Popcorn & Candy is DCist’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
—
Nuri Funas at Ouagadougou Conference Center in Sirte, Libya. (Matt VanDyke)In 2006, mild-mannered Baltimore native Matt VanDyke took off for Northern Africa and the Middle East in search of adventure and his manhood. He embarked on a 35,000 mile motorcycle trip, armed with just a videocamera. Then he happened upon the Libyan revolution, and picked up a gun to fight along with his new friends until he was captured by Gaddafi forces. Director Marshall Curry and Matthew VanDyke will appear in person at the E Street Cinema on Saturday, November 29 for a Q&A after the 7:45 p.m. show.
View the trailer.
Opens today at E Street Landmark Cinema
—
The French coming-of-age film GIRLHOOD screens December 4 and 6.The AFI’s annual European Union Film Showcase is now in its 27th year, and even before FilmFest DC packed it up, it has been the area’s best film festival for new and challenging cinema. The showcase opens next week with Warsaw Uprising, director Jan Komasa’s non-fiction narrative of the 1944 Polish uprising against Nazi occupiers. This year’s highlights include previews of upcoming art-house fodder like director Mike Leigh’s biopic Mr. Turner (December 7) and and the Dardenne brothers’ Two Days, One Night (December 12 and 14).
View the trailer for Girlhood (December 4 and 6)
December 3 to 21 at the AFI Silver. See the complete festival schedule here.
—
A conservative Oklahoma family is devastated by the suicide of their gay teenage son. Directors Jeremy and Randy Stulberg document the conflicts in a small town where a lack of HIV/AIDS education stigmatized the young man. Read mother Nancy Harrington’s Huffington Post piece, “How Losing Our Gay, HIV-Positive Son to Suicide Turned Our Family Into Activists” here.
View the trailer.
Wednesday, December 3 at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Institute of Science,1530 P Street NW
RSVP for free tickets here.
—
courtesy Luce CinecittàThe National Gallery of Art’s Marco Bellocchio series continues this weekend with the director’s 2010 “fantasy documentary” shot in his home village Bobbio over the course of ten years, using members of his own family as cast members. Critic Peter Galvin writes that this “is a demanding film with an experimental edge full of quirks and fascinating digressions all delivered in a visual style that looks ‘home movie’ and deceptively simple, but is actually a supreme example of cinematic sophistication and personal filmmaking”
View the trailer.
Saturday, November 29 at 4 p.m. at the McEvoy Auditorium National Portrait Gallery. Free.
—
Cowboy Gaston Santos, his horse Moonlight and his sidekick try to solve the mystery of a disappearing corpse. This week the Washington Psychotronic Film Society offers a palate-cleansing Cyber Monday aperitif in the form of a Mexican hybrid of The Creature from the Black Lagoon and a B-western from 1956.
Monday, December 1 at 8 p.m. at McFadden’s.
—
Bird is the Word
VHS archivists playbackthetape offera a Black Friday “tribute to our feathered friends, featuring highlights from the Adam West-hosted Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day ’94, along with some fabulous pro tips, regional dialects, and vintage wardrobes in A Video Guide to Successful Bird Care. Then, a classic episode of Chuck Woolery-hosted Love Connection with a gal who sure loves her cockatiel! Come thirsty ‚ our first show inside a brewery, screening in one-of-a-kind keg-o-vision!”
Friday, November 28, 2014 at 7 p.m. at Atlas Brew Works, 2052 West Virginia Avenue NE. Free
