PLEASE NOTE: The films on this page have come and gone. This past listing is provided to give you a better sense of the variety of independent and documentary films shown weekly at the ACME Screening Room. For current listings, VISIT THE HOMEPAGE.
ARCHIVED FROM December 2012
Searching for Sugar Man
Friday & Saturday 7 pm; 8:35 pm
Sunday 5 pm
In the late ‘60s, two celebrated producers, who were struck by his soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics, discovered a musician in a Detroit bar. They recorded an album that they believed was going to secure his reputation as one of the greatest recording artists of his generation. In fact, the album bombed and the singer disappeared into obscurity amid rumors of a gruesome on-stage suicide. But a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and, over the next two decades, it became a phenomenon. Two South African fans then set out to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation led them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez. SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN is a film about hope, inspiration and the resonating power of music.
Film & Discussion: Friday & Saturday 7 pm
Film Only: Friday & Saturday 8:45 pm
Sunday 5 pm
In CHASING ICE, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog deploys revolutionary time-lapse camera to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. ??Traveling with a team of young adverturers across the brutal Arctic, Balog risks his career and his wellbeing in pursuit of the biggest story facing humanity. As the debate polarized America, and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, CHASING ICE depicts a heroic photojournalist on a mission to delivery fragile hope to our carbon-powered planet.
Newly single, 35, and uninspired by his job, Jesse Fisher (writer/director Josh Radnor) worries that his best days are behind him. But no matter how much he buries his head in a book, life keeps pulling Jesse back. When his favorite college professor invites him to campus to speak at his retirement dinner, Jesse jumps at the chance. He is prepared for the nostalgia of the dining halls and dorm rooms, the parties and poetry seminars; what he doesn’t see coming is Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen)—a beautiful, precocious, classical-music-loving sophomore. Zibby awakens scary, exciting, long-dormant feelings of possibility and connection that Jesse thought he had buried forever.
THE RED BALLOON (1956)
A film by Albert Lamorisse
34 minutes – with English subtitles
Newly restored, Albert Lamorisse’s exquisite THE RED BALLOON remains one of the most beloved children’s films of all time. In this deceptively simple, nearly wordless tale, a young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world’s harsh realities finally interfere. With its glorious palette and allegorical purity, the Academy Award–winning THE RED BALLOON has enchanted movie lovers, young and old, for generations.
“One of the great children’s films of all time. Which means it’s a great film for grown-ups, too.” – Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
PLASTIC BAG
A film by Ramin Bahrani?Voiced by Werner Herzog
Music by Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Ros
USA – 18 minutes
This short film by American director Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) traces the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it. Along the way, it encounters strange creatures, experiences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved maker, and tries to grasp its purpose in the world.??In the end, the wayward plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean, into the tides, and out into the Pacific Ocean trash vortex — a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind and gradually let the memories of its maker slip away.
“Bahrani is the new great American director.” – Roger Ebert
“A true triumph in short film-making… has the environmental and emotional sensibilities of Wall-E, and hearkens back to earlier Disney films.” – Ryan Gallagher, Criterion Cast
TICKETS: Kids Under 12: $6 All Others: $6 member/ $8 non-member
A ROYAL AFFAIR is the true story of an ordinary man who wins the queen’s heart and starts a revolution. Centering on the intriguing love triangle between the ever more insane Danish King Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), the royal physician who is a man of enlightenment and idealism Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) and the young but strong Queen Caroline Mathilda (Alicia Vikander), A ROYAL AFFAIR is the gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in their pursuit of freedom for their people… Above all it is the story of a passionate and forbidden romance that changed an entire nation.
Danish with English subtitles
2 hrs 17 mins, rated R
THE RED BALLOON (1956)
A film by Albert Lamorisse
34 minutes – with English subtitles
Newly restored, Albert Lamorisse’s exquisite THE RED BALLOON remains one of the most beloved children’s films of all time. In this deceptively simple, nearly wordless tale, a young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world’s harsh realities finally interfere. With its glorious palette and allegorical purity, the Academy Award–winning THE RED BALLOON has enchanted movie lovers, young and old, for generations.
“One of the great children’s films of all time. Which means it’s a great film for grown-ups, too.” – Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
PLASTIC BAG
A film by Ramin Bahrani?Voiced by Werner Herzog
Music by Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Ros
USA – 18 minutes
This short film by American director Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) traces the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it. Along the way, it encounters strange creatures, experiences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved maker, and tries to grasp its purpose in the world.??In the end, the wayward plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean, into the tides, and out into the Pacific Ocean trash vortex — a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind and gradually let the memories of its maker slip away.
“Bahrani is the new great American director.” – Roger Ebert
“A true triumph in short film-making… has the environmental and emotional sensibilities of Wall-E, and hearkens back to earlier Disney films.” – Ryan Gallagher, Criterion Cast
TICKETS: Kids Under 12: $6 All Others: $6 member/ $8 non-member
Funding has been made possible in part by the Hunterdon County Board of Chosen Freeholders, through funds administered by The Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission.
Sunday, 5 pm
Friday & Saturday 7 pm