"Super Cinema Suggests" is a weekly recommendation of movies available thru Kanopy, a fantastic and free library database available to all with a valid Berkeley Public LIbrary card. It consists of thousands of independent, international, classic and documentary films. This series will continue while we are in lockdown, and you are unable to come to the library to enjoy "Super Cinema" proper - a weekly film series normally held at Central on Fridays at 3:00pm. Feel free to watch the movies in any order you wish, or not (but they are good films), or watch something entirely different. Enjoy!
Here’s how to get started:
1. Go to cityofberkeley.kanopystreaming.com and create an account by clicking on the Sign Up button.
2. Go to your email account to verify your email address.
3. Add your library card number.
4. Start watching videos! You have 10 film play credits available per calendar month.
September 2020
Movies for These Hard Times
Week of September 4 A Tuba to Cuba!
2018 / 82 min. / PG
Several years ago New Orleans’s Preservation Hall Jazz Band toured Cuba to explore Cuban roots of New Orleans jazz. They focused on playing with Cuban street musicians. The film is a joyous affair, both musically and culturally. I defy you not to smile and move a lot to it. Buena Vista Social Club (1999), was great too, just different. It showcased a small group of Cuban musicians making a comeback, and featured American roots musician Ry Cooder.
Week of September 11 You Can Count on Me
2000 / 111 min. / R
As children, Sammy (Laura Linney) and Terry (Mark Ruffalo) lose their parents to a car accident. As adults, their relationship is troubled. Sammy, single mother with a son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), lives conventionally, while Terry is a drifter who stays out of touch months at a time. Terry’s visit to Sammy is volatile. It gets the three characters to search their hearts, and the actors give moving performances. This was Mark Ruffalo’s first major film role, and Kenneth Lonergan’s first outing as a director/writer. Eventually Lonergan won an Academy Award for writing (and directing) Manchester by the Sea (2016).
Week of September 18 The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
2009 / 92 min. / NR
Daniel Ellsberg was a high-level Vietnam War strategist at the Pentagon. In 1971 he concluded that the war had been based on the lies of multiple presidents, and he leaked 7,000 pages of top secret Pentagon documents—the Pentagon Papers—to the New York Times. This led to Watergate, Nixon’s resignation and the end of the Vietnam War. This documentary tells the story very, very well.
Week of September 25 The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
2013 / 114 min. / R
On his 100th birthday, Allan Karisson (Robert Gustafsson) escapes his nursing home. He’s healthy. He’s lived through—and influenced—momentous events. He wants more of the same. One reviewer says, “The film is comic, darkly comic, absurdist, farcical, a chase caper, an espionage thriller, and, finally, peaceful.” Based on an internationally best-selling Swedish novel.