The Cinema Resistance - Monthly Screenings of Free Films - Newsletter for the Delaware County Pledge of Resistance

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		PLEDGE TO BRING THE VIETNAM WAR DOCUMENTARY FILM “SIR! NO SIR!” TO DELAWARE COUNTY — 7:00 PM ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 14 AT MEDIA-PROVIDENCE FRIENDS SCHOOL. THE VIEWING OF THIS FILM WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A PANEL DISCUSSION ORGANIZED BY BILL PERRY, LOCAL ORGANIZER OF “VETERANS FOR PEACE.” WHO SERVED IN VIETNAM. A COMBAT SNIPER, AND A MEDIC, JUST BACK FROM IRAQ WILL ALSO ATTEND. ADMISSION IS FREE. MEDIA-PROVIDENCE SCHOOL IS LOCATED AT 125 W. THIRD STREET, MEDIA, PA.
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		Friday, May 19th, at 7:00 p.m. we present Wattstax (1973) — at Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA. Admission is free! With a brief Introduction, and Post-Film Discussion, Refreshments will be served; donations will be collected. Wattstax is a docu-musical culled from a seven hour Musical event on August 20th, 1972, now known as "The Black Woodstock." The headline Act was Issac Hayes. Supporting acts included The Bar Kays, The Emotions, Luther Ingram, Little Milton, Comedian Richard Pryor, Mavis Staples and Carla Thomas. Jesse Jackson is also featured in this film. Wattstax occurred seven years after the Watts riots and the film has interviews with people who speak of the hopes and plans they held seven years after these riots. Music and interviews are interspersed throughout the 98 minute running time. Director Mel Stuart insisted on an all-black film crew. Though primarily a TV Director, his other movies include the 1971, "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and, "Four Days in November." His TV directory is extremely diverse, from numerous episodes of "The Poets View" (John Ashbery, Louise Gluck, etc.); "Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde"; and "The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal"; to "Happy Anniversary 007: 25 years of James Bond"; and "The Brenda Starr TV Movie," etc. He has also worked as a Producer and Writer, mainly on TV.
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		Saturday, March. 25th at 7:00 p.m. — Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA. Christopher Strong (1933), in celebration of Women's History Month. Admission is free! With a brief Introduction, and Post-Film Discussion, Refreshments will be served; donations will be collected. Christopher Strong stars Katherine Hepburn in a film remniscent of Amelia Earhart. Her character, Lady Cynthia Darlington, is a woman in love with both a married man and the freedom of flying. Her lover, Christopher Strong, is a married Member of Parliament. Christopher Strong is played by Colin Clive, destined — perhaps unfairly — to be remembered for his role as Henry Frankenstein, whose experiments went a tad wrong. Though the film is named after the male character, the film is focused on Lady Darlington, an independent woman and her struggle to remain independent. Christopher Strong is one of only a dozen films directed by Dorothy Arzner, Hollywood's only major female director of the 1930's, whose films, especially those made before the censorship of the Will Hays Code, are informed by a feminism not to return to Hollywood until the mid-1970's. Arzner left Paramount Studios in 1932 and was an independent director after, though still within the Studio system. She stopped directing in 1943, for reasons that remain mysterious. That she was an avowed "out" lesbian did not prevent her from doing many other types of work, including a stint at UCLA's Film School.
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		Saturday, Jan. 14th at 7:00 p.m. — Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA.Salt of the Earth (1954). Admission is free! With a brief Introduction, and Post-Film Discussion, Refreshments will be served; donations will be collected. Probably better known for the events surrounding it, than the movie itself, Salt of The Earth was filmed by many Blacklisted Actors and Technical people. Chief among these was the Director, Herbert J. Bieberman, who was a native Philadelphian. He and his wife, Gale Sondergaard, were one fifth of the Hollywood Ten — Ten Actors who took a stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism; and whose careers were subsequently destroyed. Other Blacklistees involved in this film, include Actor Will Geer, Composer Sol Kaplan, Producer Paul Jarrico and Writer Michael Wilson. Salt of The Earth is based on an actual strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in New Mexico. The film was financed by The American Mineworkers Union. It has a quasi-documentary feel and there is much in the film that asks, rather than answers, questions. Beyond it's Political Implications, and it's modern attitudes towards women's role in shaping history, etc., this remarkable film stands as one of the all-time best in defining why Unions are necessary.
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		Saturday, Dec. 3rd at 7:00 p.m. — Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA. The Bedford Incident (1967) starring Michael Kane, Sidney Poitier, and Richard Widmark. Admission is free! With a brief Introduction, and Post-Film Discussion, Refreshments will be served; donations will be collected. The Bedford Incident (1965) is a British Production riffing on Nuclear Insanity. This is the less-famous sibling to Dr. Strangelove without the black humour but possessing an unrelieved claustrophobic tension, ala Hitchcock's Rope, with all of the action occurring on a submarine. This is a new DVD Print. Sidney Poitier plays a Journalist in his first role, and one of the few in his career, where his race was not part of the plot. Poitier's journalist is assigned to the nuclear sub captained by Richard Widmark. Part of Widmark's genius is that most of his characters seemed to have love on one fist and hate on the other. Here, Widmark's character is either brilliant or mad or both or . . . There are also supporting turns by Martin Balsam, Wally Cox (in his only serious role), James Macarthur, and Donald Sutherland, among others.
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		Saturday, Oct. 15th at 7:00 p.m. — Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA. How I Won The War (1967) starring John Lennon. Admission is free! With a brief Introduction, and Post-Film Discussion, Refreshments will be served; donations will be collected. This British Film was initally despised by both Beatles Fans (not a fun romp like Richard Lester's previous Beatles Films; Help! and, A Hard Days Night) and pro-war supporters, who saw the film as making a mockery of the Vietnam Conflict. The locale of the film resembles North Africa, but it was actually made in Germany and Spain with the help of the British, German and Spanish Armies!! along with the help of the American Navy!! Today How I Won The War is recognized as a classic comic (dryly British) anti-war Film.
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		Saturday, Sept. 17th at 7:00 p.m. -- Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA. Letter to the President (1952). Admission is free! With a brief Introduction, and Post-Film Discussion, Refreshments will be served; donations will be collected. Letter to the President (1952) was variously titled "My Man and I" "Shameless" and "This Night Forever." The Movie addresses Immigration, Inter-Nationality Love, and many other topics. Most importantly, the Movie demonstrates the effectiveness of non-violent Resistance! The stars are Ricardo Montalban and Shelly Winters, with strong supporting turns by Wendell Corey and Claire Trevor, among others. The Director is William Wellman and the Executive Producer was Dore Schary. Based on the story "Letter to the President" by John Fante, the film is offbeat with just a little bit of noir. Ricardo Montalban is the migrant farm worker who is unjustly imprisoned. He is in love with the world-weary Shelly Winters. At one point, she says "America the Beautiful, you must show it to me, I've never been there". A timely film, since many of our Border States are experiencing an illegal immigration crisis, with vigilante "minuteman" organized to repel the "invaders," and immigrants dying as they attempt to cross into the U.S.
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		Saturday, April 23rd at 7:30, The River (1951) Jean Renoir (Note: this movie is in English). The Venue will again be The Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA. Admission is free and there will be an Introduction and Post-Film Discussion. Refreshments will be served. Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its peoples, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation.
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		Saturday, March 5th, at 7:30 p.m. Our Film Series continues, with Some Mother's Son (1996). The Venue will again be The Media-Providence Friends School, 125 W. Third St., in Media, PA. Admission is free and there will be an Introduction and Post-Film Discussion. Refreshments will be served. We are presenting Some Mother's Son in honor of "Women's International History Month." This Irish Film stars Helen Mirren. Director Terry George, currently lauded for *Hotel Rwanda, made his Directorial Debut with this film, which traces the lives of two women whose sons are imprisoned. Terry George based this film, and his screenplay for In the Name of the Father* (1993), on his experiences in Irish Prisons during the 1970's. He also directed A Bright Shining Lie, and has written numerous screenplays, etc.
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For directions, or further information, contact Robert Small at: 610-543-8427.