F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre announces indie film series lineup running June 5-Sept. 4
From a press release:
In addition to its monthly classic movies series, the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Wilkes-Barre has announced the full lineup for this year’s W. Curtis Montz Film Series.
The W. Curtis Montz Film Series features three documentary films, including “Halston,” the story of the famed fashion house; three foreign films, such as the Oscar-nominated “Shoplifters;” and four independent films, including the biopic “Red Joan” starring Judi Dench and the drama “Tell It to the Bees” starring Anna Paquin and Holliday Grainger.
All films will be screened on Wednesdays in June, July, August, and September. There will be two showings of each film at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the matinee films are only $3, while all evening films are just $5.
Tickets for all 10 films are on sale now and can be purchased at the door on the day of the film, at the Sundance Vacations Box Office at the Kirby Center (71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre), online at kirbycenter.org, and by phone at 570-826-1100.
The Kirby Center has also revealed the lineup of the 2019 “Classic Movies at the Kirby” series, featuring “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” and more. Get the details here.
The W. Curtis Montz Film Series schedule:
Clara (2019, NR) – 105 minutes – June 5 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
“Clara” tells the story of Isaac Bruno, an astronomer consumed by the search for life beyond Earth. Convinced that the universe is a dark and lonely place, Isaac meets Clara, an artist who shares his fascination for the wonders of space. Their unlikely collaboration leads to a deep connection and a profound astronomical discovery.
Shoplifters (2018, R) – 121 minutes – June 12 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.
Halston (2019, NR) – 120 minutes – June 26 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
From Iowa to Studio 54 to Wall Street, Halston lived an American dream. Prodigiously talented, he reigned over fashion in the 1970s, becoming a household name. But everything changes in the Wall Street era. With his empire under threat, Halston takes the biggest gamble of his life.
Red Joan (2019, R) – 110 minutes – July 3 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
In a picturesque village in England, Joan Stanley lives in contented retirement. Then suddenly her tranquil existence is shattered as she’s shockingly arrested by MI5. For Joan has been hiding an incredible past – she is one of the most influential spies in living history. At Cambridge University in the 1930s, the young Joan, a demure physics student, falls intensely in love with a seductively attractive Russian saboteur, Leo. Through him, she begins to see that the world is on a knife-edge and perhaps must be saved from itself in the race to military supremacy. Post-war and now working at a top secret nuclear research facility, Joan is confronted with the impossible: Would you betray your country and your loved ones if it meant saving them? What price would you pay for peace? Inspired by an extraordinary true story, “Red Joan” is the taut and emotional discovery of one woman’s sacrifice in the face of incredible circumstances. A woman to whom we perhaps all owe our freedom.
Dogman (2018, NR) – 102 minutes – July 24 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
In a seaside village on the outskirts of an Italian city, where the only law seems to be survival of the fittest, Marcello is a slight, mild-mannered man who divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bully Simoncino, an ex-boxer who terrorizes the neighborhood. When Simoncino’s abuse finally brings Marcello to a breaking point, he decides to stand up for his own dignity through an act of vengeance, with unintended consequences.
Tell It to the Bees (2019, NR) – 106 minutes – July 31 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Dr. Jean Markham returns to the town she left as a teenager to take over her late father’s medical practice. When a school-yard scuffle lands Charlie in her surgery, she invites him to visit the hives in her garden and tell his secrets to the bees, as she once did. The new friendship between the boy and the bee keeper brings his mother Lydia into Jean’s world. In the sanctuary of the doctor’s house, the two women find themselves drawn to one another in a way that Jean recognizes and fears, and Lydia could never have expected. But, in 1950s small-town Britain, their new secret can’t stay hidden forever.
The Souvenir (2019, R) – 119 minutes – Aug. 7 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
A shy film student begins finding her voice as an artist while navigating a turbulent courtship with a charismatic but untrustworthy man. She defies her protective mother and concerned friends as she slips deeper and deeper into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship which comes dangerously close to destroying her dreams.
Gay Chorus Deep South (2019, NR) – 100 minutes – Aug. 21 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
In response to a wave of discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws in Southern states and the divisive 2016 election, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus embarks on a tour of the American Deep South. Led by Gay Chorus Conductor Dr. Tim Seelig and joined by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the tour brings a message of music, love, and acceptance to communities and individuals confronting intolerance. Over 300 singers traveled from Mississippi to Tennessee through the Carolinas and over the bridge in Selma. They performed in churches, community centers, and concert halls in hopes of uniting us in a time of difference. The journey also challenges Tim and other chorus members who fled the South to confront their own fears, pain, and prejudices on a journey towards reconciliation. The conversations and connections that emerge offer a glimpse of a less divided America, where the things that divide us – faith, politics, sexual identity – are set aside by the soaring power of music, humanity, and a little drag.
Working Woman (2018, NR) – 93 minutes – Aug. 28 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Orna is the mother of three young children with a husband struggling to start his own restaurant. To help support her family, Orna returns to the workplace, landing a job with a former army superior, Benny, who is now a successful real estate developer. While Orna embraces her new position and tries to balance its demands with her home life, she begins to experience escalating sexual harassment from her boss. Her rapid rise through the ranks and her increasing financial success seem to parallel a pattern of predatory behavior which ultimately brings her career and marital relationship to the brink. This timely and devastating story is expertly told by longtime feminist filmmaker Michal Aviad.
Always in Season (2019, NR) – 89 minutes – Sept. 4 – 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother’s search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.
For more information on the film series or any other Kirby event, or to learn how to become a Member of the F.M. Kirby Center, visit kirbycenter.org or call 570-826-1100.
