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And the Winner Is...!
The Washington, D.C. Film Society Presents its 12th Annual Party
Party with the D.C. Film Society on Sunday, February 29, 2004 at the Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA. Doors will open at 7:15pm; the pre-Oscar show starts at 8:00pm. The real excitement on Arlington Cinema's big screen begins at 8:30pm with the Academy Awards show. Once again, we're lucky to have local film critics Joe Barber and Bill Henry as hosts of our event.
Bid on the silent auction items, win trivia prizes, play "Predict the Winners" contest and grab great movie promotional items. Just think about these silent auction items: romantic dinner and hotel gift certificates, autographed movie posters, including Dirty Pretty Things, Big Fish, 21 Grams and The Barbarian Invasions, movie and theatre tickets, plus raffles, door prizes and more surprises. Bring your cash and your checkbook!
Don't miss out, get your tickets early by mailing your check ($15 for members, $20 for your guests) to the Washington, DC Film Society; ATTN: Oscar tickets; P.O. Box 65992; Washington, D.C. 20035-5992 or call 202-554-3263 for more details on the Hotline. Remember, Gold Card members get in free, so buy some tickets for your friends and family. See you there!
In 2003 DC Film Society members enjoyed previews of these nominated films: Lost in Translation; The Barbarian Invasions with director/writer Denys Arcand in attendance; Dirty Pretty Things with director Stephen Frears; Thirteen, attended by director Catherine Hardwicke; Whale Rider; Cold Mountain with actor Brendan Gleeson; The Cooler; City of God; In America; 21 Grams with actress Melissa Leo; American Splendor; Girl with a Pearl Earring; Big Fish with producer Richard Zanuck in attendance; The Triplets of Belleville and Destino; and Capturing the Friedmans. Nominee Holly Hunter was at the screening of Levity.
Extra! Extra!
Read all about being an extra in the movies!
All of us love going to the movies or we wouldn't be members of the D.C. Film Society. But most of us don't work in the industry. Any one of us could be an extra, though. What's it like to work on a movie set? Wayson Lee, longtime DCFS member and film buff, told Storyboard about his experiences as an extra over the past eight years.
Storyboard: How long have you been working as an extra and how did you get started?
Wayson Lee: Since 1995. I saw a small ad in the Washington Post Style section, called the number in the ad and was told to meet at a Tysons II Mall store. That was for The First Kid. A few years and a few movies later, in 1999, I qualified for and joined the Screen Actor's Guild. Be warned, there's a huge fee to join.
SB: How big is the fee and how do you qualify for the SAG?
WL: Membership rules are changing but for now you need to either (a) work a day as a SAG principal (meaning a main or speaking part) or (b) work three days as a SAG extra plus pay a one-time fee of $1406 (which can be paid in installments). In addition you pay a semiannual fee of $50 and a percentage of your salary.
SB: What is the advantage of being a SAG member?
WL: Better treatment, better pay, sometimes better food. For example, if you work in smokey conditions or if you get wet, or if you don't get a break after six hours or if you work an extremely long day, you would get extra pay. SAG extras get checked out before non-SAG extras. Sometimes SAG extras get hot meals served on real china rather than paper plates. Members can take conservatory classes for a nominal fee--$10 per course or $25 for a year of courses. There are also retirement benefits. Plus, of course, you don't always get hired unless you are a SAG member. For The Minority Report I was called from California about a week before the general casting call. With the internet, casting agents can get information ahead of time--resumes and headshots--and registration can be done online. The SAG publishes an annual list of local casting agents and agencies that hire SAG actors. And, of course, I am on the SAG internet website. But some agents still prefer the old method of photograph and paper resume.
SB: Does SAG membership get you work in television, commercials or non-feature films?
WL: No, that is a different union, the AFTRA (American Federation of TV and Radio Artists). I've auditioned for about half a dozen commercials since 1999 but haven't gotten lucky yet. I prefer the Hollywood movie jobs; there's always a remote chance that the director would like what I do and I'd get upgraded from general extra to another level.
SB: What other levels are there for extras and do they get paid more?
WL: There are general purpose extras, which can be used anywhere. Most of us are general extras. Stand-in extras are selected to stand in the scene for camera angles/lighting adjustments, etc. while the actor is off the set. A specific purpose extra is one that has a special talent--an example would be a trained dancer. Yes, they get paid a little more--maybe $20 extra.
SB: Are there levels above that?
WL: Beyond extra roles are Speaking Roles, Day Players, and Principals.
SB: What is the pay like?
WL: The most I ever made for a day's work was for Something the Lord Made--$491--but that was for a 16 hour day. Most assignments are for just one ten-hour day, although I worked four days on Contact. Mostly the pay is in the $115 a day range.
SB: Do you ever have trouble getting paid?
WL: I never have, not in eight years. That's another benefit of SAG membership--payment in days rather than a month.
SB: How much extra work is there in this area? Can you make a living at it or do you need a day job?
WL: Yes, you could make a living at it although I don't. If you don't mind driving (New York-D.C.-Baltimore-Richmond areas), you could work every day. I know of only a couple of people who do it full time. It's good for someone who's retired or who has a flexible schedule and can conduct business between takes on their cell phone.
SB: Do you appear only in films made on location here or do you travel?
WL: The farthest I have gone for a shoot is Richmond, Virginia (for Cherry Falls). Other extras may drive to Pennsylvania or the Eastern Shore.
SB: What expenses do you incur while working? What expenses are covered?
WL: You have to get yourself to the cast parking. Then a bus shuttles you to the holding area and the set. Sometimes we get paid for the transportation time. Once I stayed overnight at my expense after working until midnight; I was too tired to drive home from Richmond. Some extras get paid air travel, but not me, at least not yet.
SB: What about makeup and clothes? Are you told what to wear?
WL: Sometimes they supply the wardrobe. For Something the Lord Made I was dressed in a Resident's white shirt and pants at Johns Hopkins Hospital. For Minority Report I was fitted in a tuxedo. Sometimes I wear my own clothes. For The Wire I wore my own dark clothes and jacket. They do the makeup. I was given facial hair for Homicide--Life on the Streets. Sometimes I get pancaked, or get dirt put on my face.
SB: What are the other extras like?
WL: Like you and me! (Duh!) Most of them, from the D.C. area, are one-timers, people who saw an ad in the paper and showed up out of curiosity for the casting call.
SB: What advice do you have for aspiring extras?
WL: Keep an eye out for movie extra casting calls in the local papers. Calls have been in DC, Baltimore, Bethesda, Arlington. You can get information on the internet; search for "background actors" or "movie extras." Also, as a member of the Montgomery College Alumni Speakers Bureau, I speak on that topic, "How to Become a Movie Extra," as well as other topics to organizations such as the Kiwanis, Lions, and Rotary Clubs.
SB: That's news to me. How about telling us when the next one open to the public is scheduled and we'll list it in the Storyboard's Calendar of Events?
WL: I just did one (a second visit) at the Kenwood Country Club.
SB: What do they look for when hiring an extra?
WL: Usually they want a certain look--this could be a blend-into-the-crowd look, or a more unusual look, one never knows what they want.
SB: What are your chances of getting hired if you show up for a casting call?
WL: Reasonably good. At one casting call I went to 6,000 people showed up and 4,000 were hired. If you have the look they want, you get the job.
SB: Four thousand people, that's a lot. What sort of diversity is there in the casting?
WL: Not all 4,000 actually got used. For Head of State, I worked six days but when the production people viewed the dailies, they started noticing me too much and so I didn't get hired another day for that project. Extras need to be seen but not recognized. We are background; we are supposed to blend in. Typically extras get only two or maybe three days on the set. SAG rules require a certain ratio of SAG to non-SAG extras, so it's possible I would not be hired if they needed more non-SAG extras. As far as diversity, according to the Fall 2003 Screen Actor's Guild Magazine, African Americans make up 15.5%, Latinos 6%, Asians 2.5% and Native Americans .02%.
SB: Who do you deal with as an extra?
WL: First of course are the casting agents who call you and cast you in a role. It helps that I'm a SAG member and listed on the Internet. As mentioned earlier, I was called from California for Minority Report for a crowd scene shot in a Washington, D.C. hotel, the interior of which was redressed for the film. The makeup people might trim your hair or apply hair, makeup or dirt. The wardrobe director decides on the clothes. The Production Assistants place the extras and tell them what to do. The Assistant Directors are the arms and legs of the director and carry out the director's orders. The Director rarely walks on the set, or at least not in the movies I've worked on with only one exception.
SB: Could you tell us what a typical day of work is like for an extra? Is there a lot of waiting around?
WL: The typical day starts at 7:00am and runs to 5:00pm, although I have started at 8:00am, 6:00pm, and even midnight. You wait in a room called "holding," often just a room near the set. Yes, there is a lot of waiting around and days and nights can be long. That's when I catch up on my reading and napping. Makeup and wardrobe people check things out. The Production Assistant is your director, he or she tells you what to do. They get their instructions from the director via walkie-talkie headsets about what the extras are to do. You may kneel and take a picture. Light a cigarette in a bar. Run a few steps. Move from here to there. Stand here or stand there. Mouth the words but don't talk. (Extras don't speak, that would be a different pay structure). After rehearsals, they call for "Quiet on the Set," "Background action" (that's the extras' movement), "Roll film," and when the scene is over, "Cut and back to one," meaning stop filming and return to where you started.
SB: Have you ever worked outside on the street? Is it cordoned off so that casual passersby can't ruin the scene?
WL: Yes I have. In all the films I have worked in, all the people in the background are extras. It's an absolute no-no to look directly at the camera. I did once on a shoot for The District, was yelled at and didn't get called back to work another day on that project. Security monitors the perimeter of the set to keep outsiders away.
SB: Tell us about some of the movies you were in and what you did in them.
WL: Most extras are used in crowd scenes. In my pre-SAG days, I was in Contact and The Wire in crowd scenes. In Mars Attacks I was a runner in the panic scenes of the movie; in Head of State a disgruntled train passenger; in Cherry Falls a concerned parent; in The Replacements a hot dog vendor. I've also been a prisoner, a beer drinker lighting a cigarette in a bar, a reporter, a Congressperson, a cameraman, and as mentioned earlier, a Resident in Johns Hopkins Hospital.
SB: That's a lot. How many films have you been in? Do you have a filmography?
WL: I've worked over 35 days in eight years. The Wire, Contact, The West Wing, The District, The Corner, Homicide, Housemates, Mars Attacks, Washington Square, Shot in the Heart, Air Force One, Cherry Falls, Head of State, The District, The Replacements, Something the Lord Made.....
SB: Can you always see yourself in the films?
WL: Most extras end up on the cutting room floor. But so far, I've been able to see myself twice: in The West Wing I'm a tourist taking a picture and in Head of State I'm a disturbed-looking train passenger.
SB: Do you find yourself looking at movies in a different way? For example, do you notice the extras more (even if you aren't one of them) or notice camera work, special effects, or production techniques that the rest of us might not be aware of if we haven't worked on a set?
WL: Absolutely. I always look for the credits at the end of the film to see if the Maryland Film Commission or Virginia Film Commission is listed, or for casting companies that I could be working for. I look for other extras in the film that I might know to see what they do.
SB: It sounds like fun.
WL: Yes! I love being a movie extra! We give the project realism and create atmosphere for the actors. It's amazing to see how it is done. Making a movie and being in a movie is a lot different than I thought. But now I know how and why they do things the way they do. We truly have the best of both worlds--we get to participate in the making of a movie and get paid for being there.
SB: Thanks and we'll see you in the movies.
The Rotterdam International Film Festival
By James McCaskill
ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS. The International Film Festival Rotterdam closed with three showings of The Girl with a Pearl Earring, (currently still playing in our town). That is fitting for this film as The Netherlands has three Oscar nominations (Ben Os and Celile Heideman for art direction and Dien van Straalen for costume design) in it.
Rotterdam continues its passionate support of film with the Hubert Bals fund and their work with the Prince Klaus fund assists filmmakers year round. If you are buying British silver the stamped hallmarks are an assurance of excellence. Likewise, the Hubert Bals Fund credit gives that same assurance on film. Recent HBF supported films that garnered international acclaim, including the Academy Award nominated Fuse (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Osama (Afghanistan) and Uzak (Turkey). Divine Intervention (Palestine) as also picked up major awards. Silent Waters went on to win the Golden Leopard in Locarno. Osama won a 2004 Golden Globe. This year more films are being supported than ever before. Applications have increased with 350 seeking assistance compared with 250 last year. The fund has an annual budget of just over a million dollars.
Must See List: Six films in this year's festival are at the top of the heap. That does not count several films I saw in Edinburgh (September 2003 Storyboard) or Ron and I saw in Toronto (November 2003 Storyboard). The films are: Distant (Uzak, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey 2003), The Last Train (Alexei A. German, Russia 2003), November (Noviembre, Achero Manas, Spain 2003), Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. . . and Spring (Kim Ki-Duk, Korea, 2003), Story of the Weeping Camel (Byzmbasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni, Mongolia/Germany 2003) and Zatoichi (Takeshi Kitano, Japan 2003). Interviews with Luigi Falorni and Takeshi Kitano will appear in future Storyboards. Spring, Summer. . ., Weeping Camel and Zatoichi were previously reported in our Toronto article.
Excellent and Recommended: Code 46 (Michael Winterbottom, UK, 2004), The First Letter (Abolfazi Jalili, Iran/France 2003), Osama (Barmak Sedigh. Afghanistan 2003), Tehran 7.00am (Amir Shahab Razavian, Iran 2003), and The Wooden Camera (Ntshaveni WaLuruli, South Africa/France/UK 2003). Code 46 is scheduled for an August release in the US and we'll have an interview with Michael Winterbottom then. An interview with WaLuruli and Zeka Laplaine will appear in a future Storyboard article on African film.
Very Good: The Garden (Le jardin de papa, Laplaine, Congo/France), How I Killed a Saint (Kako ubiv svetec, Teona S. Mitevska, Macedonia/Slovenia/France, 2004) The Land Has Eyes (Vilsoni Hereniko, Fiji/USA 2004), Summer in the Golden Valley (Ljeto uzlatnoj dolini, Srdjan Vuletic, Bosnia-Herzogovinia/France/UK 2003).
Films that did not impress included: Atlas (All the Weight of the World), (Olo to varos tou Kosmou, Thanos Anastopoulos, Greece 2003), Anatomy of Hell (Anatomie de l'enfer, Catherine Breillat, France, 2004), Grand Ecole (Robert Salis, France, 2004), Young Gods (Hymypoika, J-P Siili, Finland 2003).
Synopses of Favorite Films
Distant (Uzak) is a superbly directed, written and shot film that explores human relationships. Beginning with the moving opening sequence of Yusuf (Emin Toprak) leaving his rural village to look for work in Istanbul and staying with a relative, the introspective photographer Mahmut (Muzaffer Ozdemir), continuing with the sparse dialogue and a heart rendering sequence where the shy Mahmut hides behind pillars to watch his divorced wife leave for Canada with her new husband the films shows the amazing talent of the young director. Sadly Emin Toprak was killed in a traffic accident shortly after making this film. While not everyone will appreciate the minimalist aspects of this film it represents the best of current European films.
The Last Train was an unheralded film that had its World Premiere at Rotterdam. It may have been unknown before coming here but will not be in the future. The film deservedly picked up the Amnesty International film of the year award. This black and white film will take its place along side All Quiet on the Western Front as an anti-war film. Set in German occupied Russia during the winter of 1944. A German surgeon, Paul Fistchback (Pavel Romanov) arrives at a military hospital just as it is being evacuated before an expected Russian counter attack. The director says he was influenced to make this film, his first feature length film, because of events in his own family during World War II. "While my grandmother and mother were transferred in a cargo wagon to Germany the train stopped, a German soldier disobeyed army laws and let them out of the wagon. Thus, he saved their lives. Approximately at the same time, my grandfather--a Soviet army soldier died, shot by the Nazis. That's the way it was... I decided to make this movie because of the Germany who saved my relatives," he continued. "The movie was suppose to be about a division of Third Reich soldiers stationed at the East Front; about those who did not willfully choose to go to war. However as I was writing the screenplay the plot changed, and the movie turned into a story about a German doctor who was a kind man unwilling to accept the idea of war. The type of man who would always, in any war, be doomed to die without ever firing a bullet to hit another man. The movie is about intelligent people who were forced to fight and in the end absolutely senselessly and futilely die."
November is loosely based on the Spanish theater group El Piojo Picon that was active in Madrid in the years of sudden freedom just after Franco. The film, told in faux documentary style, has elderly actors looking back on their lives in the 1990s. They tell their story and of their friend, Alfredo. It was a time of intense idealism; a time when the young actors were fed up with the tradition bound acting school and left to make street theater. They formed the theater group "November" and developed their anti-capitalistic manifest: Take no money for our work. It the streets they interact with the people and the police.
The Wooden Camera. Sometimes fate sends lives spiraling out of control. Two young black boys are playing near railroad tracks when a man falls from the train, dead. One boy picks up a video camera and the other a gun. "We knew it would be difficult using children and not have a children's story," the director, Ntshaveni WaLuruli, told me. "We had to have kids who could carry the whole film. This one had to be made in English so these kids had to speak English which added another problem. In the townships the kids don't speak English, they speak their mother tongue. So we had to look for them in private schools. In South Africa the black middle-class speak the Queen's English not the languages spoken in the townships. The only kids we could find were 16-17 years old and that was too old. The actors had to be 10-14. It took about eight searchings to find them, becoming a problem as deadlines were coming closer. Asked a friend, a well known casting director, to find the kids. She had always wanted to work with me. Shortly afterwards she walked in with these 3 kids who were perfect: Jean-Pierre Cassel, Junior Singo and Dana de Argella. The boys study in the suburbs but live in the townships, that was perfect for me. They had never acted before. I had a week to workshop with them. Just to make friends with them. First couple of weeks they were nervous. In the end they became little professionals. Junior was a model to work with. I look at them and wonder what next? Junior is now making Country of My Skull with Samuel L. Jackson. He plays Jackson's son. In The Wooden Camera the street kids are real street kids. They were my advisors. They made it real. They are back there. The film gave them an opportunity to be somebody but they are back in the townships. They have not seen the film. I'm going on to Berlin but wish they were here rather than me because they are the true makers of the film." Further details on The Wooden Camera and WaLurulil's career will be in the upcoming article on African film.
Audiences at the IFFR named Italian director Marco Tullio Giordana's monumental six hour epic film, La Meglio Gioventu (The Best of Youth) as Best Film. Giordana also received 5,000 euros. Taiwanese filmmaker Lee Kang-sheng became the biggest winner of IFFR 2004 by taking the VPRO Tiger Awards, the KNF Award of the Dutch film critics and the NETPAC Award of the Best Asian festival title for The Missing. The two other VPRO Tiger Award recipients are the German film Unterwegs (En Route) by Jan Krüger and the Hubert Bals Fund supported Bosnian film Summer in the Golden Valley by Srjdan Vuletic. Summer in the Golden Valley also took the young people jury's MovieZone Award.
The festival has ended. Red carpets rolled up and stored until next January and the film crowd, like the Gypsies who had a featured selection (Once We Were Birds: Romani Cinema) here, takes off for Berlin.
It's not to early to make plans for the 34th IFFR. That takes place from Wednesday January 26 to Sunday February 6, 2005.
Calendar of Events
FILMS
American Film Institute Silver Theater
In February the AFI continues its French film serie, including films starring Jeanne Moreau (who will make several appearances at the AFI), films by Alain Resnais, a series of 8 new French films, and week-long runs of Au Hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966), Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) and Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960). In addition, there is a series of films by Steven Soderbergh, and films by Jerzy Kawalerowicz including the new Quo Vadis (2001). To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cary Grant's birthday are some of Cary's best-loved films including all the Hitchcock collaborations. Premieres include Neapolitan Heart (Paolo Santoni, 2002), Carnival Roots (Peter Chelkowski and Jason Benjamin, 2003), Robot Stories (Greg Pak, 2003), ABC Africa (Abbas Kiarostami, 2003). Revivals include a restored print of the Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964). Check the website for other goodies including a series of films starring Russell Crowe and films starring Denzel Washington.
American Film Institute at the Kennedy Center
The AFI at the Kennedy Center shows several of the French films also being shown at the Silver Theater. Check the website for details.
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer concludes its Iranian film series in February with Letters in the Wind (Alireza Amini, 2002) on February 1 at 2:00pm; Tehran 7:00am (Amir-Shahab Razavian, 2003) on February 6 at 7:00pm and February 8 at 2:00pm; and Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002) on February 13 at 7:00pm and February 15 at 2:00pm. A program of Iranian cartoons is on February 14 at 3:00pm.
National Gallery of Art
The Gallery concludes its series of Danish films, both new and old with Open Hearts (Susanne Bier, 2002) on February 1 at 4:30pm, Temptations of a Great City (August Blom, 1910) shown with The Right of Youth (August Blom 1917) and Lady of Our Time (Edvard Schnedler-Sorensen, 1912) on Febuary 7 at 3:30pm; The White Slave (August Blom, 1910) shown with The Four Devils (Robert Dinesen, Alfred Lind, Carl Rosenbaum, 1911) and The Great Circus Catastropher (Edard Schnedler-Sorensen, 1912) on February 8 at 4:00pm; Fra Piazza del Poppolo (Anders Wilhelm Sandberg, 1925) on February 14 at 2:30pm; and Once Upon a Time (Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1922) on February 15 at 4:30pm.
A two-part program of films from "The Flaherty," an annual seminar of filmmakers, critics, students, and scholars, begins on February 21 at 2:30pm with short films including An Engineer's Assistant (Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1963), An Injury to One (Travis Wilkerson, 2002), Company Town (James Rutenbeck, 1984), On the Road: The Document (Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1964), The Trickle Down Theory of Sorrow (Mary Filippo, 2003), Zyklon Portrait (Elida Schogt, 1999), and Wait, It's the Soldiers, I'll Hang Up Now (Avi Mograbi, 2003). On February 22 at 4:30pm is Shiranuhi Sea (Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1974).
Art films in February include John Constable (Leslie Parris, 1991) on February 11, 12, and 13 at 12:30pm and Colors of Music--David Hockney and the Opera (Seth Schneidman and Maryte Kavaliauskas, 2002) on February 26 and 27 at 12:30pm and February 29 at 4:30pm.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
On February 26 at 8:00pm is I Put a Spell on Me: The Life and Times of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Nicholas Triandafyllidis, 2001), a documentary about the boxer-turned-bluesman whose stage act inspired Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson.
National Museum of African Art
On February 5 at 7:00pm is Black Indians (2000) shown with A Son of Africa (1996), followed by a discussion; on February 8 at 2:00pm and February 12 at 7:00pm is Black Russians (Kara Lynch, 2001), a feature-length documentary about Africans born and raised in Soviet Russia; and on February 19 at 7:00pm and February 22 at 2:00pm is Life on Earth (Abderrahmane Sissako, 1998), a fictional documentary about daily life in Mali.
Museum of American History
On February 18 at 7:00pm is The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940) introduced by National Portrait Gallery historian Amy Henderson.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
A series of six films by Spanish women directors will be featured in February. The films are My Mother Likes Women (Daniela Fejerman and Ines Paris, 2002) a comedy about three sisters who discover their mother has fallen in love with a woman pianist on February 15, preceded by two shorts; Hello, Are You Alone? (Iciar Bollain, 1995) on Febuary 18 ; Between Reds (Azucena Rodriguez, 1995) on February 20; Flowers from Another World (Iciar Bollain, 1999) on February 22; I Have a House (Monica Laguna, 1996) on February 25; and The Impatient Alchemist (Patricia Ferreira, 2002), a police detective thriller on February 29. All films begin at 7:00pm and all are preceded by a short film.
DC Jewish Community Center
On February 10 at 7:00pm is F*cked Up Generation (Tomer Heymann, 2003), about rock star Aviv Geffen, followed by a performance by Israeli singer/songwriter Nefrit El-Or.
Goethe Institute
On February 2 at 6:30pm is Bye Bye America (Jan Schutte, 1993) and on February 9 at 6:30pm is Dragon Chow (Jan Schutte, 1987). No Place to Go (Oskar Roehler, 2000) is on February 23 at 6:30pm.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
On February 26 at 3:30pm is a film screening of Europa, Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990). Solomon Perel, the subject of Europa, Europa will be interviewed at 7:00pm by Joan Ringelheim, the museum's Director of Oral History. Perel will discuss his dangerous disguise and what it meant to befriend those who would kill him. Following the interview, Perel will sign copies of his memoir. Call 202-488-0407 for reservations.
National Geographic Society
A "Mars Film Festival" takes place on February 27. At 6:00pm is Devil Girl from Mars (David MacDonald, 1954); at 7:30pm is Invaders From Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953); and at 9:00pm is War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 1953).
National Museum of Natural History
A series of films about the Gullah, on February 7 at 1:00pm include The Strength of These Arms: White Rice Black Labor (1987), When Rice Was King (1990) and God's Gonna Trouble the Water (1997) about Gullah music. On February 13 at noon is a talk by filmmakers Judy Fieth and Michael Male about their expeiences in filming birds, including clips from their videos.
Smithsonian Associates
A four-part series "At the Movies With Desson Thomson" begins February 14 and continues February 28, March 13 and March 27, from 11:00am to 2:00pm. Watch a surprise movie with Desson Thomson and talk about it afterwards.
FILM FESTIVALS
