DCist’s subjective and selective guide to some of the most homegrown and rocking movies playing in town in the coming week.
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Lorri Davis and Damien Echols (Olivia Fougeirol/Sony Pictures Classics)In 1993, the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, was stunned by the horrific murder of three eight-year old boys. Three teenagers were charged with the crime, but they too were victims: a confession had been coaxed out of a mentally challenged teen. Witnesses who confirmed one suspect’s alibi were ignored. Another witness for the prosecution recanted. The West Memphis 3, as they became known, were only released from prison in 2011, and the case has still not been resolved. West of Memphis, which focuses on attempts to free one of the suspects, Damien Echols, is a compelling film. The case was previously told in three HBO documentaries, the Paradise Lost series, which told the story more compellingly, if more sensationally. The filmmakers who have tackled this case differ in more than technique. Director Amy Berg (Deliver us from Evil) argues that the makers of Paradise Lost falsely accused another suspect, replacing one witch hunt with another. The directors of West of Memphis and the Paradise Lost films both weave great drama from the material. One wonders what becomes of the wrongly accused who don’t have the benefit of endorsements from the likes of Henry Rollins, Eddie Vedder and Peter Jackson (who produced this film and appears as a talking head).
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at Landmark E Street Cinema.
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Oskar Matzerath is a precocious boy. He narrates his life story from before his conception, with a vivid view from his mother’s birth canal, which lands him in Danzig in the years just before World War II. Disgusted by the brutality of adults in Nazi Germany, three-year old Oskar refuses to grow up, content to play his titular drum. The National Gallery of Art premieres the director’s cut of Volker Schlöndorff’s adaptation of Günter Grass’s acclaimed novel of magical realism and politics.
View the trailer.
Sunday, January 27 at 4:00 pm at the National Gallery of Art. Free.
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Démodé, courtesy of Jason Lobe.A Positive Force benefit for Mount Pleasant’s Gala Theatre offers two punk-themed featurettes. Local director Jason Lobe premieres his film Démodé, a kind of punk rock neo-noir about a woman returning to D.C. to book a show at an abandoned house. Shown with Grrrl Love and Revolution: Riot Grrl NYC, filmmaker Abby Moser’s document of the intersection of feminism and pop culture in the NYC Riot Grrl movement of the mid 1990s.
View trailers for Démodé and Grrrl Love and Revolution.
Saturday, January 26 at 7pm at Gala Theatre, 3333 14th St NW Washington DC There will be Q and A’s with the filmmakers after each screening and DVDs for sale.
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In this documentary inspired by Larry Diamond’s book The Spirit of Democracy, director Ben Moses (producer of Good Morning Vietnam) follows the inspiring tales of activists working against authoritarian governments in Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Each of the screenings will include a panel discussion with the film’s subjects.
View the trailer.
Tuesday, January 29th at 6:00pm at American University, Ward 1. Wednesday, January 30th at 7:00pm at the National Archives, William G. McGowan Theater. Thursday, January 31st at 6:00pm at The Catholic University of America.
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A Tehran couple hands out money to residents of a poor town, and records their reactions on a cell phone. What begins as a gesture of charity becomes something sinister in director Mani Haghighi’s psychological thriller. Part of the Freer’s Iranian Film Festival.
View the trailer.
Friday, January 25 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, January 27 at 2:00 pm at the Freer. Free.
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Also opening this week, Beware of Mr. Baker, a documentary that looks at the career of legendary drummer Ginger Baker. We’ll have a full review tomorrow.
