The Queen’s Film Society, along with some new cosponsors—the Brazos Valley’s Pride Community Center, Texas A&M’s Film Studies Program, and the LGBTQ Professional Network at Texas A&M—present our next Virtual Cinema offering and community chat.
STRAIGHT UP (James Sweeney, dir., USA, 95 mins, unrated) Todd is a hyper-articulate, obsessive compulsive gay twentysomething whose fear of dying alone leads him to a baffling conclusion: he might not be gay after all. When he meets Rory, a whip-smart struggling actress with her own set of insecurities, the two forge a relationship that’s all talk and no sex. Writer-Director-Star James Sweeney delivers a razor sharp rom-com that’s equal parts Classical Hollywood and distinctly 21st century, exploring just how elastic our definitions of love and sexuality can get.
This film is available through Strand Releasing via the following link:
https://watch.eventive.org/stra…/…/5ec32d18c14036006abc1841…
Our free and open to all community discussion about the film will take place on Thursday, June 4th at 7PM Central Time to help kick off LGBTQ Pride Month. Information to access the meeting is as follows:
Zoom Discussion Topic: Queer Film and Chat Sponsored by the Queen’s Film Society and the Pride Community Center cosponsored by the Texas A&M Film Studies Program and the LGBTQ Professional Network
Join Zoom Meeting via Internet: https://tamu.zoom.us/j/97527443677…
Join Zoom Meeting Via the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 975 2744 3677
Password: 290032
The Queen’s Film Society has several great films and some online discussions planned for you for the near future. Read on and join us, virtually, for great cinema and great chat!
Our new films, all available TODAY, include:
Straight Up (2020, US, in English, 95 min.) Todd is a hyper-articulate, obsessive compulsive gay twentysomething whose fear of dying alone leads him to a baffling conclusion: he might not be gay after all. When he meets Rory, a whip-smart struggling actress with her own set of insecurities, the two forge a relationship that’s all talk and no sex. Writer-Director-Star James Sweeney delivers a razor sharp rom-com that’s equal parts Classical Hollywood and distinctly 21st century, exploring just how elastic our definitions of love and sexuality can get. NOTE: We will have a Zoom discussion about this film with our friends at the Pride Community Center to launch Pride Month on June 4th at 7PM via this link https://tamu.zoom.us/j/97527443677?pwd=VUlwY2N3VzE0YWxPRlpacDNCT25YUT09&status=successor…. join our Zoom meeting via the Zoom app with Meeting ID: 975 2744 3677 Password: 290032. Not rated.
Fourteen (2020, US, in English, 94 min.) Mara and Jo, in their twenties, have been close friends since middle school. Jo, the more outgoing figure, is a social worker who runs through a series of brief but intense relationships. Mara, a less splashy personality than Jo, bounces among teacher aide jobs while trying to land a position in elementary education, and writes fiction in her spare time. She too has a transient romantic life, though she seems to settle down after meeting Adam, a mild-mannered software developer. It soon becomes apparent that Jo, despite her intellectual gifts, is unreliable in her professional life, losing and acquiring jobs at a troubling rate. Substance abuse may be responsible for Jo’s instability… but some observers suspect a deeper problem. Over the course of a decade, the more stable Mara sometimes tries to help, sometimes backs away to preserve herself, but never leaves behind her powerful childhood connection with Jo. Not rated.
Liberté (2020, France/Spain, in French, German, and Italian w. English subtitles, 134 min.) Just before the French Revolution, in a forest outside Berlin, a band of libertines expelled from the court of Louis XVI rendezvous with the legendary German seducer and freethinker, the Duc de Walchen (Helmut Berger), to convince him to join in their mission: the rejection of authority and all moral boundaries. What begins as an evening of strategizing on the proliferation of libertinage, descends into a Sadean night of pansexual one-upmanship. Not rated, but note: This film features graphic and disturbing scenes of perverse sexuality and violence. We will have a Zoom discussion about this film with Film Studies scholar Teresa Vilaros of Texas A&M on Wednesday May 27th at 7pm via this link
https://tamu.zoom.us/j/94628396031?pwd=NkFnRlBPVlg1TDhNdmsxUDBpU2RDUT09&fbclid=IwAR1p-x5F0OgFuhTSMMB0aEtYHwcjM7rWfp2lhozjjn4skSWuLFrDgvE2aXIor…. join our Zoom Meeting via the Zoom App with Meeting ID: 946 2839 6031 Password: QFS
L’important c’est d’aimer [That Most Important Thing: Love] (1975, France/Italy/Germany, in French with English subtitles, 113 min.) Romy Schneider delivers a César Award-winning performance as a down-on-her-luck actress in L'important c'est d'aimer (That Most Important Thing: Love), Andrzej Żuławski’s “passionate portrait of the dignity – and the indignities – of an actor’s work” (Film Comment). Forced to earn a living by accepting demeaning roles negotiated by her erratic husband, Nadine Chevalier (Schneider) encounters tabloid photographer Servais (Fabio Testi) on the set of her latest film. Desperate to win her affections, Servais secretly uses money borrowed from a shady associate to bankroll her next project, a production of Richard III with Nadine starring opposite the maniacal German thespian Karl-Heinz Zimmer (Klaus Kinski). Not rated.
A Good Woman is Hard to Find (2020, United Kingdom, English, 97 min.) Sarah is a single mother struggling to raise two young children while searching for answers about the unsolved murder of her husband. After being coerced into helping a low-level drug dealer, she finds herself the target of a dangerous crime boss. Desperate to keep her family safe, Sarah turns the tables on her victimizers in one final act of vengeance. Set in the dark underbelly of Northern Ireland, this is a “lean, mean, painfully real crime thriller” featuring “one hell of a performance” by Sarah Bolger that “will make you cheer [for] her ability to overcome the worst of humanity and come out the other end kicking all sorts of ass” (Slash Film). Not rated.
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976, Brazil, Portuguese w. English subtitles, 110 min.) Based on the novel by Jorge Amado, this Golden Globe and BAFTA-nominated comedy follows the strange events that befall Dona Flor (Sonia Braga) after she is left a widow by the death of her wild, irresponsible husband. Shortly after remarrying, she finds her new, less-than-satisfying sex life revived when the ghost of her late husband unexpectedly returns. One of the most popular and sexy romantic comedies of the 1975 is back in a new restoration. Rated R.
Corpus Christi (2019, Poland, Polish w. English subtitles, 116 min.) After years in juvenile prison, 20-year-old Daniel is released and sent to a small village to work as a manual laborer. Upon his arrival, a quick lie has him mistaken for a priest. Though untrained, his passion and charisma inspire the community. At the same time, his unconventional sermons and unpriestly behavior raise suspicions. Anchored by a “dynamically physical, wild-eyed performance” (The Hollywood Reporter) from newcomer Bartosz Bielenia, the Oscar-nominated Corpus Christi (Best International Film) is an incisive, darkly humorous, and “engrossing exploration of faith, second chances and the possibility of atonement” (Screen). Not rated.
You can still watch our previous Virtual Cinema offerings, which include: A White, White Day; The Wild Goose Lake; L’Innocente; Vitalina Varela; and Zombi Child. Go to our website to watch any of these film at your convenience. Remember half the screening fee goes to support The Queen’s Film Society and The Queen Theatre (or, in the case of Straight Up, the Queen’s Film Society and the Brazos Valley’s Pride Community Center.)
Link to them here: http://thequeensfilmsociety.org
Coming Next Week: The brand new French comedy hit, On a Magical Night followed by a late-June discussion with film scholar David Gerstner of the City College of New York.
Join the Queen’s Film Society and our new co-sponsor, the Texas A&M Film Studies Program Wednesday, May 13th at 7pm central time for a fun, casual, non-academic conversation where we get to share observations and ask each other questions about the films we’ve been seeing as we’ve been sheltering in place. We will be bringing you a Zoom discussion of this month’s QFS Virtual Cinema selections: Luchino Visconti’s L’Innocente, Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela, and Hlynur Palmason’s A White, White Day. Our special guest will be Joe McElhaney, Professor of Film and Media at Hunter College and author of the forthcoming book, Luchino Visconti and the Fabric of Cinema (Wayne State University Press, 2021). To watch any of the QFS’s films, follow the link. 50% of the streaming goes to support the Film Society and the Queen Theatre: https://www.thequeensfilmsociety.org/ To join Wednesday night’s Zoom discussion, use one of the following methods: Topic: Queen's Film Society May 13th Meeting Time: May 13, 2020 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://tamu.zoom.us/j/91606048955?pwd=c29LUDN5Y0Q2S2NHMFBRc2gzbzJaUT09 Meeting ID: 916 0604 8955 Password: thequeen One tap mobile +13462487799,,91606048955# US (Houston) Dial by your location +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 436 2866 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) 888 788 0099 US Toll-free 877 853 5247 US Toll-free Meeting ID: 916 0604 8955 Find your local number: https://tamu.zoom.us/u/adhq6e7y51 Join by SIP 91606048955@zoomcrc.com Join by H.323 162.255.37.11 (US West) 162.255.36.11 (US East) Meeting ID: 916 0604 8955 Password: 051716 Alex Garza The Queen's Film Society
I would really like to thank Dr. Jun Lin, Assistant Professor of Chinese at A&M University, for offering so much context to our viewing of The Wild Goose Lake during our last zoom meeting. We hope to see more of you in future meetings. Remember that you don't have to discuss if you do not want to. It would simply be nice to see so many of you again. Joe McElhaney, Professor of Film Studies in Hunter College, Will be joining us from New York when we discuss L'innocente at our next meeting! We will send you a reminder for that meeting in a later email. Here is the Zoom link if you would like to see our discussion of The Wild Goose Lake.. Topic: The Wild Goose Lake https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/zMtoCp_SqyBIfa_J1WiHC6cjT6nET6a8gyVPrqZYyRwd9_GSkTr1VojZnx4XSLmb We have added some movies to the ones available. Once again, proceeds will go to the Queen Theatre and to The Queen's Film Society. Finally, If you were interested in contributing to our video for First Friday, remember that the deadline to send me your video is tomorrow. We have not received as many as we would have hoped for, so if you have 1 minute to spare, send me a video to thequeensfilmsociety@gmail.com Here is a link to those instructions! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIvCHFYKTE&t=4s I look forward to seeing you again at our next meeting. Have a great week. Alex Garza The Queen's Film Society
We had a great zoom gathering last week and it was refreshing to see and speak to you all again. Our next meeting will be on the 4th week of the month, April 27, at 7:00pm. There is a link for that meeting at the bottom of this email. I hope to see you there! April 16 is the last day to watch Zombie Child and The Wild Goose Lake will close on April 23! These are movies you would usually have to travel to another city to watch. Remember that these are rentals last for three days and the entire household. Proceeds go to The Queen Theater and our Queen's Film Society. Have fun watching and I will see you at our next Zoom discussion! Alex Garza The Queen's Film Society
First an announcement about where where we currently stand. The Queen Theatre will continue to postpone any of the movies or events we had planned to show. We hope to continue with our Member's Picked Flicks and our screening of Freaks as soon as the Queen reopens. Similarly, any months that the Queen's Film Society is not screening Member's Picked Flicks will not count agains their 12 month membership. I certainly look forward to seeing all of you again in person, but until then... In conjunction with the Queen Theatre and Film Movement, we are bringing international, first-run cinema to your home during the quarantine! We will also be setting up online discussions with professors and other film experts from A&M and other campuses in the weeks ahead. The proceeds of these rentals will go to The Queen Theatre and The Queen's Film Society.
First up is "Zombi Child," the latest feature from French master Bertrand Bonello ("Saint Laurent," "Nocturama").
Synopsis: Haiti, 1962. A man is brought back from the dead only to be sent to the living hell of the sugarcane fields. In Paris, 55 years later, at a prestigious all-girls boarding school, Melissa, a young Haitian teenager, confesses an old family secret to a group of new friends - never imagining that this strange tale will convince a heartbroken classmate to do the unthinkable…
Critical Response: “Mixing political commentary, ethnography, teenage melodrama and genre horror, the film is an unashamedly cerebral study of multiple themes – colonialism, revolution, liberalism, racial difference and female desire - with its unconventional narrative structure taking us a journey that’s as intellectually demanding as it is compelling. Bonello takes Haitian history and culture absolutely seriously, and in juxtaposing them with the most exclusively white French experience imaginable..., 'Zombi Child' poses timely and provocative questions." —Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily
“'Zombi Child' peels back centuries of racist stereotypes to rescue Voodoo from the stuff of black magic and portray it instead as a kind of communion — a communion between spirits, a communion between generations, and a communion between the dislocated joints of an empire. [E]ven the most terrifying scenes are rooted in something real.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“'Zombi Child'... functions equally as a delirious teen-horror reverie, a serious study of the zombie myth, and an open-ended riff on the persistence of the colonial past.” —Dennis Lim, ArtForum
To screen "Zombi Child" in your own home any time from April 3-16, visit https://fmplus.video/queenfilm-zombichild. The price is $12 for a 72-hour rental. 50% of the revenue goes to support the Queen’s Film Society and the Queen Theatre.
More on the film "Zombi Child": https://filmmovement.com/zombi-child.
This new Digital Cinema service works on Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, Roku, or Chromecast or on your digital device or computer. For more information on how to watch Zombi Child at home, visit: https://filmmovement.com/virtual-cinema
To take part in the first Zoom discussion of this film, which is Wednesday, April 8th at 7pm use the following link on your browser: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/777547589… or go through your Zoom application on your computer, digital device, or phone and use this meeting ID number: 777 547 589. You will be asked for a password. It is: 592880.
One tap mobile +13462487799,,777547589# US (Houston) +17207072699,,777547589# US (Denver)
Dial by your location +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 720 707 2699 US (Denver) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US +1 301 715 8592 US +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) That is all for the moment. Stay safe and watch movies. I will see you all at the Zoom meeting! Alex Garza QFS president.
As with many other organizations, we have been forced to cancel our scheduled events during this national emergency. However, our board members have been working hard to find ways for the society to continue to engage you cinematically until things return to normal. We are looking at a series of events to allow our members to continue to participate with us virtually, including screenings of first-run movies. Our previously planned screening of Summer of 93 will occur after the return to normalcy.
We hope to have our new website and payment system operational within the next week. As we announced at our last meeting, membership renewals have been suspended until the new, online payment system is in place.
We look forward to seeing you in person in the future, and virtually until then!
Alex Garza The Queen's Film Society President
This email certainly should have gone out sooner, but we wanted to remind you that we are having a meeting tonight, Wednesday 11 at 7pm at the Queen theatre. We have some announcements about future projects we are working on and we will have our movie pitch! This month you can pitch any movie you would like. Of course we remind you that these should be movies that would otherwise not be seen on the big screen in our area. Click below is you would like to submit a trailer.
Pitching and selecting our movies.
Pitching and choosing a Member-Picked Flick will happen as it has in the past.
Once the movies have been ranked, a committee will start with the first movie and make sure that it meets certain criteria:
The cost of acquiring the movie must not exceed $250.
The movie will be evaluated by a committee to make sure that it does not contain material that would be considered detrimental to the future of the organization or the Queen Theatre (ex.pornography or hate speech).
If the movie does not adhere to all of these points, the same considerations will be made of the movie that was ranked immediately below.
Member-Picked Flick!
Below is a trailer of this month's Member-Picked Flick, Summer 1993 (Carla Simòn, 2017). This movie will screen on March 25 at 7 PM at the Queen.
Our movie for this month is Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's The Mustang (2019). The movie will start at 7 pm at the Queen Theatre on Wednesday 26. We ask you to RSVP so that we can make sure that we can pass that information on to the Queen's house manager. To RSVP please click on the blue button below and an email window will open. Simply add something like, "1 ticket for Alex Garza" or "Tamara and Alex will be attending." Please make sure that you do this by noon the day of the screening.
Below is a trailer of this month's Member-Picked Flick and the trailer for next month's movie, Summer 1993 (Carla Simòn, 2017).
The Queen's Film Society
Bryan, Texas
thequeensfilmsociety@gmail.com
© 2020 The Queen's Film Society. All Rights Reserved.
