Super Cinema Suggests

"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.

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.

February 2023
Acclaimed Dramas & An Acclaimed Documentary

February 2 Ordinary People

1980 / 124 min. / R
Relationships are strained among the father (Donald Sutherland), mother (Mary Tyler Moore) and son Conrad (Timothy Hutton) who have lost an older son and brother in a boating accident. Conrad feels guilty about surviving the mishap in which his brother died. A deeply. moving, perfectly realized film. Won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Redford) and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Timothy Hutton).

February 9 The Elephant Man

1980 / 124 min.. / PG
John Merrick (John Hurt), a severely disfigured man in Victorian England, was exploited in freak shows and mistreated most of his life until rescued by surgeon Frederick Teeves (Anthony Hopkins). Under Teeves’s protection, Merrick is discovered to be a kind and surprisingly refined man. The film was a commercial success and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. It won a Best Picture Award and a Best Actor Award for John Hurt from BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Awards). It is one of director David Lynch’s most accessible films.

February 16 The Peanut Butter Falcon

2019 / 97 min. / PG-13 
Zak (Zack Gottsagen), a winning young man with Down Syndrome, escapes from his state-run care facility and hooks up with Tyler (Shiq LeBoeuf), also on the lam, who’s wanted for illegal taking of crab traps. They decide to hunt down the wrestling school run by Salt Water Redneck, Zak’s hero wrestler. When Zak’s social worker, Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) finds the pair, there are suddenly increased possibilities for them all. A widespread CinemaScope poll resulted in a very rare A+ Audience rating.

February 23 The Reader

2008 / 124 min. / R
In postwar Germany a woman named Hanna (Kate Winslet) draws a 15 year old boy, Michael (David Kross), into sexual encounters—and always asks him to read to her afterward. Many years later adult Michael (Ralph Fiennes) comes across Hanna in a circumstance that shocks and upsets him. Winslet won many acting awards for this role, including both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actress.

March 2023
Focus on Women for International Women’s Day, March 8

Twyla Moves

2021 / 83 min. / PPR
From Kanopy’s description “For decades, [choreographer] Twyla Tharp has astounded the world with her trademark, unprecedented ingenuity. Now 79 years old, Twyla is entering a new phase of her life—but she hasn’t stopped moving.” Critically praised.

Anita: Speaking Truth To Power      

2014 / 76 min. / NR
Contains excerpts from Anita Hill’s damning testimony against Clarence Thomas at his confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. It also shows Hill’s later work raising awareness around the world of sexual harassment in the workplace and elsewhere.

Maidan    

2014 / 126 min. / NR
From November 2013 to February 2014, tens of thousands of Ukranian citizens drove Putin-aligned Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych from power. The film was shot in Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalevhnosti (Independence Square). It does not use a spoken narrative. It simply shows people living day to day in and around the Square, protesting and fighting government forces. Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice called the film "Easily the most rigorous, vital, and powerful movie of 2014.”

Olga     

2021 / 85 min. / NR
In docudrama style. Olga is a 15 year old champion Ukranian gymnast. Olga’s mother, an opposition journalist during Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution, sends Olga to Switzerland to continue her gymnastics training.. Tense reports of revolution at home juxtaposed to gripping gymnastics competitions in Switzerland, make the film an engaging cinematic experience. Olga is played by Anastasia Budiashkina, another young champion Ukrainian gymnast,

Mavis!    

2016 / 80 min. / NR
Although the youngest Staples child, Mavis emerged early on as a de facto co-leader with her “Pops” of the Staples Singers. She has a strong and low, authoritative voice, an easy charm and a forceful presence. She’s built a 60-year eclectic and joyful career performing with and without her family and helping to move the civil rights movement along. She’s got it!

Super Cinema April 2023

Children of Heaven

1997 / 89 min. / PG
In Persian with English Subtitles
Set in Tehran. After collecting his sister Zahra’s shoes at the cobbler, schoolboy Ali loses them. Ali and Zahra decide to keep the loss a secret from their parents,,  who are way behind on bills, and proceed to share Ali’s sneakers. Zahra wears them to her school in the morning, then runs home to give them to Ali for his afternoon classes. Naturally, there are complications. Roger Ebert gave the movie his highest rating and said it “glows with a kind of good-hearted purity.” It was nominated for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards for 1998.

Seabiscuit

2003 / 140 min. / PG-13
The Great Depression is underway, Horse racing is popular. Seabiscuit, a grandson of the champion, Man o’ War, is a small and at first unmanageable thoroughbred slated for special training by his auto tycoon owner, Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges). To match his horse, Howard assembles a passionate underdog team made up of trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) and jockey “Red” Pollard (Tobey Maguire). Seabiscuit is soon the most successful racehorse on the West Coast, leading Howard to challenge the owner of War Admiral, Seabiscuit’s East Coast counterpart, to a historic matchup. Stakes and emotions run high.  It’s a satisfying period film.

Citizen Ruth

1996 / 102 min. / R
Citizen Ruth is a satirical black comedy focused on Ruth (Laura Linney), a small-town pregnant drug addict whose first four children have been taken from her by child welfare agencies. An explicit script and very broad performances depict the height of the post-Reagan era when Roe v. Wade was the law but raucous abortion-related battles were fought almost nightly on the evening news.

Away from Her

2007 / 110 min. / PG-13
A couple married for over 40 years, Fiona and Grant Anderson (Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent) begin to realize Fiona has Alzheimer’s. The care facility she moves herself to asks Grant not to visit for 30 days to allow Fiona to adjust. When he returns, she has become devoted to a fellow patient (Michael Murphy). Roger Ebert calls the film “a heartbreaking masterpiece” and praises writer/ director Sarah Polley’s first directorial effort, for which she won multiple awards for Best Direction and for adapting the screenplay from an Alice Munro short story. Julie Christie also won multiple awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Watch Sarah Polley: this year she won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking.