Film Society at Lincoln Center Announces Family Films and Midnight Movies Series Lineup, Nov-Dec 2012

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that the November and December lineups for its ongoing Family Films series and Midnight Movies series.

The Family Films series will celebrate the special relationship that kids have with animals during the next two months led by classics like Caroline Thompson’s BLACK BEAUTY (1988), Fred M. Wilcox’s LASSIE COME HOME (1943), and Clarence Brown’s NATIONAL VELVET (1944). Family favorites like Joe Camp’s BENJI (1974), Richard Donner’s FREE WILLY (1993), Jay Russell’s MY DOG SKIP (2000) and Bernard McEveety’s NAPOLEON AND SAMANTHA (1972) with a very young Jodie Foster round out the schedule, as well as the charming international films THE BLUE TIGER (2012) and CHANDANI: THE DAUGHTER OF THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER (2010).

The Midnight Movies series will highlighted by three encores of sorts in November and December with Larry Cohen returning to Film Society (following a recent appearance for a special Film Comment Selects presentation) to introduce his film Q (1982), Casey Pugh’s STAR WARS UNCUT (2012) (which launched the Midnight Movies series), and Richard Pryor: LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP (1982) (following a previous screening of Richard Pryor: LIVE IN CONCERT). Other films in the Midnight lineup are; Tobe Hooper’s scarefest THE FUNHOUSE (1982); Edgar Wright’s popular adaptation of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010); Thom Eberhardt’s 80’s staple NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984); and a Midnight Movies’ salute to Christmas with Charles E. Sellier Jr.’s SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1982).

FAMILY FILMS
Film, Description & Schedule

BENJI (1974) 86min
Director: Joe Camp
Country: USA
The first in a series about the lovable iconic stray dog was a huge box office hit. Benji bravely steps in to save two children who are kidnapped from a small Texas town.
Rated G.
Screens November 24, 25

BLACK BEAUTY (1994) 88min
Director: Caroline Thompson
Country: USA
The fourth feature film adaptation of the 1877 novel by Anna Sewell has become a classic. It tells the poignant story of a beautiful and noble black stallion living in England. Despite the many hardships he endures, including illness, a fire, and cruel treatment by his owners, the film is heartwarming and intensely engaging, as it highlights animal rights issues that are sadly still relevant.
Rated G.
Screens December 29, 30

Extended run!
THE BLUE TIGER (Modrý tygr) (2012) 90min
Director: Petr Oukropec
Country: Czech Republic
Johanka and Mátyás are on a mission to save a historic part of town that includes the Botanic Garden where they both live. Old and run-down, the garden is in danger of being replaced by an entertainment center in a plan hatched by the greedy town mayor. When a mysterious blue tiger appears in the garden, the kids have to protect it from a group of mean classmates and the mayor’s henchmen. A visually beautiful tale full of magic and imagination.
Screens December 24-January 1

CHANDANI: THE DAUGHTER OF THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER (2010) 87min
Director: Arne Birkenstock
Countries: Germany/Sri Lanka
Chandani’s great-great-grandfather was a mahout, an elephant trainer. The skills are usually passed down to the sons, but Chandani has no brothers and she wants the job. In this documentary film that feels like fiction, Chandani breaks with tradition and challenges everyone’s beliefs that a girl cannot train an elephant. Her father brings her a baby elephant and she eagerly takes up the challenge of getting him, and herself, ready to ride in the Perahera, a noisy festival where decorated elephants are paraded through the town. An engaging and dramatic story, this film will have your kids asking for an elephant for their next birthday. Winner of the LOLA award for Best Children’s Film (Germany).
Ages 8+
Screens December 1, 2

FREE WILLY (1993) 112min
Director: Richard Donner
Country: USA
A young orca who has been separated from his parents is taken to an adventure park, where he reluctantly becomes the star attraction. When he befriends a 12-year-old abandoned street kid who teaches him wild tricks, a series of unexpected events lead to the prospect of freedom. Rated PG.
Screens December 15, 16

LASSIE COME HOME (1943) 89min
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Country: USA
The bond between a Yorkshire boy and his beloved and devoted collie is so profound that, when the dog is sent hundreds of miles away, she embarks on a very long and difficult but relentless journey to return home. This moving children's classic, shot in Technicolor and starring the canine actor Pal is based on the 1940 novel by Eric Knight. It was the first in a series of seven MGM films starring "Lassie".
Rated G.
Screens December 22, 23

MY DOG SKIP (2000) 95min
Director: Jay Russell
Country: USA
Young Willie is unpopular, often bullied by other kids in his town. Until he receives a pet dog, a Jack Russell terrier named Skip, who turns his life into an exciting adventure. Based on the bestselling memoir by the late Willie Morris.
Rated PG.
Screens November 10, 11

NAPOLEON AND SAMANTHA (1972) 92min
Director: Bernard McEveety
Country: USA
Jodie Foster made her screen debut at age 9 as Samantha, a spunky girl whose friend Napoleon (Johnny Whitaker) lives on a farm in Oregon with his grandfather (Will Geer). One day, a circus performer persuades the boy and his grandfather to take in Major, an aging lion. But when grandpa dies, Napoleon tries to avoid being sent to an orphanage by running away into the mountains with Samantha and the lion in search of his friend Danny (Michael Douglas).
Rated G.
Screens December 8, 9

NATIONAL VELVET (1944) 123min
Director: Clarence Brown
Country: USA
Elizabeth Taylor was a child when she starred alongside Mickey Rooney in this affectionate and delightful tale based on Enid Bagnold's 1935 novel set in Sussex, England. Taylor, launched to stardom by this film, plays the vivacious Velvet Brown who, with the help of Mi Taylor (Rooney), sets off to train a magnificent sorrel gelding to run in the Grand National. Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress (Anne Revere) and Film Editing.
Rated G.
Screens November 17, 18

MIDNIGHT MOVIES
Film, Description & Schedule

THE FUNHOUSE (1981) 96min
Director: Tobe Hooper
Country: USA
Hooper, the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE director delivers the scares in a carnival setting this time, as four teenagers are trapped and stalked by a deformed killer after they witness a murder by his hands while spending the night in the funhouse ride.
Screens November 16

Q (1982) 93min
Director: Larry Cohen
Country: USA
Detective David Carradine is on the case when a winged Aztec serpent nests atop the Chrysler building and begins wreaking havoc on the streets of New York in this one-of-a-kind gem from the one and only Larry Cohen.
Screens November 9

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010) 112min
Director: Edgar Wright
Country: USA
Canadian musician Michael Cera must battle it out with his new girlfriend’s seven nefarious ex-boyfriends before they can live happily ever after in director Edgar Wright’s wildly original comic-book romance.
Screens November 23

STAR WARS UNCUT (2012) 124min
Director: Casey Pugh
Country: USA
Finally making the hyperdrive jump from online to onscreen, the crowdsourced masterpiece STAR WARS UNCUT is a shot-by-shot remake of George Lucas’ 121-minute EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE that takes the fan-film genre to a new level. Casey Pugh, the man behind this must-be-seen-to-be-believed tribute film, assigned 473 eager volunteers their own 15-second segment to reshoot or animate as they saw fit. Laid end to end (and subject to change at any time based on voter ratings), the result is one of the Internet’s true cinematic wonders: a manic, disjunctive bricolage spectacle of Lego stormtroopers, stop-motion Star Destroyers, tin-foil C-3POs, canine Chewies, and trash-can R2s. There’s an impressive number of illustrated entries and handmade animations, but it’s the backyard reenactments, with their moppet Princess Leias and minivan Millennium Falcons, that anchor the project in a shared love, the scope of which transcends the polish or perfectionism of any single segment.
Screens November 30

NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984) 95min
Director: Thom Eberhardt
Country: USA
Watch the skies: when the earth passes through the tail of a comet, a handful of non-zombie survivors band together to survive the apocalyptic aftermath in this unabashedly ‘80s doomsday pastiche.
Screens December 7

Richard Pryor: LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP (1982) 82min
Director: Joe Layton
Country: USA
Three years after the seminal Richard Pryor: LIVE IN CONCERT (a past Midnight Movies selection), and two after setting himself on fire while freebasing, the comic genius returned for another extraordinary filmed concert performance.
Screens December 14

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) 79min
Director: Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
Country: USA
A young boy who witnessed his parents’ murder at the hands of an axe-wielding Santa grows up to become a deranged killer himself in the notorious ‘80s shocker that so outraged family groups, the film’s original distributor pulled it from cinemas after only a week.
Screens December 21

Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, having just celebrated its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.