For Immediate Release Contact: Carol O’Sullivan

March 20, 2009 412-681-5449

Pittsburgh Filmmakers Announces

April Programming

(Pittsburgh, PA) – The following are descriptions of Pittsburgh Filmmakers Film Exhibition program for April 2009. The films are screened at Harris Theater, 809 Liberty Avenue (Downtown), the Melwood Screening Room, 477 Melwood Avenue (in North Oakland) and the Regent Square Theater, 1035 S. Braddock Avenue (in Edgewood). For admission prices and current showtimes call 412-682-4111. All titles and dates are subject to change, due to film availability.

The Harris Theater – 809 Liberty Ave.

Thru April 2: Che: Guerilla (Part 2)

Che Guevera (Del Toro) abandons Cuba to start a more daunting Latin American revolution in Bolivia. With subtitles. (Steven Soderbergh; USA/Spain; 2008; 131 min)

April 3 - 9: To coincide with Czech It, a photo exhibit at SPACE Gallery downtown, we co-present Rare Bohemians, a series of three acclaimed contemporary Czech films with the University of Pittsburgh. All have subtitles. Schedule at: pghfilmmakers.org

Bored in Brno

In his film debut, director Vladimir Moravek takes a humorous look at relationships, while posing serious questions about what constitutes a “healthy” partnership. One Saturday night Standa plans to travel to Brno to spend the night with the girl of his dream, Olinka. They are both shy and slow-witted. Olinka receives advice about giving up her virginity from a group of supportive single women. Meanwhile, Standa relies on the encouragement of his slightly more experienced older brother. (Vladimir Moravek, 2003, 103 min)

Faithless Games

This feature film debut comes from director Michaela Pavlatova, an accomplished (and Oscar nominated) animator. The story revolves around a pianist named Eva, who has followed her husband, Peter, a musician and composer, to a village near the Slovak-Hungarian border. As much as Peter finds this new environment peaceful for his composing, Eva misses her family and also her beloved Prague. Games is a chamber piece about love, fidelity, human failings and finding one's self. (Michaela Pavlatova, 2003, 92 min)

Shark in the Head

The brilliant film revolves around a schizophrenic man who seldom leaves his apartment building. Mostly, he leans out his window, dressed only in an undershirt and boxer shorts, and happily watches the world go by, striking up brief and often surreal conversations with passers-by and making gifts of various things he finds discarded in his building’s trash. Using a range of clever sound and animation techniques, director Maria Prochazkova – in her feature film debut – does her best to place viewers inside the man’s head, complete with a surreal fusion of images. (Maria Prochazkova, 2005, 75 min)

April 10: Fados

Acclaimed Spanish director Carlos Saura completes his musical trilogy (Flamenco and Tango) with this brilliant dance film. Using Lisbon as a backdrop, he explores Portugal’s most emblematic musical genre – fado. Tracing its African and Brazilian origins, he ingeniously deploys mirrors, back projections, and lighting effects to frame each song. Adorned in oranges, purples, and golds, and flanked by scrims and screens, the dancers inhabit a universe unto itself. Saura has an inclusive, non-purist approach that conveys a grand vision of music’s power to break down boundaries: between Iberian neighbors, young and old, rich and poor, white and black, Old World and new. This ravishing fusion of cinema, song, dance and instruments must be seen on the big screen! With subtitles. (Carlos Saura; Spain/Portugal; 2008; 89 min)

April 17: Harvard Beats Yale 29 - 29

“Folks who don't have any inkling what an I formation is will still find themselves sucked into the film's vortex.” – Time Out New York

The title of this riveting documentary comes from Harvard Crimson's headline on November 23, 1968 – the day of the big game at Harvard Stadium. It was a polarizing time: the Vietnam War was raging and college students across the country were questioning America’s role there. Some of the players were conservative; others protested the war. Harvard defensive back Pat Conway was just back from Vietnam. Many of the former players tell their own stories – and it’s a ripping good yarn – including Tommy Lee Jones. Interspersed in this increasingly thrilling film is the grainy game footage. Sports Illustrated called it one of the best five college football games ever played. Even knowing the outcome, it’s a nail-biter. (Kevin Rafferty; USA; 2008, 105 min)

April 24: Serbis

“Superb…teems with vitality, humor, and anguish.” – LA Times

Raw and uncompromising, this film hails from the recently energized Filipino cinema. We follow the travails of the Pineda family in the Filipino city of Angeles. But the real star of the show is an enormous, dilapidated movie theater that doubles as family business and living space. The connections between the family members are almost as labyrinthine as the movie house itself. At one time a prestigious establishment, it’s now an adult theater and meeting ground for hustlers. Director Mendoza brilliantly captures the sordid atmosphere – in a whirl of sound, noise and continuous motion – while interweaving the subplots of the Pineda clan, transsexual customers, thieves and goats. Played in Toronto, Cannes, and New York Film Festivals in 2008. With subtitles. (Brillante Mendoza; Phillipines/France; 2008; 90 min)

Regent Square Theater – 1035 South Braddock Ave.

Thru April 2: The Class

“A+” – Wall Street Journal

This Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee walks a fine line between fiction and non-fiction, looking at public education through the eyes of a dedicated high school teacher and his multicultural students. With subtitles. (Laurent Cantet; France; 2008; 128 min)

April 3: Gomorrah

“The greatest mafia movie ever made.” – Boston Herald

From Roberto Saviano’s bestselling book about the international influence of the Italian organized crime empire around Naples, comes this electrifying movie version. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes and up for this year’s Foreign Language Film Oscar, it will impress and unnerve even the most demanding aficionados of the genre. In its deft interweaving of five stories, the mob’s reach extends from the heights of haute couture to the depths of toxic waste. With a cool eye director Matteo Garrone observes all the attendant brutality, while a lethally smooth businessman in a sharp suit specializes in the illegal dumping of corporate poisons. “Tony Soprano and his crew would run in terror.” -New York Film Festival Program. With subtitles. (Matteo Garrone; Italy; 2008; 137 min)

April 18: Family Matinee: Fly Away Home

This heartwarming family classic is from the director of The Black Stallion. It’s the story of a girl (Anna Paquin) who goes to live with her eccentric father (Jeff Daniels) after her mother’s death. At first withdrawn, she finds renewed happiness after adopting an orphaned flock of baby geese, then teaches them to migrate. Stunningly photographed by Caleb Deschanel, the film’s flying sequences are nothing short of astonishing. (Carroll Ballard; USA; 1996; 108 min)

April 24: Katyn

Legendary director Andrzej Wajda (Man of Iron) has always been a controversial filmmaker, and at 81, he’s lost none of his fire. With this film – nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar – he tells the tragic story of how Soviet troops captured thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals, imprisoned them, and then systematically executed them in 1940. Mass graves were discovered by German troops in 1943 in the Katyn Forest. But the Soviets denied responsibility for the massacres, blaming the Germans. Called the “Katyn lie,” Wajda's father was one of the executed officers. This fleet-footed epic centers on an imprisoned Polish Army captain and the resourceful wife who waits for him. While it examines large issues of war, politics and honor, Wajda always brings the story back to its fundamental object, the captain’s journal from the prison camp. With subtitles. (Andrzej Wajda; Poland; 2008; 120 min)

Sunday Night Series:

Dish Night & Films from the Depression

Everyone knows Americans loved going to the Picture Show during the Great Depression, but the most popular genres of that era – musicals, gangster movies, comedies and populist dramas – offered considerably more than escape from harsh economic realities. They provided biting social commentary.

In pre-World War II years, movie theaters often held weekly "dish nights," where dinnerware was given out to ticket buyers. For this series, we will hold drawings before the film each Sunday night for a piece of Fiestaware. Introduced by Homer Laughlin China Company during the Depression, Fiestaware symbolized the American dream of a tasteful middle-class home. The company has generously agreed to donate dishes for the series. There will be three winners each week.

April 5: American Madness

After the crash and before the New Deal, Americans were nervous about the imploding financial system. In this rarely seen – but so timely – Capra classic, a folksy banker makes loans on character rather than collateral. Starring Pat O’Brien and Walter Huston it was the first of the Frank Capra-Robert Riskin “rabble rousers,” collaborations that depicted a world where populist heroes right social wrongs. It features one of the most beautifully choreographed scenes in the cinema: a spectacular bank run in which a sea of desperate depositors clamor for their cash. (Frank Capra; 1932; 75 min)

April 12: Gold Diggers of 1933

This musical about a group of “gold digging” chorus girls is a landmark of the Depression. With song and dance sequences choreographed by Busby Berkeley, it opens with the outrageous, ironic, “We’re in the Money,” and features starlets wearing nothing but huge coins. Beneath the film’s whimsical tone are real socio-economic issues, from unemployment to prostitution. The grand finale, "Remember My Forgotten Man" is a salute to the WWI vets standing in breadlines. Stars Ginger Rogers and Ruby Keeler. (Mervyn LeRoy; 1933; 96 min)

April 19: A Night at the Opera

As was always their style of comedy, the Marx Brothers take aim at the pompous and pious hypocrisy of the upper crust, and Night at the Opera features some of their most hilarious bits: the stateroom scene, the contract scene, and the bed-switching scene. The boys were at their peak here and the film's openly subversive tone was a perfect match for the Depression-era crowd looking for wealthy authority figures to laugh at. (Sam Wood; 1935; 94 min)

April 26: The Public Enemy

James Cagney became a star for Warner Bros in this role as a tough, fast-talking, Irish-American mobster who shoves a grapefruit in his girlfriend's face, but remains loyal to his mother. Depression era audiences – let down by society – cheered on the gangsters who defied the establishment and took what they wanted. Taking full advantage of pre-code leniency, Public Enemy links gangster-ism to capitalism and ruthless business practices. (William Wellman, 1931; 83 min)

Melwood Screening Room – 477 Melwood Ave.

April 8: Caught Looking - Shorts on the Jumbotron!

Enjoy an evening in PNC Park without having to sit through a ballgame. Join us for an hour-long program of new one-minute videos screened on the giant Jumbotron. The family-friendly shorts, made by CMU and Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ students, members, staff, and faculty were selected by Jacob Ciocci of CMU and Andrew Swensen of Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Caught Looking will begin at 7:00 pm at PNC Park, moving to Pittsburgh Filmmakers (477 Melwood Ave) for a reception and more viewing at 8:15 pm. Free and open to the public.

April 14: Film Kitchen

This monthly series highlights regional independent film and video work. Presented on the 2^nd Tuesday of every month, it’s co-sponsored by City Paper, WYEP-FM, DH Creative, Rock Light.

April 18: Wilco – Ashes of American Flags

This engaging new concert film captures the spirit, energy and poignancy of the popular indie band, Wilco, during their 2008 tour. Filmed in some great American concert venues: Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and more. Shot in HD, the film intersperses interviews with band members and day-in-the-life footage as they travel across the US. (Christoph Green & Brendan Canty (Fugazi); USA; 2008; 88 min) Co-presented with 91.3 WYEP.

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