Here's what's going on this week:
Thursday, January 2
- At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen The Elephant Man (David Lynch, U.S. 1980, 124 min., 35mm).
After being floored by a private screening of Eraserhead, executive producer Mel Brooks decided to hire shoestring indie filmmaker David Lynch to write and direct his next atypically melodramatic, and historically accurate, project: The Elephant Man. Lynch's first foray into mainstream filmmaking proved to be a massive success, garnering eight Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture, Director, and Actor) and consequently inventing a new category for Best Makeup. The film stars John Hurt as John Merrick, the famously deformed human oddity who lived as a sideshow attraction in 19th-century London. The sympathetic Dr. Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers Merrick, bringing him to the apprehensive attention of the medical community and commits to improving his quality of life. At once a humanistic portrait of compassion and a scathing indictment of Victorian ideals, The Elephant Man is a watershed moment in Lynch's career, propelling him into the high ranks of Hollywood auteurs.
[source: Dryden website, 2013-Dec-30]
Friday, January 3
- This evening at 5:30 p.m., Ambush Rochester invades One Nightclub and Ultra Lounge.
As an alternative to the lack of lesbian bars in the area, we take over a different straight bar on the first Friday of the month. This is meant to be a low-key, fun, casual way to hang out with your friends and meet other lesbians from the WNY area.
[source: Facebook, 2014-Jan-1]
- From around 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Smugtown Mushrooms is a First Friday Community Art Show. [source: Facebook, 2014-Jan-1]
- Tonight at 7 p.m., the Dryden will screen At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, U.S. 2013, 244 min., DCP).
In his latest film (but by no means the last for the 84-year old, who is currently editing his next film) Wiseman takes an in-depth look at one of the most sprawling and complex organizations he has yet to tackle in his career: the preeminent University of California, Berkeley. Wiseman and cameraman John Davey embedded themselves at the school during the vigorous fall 2010 debate over tuition hikes and budget cuts. The resulting four-hour film gives us unrestrained access inside classrooms, student protests, and administrative meetings, as newcomers and old-timers alike hash out the future of higher education in the United States.
[source: Dryden website, 2013-Dec-30]
- The Cinema's 7 p.m. movie this week (no double feature) is La vie d'Adèle (Blue is the Warmest Color, Abdellatif Kechiche, France / Belgium / Spain 2013, 179 min.)
Adele's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself, finds herself.
[source: Cinema coming soon page, 2014-Jan-1]
- Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. are performances of M.I.A. by Spencer Christiano at the MuCCC.
On Christmas Eve, 1965, during the beginning of the Vietnam War, the Christiano family of Rochester, New York was informed that their patriarch, Lt. Col. Joseph, was shot down on a flight over Laos. While the U.S. Government and the Christiano family searched tirelessly for him and the other five men aboard the plane, he was considered M.I.A. for the next 46 years… Until Easter Sunday, 2012, when the men were found.
[source: MuCCC website, 2013-Dec-30]
Saturday, January 4
- Today and tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., the Cinema is screening Out of the Furnace (Scott Cooper, U.S./U.K. 2013, 116 min.)
When Rodney Baze mysteriously disappears and law enforcement doesn't follow through fast enough, his older brother, Russell, takes matters into his own hands to find justice.
[source: Cinema coming soon page, 2013-Dec-25]
- Tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m., the Dryden will screen The Last Days on Mars (Ruairà Robinson, U.K. / Ireland 2013, 98 min., DCP).
A mission to Mars turns into a tense fight for survival when a rogue crew member disobeys orders, believing he has found fossilized proof of life on the Red Planet. Eager to retrieve the evidence he needs before the mission ends, the astronaut risks his life on an unauthorized dig and disappears into a series of previously undiscovered tunnels. A rescue team (featuring Liev Schreiber and Elias Koteas) goes out into the harsh terrain to rescue the team member, but what they find may kill them all, and its next target is Earth.
[source: Dryden website, 2013-Dec-30]
- Moonstriker and The Changing Light, Alberto Alaska, Inneriot, and Wisdom Kids perform at the Bug Jar tonight starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Dec-30]
Sunday, January 5
- The Bug Jar will host Mikaela Davis, Maybird, and Cammy Enaharo tonight starting around 9 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Dec-30]
Monday, January 6
- Over at the Flying Squirrel from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. is Fighting Fracking on the Frontlines, a fundraiser for Marcellus Shale Earth First.
Come for an evening of food and discussion focused on anti-fracking work in Northern Pennsylvania and all over the Marcellus Shale. Zora Gussow, an activist with Marcellus Shale Earth First, will be speaking about the fight to defend the Loyalsock State Forest and using direct action as a tactic in the fight against fracking. Then join in the conversation about how to connect the fights against fracking in NY and PA and how to get involved in the campaign to defend the Loyalsock.
[source: Facebook, 2013-Dec-30]
Tuesday, January 7
- Tonight at 8 p.m. the Dryden will screen Phase IV (Saul Bass, U.S. 1974, 84 min., 35mm w/ lost ending in DCP).
"Saul Bass wasn't just an artist who contributed to the first several minutes of some of the greatest movies in history—in my opinion his body of work qualifies him as one of the best filmmakers of this, or any other time." (Steven Spielberg) The only feature film ever directed by graphic designer and movie credit sequence genius Saul Bass, Phase IV is an austere doomsday fantasy that depicts the beginning of the end as ants in the Arizona desert develop intelligence and begin to wage war on human beings. A scientist (Nigel Davenport) and a cryptographer (Michael Murphy) join forces at a remote domed laboratory to study the phenomenon, and they're eventually joined by the sole survivor of a farm massacre (Lynne Frederick). As the ants use increasingly sophisticated methods to lay siege to the lab, the human protagonists realize that humankind's only chance may lie in learning to communicate with this next stage in insect evolution. This screening of a new 35mm print from the Academy Film Archive will be followed by a digital presentation of Bass's original phantasmagorical ending, which was only recently discovered and also restored by the Academy.
[source: Dryden website, 2013-Dec-30]
Wednesday, January 8
- Tonight from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Writers and Books is Satire Circle with Leah Wescott.
Ever dream about being the next Jon Stewart or Dorothy Parker? Do Stephen Colbert and SNL speak to your dueling idealism and skepticism? We modestly propose a gathering of local satirists (seasoned or aspiring) for a monthly Satire Circle. Bring a laptop or a pen for lessons, writing time, peer feedback and lots of fun.
[source: Writers and Books website, 2013-Dec-30]
- Tonight at 8 p.m. the Dryden will screen Liv and Ingmar (Dheeraj Akolkar, Norway / U.K. / India 2012, 89 min., DCP).
Akolkar's poignant, poetic documentary traces the intense romantic relationship that blossomed between famed Swedish actress Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman, one of the world's most renowned cinematic auteurs. Through extensive interviews with the filmmakers, Ullmann offers intimate access into the nature of their relationship, which began on the set of Bergman's landmark Persona and continued, in some fashion, throughout the rest of his life. With Ullmann's ruminations and Bergman's personal letters and memoirs, Akolkar weaves together an incredible love story alongside an illuminating look into one of film history's most significant pairing of talents.
[source: Dryden website, 2013-Dec-30]
- Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is electronic and guitar duo Sparx and Yarms, Murdersuicide, and Craig Marlow. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Dec-30]