Last weekend may have been a Chamber of Commerce kind of weekend in Central Florida with bright sunshine and warmer temperatures getting into the 70s for what felt like the first time in weeks (of course now we’re right back in the frosty 40s), but it didn’t prevent nearly 100 die-hard indie film fans from attending the monthly FilmSlam. This month’s eclectic lineup of 8 Florida films from Orlando, Boynton Beach, and Celebration proved to be a strong one, with a lot of familiar names from our local filmmaking community represented including Elizabeth Anne, Craig Richards, Banks Helfrich, and Todd Thompson. And it was Thompson’s latest work, CROOKED, that anchored the set and ended up winning 1st Place in the Audience Award ballots and guaranteeing itself a spot in December’s Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase ((schedule permitting since it’s over 10 minutes in length). Todd’s entertaining and educational comedy concerns itself with good dental hygiene, as a little girl aims for the perfect smile to win the heart of a new boy at her school.
Congratulations also to Eric Thompson for taking 2nd Place with his VISITING OUR NEIGHBORS, a doc short about an international team of volunteers and doctors travelling to Peru to perform cleft lip and palate surgeries on those who could never afford it, and to Banks Helfrich, who got the 3rd Place honors for PROLOGUE—THE AH OF LIFE, in which a man discovers a perspective of time in which his entire life is lived within the same moment.
Remember to mark your calendars for Sunday, March 14, and move your clocks up an hour, since the next FilmSlam takes place at 1:00 PM on the day that Daylight Savings Time begins. We’ll see you there!
It was twenty (five) years ago today, when Tina Tiedtke opened the doors to play! Tina’s dream of a very special kind of art cinema celebrates a big one today, since it was 25 years to the date, February 15, 1985, that Enzian opened with a glorious screening of D. W. Griffith’s BROKEN BLOSSOMS with the legendary Lillian Gish in attendance. It’s incredible and wonderfully fulfilling to see what an integral part of the Central Florida arts community this unique, single-screen, non-profit, alternative movie house has become.
Watch for special events and surprises throughout the year to commemorate this milestone. Happy Birthday to us, and here’s to 25 more!
It’s been an unusually busy early February at Enzian, with more special programming and events than at any time since probably last Spring’s 2009 Florida Film Festival. From the return of Rollins College’s “Winter with the Writers” program featuring author Andre Dubus III and HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG (membership does have its privileges—this free, closed event was open to Rollins students and Enzian Film Society members only), to the 25th anniversary free screenings of PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE and CLUE courtesy of United Arts’ ArtsFest, to midnight screenings of BLACK DYNAMITE and a Sunday brunch showing of AMADEUS in conjunction with the Bach Festival Society’s 75th anniversary, the last few days have simply been a cornucopia of cinematic riches. Not to mention the final weeks of Tom Ford’s stunning A SINGLE MAN, featuring Colin Firth in an amazing performance that justifiably earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the start of Enzian’s own 25th anniversary celebration with a special Valentine’s Day brunch screening of CASABLANCA.
But it’s the late night weekend showings of Scott Sanders’ BLACK DYNAMITE that’s gotten my attention. This simultaneously loving tribute and brilliantly funny send-up of 70s “Blaxploitation” flicks has tongues wagging and Enzian audiences as excited and animated as I’ve ever seen. Talk about a communal experience! The front bookend of our special programming for Black History Month (the original SUPERFLY arrives on 2/23 as part of our Cult Classics series), we turned away dozens of patrons (despite the lousy syndicated review in our local paper) and the film has accomplished a rare feat—it was actually held over for a second weekend of midnight shows! It’s actually one of the few films that I would go back immediately and see again the following week. Yes, it comes out on DVD soon. But if there was ever a film that demands to be seen on the big screen with a packed audience of film lovers who know how to have a good time, it’s BLACK DYNAMITE. As local Orlando Sentinel movie critic Roger Moore wrote in his positive 3-star review on his blog (which of course the paper did not print in their infinite wisdom), “It aims low, sure. But Black Dynamite is contrived to ‘keep you tight and outta sight.’ Can you dig it? Because I sure did.” Right on, brother!
Congratulations to all of this year’s Academy Award nominees, many of which had (or will have) their exclusive exposure in Central Florida at Enzian. Currently the theater is showing Tom Ford’s A SINGLE MAN, which earned the wonderful Colin Firth his first Best Actor in a Leading Role nod. It could’ve easily also been nominated for Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actress (for Julianne Moore), but the Academy seems to have fallen asleep on this one. Next up on the Enzian schedule is Michael Haneke’s THE WHITE RIBBON from Germany, nominated for two awards including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography (as gorgeous and haunting b&w as you’ll ever see) . The film recently won the Golden Globes’ Best Foreign Film Award as well as the Palme d’Or at Cannes last Spring.
If you’ve been to Enzian in the last few months, you could have also seen PARIS 36 (Best Original Song - “Loin de Paname”), COCO BEFORE CHANEL (Best Costume Design), and the Coen Brothers’ A SERIOUS MAN (Best Picture of the Year and Best Original Screenplay). If you attended last year’s Florida Film Festival, you could have seen IL DIVO from Italy (Best Makeup) and our Audience Award Winner for Best International Short, Patrik Eklund’s hilarious INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA from Sweden (Best Live Action Short Film). If you plan on going to this year’s Florida Film Festival April 9 - 18, you may just have a shot at seeing not only Patrik Eklund’s brand new Cannes-winning short, but MUSIC BY PRUDENCE (Best Documentary Short Subject) and THE NEW TENANTS (Best Live Action Short Film) (hint, hint…) And if you came to this year’s 15th annual South Asian Film Festival in early October, you could have seen Gregg Helvey’s powerful, Student Academy Award-winning KAVI (now also nominated for Best Live Action Short Film).
So come check us out and take a chance on something new and different. You never know what film will be hitting the red carpet at Oscar time months down the road, and you can say you saw it first right here at Enzian.
Not “misses’ in terms of quality mind you, but the top 10 films I most regret not seeing during my time in snowy Park City. In alphabetical order rather than degree of remorse, here’s my list:
1) Animal Kingdom
2) Blue Valentine
3) Catfish
4) Four Lions
5) GASLAND
6) The Kids are All Right
7) Nowhere Boy
8) Please Give
9) Space Tourists
10) The Tillman Story
All is not lost however, as half of these were checked out by a combination of Enzian and the Florida Film Festival’s GM (Chris Blanc) and President (Henry Maldonado). And as it stands now with the recent acquisitions of BLUE VALENTINE (the Weinstein Company) and THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Focus Features), four of the ten have domestic distribution including PLEASE GIVE (Sony Pictures Classics) and NOWHERE BOY (the Weinstein Company again!) This bodes well for the potential to bring them to Orlando in the coming months, either for the FFF or a theatrical run at Enzian (or hopefully both). Stay tuned…
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