For Immediate Release Contact: Carol O’Sullivan

July 29, 2009 412-681-5449

Pittsburgh Filmmakers Announces

August Programming

(Pittsburgh, PA) – The following are descriptions of Pittsburgh Filmmakers Film Exhibition program for August 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.

Through Aug. 2: Silent Light

Finally in distribution, Silent Light has been on a dozen Top Ten critics’ lists. Set in a Mennonite community in northern Mexico, this drama (using untrained actors) tells the story of a man whose faith in God is put to the test when he falls for another woman. From the opening time-lapse sunrise, each sequence is carefully constructed with breathtaking beauty and a rare cinematic experience. In Plautdietsch (the language of Prussian Mennonites) with subtitles. (Carlos Reygadas; Mexico/France/Netherlands; 2007; 136 min)

Aug. 3 - 6: British Television Advertising Award (BTAA) Winners

Bursting with creativity and chosen by the advertising industry’s top executives and producers across the globe, these spots are sly, sexy, hilarious, and thought provoking. Now in its 13th year, the annual program of approximately 100 British television, Internet, and cinema commercials were selected for excellence in various product categories. It includes ads by acclaimed film directors, such as Harmony Korine (Kids) and Martin Scorsese, who has fun with a “lost” Hitchcock script. (various directors; UK; 2008; total: 98 min)

Aug. 7- 20: Summer Hours

A near perfect blend of humor and heartbreak, a lyrical masterwork...[it’s] that rare summer movie – one that matters." --Rolling Stone

Writer-director Olivier Assayas' (Irma Vep) latest film -- one of the most celebrated films at the Toronto, AFI and New York Film Festivals -- features some of France's finest performers, including the luminous Juliette Binoche. The busy lives of three 40-something siblings crash when their mother – heiress to a spacious country estate and a magnificent art collection – dies at 75. But this beautiful film never turns into the expected family squabble over money or property; instead it follows the complicated business of appraising, auctioning, donating, and giving away the antique furniture and artworks. Each of them wrestles with their mother’s memory and their responsibility to the artist’s legacy. The real conflict is between the past, which must be honored, and the present, which must be lived. The film’s delicate balance of realism and poetry recalls Jean Renoir at his best. With subtitles. (Olivier Assayas; France; 2008; 102 min)

Aug. 21 – Sept. 3: Il Divo

“As operatic cinema, it ranks alongside the best of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.” – New York Times

A chilling character study of Italy's controversial Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (and perhaps the most cunning political criminal in Italian history) this sensational film won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2008. Among the indelible images is a spectacular montage of assassinations from the late 1970s to the early 1990s; then, one by one, the sinister, loyal-unto-death members of Andreotti’s Christian Democratic faction are introduced. Toni Servillo heads a brilliant cast playing this corrupt leader who survived terrorist attacks, scandals and multiple Mafia turncoats. The Post-Gazette’s Barry Paris said of Il Divo, “It's a political biography with wit, spectacular stylistics, a complicated elliptic structure – playfully and technically audacious.” With subtitles. (Paolo Sorrentino; Italy; 2008; 117 min)

Regent Square Theater – 1035 South Braddock Ave.

Through Aug. 13: Seraphine

A breath-taking film – and winner of 7 Césars – Séraphine boasts a mesmerizing performance by Yolande Moreau in the title role. The designation of “outsider” artists includes (among other things) untrained masters who remained unknown while alive, or those whose mental illness existed alongside a significant artistic career. In this astonishing new film about French painter Séraphine Louis, we visit another outsider. In 1914, she’s working as a maid and cook by day, and painting with expressionistic fury by night. Her oracular, phantasmagoric work is ignored until discovered by a respected art collector and dealer of “primitivists.” Just as Séraphine’s paintings are hailed as exceptional, her precarious mental state (like Munch and Van Gogh) begins to slip. With subtitles. (Martin Provost; France; 2009; 122 min)

Aug. 14 - 20: Tulpan

Documentarian Sergey Dvortsevoy won the Prix Un Certain Regard for this, his first narrative feature film – an astonishing ethnographic drama. The combination of keen observation, compelling fiction, and sly humor, is immensely charming. We follow a young nomad as he returns from military service with hopes of becoming a shepherd, even though he has little or no herding skills. Then, his overtures to a beautiful neighbor, Tulpan, are rebuffed because of his big ears, despite evidence that they are smaller than England’s Prince Charles. The film also offers many breathtaking images: the bleak beauty of Kazakhstan’s steppes with its windswept landscape and endless sky, a bandaged-up camel in a motorcycle sidecar, and one of the most remarkable animal birth scenes ever captured on film. With subtitles. (Sergey Dvortsevoy; 2008; Kazakhstan/Germany/Russia/Poland; 2008; 100 min)

Opens Aug. 21: Revanche

“…deserves comparison with grade A Hitchcock" – The Seattle Times

This taut thriller – and 2008 Oscar nominee for Best foreign film – is set against Vienna’s red-light-district and Austria’s rural landscape. It’s an unsentimental exploration of love, grief, revenge and longing. Tamara, a Ukrainian prostitute, is desperately in love with Alex, her boss’s lackey. They must hide their secret relationship. Meanwhile in a nearby village, a police officer is happily married and the couple enjoys the serene splendor of a farmhouse they’ve built. In order to escape their sleazy lives, Alex and Tamara decide to rob a bank in this very same village. But as fate would have it, things go wrong, and these four characters find themselves on a collision course. What follows is an intense, emotional chain of events that radically alters the lives of everyone involved. Mature audiences. With subtitles. (Gotz Spielmann; Austria; 2008; 121 min)

Sunday Night Series: Summer of Fun: Favorite Comedies Continued

The staff at PF/PCA agreed what we all need is a summer of fun – real laugh-out loud comedies. Each Sunday night these knee-slappers will be introduced by the employee who lobbied hardest for their favorite. All films begin at 8:00.

Aug 2: Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges; 1941; 90 min) A film director takes to the road as a hobo to learn about real life and falls for Veronica Lake; intro by Josh Andra, film buff and director of studio arts programs.

Aug 9: Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin; 1955; 109 min) This Jerry Lewis/Dean Martin satire is a movie milestone for mocking the 50s; intro by Mike Prosser, film buff and theater concessions associate.

Aug 16: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich; 1962; 132 min) Creeper with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford is full of unintended humor; intro by Stefanie Moser, fiber artist and assistant to the director of PCA.

Aug 23: Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby; 1971; 88 min) This dark comedy is a cult classic about a morbid young man who falls for a septuagenarian; intro by Paula Weiner, film buff and PCA Shop associate.

Aug 30: Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk: Curly’s Greatest Hits (six films, approx. 120 min) This collection of two-reelers showcase Moe, Larry and Curly at their peak, from the mid 30s to the early 40s. All feature Curly, a genius of slapstick comedy and the greatest stooge; intro by Gary Kaboly, director of exhibitions.

Melwood Screening Room – 477 Melwood Ave.

Aug 14 – 16: Made in USA – new 35mm print!

Never On TV, Video or DVD, this is hailed as one of Godard’s greatest works. Made in USA is the director’s modernist, pop-culture infused treatment of a film noir, with his soon-to-be-ex wife and muse Anna Karina as the trench coat and high-heel wearing heroine. A tribute to the famously labyrinthine Howard Hawks film The Big Sleep, the story begins when Paula goes to a fictionalized Atlantic City to look for her boyfriend, who turns up dead. Bodies start piling up and there’s no end to the sinister characters she encounters. The pop culture references reach from Tweety Bird to Shakespeare to Otto Preminger, in this stylish, thrilling, ambitious ride. With subtitles. (Jean-Luc Godard, France; 1966; 90 min)

Film Kitchen

This monthly series, which showcases regional independent film and video work, is taking the month of August off. See you in September.

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