* The Charlotte Film Society recently announced its spring line-up, with 12 titles being screened March through May. Among the more unusual offerings are The Devil’s Backbone, a Spanish thriller from Mimic director Guillermo del Toro that focuses on an orphanage haunted by the spirit of a murdered boy; Following, a twisty mystery that marked the directorial debut of Memento helmer Christopher Nolan; Waking Life, a series of philosophical musings in which drawings are superimposed over real people; and Little Otik, a warped, live-action fairy tale from animator Jan Svankmajer (whose deliriously deranged 1988 version of Alice In Wonderland continues to haunt my dreams). For a complete schedule, go online to www.charlottefilmsociety.com, or call 414-2355.
* In other film series news, the Main Library will be presenting its annual summer program starting some time in July. This year’s theme will be “Classic British Comedies,” and viewers can expect to see works featuring Alec Guinness (1949’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which Guinness plays eight characters, has already been booked), Peter Sellers, and the boys from Monty Python (1979’s Life of Brian is being considered for inclusion). Look for a complete schedule in these pages closer to summer.
* If you’re up for the drive, the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival will be held April 4-7 in Durham. Described by indieWIRE as “the largest and most important festival for documentaries and documentary filmmakers in the United States,” the esteemed festival will be celebrating its fifth year in existence. This year’s theme is “Score! Music and Documentary,” and guest curator will be renowned filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, who recently helmed Down from the Mountain. The event will also include tributes to documentarian Frederick Wiseman and composer Philip Glass, a sideshow of films dealing with 9/11, and the distribution of festival awards. For more information, go online to www.ddff.org, or call (919) 660-3699.
And if you don’t feel like leaving town, you can wait until June 13-14 to catch some of the prize winners here in Charlotte. That’s when The Light Factory’s Factory Films series will present “The Best of DoubleTake” at Spirit Square.
* There won’t be any bona fide movie stars clutching it, but an actual Oscar statuette will be in town on March 24, the night of the 74th Annual Academy Awards. Charity events in seven cities across the nation were chosen (out of 39 competing cities) to receive (on loan, of course) an Oscar statuette to be displayed at their Oscar Night America parties. In Charlotte, that would be the Carolinas Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, which has presented the Queen City’s Oscar Night America charity shindig for six years now. This year’s event will commence at 6:30pm at the Ballantyne Resort; the $100-a-ticket bash includes a buffet, auctions, live music, and the presentation of the Oscar telecast on a large-screen TV. For more information, call (704) 529-5166.
Since 1994, the Academy’s Oscar Night America program has raised over $7 million for local charities.
* Even if you don’t care one whit about the Oscars, you can still be appreciative that Turner Classic Movies programs their March slate around the event, since it means plenty of choice titles for dyed-in-the-wool film fans. “31 Days of Oscar” will present 339 Oscar-winning or Oscar-nominated titles, all wrapped around nightly themes like “Oscar Goes to Court” (featuring flicks like Witness for the Prosecution and The Caine Mutiny) and “Oscar Gets Conned” (Elmer Gantry, The Producers). All the usual suspects are included (Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind), but be on the lookout for less celebrated gems like Anthony Adverse (1936), a lush, large-scale period adventure with Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, and a heartbreaking finale (March 14); Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three (1961), a scintillating Cold War comedy with James Cagney as a Coca-Cola executive in Berlin (March 15); and Four Daughters (1938), with Claude Rains as the father of the title quartet and John Garfield in a marvelous, star-making performance as the struggling composer who enters their lives (March 27). For a complete lineup, go online to www.turnerclassicmovies.com. *
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2002.
