies; the frustrating interactions with a paternalistic and cash-strapped Housing Authority; and the downward spiral of vacancy, vandalism and crime led to resident protest and action during the 1969 Rent Strike, the first in the history of public housing."

July 5
Mission to Malaya (1964)
dir. Hope Ryden
This rarely screened film (not available on DVD), a "cinema verité gem," follows Peace Corps nurses on island adventure.

July 12
16 in Webster Groves and 16 in Webster Groves Revisited
dir. Arthur Barron
The first film was a 1966 award-winning one-hour TV special produced by CBS News focusing on the experiences of adolescents growing up and living in Webster Groves, Missouri. The second film is a followup after the first film aired, due to the residents‛ complaints about the way their lives and community were portrayed.

July 19
Stevie
dir. Steve James
Brilliant, overlooked personal film by the director of Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters, as he examines his mentoring relationship to a troubled youth, who goes on to become a still-troubled adult.

July 26
Better This World
dir. Kelly Duane de la Vega & Katie Galloway
At the volatile 2008 Republican Convention, the "Texas Two" cross a line that radically changes their lives. The result: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high stakes entrapment defense hinging on the actions of a controversial FBI informant. 

August 2
Soul Power
dir. Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte
Zaire ‘74 was a three-day music festival held in Kinshasa in 1974, in conjunction with the boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman known as the "Rumble in the Jungle." The event assembled America’s biggest rhythm and blues talents – including James Brown and the Mighty JBs, Bill Withers, B.B. King, and the Spinners – along with top African acts such as Miriam Makeba and Afrisa. "Soul Power documents the heady days when the musical crossover between Africa and America was just emerging."

The August 9 film will be announced later on.

For more information, visit http://STFdocs.com or ifccenter.com.

Stranger Than Fiction Series
June 7 - August 9, 2011

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave @ 3rd Street
New York City