DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
The Secret Policeman’s Film Festival
In 1979, John Cleese and producer Martin Lewis helped put together a benefit for Amnesty International that featured half the members of Monty Python, a number of UK stand-ups and sketch comedy performers, and an acoustic set from Pete Townsend. The show became the genesis for not only a continuing series of Secret Policeman Balls that continued throughout the past 30 years (under a different name from 1991-2001), but that also inspired numerous similar events from Band Aid to Live Aid to Comic Relief. In addition to raising large amounts of money for Amnesty International, the events have produced dozens of memorable comedic and musical performances.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first ball, the AFI is presenting a five-day festival of films from the balls over the years. Some of these are existing films that were put together at the time, and that have been available on video and DVD for years, while others compile rare clips that haven’t seen the light of day in years into brand new collections put together specifically for the anniversary. Tonight at 6 p.m., the festival kicks off with a free screening of Triumph of the Ball, a 40-minute compilation from across all 30 years of the events, put together specifically for the AFI’s festival. Martin Lewis will be in attendance at this, and a number of future screenings over the next five days.
View a classic John Cleese-Peter Cook sketch from the original 1979 Secret Policeman’s Ball.
Opens tonight at the AFI and runs through December 15. See the schedule for details.
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Solas Nua, the District’s leading purveyor of Irish culture, presented its first film festival within its first year of existence, but the festival only evolved into its current name and structure last year. This year’s lineup has an impressive selection of 15 features and a number of shorts presented over the next ten days. The festival’s biggest coup comes on opening night tonight, when they present the D.C. premiere of theater giant Conor McPherson’s third feature as a film director, The Eclipse, an Irish seaside drama with an element of ghostly horror. Also on the roster is artist Steve McQueen’s directorial debut, Hunger, which had a brief theatrical run in D.C. earlier this year. If you missed it then, don’t let it slip by you again, as this harrowing, haunting account of the imprisonment and hunger strike of prominent IRA figure Bobby Sands is an extraordinary piece of cinema. And there’s plenty more, just check the schedule for the rest.
View the trailer for Hunger.
Opens tonight at E Street and continues through December 20 with screenings there as well as at the Goethe Institut and Fort Fringe. See the schedule for full details.
