QC Film Blog

"Templeton Rye" Doc to Screen in DeWitt

Opera House Theater in De Witt, Iowa

Sunday, July 15 at 2:00 pm

Q&A following the film.

http://www.facebook.com/templetonryedoc

Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" Pulls into Rave Theater

Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train aptly illustrates the wisdom of your mother's admonition to avoid talking to strangers.

Tennis star Guy (Farley Granger) hates his unfaithful wife.  Fellow train passenger Bruno (Robert Walker) hates his father.  In a casual conversation Bruno proposes that they exchange murders so as to commit untraceable crimes. It's just two young men airing their private frustrations. Criss cross?

Hitchcock's daughter Patricia also stars in this bonefide black and white classic from the Master of Suspense.

1:00 pm - Monday, January 9, 2012

$3.00 (and that includes a small drink AND popcorn!!!)

Rave Motion Pictures
3601 East 53rd Street
Davenport, Iowa
563.359.1314

http://www.ravemotionpictures.com/

"Pizza Man" Horror Film Approved for Production in QC Area

Mel Brooks in High Anxiety.

The live action motion picture production of Pizza Man to be made by Brookspics Productions is slated to begin in the spring of 2012. Brookspics, which is owned by Mel Brooks, has been approved for production by Betsy Steinberg, Managing Director of the Illinois Film Office.

Pizza Man is a horror/thriller film and has been in active development and preparation since June of this year through the efforts of Producer, Rainer Soehnlein in cooperation with Great River Studios, LLC of Rock Island, Illinois.  Great River will be the production management, service, equipment and facilities company associated with the local production of the film in the Illinois Quad Cities area.

An extensive location scout took place during the months of August and September of this year with the film's director Steve Haberman and Great River Production Executive, Doug Miller, along with numerous associates from Great River Studios.

Production budgets have been finalized and logistics have been coordinated for the production with the cooperation of numerous Quad Cities residents, various Great River production partners and the Cities of Rock Island and Moline with locations selected in both of these communities thus far.  The projected budget of the film is $5 million dollars.

Steve Haberman, the writer-director of Pizza Man, is a longtime collaborator with Mel  Brooks having written two movies with him: Life Stinks and Dracula - Dead and Loving It.  He also wrote the feature Screw Loose and the documentary Shadows in the Dark: The Val Newton Legacy.  His short film, Blind Curves, which he wrote, produced and directed, won 17 international film festivals, including the Eastman Kodak Film of the Year and Best Short Film of the Year from the Photographic Society of America.

An expert on horror films, he authored the book Silent Screams, the definitive history of horror in the silent era.  He performed the commentary on 15 classic horror films including the original Universal Pictures' Dracula and The Mummy for which he won the Rando Award for Best Commentary of the Year.  He recently produced, directed and edited the HBO special Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett - Together Again.

For more information about Pizza Man and or interviews with Mr. Haberman please contact Doug Miller, Great River Studios Production Executive at 563-349-1041.

http://fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5688:mel-brooks-delivers-pizzaman&catid=36:demo-articles&Itemid=56

"Villisca: Living with a Mystery" Screening Features Discussion with Filmmakers and Crime Expert

Villisca: Living with a Mystery

Documentary Feature Film - 1:56

Filmmakers to appear with the film's primary on-screen storyteller, and the foremost historical authority on the Villisca axe murder mystery, Dr. Edgar V. Epperly

The award-winning documentary feature film Villisca: Living with a Mystery, by filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, returns to the screen at the Operahouse Theatre in DeWitt, Iowa on Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 2:00 pm for one performance only.

Villisca explores the 1912 late night axe murders of the entire Josiah Moore family of six, and two young overnight guests, and the affect the crime had on Villisca, a small Southwest Iowa town.  The still-unsolved axe murder created a lasting community split over the guilt or innocence of a local State Senator, and produced three sensational trials.

Villisca spent 14 months in theaters in the Midwest and qualified for the Academy Award® competition in the Documentary Feature Film category.  It also won several awards and was an audience favorite in several film festivals.  The movie was also a hit with critics.

"Four Stars. Outstanding…impressive…a fascinating tale well told." - Quad City Times

"A respectful approach to Iowa's most notorious crime." - Des Moines Register

"A beautifully researched and effectively unsettling true-crime thriller." - River Cities Reader

"Best movie ever made in the true-crime genre." - Clews True Crime Blog

The event also includes a lobby display of historical artifacts, including a replica of the murder axe, and a Q & A with the filmmakers and researcher Dr. Edgar V. Epperly.  Epperly is the film's primary on-camera storyteller and the foremost historical authority on America's greatest unsolved mystery.

 The Rundles are the filmmakers behind Country School: One Room - One Nation (2010) and Lost Nation: The Ioway (2007).  Their Fourth Wall Films, is an independent film and video production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.  They are currently in production on Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg with Emmy® nominated filmmaker Garry McGee.

Website: www.VilliscaMovie.com

Blog: http://docublogger.typepad.com/villiscamystery/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Villisca-Living-with-a-Mystery/53695253512

Tickets are just $5.00!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

De Witt Operahouse Theater
716 6th Avenue
De Witt, Iowa

Website: http://operahouse.intuitwebsites.com/contact.html

Filmmakers Kelly & Tammy Rundle

Director to Appear with "Against All the Odds" Film at the Figge

Against All the Odds (2009)

Documentary - 80 minutes

In the works for over four years, the award-winning Against All The Odds recounts the sometimes gruesome historical events that led to the birth of America's only 'All Black City', as well as taking an insider's look at the important grassroots community efforts that hold this unique city together today. It showcases many of the courageous citizens who work non-stop, in the worst of circumstances, to make their city a better place to live, despite the hopelessness that the outside world sees.

A discussion with director Sandra Pfeifer will follow the screening.

$10.00

6:00 pm - Saturday, October 22, 2011

Figge Art Museum
225 West 2nd Street
Davenport, Iowa

http://www.againstalltheodds.com/home.php

Night of the Living Dead...with Commentary

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Directed by George A. Romero

The Establishment Theatre in Rock Island will feature the classic low-budget horror film Night of the Living Dead...with a twist.  The film soundtrack will feature comedic RIFFTRAX commentary by Mystery Science Theater 3000 veterans Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett.

Friday, October 21, 2011 - 9:30 pm

FREE admission!  Full bar & food menu.

The Establishment Theatre
220 19th Street
Rock Island
309.786.1111

I'm not going to send you to their website because it always snarls my browser! : )

Final QC Area Showings of "Country School: One Room - One Nation"

Kelly and Tammy Rundle's award-winning Country School: One Room - One Nation will screen two final times on September 24 and 25, 2011 in the Quad Cities area.  A Q & A and discussion with the filmmakers follows each show.  A lobby display of one-room school artifacts is also featured at each show.

Out of Many, One -- From immigration issues in early schools to the controversial demise of their widespread use in the 1950s and 1960s, Country School combines visually stunning images of a myriad of restored and decaying buildings--including one designed by Frank Lloyd Wright--with surprising, humorous and heartwarming stories from former teachers and students. More than just nostalgia, Country School also delves into the dark side of the one-room school experience and dispels the myths behind the revered institution that helped bind a young nation together. Powerful on-camera commentary from a who's who of one-room school historians and writers provides insight into lessons learned from the school days and school ways of yesteryear. Multilingual classrooms, guns in school, and the pain of consolidation and closure remind us that the dramatic one-room school story continues to provide insight today (72 minutes).

Read a review and production profile: http://www.rcreader.com/movies/one-room-wonders-country-school/

Buy it on DVD here: http://countryschoolmovie.com/

Or, stop in before or after the shows to purchase a DVD.

Moline Public Library
3210 41st Street
2:30 pm - Saturday, September 24
FREE

German American Heritage Center
712 W. Second Street
Davenport
2:00 pm
Museum members: FREE
General admission: $5.00

See you there!

Attend "The Concert" at the Figge

 
The Concert

120 minutes - 2009 - French & Russian with English subtitles

Directed by Radu Mihaileanu

Starring Aleksey Guskov, Melanie Laurent, Dmitri Nazarov

Thirty years ago, Andrei Filipov was the conductor of the illustrious Bolshoi orchestra until he was fired for using Jewish musicians.  Now he works as a janitor and drinks too much.  But when he intercepts an invitation for the Bolshoi to perform in Paris, Andrei masterminds a plan to gather his own Bolshoi to go in their place in order to make a triumphant return to the music scene.  With a motley bunch of former musicians at his side, Andrei sets off for Paris to fulfill his destiny and return to his glory as a great conductor.  Along the way, he will reunite with a young, beautiful violin virtuoso who holds the key to his past and to his future.

The final film in the 9th Annual Jewish Film Series.

$5.00 - Students FREE

4:00 pm - Sunday, September 18, 2011

Figge Art Museum
225 West 2nd Street
Davenport, Iowa

More information: 309.793.1300

www.JFQC.org

The Thin Man, Happy Land & Pull My Daisy

Happy Land

73 minutes - 1943

Directed by Irving Pichel

Starring: Don Ameche, Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Ann Rutherford, Harry Morgan

Author MacKinley Kantor's inspiring story of an Iowa family coming to grips with the meaning of their son's life and sacrifices.  Don't forget to watch for Natalie Wood's first appearance in a movie!  Shot in Santa Rosa, California the same year as Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt.

Presented by the Quad-Cities Classic Film Society

Suggested donation $3.00

7:00 pm - Saturday, September 17, 2011

Upham Auditorium
Marycrest Senior Campus
1607 West 12th Street
Davenport

Information: 563.391.3502

 

Pull My Daisy

30 minutes - 1959

Directed by Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie

Written by Jack Kerouac

Starring Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Larry Rivers

Based on an incident in the life of Beat icon Neal Cassady and his wife, the painter Carolyn, the film tells the story of a railway brakeman whose wife invites a respectable bishop over for dinner. However, the brakeman's bohemian friends crash the party, with comic results. (Wikipedia)

FREE - with Spoken word poetry open mic

7:00-10:00 pm - Sunday, September 18, 2011

Rozz-Tox
2108 3rd Avenue
Rock Island, Illinois

RozTox.com

The Thin Man

91 minutes - 1931

Directed by W. S. Van Dyke

Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, and Cesar Romero

Grab a martini!  Nick and Nora Charles cordially invite you to bring your own alibi to The Thin Man, the jaunty whodunit that made William Powell and Myrna Loy the champagne elite of sleuthing.  Bantering in the boudoir, enjoying walks with beloved dog Asta or matching each other highball for highball and clue for clue, they combined screwball romance with mystery.  The resulting triumph nabbed four Academy Award nominations and spawned FIVE sequels.

1:00 pm - Monday, September 19, 2011

$3.00 (and that includes a small non-alchoholic drink AND popcorn!!!)

Rave Motion Pictures
3601 East 53rd Street
Davenport, Iowa
563.359.1314

http://www.ravemotionpictures.com/

Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" will Thrill at Rave Theater

Marnie

127 minutes - 1964

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, Vertigo)

Starring Tippi Hedren (The Birds) and Sean Connery (The Man Who Would be King)

Disclaimer:  I am a HUGE fan of Alfred Hitchcock.

I should also admit that my first viewing of Marnie left me a little puzzled.  What was Hitchcock doing?  Was he out of step with the times, or were phoney looking backdrops and goofy tracking shots meant to look fake?  Yes, I think they were.  It's a kind of feature-length dream sequence.  Over time, Marnie has become one of my favorite Hitchcock films precisely because it's so weird.

A brilliant opening sequence, one of Hitchcock's best scenes of suspense (involving a cleaning woman and a mop), and a hypnotic film score by Bernard Herrman (his last for Hitchcock) comprise just a few of my favorite parts of this film. 

From the Rave flier: Hitchcock creates a masterful psychological thriller about a compulsive liar and thief (Hedren), who winds up marrying the man (Connery) she attempts to rob.  When a terrible accident pushes her over the edge, her husband struggles to help her face her demons as the plot races to an inescapable conclusion.

Tickets are only $3.00!  That includes a small soda and popcorn (therapy not included).

1:00 pm - Monday, July 18, 2011

Rave Motion Pictures
3601 East 53rd Street
Davenport, Iowa
563.359.1314

http://www.ravemotionpictures.com/