Christopher Robin Is as Deeply Weird as It Is Charming

Disney’s new take on the Winnie the Pooh property is a gentle, melancholic reminder that we should all relax once in a while.

David Sims

Aug 3, 2018 

This summer-blockbuster season has presented audiences with several horrifying, apocalyptic scenarios: Thanos gathering his infinity stones, terrorists threatening nuclear war, dinosaurs running rampant around the planet. But nothing this year sent me into a spiral of existential dread as much as the revelation that adult Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor), the protagonist of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, isn’t taking enough vacation. The setting is postwar Britain, and the premise of Disney’s film (directed by Marc Forster) is similar to Hook in that the main character of a beloved children’s series has grown up and forgotten the whimsical wonder of his youth.

Beyond that: Christopher Robin has neglected the transformative power of taking time off from work. This is a crisis that simply cannot stand, and Christopher Robin sets about fixing it by reintroducing the cherished animals he used to spend his summers playing with in the semi-mythic Hundred Acre Wood. Rather than the colorful cartoons of earlier Disney Winnie the Pooh entries, these creatures are now three-dimensional beings, most of them resembling living dolls, with Pooh possessed of a particularly blank, baleful stare. “Nothing comes from nothing,” the grown-up Christopher is fond of saying in a chiding tone, but he’s clearly wrong—one can interpret quite a lot from Pooh’s expressionless gaze.

It is hard to know who exactly Christopher Robin was made for. The screenplay is credited to three people: the wonderfully acerbic indie writer/director Alex Ross Perry, the Oscar-winning Tom McCarthy (director/co-writer of Spotlight), and the Hidden Figures writer Allison Schroeder. Together, they’ve made a film that is perhaps too elegiac and gloomy for children, but also too straightforwardly fanciful for their parents. It’s an odd, melancholic experience that at times recalls Terrence Malick as it does A. A. Milne, but there will certainly be some viewers in its exact wheelhouse, and I was one of them.

The setting is a great help in terms of selling Christopher Robin’s somber tone and formulaic setup. After a prologue centered on a young Christopher (Orton O’Brien) having one last big adventure with his animal friends, a montage depicts his tough passage into adulthood. He’s packed off to boarding school, his father dies (offscreen) before Christopher has entered his teenage years, and then he fights in World War II like so many of his countrymen, while his wife, Evelyn (Hayley Atwell), raises their daughter, Madeline (Bronte Carmichael), on the home front.

The film is set a few years after that. Madeline is a bright if serious-minded young girl, and Christopher works endless days and nights at a luggage company in London trying to find cost efficiencies for his posh twit of a boss Giles Winslow (Mark Gatiss). As such, his family has fallen by the wayside, and they have to weekend at his childhood countryside getaway without him. Oh, bother! The only solution is for Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) to wake from his long slumber and stumble into the real world, first demanding that Christopher help him find his other friends (Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, and the rest of the animal gang), and then working to shake him out of his bourgeois reverie.

The film will likely draw comparison to the ongoing Paddington series, another bear-focused bit of charming British storytelling. But that is a contemporary retelling of a children’s classic with a broad metaphor about how the power of community spirit is magnified by the acceptance of outsiders. Winnie the Pooh, who by his own admittance is a bear of “very little brain” and is mostly focused on having fun and being with his friends, exists to remind everyone to take a break once in a while. “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day,” he muses to Christopher. He, like Paddington, should be regarded as a hero.

The best chunk of the film is the first act, in which Pooh wanders around postwar London, baffled at all the work everyone has to do (“Why is he in a cage?” he asks about a ticket-taker at the train station). Christopher has become quite the stolid grump, but Pooh has no time for grumpiness; he barely seems to understand what it is, instead responding to each of Christopher’s exasperated sighs with his trademark solipsistic maxims. “That’s a silly explanation,” Christopher grumbles as Pooh explains how he managed to appear in the real world. “Why thank you,” Pooh replies.

Quickly enough, the barricades Christopher has built in his mind against any kind of capricious thinking begin to tumble, and his other friends appear—there’s the morose Eeyore (Brad Garrett), the energetic Tigger (Cummings again), the timid Piglet (Nick Mohammed), the comforting Kanga (Sophie Okonedo), and the nervy Rabbit (Peter Capaldi). Somewhat bizarrely, the characters who were based on stuffed animals (owned by the real Christopher Robin, the son of A. A. Milne) are animated as living toys, while those that weren’t, like Rabbit and Owl (Toby Jones), look like real creatures.

The material in the Hundred Acre Wood is at times eerie (its landscape is dead and overgrown until Christopher returns), though that part of the story stays true to the notion that the frightening Heffalumps and Woozles are simply conjured from Piglet’s and Pooh’s feverish imagination. The stuff in the real world is a little more chaotic, and there’s one car-chase sequence that felt like action for action’s sake (above all else, Pooh should be a gentle franchise). But I’ll forgive those flourishes in light of this movie’s essential calmness; in Christopher Robin, the elemental joy of carrying a red balloon is given equal weight as the particulars of Christopher’s job.

I’m not quite sure which madman at Disney gave the green light to a movie that uses the Winnie the Pooh series as a way into the emotional drudgery of Britain’s returning soldiers. Christopher Robin is the kind of uncanny experiment that only gets to happen in children’s films once every few years. But any time that underlying weirdness threatens to overwhelm everything, Pooh is there to urge the viewer not to stress—a message that, especially in 2018, couldn’t be more helpful.

FALL 2018 ROVING EYE FILM FESTIVAL: November 6, 7 & 11th

FLICKERS PARTNERS WITH ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY TO PRESENT THE RABBI MARC JAGOLINZER JEWISH EXPERIENCE FILM SERIES

FREE PROGRAM sponsored by the Helene and Bertram Bernhardt Foundation

BRISTOL, RI (October 24, 2018) – The Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival has partnered with Roger Williams University (RWU), to present its Fall-edition of the annual Roving Eye International Film Festival. The popular and acclaimed festival celebrating global cinema and artists, announces its 2018 sidebar program on the Jewish Experience through short films, documentary, media and guest speakers. The event takes place November 6, 7, & 11th. This year’s series explores representations of the Jewish experience in Israel, across the globe and the Holocaust through 10 recent films and is dedicated to the late Rabbi Marc Jagolinzer and entitled: “ARTS AND CULTURE: SHAPING THE FUTURE, REFLECTING THE PAST.” The series includes a talk by the Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, University Multifaith Chaplain, RWU. All programming will take place on the Bristol, RI, campus of Roger Williams University at the Mary Tefft White Cultural Center and Global Heritage Hall, Room 01.

The series is free and open to the public!

http://www.film-festival.org/RovingEye_JewishExperienceFALL2018.php

"Through film and scholarship, this series tells the stories of the Jewish experience globally—stories of joy, sorrow, faith, a rich culture, diasporas, fear and ultimately, hope,” said the Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, RWU University Multifaith Chaplain co-organizer of the event with Flickers.

The Fall Jewish Experience sidebar of the Roving Eye Festival is presented in partnership with the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Helene and Bertram Bernhardt Foundation, RWU School of Humanities, Arts and Education, Dean Cynthia Scheinberg, RWU Department of Communication, Graphic Design and Web Development, Dr. Roxanne O’Connell, Department Chair, RWU Hillel, and the Spiritual Life Office.

THIS YEAR’S SCHEDULE:

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

6:00 p.m.

HOW WE SEE OURSELVES…

Documentary and Narrative Film Screenings with Director's Discussion

Location: Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, RWU Library

The Museum of Lost Things
Directed by: Gregory Cioffi | 22 min. USA, 2017

Synopsis
The Museum of Lost Things concerns a writer in his late 40s who, while sitting in an all-night diner, tells to an affable waitress the story of his stumbling upon a strange museum on an obscure street in downtown Manhattan. His story takes us through the labyrinths of the museum, where, with the help of a nonchalant museum guard, he encounters exhibition rooms seemingly dedicated to him alone, each one representing a piece of the man’s lost past. Some rooms are filled with objects, such as his lost umbrellas or his lost books, and still others contain aspects of his life that he hardly remembers. In this absurdist mystery, the museum visitor discovers rooms of lost hope, of lost patience, of lost illusions, and is always surprised by what he finds. But will he find what he’s looking for? Will he recapture his past? Or is the museum only a fantasy, one of the writer’s own inventions?

A Soldier's Dream: The Milt Feldman Story
Directed by: Eduardo Montes-Bradley | 50 min. Belgium, Germany, USA, 2018

Synopsis
Born in 1924 to hard working immigrants from Russia, His parents had a candy story in Brooklyn and he vividly remembers the social transformations that followed the Great Depression, a time in which the quite Jewish neighborhood where he grew up, bared witness to the Nazi youth parading swastikas alongside the Stars and Stripes. By 1937, the echoes of Fascism in Europe were an open invitation for thousands to gather at Madison Square Garden where thousands of Hitler sympathizers cheered the speech of rightwing Nationalists.

The fall of 1944 will find Milt amongst the troops of the 106th Infantry Division, on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth on his way to Europe. He was ready to do his part of the American deal, just as his father Jack and done before him in some of the major battles of World War I. Milt’s was going to be an easy ride, after all most of France and Belgium had already been liberated and it was a matter of time before the Third Reich would collapse.

However, on the morning of December 16th Hitler launched a massive offense in the Western Front in what came to be known as The Battle of the Bulge. Private Milton Feldman was capture a few days, then marched and shipped by train on a boxcar to Stalag IV-B, a POW camp deep into German territory.

Now, the elderly gentleman, the veteran of The Bulge, approaching 94, becomes the subject of “Milt Feldman: A Soldier’s Dream”, a documentary by Eduardo Montes-Bradley.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

6:00 p.m.

MEMORIES NEVER DIE

Documentary and Narrative Film Screenings with Director's Discussion

Location: Global Heritage Hall, 01

Stamm
Directed by: Jacob Grodnik | 10 min. USA, 2017

Synopsis
In the hours preparing for America's first offensive in WWI, a young American soldier leaves his forward post momentarily. Upon returning, he finds his fellow marine missing and is met with German gunfire. He narrowly escapes, only to trip into a foxhole with a German solider. They struggle for their lives. The American sees that the German wears a Star of David around his neck. His last chance at survival is to prove to the German that he himself is also Jewish, in the hopes that one loyalty will outweigh the other. The two young men, in broken English and half-comprehended German connect; describing their homelands, trying to communicate what it's like to be a Jew in America and Germany.

'Stamm' is German for tribe. The film aims to illustrate that we are all of the same tribe, regardless of the arbitrary boundaries of country; there is only one tribe, 'the human tribe.' Over 100,00 Jews fought for Germany in World War I, and this is the story of one, whose loyalties are challenged and tested.

A THOUSAND KISSES
Directed by: Richard Goldgewicht | 17 min.  USA. Germany, 2018 (animation)

Synopsis
Inspired by the actual correspondence recovered by the couple’s grandsons 80 years later in São Paulo, A Thousand Kisses presents a peculiar love story tainted by the harsh historical context of its time, with a light appeal of irony and real-life poetry.

ALONE IN KLEZMER
Directed by: Kenneth O’Brien-LLontop | 11 min. USA, 2018

Synopsis
A book with a marked sheet is what Gretel finds in an old bookstore in Miami. The intimate memory of a past of misery in another country is mixed with the history of the Nobel Prize for Literature Isaac Bashevis Singer in a film that is an essay on exile, literature, and those daily gestures that are shown as beautiful revelations.

Footsteps of My Father
Directed by: Paul Allman | 38 min. Belgium, Germany, USA, 2018

Synopsis
This act of bravery would have been forgotten and lost to history, had it not been for the rediscovery of Edmonds’ private journals, by his son, and a chance encounter with one of the surviving POWs.

Chris Edmonds set out to locate the survivors, and discover the truth about his dad during his time as a P.O.W.

Roddie's story is a testament to how a simple commitment to fairness and equality can make a huge difference in the world.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

2:00 p.m.

THE STORIES WE TELL. the Stories we share

Documentary and Narrative Film Screenings with Director's Discussion

Location: Global Heritage Hall, 01

The Visitor
Directed by: Justin Olstein | 10 min. Australia, 2018

Synopsis
In present-day Melbourne, just after midnight, Naomi is awakened by a frantic young woman on the run. Naomi grapples with a situation that defies reality and, as the night unfolds, she must decide how far she can go to protect her visitor from rapidly encroaching danger.

Valentino And The Prodigy
Directed by: Matt Anderson | 20 min. USA, 2018

Synopsis
A washed-up pianist is hired to train a young piano prodigy who is suffering from stage fright after the death of his father

Aharon's Childhood
Directed by: Arnaud Sauli | 66 min. Israel, France, 2018

Synopsis
Aharon’s Childhood (76’) main character is the late great Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld. The film explores in depth Appelfeld’s writing process in his study and his relationship to a childhood under the shadow of tragedy. Appelfeld talks freely on love, women, Jewishness, Israël and his experience of being an eternal refugee with his French translator Valerie Zenatti. She came to his home to receive his last manuscript, and beyond that his artistic testament. The film has a poetic approach to his literary work travelling in time and space, from carpathian ills to Jerusalem, from 1941 to the present in a Jerusalem café.

Aharon Appelfeld is a survivor, he was until 2018 one of the last writer who survived the Holocaust. His writing elicits breath from a life doomed to death. Born in Ukraine in 1932, he escaped as a child and survived in a forest. Since, cultivating a deep sense of being alive, he is trying to retrieve the voices and faces of the ones who didn’t survive.

Aharon’s Childhood is a love story. Love is embodied in language, in writing, in a relationship eyeing a past and present world. She seizes his words, transmits them in French as an accomplishment of « being simultaneously writer and reader. » He looks at her, wandering what heritage would remain of him in this world.

Reception Follows at 3:45 p.m.

4:15 p.m.

Eva
Directed by: Ted Green & Mika Brown | 118 min. Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania, USA, United Kingdom, 2018

Synopsis
As a 10-year-old 'Mengele Twin,' Eva Kor suffered the worst of the Holocaust: being experimented on by the Auschwitz 'Angel of Death.' At 50, she launched the biggest international manhunt in history. Now 84, she urgently circles the globe in failing health to promote the controversial lesson her journey has taught: healing through forgiveness. “Eva” tells the full, unvarnished story of this historic figure for the first time. Narrated by Hollywood icon Ed Asner, it features spectacular new footage from Auschwitz, from the Transylvanian hamlet from which Eva’s family was carted off to slaughter, and on a boat off Israel where she first tasted freedom. Interviews include Holocaust experts, celebrities she's moved (Elliott Gould, Wolf Blitzer, Ray Allen), fellow survivors she's enraged, and myriad young people whose lives she’s changed -- in many cases saved. Eva Kor has emerged as a worldwide spokeswoman for peace — a recent Buzzfeed video has 187 million views — and 'Eva' will be her legacy.

The film’s co-director, Ted Green, will be available for a Q&A following the screening.

Following the screening:

Join us for a conversation with the family of the late Rabbi Marc Jagolinzer after whom our November programming is dedicated. Hosted by the Rev. Nancy J. Soukup, RWU Multifaith Minister.

For more information, contact the Spiritual Life Program at Roger Williams University, email nsoukup@rwu.edu. Directions to Roger Williams University can be found at www.rwu.edu

Location: Global Heritage Hall, Room 01

Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI

Time: 2:00 and 4:15 p.m.

Cost: Free Admission

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COMING TO THEATRES NEAR YOU... MAYBE.... SCREENX

https://variety.com/2018/film/asia/cineworld-screenx-1202845835/

Multinational cinema operator Cineworld Group is to install Korean-developed ScreenX technology at 100 theaters in the U.S., U.K., and eight other international locations.

The kit, which uses projections on the side walls of the auditorium to create a 270-degree viewing experience, is developed and marketed by CJ 4DPlex, part of South Korea’s CJ Group.

Cineworld has previously partnered with CJ 4DPLEX, to open up to 145 4DX locations across the U.S and Europe. This marks an additional increment of 99 screens from the already existing 46 locations spread throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Hollywood studios are increasingly converting and adding supplementary material to their films for ScreenX presentation. Last year there were three: “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” and “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.” New ScreenX titles being released by major studios in 2018 include “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” “The Nun,” “Aquaman,” and “Shazam!.” Previously released in 2018 were “Black Panther” and “Rampage.”

“We are committed to maintaining a premium movie-going environment at all of our locations in all regions, and the adoption of the most innovative cinema technologies is key to bringing our customers the best experience possible,” said Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Cineworld.

Globally, ScreenX is installed in more than 142 screens around the world, including 86 screens in South Korea; 44 screens in China; 3 in the U.S.; 4 in Turkey; 2 in Vietnam and 1 in Thailand, Japan, and Indonesia. The company said that it expects to operate on over 200 screens worldwide by the end of the year.

For more, check out the ScreenX website: https://www.screenx.co.kr/screenx/screenx.php

2018 VORTEX FILM FESTIVAL

FLICKERS’ VORTEX SCI-FI, FANTASY, AND HORROR FILM FESTIVAL LAUNCHES ITS 19^TH GENRE-FILLED YEAR

61 Films, 16 Countries, 8 Running Days, 9 World/North American Premieres, 15 Statewide Locations, Free High School and Library Screenings, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Animation Programming, doubleFEATURE showcase on RI PBS, Expanded College Connection Screenings, and the Popular H.P. Lovecraft Walking Tour Times Three

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A phantasmagoric symphony of international films blasts its way across the big screen as the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival launches its 19^th Annual Flickers’ Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Film Festival (VORTEX), October 20-27^th. In addition to its traditional spooky film fare, Vortex will showcase a wide-array of Sci-Fi and Fantasy cinema. This year's Festival includes a return of its popular H.P. Lovecraft Walking Tour over a three-day period presented in collaboration with the RI Historical Society and the Brown University Film Forum (BUFF), free in-school programs, an expanded Campus Connections program that brings free Festival programming to area Colleges and Universities, four free Forums that look behind-the-scenes at creating genre films in the Ocean State, special programming in the RI PBS series, “doubleFEATURE,” and a closing night “Dead Celebrities” Halloween party on the Rooftop of the Providence G. All screenings are free except those at the RISD Museum Metcalf Auditorium, on Saturday, October 27^th.

The full schedule for this year’s Festival can be found here: http://www.rifilmfest.org and  http://prog.tsharp.xyz/en/riiff/19/date/all

The 2018 festival will include screenings in Providence at the RISD Museum Metcalf Auditorium, Providence College, Johnson and Wales University, Brown University, Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Museum of Work and Culture, the Tiverton Public Library, the North Kingstown Free Public Library, the Warwick Public Library Special and the Rooftop of the Providence G. A special episode of the Flickers’ series “doubleFEATURE” will air on RI PBS.

Special screenings, not open to the general public, will take place at the Beacon Charter School in Woonsocket, Westerly High School, and the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing Arts in Pawtucket.

This year’s programming has been curated by Shawn Drywa, who created the Vortex Festival 19 years ago while a student at Rhode Island College and a Flickers’ intern. He has partnered with Shawn Quirk, RIIFF’s Program Director for the main Festival in August in creating this year’s event.

"We have a wonderfully diverse list of entries and events for this year's festival. Everything from traditional horror and horror comedy to thought provoking science fiction and animation. Plus, we have some great panelists and a very fun closing night party. We truly have something for everyone," noted Shawn Drywa, Vortex Program Director.

The Flickers’ Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Film Festival celebrates and showcases imagination and creativity in filmmaking and will include a bevy of World and U.S. Premieres. In all, 61 films have been selected from over 3,000 genre submissions. They represent 16 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Canada, Germany, China, Spain, France, Chile, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Georgia, and the United States. Many of the filmmakers will be in attendance, so audience members will have a chance to meet, ask questions, and even network with the next generation of genre filmmakers.

All events are free to the general public except the HP Lovecraft Walking Tour and screenings, and the programming on Saturday at the RISD Museum Metcalf Auditorium. General Admission for each of the three screenings at the Museum is $10.00 per person

Festival 5-packs available at $40 (good year round and at any RIIFF film event) can be purchased online: http://www.film-festival.org/FivePack17.php.

Group Discounts can be arranged in advance by calling the Festival office at 401.861.4445.

VORTEX SPECIAL PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS:

Saturday, October 20, 2018; Sunday, October 21, 2018; and Saturday, October 27, 2018

H.P. Lovecraft Literary Walking Tour

For the past 11 years, Providence native and cult horror writer H.P. Lovecraft has been the subject of a popular annual walking tour and film series conducted by the RI Historical Society presented as part of the Flickers’ Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy Horror Film Festival (Vortex). 

The life and work of Providence's best-known fantasy and horror author, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, will provide the backdrop for the tour, which will be led by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Lovecraft's "Providence stories" (written between 1924 and 1935) are the inspiration behind the walk. Lovecraft wrote eloquently, and in great detail, about such landmarks as Prospect Terrace, the First Baptist Church, and Benefit Street houses.  Participants will see the site of his former home, as well as locales mentioned in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Haunter of the Dark, The Shunned House, and The Call of Cthulhu.

Following the tour, which lasts for approximately 90 minutes, participants will be treated to a ticket to see premiere films inspired by Lovecraft.

Time: 12:00 p.m.

Location: John Brown House, 52 Power Street, Providence, RI 02906

Screening Location: Friedman Hall, Brown University in partnership with the Brown University Film Forum.

Admission: Tickets for the walking tour are $19 per person, can be purchased online at http://www.film-festival.org/HPLovecraft18.php, and includes a ticket to the film screenings. The Walking Tour can also be purchased in advance by calling the RIIFF offices at 401.861.4445 or the RI Historical Society at 401.331.8575.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

VORTEX LECTURE SERIES - 1

BEHIND THE CAMERA LENS: A CONVERSATION WITH…

DUNCAN PUTNEY, actor/writer/director

Duncan Putney is an accomplished actor, as well as an award winning screenwriter and producer. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he studied both business and theatre, Duncan works as a professional actor in film, television, stage, and television commercials and can be seen in such films as "The Judge," “Mystic River,” “R.I.P.D.,” “The Town,” and “Brilliant Mistakes,” as well as TV commercials for Papa Gino's, Budweiser, and others.

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Location: Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI

Global Heritage Hall, Room 01

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

VORTEX LECTURE SERIES - 2

BEHIND THE CAMERA LENS: A CONVERSATION WITH…

ROBERT CAPRON, actor

Robert Capron began his acting career when he was eight years old by enrolling in an after school drama program sponsored by Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI. Later that year he landed a role as Turkey Boy in Trinity's production of “A Christmas Carol.” Since that time Robert has performed a variety of roles on stage and film. Robert's first principal role was in “Bride Wars.” Robert's role as Rowley in Fox's three-movie franchise “Diary of A Wimpy Kid” (2010, 2011) helped solidify his career. In 2015, Robert played Jake alongside Bailey Madison in the Indie feature “Annabelle Hooper and The Ghosts of Nantucket.” In 2016, Robert landed the role of Jack Black's son Dave in the feature film “The Polka King.” In addition to theater, and film, Robert currently is a returning guest star on CBS's “Elementary,” where he plays the role of one of Sherlock's "irregulars" known as Mason. He has also appeared on television as a guest star on ABC's “The Middle,” and as the lead on two episodes of The Hub Network's “The Haunting Hour.”

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Location: Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI

Global Heritage Hall, Room 01

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

Thursday, October 25, 2018

doubleFEATURE (weekly TV anthology series)

This week on doubleFEATURE, celebrate world of the fantastical and the macabre as told through three short films that include “The Body” directed by Paul Davis from the United Kingdom; “ON/Off” by French director, Thierry Lorenzi; and from Austria and Chile, Dominik Hartl's, “Vienna Waits For You,” a cautionary tale that reminds you there is no such thing as a free lunch, unless, of course, you are the lunch.

doubleFEATURE on WSBE - RI PBS, Broadcast: Channel 36
• Cox 08 / 1008HD
• Verizon FiOS (RI) 08 / 508HD / (MA) 18 / 518 HD
• Full Channel 08 Comcast in Southern MA *Various / 819 HD,
• DirecTV 36 | DISH Network 36

Each week, “doubleFEATURE,” the 60-minutes series on RI PBS, presents award-winning short films that have premiered at the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) over the past 20 years along with topical industry interviews.

Ranked as one of the top 10 Festivals in the United States, RIIFF is also a qualifying festival for the Live Action, Documentary and Animation Short Film Academy Awards through its affiliation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. It is also a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and Canadian Screen Awards (Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television)-qualifying Festival. There are only 10 film festivals worldwide that share this distinction.    

Executive Produced by Flickers, the program is co-produced with the Rhode Island Film and Television Office and RI PBS. George T. Marshall, Executive Director of Flickers is the host of the program. Steven Feinberg, Executive Director of the Film Office, and an accomplished writer/director, interviews filmmakers who work in front of and behind the camera lens.

Friday, October 26, 2018

VORTEX LECTURE SERIES - 3

BEHIND THE CAMERA LENS: A CONVERSATION WITH…

TOM DENUCCI, actor/writer/director

Tom DeNucci, Actor/Writer/Director, is the recipient of the 2013 Rhode Island International Film Festival Robert Burgess Aldrich Award, named for the heralded director of the 1967 war masterpiece “The Dirty Dozen.” Like Mr. Aldrich, DeNucci also hails from Cranston, Rhode Island, USA. If DeNucci's career thus far is any indication, the young Director and Actor will be a worthy successor to Mr. Aldrich's legacy and a prominent voice for his own generation. For DeNucci's “Almost Mercy”(2015), Scott Hallam of dreadcentral.com proclaims: "DeNucci holds nothing back on this one. Almost Mercy confronts major social issues and does so in a way that's delicate, but also quite powerful, and deals them into a revenge-thriller that's actually empowering for the viewer." DeNucci plays a member of boxer Vinny Pazienza's entourage in “Bleed for This” (2016), which stars Miles Teller (Whiplash) as Pazienza and Aaron Eckheart (Erin Brokovich) as "Paz's" trainer. Directed by Ben Younger and executive produced by Martin Scorsese. As versatile as he is prolific, DeNucci's resume also includes forays into family films. As Director, his “Arlo the Burping Pig” (2016) tells the story of a lonely, young girl and the adorable teacup pig she adopts as a pet. Tom lends his acting talents to “Christmas All Over Again” (2016) as Francisco, a wild wedding planner. Ringing in 2017 Tommy directed “The Santa Files” (2017) telling the story of a group of kids from Norpole, Maine and their search for Santa Clause. Recently completed in 2018, “Vault,” follows the story of a famous Providence heist in the 1970's.

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Location: Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI

Global Heritage Hall, Room 01

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

VORTEX LECTURE SERIES - 4

BEHIND THE CAMERA LENS: A CONVERSATION WITH…

MICHELLE ABBOTT, producer/artist

Michelle Abbott is a Producer an artist at RI PBS.

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Location: Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI

Global Heritage Hall, Room 01

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Vortex Showcase Time Three

Program One:

“Danger, Will Robinson!”

A program of Sci-Fi/Fantasy Short Films

Time: 2:30 p.m.

Program Two:

“Ascension

Horror has a new meaning with this feature film package.

Time: 4:45 p.m.

Program Three:

“Killer Unicorn”

Official Closing Night Film: A killer wearing a unicorn mask is out for revenge and taking down one drag queen at a time. Members of the cast and crew will be present.

Mature Themes/Adult content.

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Location: RISD Museum Metcalf Auditorium, South Main Street, Providence, RI

Admission: $10

(http://prog.tsharp.xyz/en/riiff/19/date/2018-10-27)

official closing night party

Dead Celebrities: Halloween Party

Come dressed as your favorite dead celebrity for this wild Costume Contest with cash prizes and celebrate the wrap of the 19^th Annual Vortex.

Time: 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight

Location: Rooftop at the Providence G, Providence,

THIS IS A FREE EVENT, 21+, no cover

The full schedule for this year’s Festival can be found here:  http://www.rifilmfest.org

This year’s Vortex programming is sponsored by the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival

Rhode Island Film & Television Office, The Providence Tourism Council, ACT/Providence, Cox Media, WLNE ABC6, Eurochannel, RISCA, Brown University Film Forum (BUFF), WSBE RI PBS, Providence College, Johnson and Wales University, the Rooftop at the Providence G, the RI Historical Society, the RWU School of Humanities, Arts and Education, RWU Department of Communication, Graphic Design and Web Development, THE RWU HAWK'S HERALD, The RWU Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA) and the RWU American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).

ABOUT THE RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:

The Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), has secured its place in the global community as the portal for the best in international independent cinema, earning the respect of domestic and foreign filmmakers, filmgoers and trend watchers. This confluence of art and commerce brought together world-class celebrities, award-winning filmmakers, new talent and audience members in record numbers last year. Ranked as one of the top 10 Festivals in the United States, RIIFF is a qualifying festival for the Live Action, Animation and Documentary Short Film Academy Awards through its affiliation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). There are only 10 film festivals worldwide that share this distinction and RIIFF is the only festival in New England. The Festival takes place every August.

For more information about the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, running August 6-11 2019 at The Vets (formerly Veterans Memorial Auditorium), please visit our website at www.RIFilmFest.org or call 401.861.4445.

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