Two Nights in a Bar Room
mon. 2/28, 7pm, @Barbes, 376 Ninth St., 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com * US. 1926. Silent. (70 min). Produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation, this adaptation of the temperance play became the most popular all-black silent film. Featuring Lawrence Chenault as a sleazy bar owner and Charles Gilpin as a drunk. Directed by Roy Calnek
Judgement Day, Part 4
fri. 2/24, 6pm, @Grand Army Plaza and Flatbush Ave., 230-2100, brooklynpubliclibrary.org * (1831-1865) As the country expands west, so does slavery, even as it is challenged as never before by black and white abolitionists. Tensions mount and a polarized nation moves toward civil war.
The Incredibles
sat. 2/25, 11am, @Grand Army Plaza and Flatbush Ave., 230-2100, brooklynpubliclibrary.org * Meet the Incredibles, the award-winning Pixar team's superhero family that comes out of banal, suburban hiding to don their old costumes and save the world again. Bob Parr (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) has given up his swashbuckling days to log in time as an insurance adjuster and raise his three children with his formerly heroic wife (Holly Hunter). But when he receives a mysterious assignment, it's time to raise hell one more time.
Moolaade
thurs. 3/2, 7pm, @Grand Army Plaza and Flatbush Ave., 230-2100, brooklynpubliclibrary.org * Directed by Ousmane Sembene. Senegalese writer-director Ousmane Sembene makes an impassioned plea against the practice of salinde, or female circumcision, in this moving portrait of a society in transition. In a West African village run by uncompromising Muslim males, fiery Colle (Fatoumata Coulibaly) provides safe harbor for young girls fleeing their “cleansing” rituals. But what one man terms “a minor domestic issue” soon puts the whole town on the verge of bloodshed.
Oliver and Company
sat. 3/4, 11am, @Grand Army Plaza and Flatbush Ave., 230-2100, brooklynpubliclibrary.org * (1988) Disney does Dickens in this animated version of Oliver Twist. Oliver (voiced by Joey Lawrence), an adorable, orphaned kitten, struggles to survive in New York City. He falls in with a band of canine criminals led by evil human Fagin and is befriended by Dodger (voiced by Billy Joel), a carefree mutt with street savoir-faire. When Oliver meets Jenny (voiced by Natalie Gregory) on one of the gang's thieving missions, his life changes forever.
Martha Colburn and Co.
mon. 2/27, 8pm, @Ocularis @Galapagos Art and Performance Space, 70 North 6th St., 388-8713, ocularis.net * Brainwashed Japanese school children, media bombardment, fetishistic comic worlds, demented home movies, Modernist Robot attacks: these cruel realities of linear life plus a smattering of good form and bad taste are all on the menu thanks to guest programmer Martha Colburn, the queen of cut-out animation. Tonight she offers up a sample of her own work with a side of some favorite films, finishing it all off with a few “found” treats from her personal archive. Sure to surprise, Colburn's show promises to be as perverse, homespun, and spazztastic as her art. Highlights include films by French collective Le Denier Cri, new work from Chinese artist Mo Xue, video by Greg Smith, as well as Colburn's first animation, Caffeine Jam, a mad adventure following two musicians through alligator pits and troublesome bullrings.
Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire
tues. 2/28, 2 and 6pm, @St. Francis College, 180 Remson St., 489-5272, stfranciscollege.edu * 2005–Directed by Mike Newell. Harry's fourth summer and the following year at Hogwarts are marked by the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament, in which student representatives from three different wizarding schools compete in a series of increasingly challenging contests. However, Voldemort's Death Eaters are gaining strength and even creating the Dark Mark giving evidence that the Dark Lord is ready to rise again. In the unsuspecting lives of the young wizard and witches at Hogwarts the competitors are selected by the goblet of fire, which this year makes a very surprising announcement: Hogwarts will have two representatives in the tournament, including Harry Potter! Will Harry be able to rise to the challenge for the Tri Wizard Tournament while keeping up with school or will the challenges along with Voldemort's rebirth be too much for the young hero?
Zombies of the Stratosphere
sun. 2/26, 4pm, @ The Backroom, 485 Dean St., 622-7035, freddysbackroom.com * (1952) Evil Martians in hooded catsuits have landed on Earth to work fiendish plan. With the aid of a renegade scientist and hired henchmen in fedoras, they're building a huge H-bomb to blow the Earth out of its orbit. Then Mars can take its place and enjoy an improved climate. Only Larry Martin, the flying Rocketman, with his jet pack and bullet helmet, can foil this horrid plot. He's a cross between Howard Hughes and Batman, a super-scientific defense contractor action hero. When he flies, he's a dummy on a wire. When he's not flying, he's still stiff as a dummy: a weak actor struggling with a bad script. A very young Leonard Nimoy appears as
one of the Martians. You'll recognize his voice as he delivers a dying speech to help save the Earth.
