QC Film Blog

Compelling "Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border" screens Aug. 11 at Putnam

Screening at the Putnam Museum on the Giant Screen Sunday, August 11th at 2 p.m. Director Rodrigo Reyes, Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border. Admission is FREE.

This 2013 documentary takes a look into the Mexico/U.S. Border while following the story of Dante Alighieri’s “Purgatory.” Leaving politics aside, Reyes takes a fresh look at the brutality of the border and the people caught in its spell. By capturing a stunning mosaic of compelling characters and broken landscapes, the filmmaker reflects on the flaws of human nature and the powerful absurdities of the modern world. An unusual border film, in the auteur tradition of camera-stylo, Purgatorio ultimately becomes a fable of humanity, an epic and visceral experience with powerful and lingering images.

A Q&A with director Rodrigo Reyes will follow the film. The documentary is brought to us by Good Docs. 

This event is strictly 18+ due to the graphic nature of this film. This includes, but is not limited to, substance use, violence, and death. Viewer discretion is advised. The Putnam Museum is located at 1717 W 12th St, Davenport, IA.

 

When you want to see great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area, visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.

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"Who Are The Marcuses" screens March 3 for QC Environmental Film Series Final Film

Screening this Sunday, March 3 at 3pm at the Figge Art Museum, WHO ARE THE MARCUSES?--the final film in the QC Environmental Film Series. We recommend arriving early, as the film screenings have been standing room only! Visit RiverAction.org to order your tickets in advance. Co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities.

 

Film Threat wrote: Who Are the Marcuses? is the year's “great documentary” (Film Threat) uncovers a mysterious Long Island couple whose half a billion-dollar gift inspires peace and climate action through water tech. Featuring Warren Buffett, Ellen Marcus, Pres. Isaac Herzog, Seth M.

 

More information about the event can be found here!

 

The QC Environmental Film Series' mission is to bring inspirational and educational environmental films to our community encouraging grassroots activism in care of our planet and environmental justice.

When you want to see great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area, visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.

 

"Vishniac" presented at Figge by JFQC and TFFA Nov. 19

“All this life, it’s so important to look closer, and the world will be bigger.” Roman Vishniac

Truth First Film Alliance is proud to be a co-sponsor of the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities' Gordon Ney Jewish Film Series presentation of the award-winning documentary Vishniac by Laura Bialis.

"...breathtaking and exceptionally well-crafted documentary about Russian-Jewish photographer Roman Vishniac (1897–1990) captures his transformation from a free-spirited scientist in Berlin to one of the world’s greatest photographers." San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

From the cosmopolitan streets of pre-war Berlin to the shtetls in Poland and Lithuania to the Princeton offices of Albert Einstein, Vishniac takes viewers on a journey, through the lens of one of the foremost photographers of the 20th century. Roman Vishniac is best known for having traversed Eastern Europe from 1935 through 1938, on assignment for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, to photograph Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Few predicted that less than a decade later, these communities would be wiped out, and that Vishniac’s photographs would provide the last visual records of an entire world.

The 90-minute documentary screens on Sunday, November 19th at 4:00 p.m. at the Figge Art Museum Theater, 225 W. 2nd Street in Davenport, Iowa.  Admission: Adults - $7; Seniors (60+) & Military - $6; Students - FREE. For info call (309) 793-1300.

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Truth First Film Alliance, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports and encourages the production and exhibition of documentary films, and narrative films based on true stories, through public presentations and educational programs in the Quad Cities region. For more information, visit TruthFirstFilmAlliance.org.

QC Connection to First Computer Coming to Augie Program February 23

Art by Bruce Walters.

Story by Jonathan Turner, WHBF-TV4
OurQuadCities.com

Was the first electronic digital computer invented in downtown Rock Island?

That mystery has never been clearly solved, but the fateful 1937 winter night — when John Vincent Atanasoff drove from Iowa State in Ames to the Quad Cities — is a key part of a documentary that will be shown at Rock Island’s Augustana College.

A free program, “The Birth of the Computer,” will be presented Feb. 23, 2023 at 6 p.m. at Wallenberg Hall, 3520 7th Ave., Rock Island. In addition to showing of the 2013 film “Atanasoff: Father of the Computer,” featuring an introduction by Truth First Film Alliance Co-Executive Director Kelly Rundle, scheduled speakers will include:

• Dr. Ashfaq Khokar, chairman of Iowa State University’s electrical and computer engineering department.
• Shawn Beattie, Augustana’s Information Technology manager.
• Mark Ridolfi, managing editor of the North Scott Press.

The program is presented by the nonprofit Truth First Film Alliance, the Rock Island Public Library and Davenport Public Library.

In the winter months of 1937, Atanasoff — then an assistant professor in mathematics and physics at Iowa State College in Ames — traveled to Rock Island, where he conceptualized the first digital computer, according to a Rock Island Library event summary. The Wallenberg Hall event will “retrace Dr. Atanasoff’s road trip to destiny that fateful night,” it says.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY at OurQuadCities.com Here!

When you want to see great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area, visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.

"The Loyola Project" Showcased Jan. 26 & Feb. 4 at St. Ambrose Galvin Fine Arts Center

The Notre Dame Club of the Quad-Cities and the Galvin Fine Arts Center at St. Ambrose University will present "The Loyola Project", an independently produced documentary film by O’Malley Creadon Productions on Thursday, January 26th at 7:00 p.m. and on Saturday, February 4th at 3:00 p.m. at the Galvin Fine Arts Center at St. Ambrose University, 518 West Locust Street, Davenport, Iowa.

 

"A Q&A session will follow the screening to spark meaningful conversations about how the messages in the film relate to our current day struggles in our daily lives whether it be in the workplace, in our schools or in our community with regards to racial discrimination will follow each showing," according to the production company website.

 

The film screening and Q&A are FREE and open to the public.

 

Synopsis: At a time when it was uncommon for college basketball teams to play more than three Black players at any one time, the 1963 Loyola University Chicago Ramblers started four Black players and won the NCAA championship. This team not only revolutionized the way college basketball was played, but also battled and overcame extreme racism both on and off the court. "The Loyola Project", is a documentary film by O’Malley Creadon Productions.

 

 

When you want to see great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area, visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.

BIX: "Ain't none of them play like him yet" Screens July 31 at Figge Art Museum

For the first time in the Quad Cities since its original release in 1981, BIX: "ain't none of them play like him yet" (newly restored) will screen at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, July 31st at the Figge Art Museum, 225 W 2nd St, Davenport, IA 52801 in the John Deere Auditorium.

Tickets are $5 and available at the door the day of the screening. Members of the Bix Museum or Bix Society can get a free ticket at the door the day of the show. Seating is limited.

Film Synopsis: Cornetist / pianist / composer Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was jazz's man who got away - the James Dean, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain of his day. Born in Davenport, Iowa into an upper middle-class family, Beiderbecke became a legend even in his short lifetime, bringing an amazing new energy and unprecedented maturity to the music and influencing generations of musicians. After a bout battling alcoholism, Bix died in Sunnyside, Queens on August 6, 1931. The cause of death was lobar pneumonia. He was 28. 

Using archival photographs and rare footage (including the three sole momentary fragments capturing Bix on film) and interviews with friends and colleagues (including jazz greats Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham, Artie Shaw, et al.), Oscar® winner Brigitte Berman's acclaimed documentary paints a vivid portrait of a vanished era and brings to life the only cornetist Louis Armstrong regarded as an equal (the quotation in the film's title was once spoken by Armstrong).

New restoration by Oren Edenson with fully remastered soundtrack by Daniel Pellerin.

This special film event is sponsored by the Bix Beiderbecke Museum, the Bix Jazz Society,  and Truth First Film Alliance.

 

 

 

"Bix" Documentary Screens at the Figge July 31 for Bix Jazz Festival

WHBF's reporter Jonathan Turner shared some exciting news on OurQuadCities.com today. And we share the good news with you!

A week before the 2022 Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, the Bix Museum and World Archives and Bix Jazz Society will present a public screening of the newly restored documentary “BIX: ‘Ain’t None of Them Play Like Him Yet.”

The film will be shown Sunday, July 31st at 1 p.m. in the Figge Art Museum auditorium, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. Tickets will be $5, and members of the Bix Museum or Bix Society can get a free ticket at the doors the day of the screening.

The showing will be the first QC look since the doc’s original release, and its 2020 restoration in 4K by filmmaker Brigitte Berman. She is known for her film, “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” (1985), which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary (feature).

Director Brigitte Berman.

Cornetist / pianist / composer Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was jazz’s man who got away — the James Dean, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain of his day, according to a Bix Museum release.

Born in Davenport into an upper middle-class family, Beiderbecke became a legend even in his short lifetime, bringing an amazing new energy and unprecedented maturity to the music and influencing generations of musicians. After years of battling alcoholism, Bix died in Sunnyside, Queens, N.Y. on August 6, 1931. The cause of death was given as lobar pneumonia. He was 28.

Read the rest of the story HERE!

 

When you want to see great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area, visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.

 

 

QC's Truth First Film Alliance brings award-winning documentary & filmmaker to Figge June 4

By Jonathan Turner
OurQuadCities/WHBF

Director/writer David O’Shields will appear with his award-winning documentary “America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie” for a special Truth First Film Alliance event at the Figge Art Museum on Saturday, June 4 at 2 p.m.

O’Shields will take part in a Q & A session following the 60-minute film in the museum auditorium, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. The special National Prairie Day event is free to the public and sponsored by Living Lands and Waters, Produce Iowa, and the Northwest Illinois Film Office.

“America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie” tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history, according to a release from Truth First Film Alliance (TFFA).

Prior to Euro-American settlement in the 1820s, one of the major landscape features of North America was 240 million acres of tallgrass prairie. But between 1830 and 1900, in the space of a single lifetime, the tallgrass prairie was steadily transformed to farmland. This drastic change in the landscape also brought about an enormous social change for Native Americans; in an equally short time their cultural imprint was reduced in essence to a handful of place-names appearing on maps, the release said.

Read the rest of Turner's WHBF story HERE.

The Figge Art Museum is located at 225 West 2nd Street in Davenport, Iowa. This is the second public program sponsored by Truth First Film Alliance, Inc.

Truth First Film Alliance, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports and encourages the production and exhibition of documentary films, and narrative films based on true stories, through public presentations and educational programs in the Quad Cities region. For more information, visit TruthFirstFilmAlliance.org.

This special film event is sponsored by:

  

By Jonathan Turner
OurQuadCities/WHBF

Director/writer David O’Shields will appear with his award-winning documentary “America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie” for a special Truth First Film Alliance event at the Figge Art Museum on Saturday, June 4 at 2 p.m.

O’Shields will take part in a Q & A session following the 60-minute film in the museum auditorium, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. The special National Prairie Day event is free to the public and sponsored by Living Lands and Waters, Produce Iowa, and the Northwest Illinois Film Office.

“America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie” tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history, according to a release from Truth First Film Alliance (TFFA).

Prior to Euro-American settlement in the 1820s, one of the major landscape features of North America was 240 million acres of tallgrass prairie. But between 1830 and 1900, in the space of a single lifetime, the tallgrass prairie was steadily transformed to farmland. This drastic change in the landscape also brought about an enormous social change for Native Americans; in an equally short time their cultural imprint was reduced in essence to a handful of place-names appearing on maps, the release said.

Read the rest of Turner's WHBF story HERE.

The Figge Art Museum is located at 225 West 2nd Street in Davenport, Iowa. This is the second public program sponsored by Truth First Film Alliance, Inc.

Truth First Film Alliance, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports and encourages the production and exhibition of documentary films, and narrative films based on true stories, through public presentations and educational programs in the Quad Cities region. For more information, visit TruthFirstFilmAlliance.org.

This special film event is sponsored by:

  

By Jonathan Turner
OurQuadCities/WHBF

Director/writer David O’Shields will appear with his award-winning documentary “America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie” for a special Truth First Film Alliance event at the Figge Art Museum on Saturday, June 4 at 2 p.m.

O’Shields will take part in a Q & A session following the 60-minute film in the museum auditorium, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. The special National Prairie Day event is free to the public and sponsored by Living Lands and Waters, Produce Iowa, and the Northwest Illinois Film Office.

“America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie” tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history, according to a release from Truth First Film Alliance (TFFA).

Prior to Euro-American settlement in the 1820s, one of the major landscape features of North America was 240 million acres of tallgrass prairie. But between 1830 and 1900, in the space of a single lifetime, the tallgrass prairie was steadily transformed to farmland. This drastic change in the landscape also brought about an enormous social change for Native Americans; in an equally short time their cultural imprint was reduced in essence to a handful of place-names appearing on maps, the release said.

Read the rest of Turner's WHBF story HERE.

The Figge Art Museum is located at 225 West 2nd Street in Davenport, Iowa. This is the second public program sponsored by Truth First Film Alliance, Inc.

Truth First Film Alliance, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports and encourages the production and exhibition of documentary films, and narrative films based on true stories, through public presentations and educational programs in the Quad Cities region. For more information, visit TruthFirstFilmAlliance.org.

This special film event is sponsored by:

  

"Hemingway" preview hosted by WQPT April 2 at Bluegrass Drive-In

WQPT hosts a special FREE preview screening of Ken Burns new documentary HEMINGWAY at the Bluegrass Drive-In, Friday, April 2nd at 8:00pm. The 30-minute preview of the film will kick off the evening. (The full three-part, six-hour documentary is available on the PBS Video App Monday, April 5th.)

 

Students and teachers who attend the event receive free SWAG and the opportunity to win a Kindle Fire HD Tablet and other cool prizes!

 

SHARKNADO will screen after HEMMINGWAY.  Tickets are limited. Reserve yours at www.wqpt.org/hemingway.

 

 

When you want to see great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area, visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.

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Hero Street films presented online November 10th in honor of Veterans Day

The Moline Public Library will showcase Fourth Wall Films’ two new documentaries Riding the Rails to Hero Street and A Bridge too Far from Hero Street  during an virtual screening event on Tuesday, November 10 2:00-3:30 p.m. Producers Kelly and Tammy Rundle will take part in an online Q&A following the films.

Registation is required. To sign up, visit the November 10 event on the MPL calendar at molinelibrary.com/events or call 309-524-2470.

Riding the Rails to Hero Street explores the immigrants’ journey from Mexico to the Quad Cities segregated communities of Cook’s Point in Davenport, Holy City in Bettendorf, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad yard in Silvis, Illinois. Featured interviews include Latino Studies professor Brian Behnken of Iowa State University and Marc Wilson, the author of “Hero Street, U.S.A.”

A Bridge too Far from Hero Street  tells the story of Pvt. William “Willie” Sandoval who was assigned to Co. F, 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and became part of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden plan. The day after his 21st birthday, Willie was one of 20,000 paratroopers who leapt into the sky over German-occupied Holland on September 17, 1944.

Only a block and a half long, Hero Street in Silvis, Illinois lost six young men in World War II and two in the Korean War, more than any other street in America of any size. Hero Street has provided over 100 American military service members since World War II.

The Rundles’ Hero Street proposed ten-part documentary series, will explore the personal and family sagas behind each of the eight heroes and tell an unforgettable true story of American courage, character, and perseverance. Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT) was the first film created for the series, and it received a Mid-America Emmy-nomination. “Letters Home” is available with lesson plans to teachers nation-wide via the PBS Learning Media website.

Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning and regional Emmy-nominated independent film production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.

Through its fiscal sponsor the Moline Foundation, the Hero Street documentary film series received partial funding from the Regional Development Authority (RDA), Illinois Arts Council, the Illinois Humanities, Humanities Iowa, National Endowment for the Humanities, Quad City Arts Dollars—provided by Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation and John Deere, the Quad Cities Community Foundation, LULAC Iowa, Mexican American Veterans Association, the City of Silvis, and individual contributors. The project also received a production grant from the Moline Foundation. The views and opinions expressed by these films do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.

To order the DVD for Riding the Rails to Hero Street  or A Bridge too Far from Hero Street or Fourth Wall Films' Emmy-nominated and award-winning film Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT), CLICK HERE!