Winter 2009, Tuesday Series • SSA on the Silver Screen

Ten films honoring the centennial of the University’s school of social service.

Born from the ideals for change of the Progressive Era, the School of Social Service Administration has been an advocate and resource for the disadvantaged in Chicago for 100 years. SSA has a history of impact on the issues that are central to the lives of the city’s citizens, families, and neighborhoods: Poverty. Education. Family support. Mental illness. Crime. Urban development. Health care. Housing. Substance abuse. Child welfare. Employment. That legacy continues today.

In light of this storied legacy, Doc and the SSA (with special thanks to Kartemquin Films, three of whose titles we’re showing in the series) present ten films that relate to a broad range of social service issues. more

Whether out of nostalgia for Hollywood’s golden past or antipathy toward its cultural hegemony, admirers and detractors alike have tended to reduce the film adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1/6) to the status of a staid prestige picture. But this view overlooks the understated grace director Robert Mulligan brings to the material, which, in clumsier hands, might easily have turned patriarchal and preachy. As is, the picture emanates a gentler sort of paternalism in the enigmatic silences of Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch, the sad cadences of Elmer Bernstein’s score, and the clarity of Mulligan’s supple mise–en–scéne.

Man’s Castle (1/13), a luminous melodrama set in a New York shantytown, tells of macho blue–collar guy Spencer Tracy, who reluctantly takes in homeless, waif–like Loretta Young. Gradually, and much to his surprise, he finds himself falling deeply in love with her. With a plot that centers on unwed pregnancy and premarital shacking up, this film could not have been made just a year later, when the Hays production code was firmly in place. But what is most memorable here is the contrast between the harshness and squalor of the Depression–era setting, and the sublimity of Borzage’s magical, almost fairy tale–like romanticism.

In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1/20), shady politicians, rotten businessmen, and cynics in the Capitol cannot stop inspired senator Jefferson Smith from unmasking the crooked politics of his home state. In Capra’s Academy Award–winning classic, Smith collides with the designs of corrupt political bosses. Even after they smash Smith with a scandal, the junior politician refuses to back down. With only his hopeful secretary in his corner, Smith steadfastly defends the truth. James Stewart shows America that seemingly lost causes are still worth fighting for. ***Note: Inauguration special! 1 for all and 2-for-1! (That is, 2-for-1 admission to Mr. Smith!)***

In Make Way for Tomorrow (1/27), a retired couple loses their home and must be separated, as none of their children can take them both. The respective host families express a tortured, yet fundamentally selfish, mix of pity and resentment toward their presences. While too heartbreaking to be a box–office hit in 1937, the critical consensus today places it among the greatest films ever made. Beautiful and poignant, Make Way for Tomorrow influenced Ozu’s Tokyo Story, and offers one of the most nuanced, thoughtful meditations in all of cinema on old age, love, and humanness in a world that regards our agonies with indifference.

Milking the Rhino (2/3) tells a nuanced tale of human–wildlife coexistence in post–colonial Africa. The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba – two of Earth’s oldest cattle cultures – are in the midst of upheaval. Emerging from a century of “white man conservation,” which turned their lands into game reserves and fueled resentment towards wildlife, Himba and Maasai communities are now vying for a piece of the wildlife–tourism pie. Charting the collision of ancient ways with Western expectations, Milking the Rhino tells intimate, hopeful and heartbreaking stories of people facing deep cultural change.

One of the most disturbing documentaries ever filmed, Titicut Follies (2/10) is a brutal examination of the Massachusetts Institution for the Criminally Insane that reveals cruelty far beyond what is even remotely acceptable today. Mundane acts such as getting a shave or being served a meal become exercises in torture. The only movie in U.S. history to be banned for reasons other than obscenity or national security, it was ironically accused of mistreatment of the inmates by revealing their extreme mistreatment in the facility itself. A landmark film in terms of the capacity of documentary to bring about reform.

Three years after debuting with Force of Evil (1948), a powerful tragedy about the moral savagery of capitalism, the Marxist filmmaker Abraham Polonsky was blacklisted, and banned from Hollywood for seventeen years. So Tell Them Willie Boy is Here (2/17), a revisionist western, was only the director’s second, and sadly his second–to–last film. Nevertheless, Willie Boy, which tells the story of a young Paiute warrior on the run from a posse of whites, is a masterpiece. The picture’s terse rhythm, forged with an innovative, run–and–gun style of zooming, proves that Polonsky hadn’t lost his touch in the hiatus, nor his commitment to cinema as politics.

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (2/24) is a three–part collation of materials related to Jonas Mekas’s return to his home village of Semeniskiai in Lithuania. Tellingly, the filmmaker only devotes a crucial third of the film to the trip itself, offering only ‘100 glimpses of Lithuania.’ The rest consists of two passages, one sketching aspects of daily life in the (at the time) poor Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg where he lived shortly after immigrating, and the other a visit with friend and fellow filmmaker Peter Kubelka at his own home in Vienna.

For Stevie (3/3), filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams), returns to rural Pomona, Illinois to document what has become of the difficult, lonely boy he had been a ‘Big Brother’ mentor to back in 1985. What James’ intimate camera uncovers, over the course of five years, is a troubled, childlike young man and a family history of sadness, courage, love and mystery as rich and fearless as a first-rate naturalistic novel. This complex and deeply emotional documentary, produced in collaboration with Kartemquin Films, has rewarded and challenged audiences at theaters and festivals throughout the US and internationally.

In In the Family (3/10), Joanna Rudnick faces an impossible decision at the age of 31: remove her breasts and ovaries or risk incredible odds of developing cancer. Armed with a test result that leaves her vulnerable, confused, and feeling like a “ticking time bomb,” she balances dreams of having children with the unnerving reality that she is risking her life by holding on to her fertility. In the Family, Kartemquin Films’ latest production, follows Joanna as she connects with other women trying to navigate the unpredictable world of predictive genetic testing. Intensely personal and timely, In the Family asks: How much do you sacrifice to survive?

Together, these 10 films celebrate the legacy of the School of Social service administration for the past 100 years, and confront issues that the school will no doubt be considering in the next 100. JV, ESC & Kartemquin. close

Series co–sponsored by the UChicago School of Social Service Administration. Some films will be introduced by SSA faculty.

Tuesday, January 6 • 7:00 PM • 129min
To Kill a Mockingbird
Robert Mulligan, 1962 • Whether out of nostalgia for Hollywood’s golden past or antipathy toward its cultural hegemony, admirers and detractors alike have tended to reduce this adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic novel to the status of a staid prestige picture. But this view overlooks the understated grace director Robert Mulligan brings to the material, which, in clumsier hands, might easily have turned patriarchal and preachy. As is, the picture emanates a gentler sort of paternalism in the enigmatic silences of Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch, the sad cadences of Elmer Bernstein’s score, and the clarity of Mulligan’s supple mise–en–scène. 35mm

Tuesday, January 13 • 7:00 PM • 66min
Man’s Castle
Frank Borzage, 1933 • In this luminous melodrama set in a New York shantytown, macho blue–collar guy Spencer Tracy reluctantly takes in homeless, waif–like Loretta Young. Gradually, and much to his surprise, he finds himself falling deeply in love with her. With a plot that centers on unwed pregnancy and premarital shacking up, this film could not have been made just a year later, when the Hays production code was firmly in place. But what is most memorable here is the contrast between the harshness and squalor of the Depression–era setting, and the sublimity of Borzage’s magical, almost fairy tale–like romanticism. 35mm - not available on DVD.

Tuesday, January 20 • 7:00 PM • 129m
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Frank Capra, 1939• Shady politicians, rotten businessmen, and cynics in the Capitol cannot stop inspired senator Jefferson Smith from unmasking the crooked politics of his home state. In Capra’s Academy Award–winning classic, Smith collides with the designs of corrupt political bosses. Even after they smash Smith with a scandal, the junior politician refuses to back down. With only his hopeful secretary in his corner, Smith steadfastly defends the truth. James Stewart shows America that seemingly lost causes are still worth fighting for. 35mm ***Inauguration special! 1 for all and 2-for-1!*** (That is, 2–for–1 admission to tonight’s show!)

Tuesday, January 27 • 7:00 PM • 91min
Make Way for Tomorrow
Leo McCarey, 1937 • A retired couple loses their home and must be separated, as none of their children can take them both. The respective host families express a tortured, yet fundamentally selfish, mix of pity and resentment toward their presences. While too heartbreaking to be a box–office hit in 1937, the critical consensus today places it among the greatest films ever made. Beautiful and poignant, Make Way for Tomorrow influenced Ozu’s Tokyo Story, and offers one of the most nuanced, thoughtful meditations in all of cinema on old age, love, and humanness in a world that regards our agonies with indifference. 35mm - not available on DVD.

Tuesday, February 3 • 7:00 PM • 85min
Milking the Rhino
David Simpson, 2008 • Milking the Rhino tells a nuanced tale of human–wildlife coexistence in post–colonial Africa. The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba – two of Earth’s oldest cattle cultures ’ are in the midst of upheaval. Emerging from a century of “white man conservation,” which turned their lands into game reserves and fueled resentment towards wildlife, Himba and Maasai communities are now vying for a piece of the wildlife–tourism pie. Charting the collision of ancient ways with Western expectations, Milking the Rhino tells intimate, hopeful and heartbreaking stories of people facing deep cultural change. DVD

Tuesday, February 10 • 7:00 PM • 84min
Titicut Follies
Frederick Wiseman, 1967 • One of the most disturbing documentaries ever filmed, Wiseman’s brutal examination of the Massachusetts Institution for the Criminally Insane reveals cruelty far beyond what is even remotely acceptable today. Mundane acts such as getting a shave or being served a meal become exercises in torture. The only movie in U.S. history to be banned for reasons other than obscenity or national security, it was ironically accused of mistreatment of the inmates by revealing their extreme mistreatment in the facility itself. A landmark film in terms of the capacity of documentary to bring about reform. 16mm

Tuesday, February 17 • 7:00 PM • 88min
Tell Them Willie Boy is Here
Abraham Polonsky, 1969 • Three years after debuting with Force of Evil (1948), a powerful tragedy of the moral savagery of capitalism, the Marxist filmmaker Abraham Polonsky was blacklisted, and banned from Hollywood for seventeen years. So this revisionist western was only the director’s second, and sadly his second–to–last film. Nevertheless, Willie Boy, which tells the story of a young Paiute warrior on the run from a posse of whites, is a masterpiece. The picture’s terse rhythm, forged with an innovative, run–and–gun style of zooming, proves that Polonsky hadn’t lost his touch in the hiatus, nor his commitment to cinema as politics. 35mm - not available on DVD.

Tuesday, February 24 • 7:00 PM • 88min
Reminiscenes of a Journey to Lithuania
Jonas Mekas, 1972 • A three–part collation of materials related to Jonas Mekas’ return to his home village of Semeniskiai in Lithuania. Tellingly, the filmmaker only devotes a crucial third of the film to the trip itself, offering only ‘100 glimpses of Lithuania.’ The rest consists of two passages, one sketching aspects of daily life in the (at the time) poor Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg where he lived shortly after immigrating, and the other a visit with friend and fellow filmmaker Peter Kubelka at his own home in Vienna. 16mm - not available on DVD.

Tuesday, March 3 • 7:00 PM • 140min
Stevie
Steve James, 2002 • Filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams), returns to rural Pomona, Illinois to document what has become of the difficult, lonely boy he had been a ‘Big Brother’ mentor to back in 1985. What James’ intimate camera uncovers, over the course of five years, is a troubled, childlike young man and a family history of sadness, courage, love and mystery as rich and fearless as a first–rate naturalistic novel. This complex and deeply emotional documentary, produced in collaboration with Kartemquin Films, has rewarded and challenged audiences at theaters and festivals throughout the US and internationally. DVD

Tuesday, March 10 • 7:00 PM • 83min
In the Family
Joanna Rudnick, 2008 • At 31, Joanna Rudnick faces an impossible decision: remove her breasts and ovaries or risk incredible odds of developing cancer. Armed with a test result that leaves her vulnerable, confused, and feeling like a “ticking time bomb,” she balances dreams of having children with the unnerving reality that she is risking her life by holding on to her fertility. In the Family, Kartemquin Films’ latest production, follows Joanna as she connects with other women trying to navigate the unpredictable world of predictive genetic testing. Intensely personal and timely, In the Family asks: How much do you sacrifice to survive? DVD