2019 JULY / AUGUST / SEPTEMBER Program Guide BACK PORCH TABLE OF CONTENTS BEER GARDEN SHIMMERING SYNTHS: 3-4 THE FILM MUSIC OF TANGERINE DREAM THROUGH THE EYES OF ABBAS KIAROSTAMI 5-6 LOUIS BLUVER’S ARTHOUSE REVISITED 7 SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS 9 Lightbox is thrilled to bring back our popular Back Porch Beer Garden series this summer, alongside some of our most exciting film screenings. On select Fridays this summer, we welcome audience members to enjoy a CZECH THAT FILM 10 pre-screening reception with beer, refreshments, live DJs, and conversation in a breezy, sunny spot overlooking Innovation Plaza in University City. Beer Gardens are from 6-7pm prior to the screening. FAMILY MATINEES 11 Admission and drinks are free with your film ticket. Friday, June 21 Friday, July 26 IN COLLABORATION 13 QUEERING THE LENS SHIMMERING SYNTHS: THE FILM MUSIC OF NITRATE KISSES Barbara Hammer, US, 1992, 16mm, 67 min. TANGERINE DREAM DJ Rana Ransom THREE O’CLOCK HIGH Phil Joanou, US, 1987, 101 min. SUPPORT LIGHTBOX FILM CENTER 14 Friday, July 12 DJ Sam Robinson of WKDU 91.7FM SHIMMERING SYNTHS: THE FILM MUSIC OF Friday, August 9 TANGERINE DREAM SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS CALENDAR 15-16 THIEF CHULAS FRONTERAS Michael Mann, US, 1981, 124 min. Les Blank, US, 1976, 58 min. DJ Sam Robinson of WKDU 91.7FM DJ Losamatic (Carlos Bonilla) LIGHTBOX INFORMATION 17-18 Friday, August 23 LOUIS BLUVER’S ARTHOUSE REVISITED TRUST Hal Hartley, UK, 1991, 35mm, 107 min. DJ John Morrison 1 2 lightboxfilmcenter.org/beergardens www.lightboxfilmcenter.org • 215.387.5125 SHIMMERING SYNTHS: THE FILM MUSIC OF TANGERINE DREAM The German electronic music group Tangerine Dream has spent more than five decades creating dreamy, minimalist soundscapes that hover somewhere between “kosmische musik” and New Age. Emerging from the same fertile Krautrock ground Saturday, July 20 at 7pm Saturday, July 27 at 7pm that gave the world Kraftwerk, Can, and Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream was among STRANGE BEHAVIOR DOUBLE FEATURE! the original pioneers of spaced-out, analog synthesizer-based music. Beginning Michael Laughlin, US/New Zealand, 1981, FIRESTARTER in the late 1970s, the group began composing atmospheric scores for films, 94 min. Mark Lester, US, 1984, 114 min. predominantly of the horror/thriller genre, and in some cases the soundtracks A series of murders in a small Illinois Adapted from the Stephen King novel, were more memorable than the films themselves. This month Lightbox resurrects town leads a local police officer to dig Firestarter stars Drew Barrymore as some of the finest and most thrilling moments in Tangerine Dream’s film score deeper, uncovering a sinister scientific “Charlie,” a young girl who develops discography. experiment at the university. Alternately pyrokinesis, the psychic ability to start titled Dead Kids, Strange Behavior is fires with the mind. When a shady Saturday, July 6 at 7pm Friday, July 12 at 7pm an homage to the low budget, campy government agency known as “The SORCERER THIEF horror movies of the 1950s (think Bela Shop” abducts Charlie and tries to William Friedkin, US, 1977, 121 min., French, Michael Mann, US, 1981, 124 min. Lugosi as the mad scientist). Ironically, use her as a weapon, she flees to save German, Spanish w/ English subtitles The contemporary American auteur the film is now part of the subgenre of herself and expose the nefarious plot. William Friedkin followed up his wildly Michael Mann’s bold artistic sensibility horror thrillers from the 1980s that have Though it hasn’t had the impact of other successful film The Exorcist with a taut was already fully formed when he burst inspired the hit show Stranger Things. Stephen King screen adaptations, it thriller, a remake of the Henri-Georges out of the gate with Thief, his debut Join us for Lightbox’s Record Fair from ranks as one of Tangerine Dream’s most Clouzot film Wages of Fear. Sorcerer feature. James Caan stars in one of his 1-7pm prior to this screening. memorable soundtracks and is worth follows four criminal outcasts holed most riveting performances as a no- revisiting for that reason alone. up in a remote Latin American jungle nonsense, ex-con safecracker planning Friday, July 26 at 7pm Followed by: as they are enlisted in a dangerous to leave the criminal world behind THREE O’CLOCK HIGH NEAR DARK mission involving the dirty business of after one final diamond heist—but he Phil Joanou, US, 1987, 101 min. Kathryn Bigelow, US, 1987, 95 min. the oil industry. The multilingual, globe- discovers that escape is not as simple High School student Jerry Mitchell This stylish horror-western is Kathryn trotting production was eclipsed by as he’d hoped. Finding hypnotic beauty is having “one of those days,” and Bigelow’s second feature film as director. the box office success of Star Wars in in neon and rain-slick streets, sparks, it only gets worse when he crosses A roving group of vampires wreak havoc the summer of 1977 and was deemed and steel, Thief effortlessly established paths with new student Buddy Revell. on an unsuspecting family in a genre a failure for a director whose previous the moody stylishness and tactile Buddy challenges Jerry to a fight after film mashup that has become one of film had contributed to the rise of the approach to action that would also school, and Jerry spends the rest of the most enduring vampire films of the Hollywood blockbuster. Decades later, define such later iconic entertainments the day desperately trying to avoid the 1980s. With its oblique commentary on Sorcerer has earned cult status along from Mann as Miami Vice, Manhunter, looming confrontation. Each attempt to race and gender in America, Near Dark with its mesmerizing soundtrack by and Heat. Tangerine Dream. escape the showdown leads to a more is a powerful exploration of the darker Join us prior to this screening at 6pm outlandish episode. Three O’Clock High impulses of human behavior. for Lightbox’s Back Porch Beer Garden! takes the high school bully scenario and ups the ante with spirit guides from beyond the grave, an explosive burglary, and a book report that verges on the pornographic. Join us prior to this screening at 6pm for Lightbox’s Back Porch Beer Garden! 3 4 www.lightboxfilmcenter.org • 215.387.5125 THROUGH THE EYES OF ABBAS KIAROSTAMI The late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami made films that on the surface may Thursday, September 12 at 7pm Thursday, September 19 at 7pm appear simple. A boy does almost anything to attend an important soccer match. LIFE AND NOTHING SHIRIN A filmmaker searches for actors from his previous film in an earthquake-damaged Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 2008, 92 min., Persian MORE… w/ English subtitles village. A man seeks assistance to help him end his life. But Kiarostami’s deliberate Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1992, 95 min., Persian blend of fiction and reality delve into the deeper aspects of the human condition. w/ English subtitles Shirin features 113 close-ups of mostly His background as a painter, poet, and photographer provides a richly sensual After the earthquake that devastated Iranian actresses as they watch a film foundation for his work and garnered him accolades as he rose to prominence in Northern Iran in 1990, a filmmaker and version of Khosrow and Shirin, a 12th the early 1990s with films likeWhere is the Friend’s Home? and Taste of Cherry. his son try to drive to the village of century Persian romantic poem. Though This survey covers the celebrated director’s earliest films to his final, posthumously Koker, located in the heart of the region. the film being watched is never shown, released work, including the newly restored Koker Trilogy. Searching for the two young actors who nor does it even exist as an actual played in his film Where is the Friend’s separate film, the soundtrack conveys Friday, September 6 at 7pm Followed by: Home?, the Kiarostami surrogate runs the narrative while each of the women’s THE TRAVELER into all sorts of difficulties as he shows faces expresses a multitude of emotions. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1974, 71 min., Persian SUIT FOR A WEDDING Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1976, 57 min., Persian still pictures from the film to passersby At once playful and deeply conceptual, w/ English subtitles w/ English subtitles in the hope of locating the lost boys. At Kiarostami’s film deconstructs the act of This early feature by Kiarostami is A woman orders a suit from a tailor for last, the artist comes to understand that spectating in a compelling experiment steeped in neorealism and hews her young son to wear to her sister’s life, even in the shadow of disaster, reels with strong feminist overtones. closely to some of his short films where wedding. The tailor’s apprentice, splendidly on. children are the protagonists. Qassem together with two other teenage boys Friday, September 20 at 7pm is a troubled boy living in small city of who work in the same building, devise Friday, September 13 at 7pm 24 FRAMES Malayer in northwest Iran, and he is a plan to try on the suit at night to see THROUGH THE OLIVE Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 2017, 114 min., Persian obsessed with soccer. When his favorite what it feels like. Things get a little w/ English subtitles soccer player is scheduled to play in TREES complicated, but in the morning, at the Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1994, 103 min., Persian For what would prove to be his Tehran, he devises an elaborate scheme last possible minute, they manage to w/ English subtitles final film, Iranian director Abbas to attend the game. As mischievous and return the suit to its proper place.