Leonard Oakland Film Festival: Film Viewings and Events

Fifth Annual Leonard Oakland Film Festival, 2013

• Thursday, Feb. 21
  7 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre
  Film No. 1: Footnote
  Director: Joseph Cedar, 2011
  An Israeli professor and his son enter into a heated competition when their roles are reversed. The son has relied on recognition to fuel his sense of self-worth, while his father has shunned the spotlight. But a prestigious honor reveals the father’s vanity, and the son’s intense jealousy drives him to consider the unthinkable.
  
  
• Friday, Feb. 22
  7 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre
  Film No. 2: Get Low
  Director: Aaron Schneider, rated PG-13, 2009
  A recluse (Robert Duvall) emerges from the Tennessee woods after 40 years; he is the topic of much town gossip – including rumors that he’s a cold-hearted killer. He walks into a funeral parlor, announces plans to throw himself an epic party before his impending death, and surprises everyone at the much-anticipated gathering by revealing why he shunned society for life in the woods.

The program opens with winners of the 2013 student-made short-film contest.

• Late Night Movie No. 1: Jackie Brown*
  10 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre
  Director: Quentin Tarantino, rated R, 1997
  A flight attendant gets caught smuggling gun money and has to choose whether to rat out her murderous boss or keep quiet and do time. She meets a burned-out older guy whose marriage has fallen apart, and he becomes instrumental in both her life and her plan to stay out of jail and cop a million-dollar payoff.
  
  
• Saturday, Feb. 23
  7 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre
  Film No. 3: 4 Little Girls
  Director: Spike Lee, rated NR, 2001
  In 1963, four girls, ages 11-14, were killed in an infamous church bombing in Birmingham, Ala. This movie, Lee’s first feature-length documentary, examines not only the crime, its aftermath, and its pivotal place in civil-rights history, but the lives of the four girls as their family and friends remember them.

This program opens with the 2007 documentary Act Six Leadership Development Program by North by Northwest Productions.

• Late Night Movie No. 2: Bill Cosby: Himself
  10 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre
  In this concert movie from the zenith of Cosby’s on-stage comedic career, the Cos holds court on subjects ranging from childbirth to substance abuse. While his subjects can be serious, his perspectives are usually hilarious and always entertaining.

• Thursday, Feb. 16
  Leonard A. Oakland Film Festival
  7 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre, Weyerhaeuser Hall (free to the public)
  
  
• Film No. 1: What Poor Child is This?
  T.N. Mohan, director, 2011
  The first night of the fourth annual LAO festival opens with the premier of this 90-minute documentary about the plight of the poor in America. Produced by Whitworth President Beck A. Taylor, the film features insights from an array of national authorities, as well as suggestions for improving the future of America’s poor.
  
  
• Midnight Movie No. 1: Young Frankenstein
  11 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre, Weyerhaeuser Hall (free to the public)
  Mel Brooks, director; rated PG, 1974
  A young neurosurgeon inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein, in this classic comedy.
  
  
• Friday, Feb. 17
  Leonard A. Oakland Film Festival
  7 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre, Weyerhaeuser Hall (free to the public)
  
  
• Film No. 2: Breaking Away
  Peter Yates, director, rated PG, 1979
  This movie is a perfectly calibrated blend of sports thrills, you-can-do-it inspiration, coming-of-age sensitivity, Midwestern authenticity, tender young romance, and smart, cusp-of-the-’80s humor. The four buddies at the heart of the story, high school grads who are working-class townies surrounded by the gownies who go to the big university in their Indiana town, don’t know what to do next with their lives. Their options feel stunted. But one, at least, has a dream.
  
  
• Midnight Movie No. 2: Bad News Bears
  11 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre, Weyerhaeuser Hall (free to the public)
  Michael Ritchie, director, rated PG, 1976
  An unflinching and hilarious look at the underbelly of little league baseball in Southern California.
  
  
• 7 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre
  Film No. 3: The Baader-Meinhoff Complex
  Rights were still being secured at press time. Enjoy a contemporary international film that explores Europe in the ’70s.
  
  
• The program opens with winners of the 2012 student-made short-film contest.
  Midnight Movie No. 3: Harold & Maude
  11 p.m., Robinson Teaching Theatre
  (free to the public)
  Hal Ashby, director, rated PG, 1971
  A young man with a death wish and a 79-year-old high on life find love in Hal Ashby’s cult black comedy.

• Feb. 17, 2011
  Movie No. 1: Favela Rising The first night of this third annual festival opens with the short film Five Feet High and Rising.The film, directed by Peter Sollett, is about a 12-year-old boy growing up on New York City's Lower East Side.
  

• Feb. 18, 2011
  Movie No. 2: I've Loved You So Long The evening opens with the short film Tackle Box. Directed and produced by Matthew Mebane, the film, based on a poem by Patti White, is about an elderly couple who fished the Low Country waters for decades and what happens after one of them dies.

• Feb. 19, 2011
  Movie No. 3: Norman, filmed in Spokane, and directed by Jonathan Segal, is the story of a troubled high-school kid who pretends to be dying of cancer as he confronts problems with his new girlfriend and terminally ill father and struggles with his daily existence. This is the movie's regional premiere, and the filmmakers will be on hand for a post-viewing discussion. The program opens with winners of Whitworth's second annual student-made short-film contest.

• Feb. 18, 2010
  Movie No. 1: Waltz with Bashir The event opened with a short film, Saving Lives in World War II, produced by Whitworth alumnus Doug Bocaz-Larson, '93, and his wife, Kim, who received a recent Emmy Award in the Southwest /Rocky Mountain region for their work on this historical documentary.

• Feb. 19, 2010
  Movie No. 2: Sita Sings the Blues The event opened with the documentary, "A Portrait of Leonard Oakland," produced by Whitworth alumna Andrea Palpant Dilley, '00.

• Feb. 20, 2010
  Movie No. 3: The Visitor The event opened with the announcement of winners of a student-made short-film contest and a showing of their films.

• Feb. 20, 2009
  Movie No. 1 – Soul Searching: A Movie about Teenagers and God The film is a documentary by Whitworth alumni and former Oakland students Tim Eaton, '74, and Mike Eaton, '87. The viewing was followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers.   
  
  
• Feb. 21, 2009
  Movie No. 2 – Bull Durham Director Ron Shelton introduced his film, which was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1989. The movie served as Oakland's on-set crash course in contemporary filmmaking.

• Feb. 22, 2009
  Movie No. 3 – An International Classic An international film chosen by Oakland was shown. Oakland and the KPBX-FM Movies 101 team presented a post-film discussion.