The documentary short subject Positively Naked, the Oscar-nominated documentary short subject The Mushroom Club and the documentary feature Unknown White Male (above) will be screened on Wednesday, May 23, as the next installment in the 2006–2007 Contemporary Documentaries series, presented by the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The screenings will begin at 7 p.m. at the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Positively Naked looks at 85 HIV-positive strangers "with an art installation as their focus." Directed and produced by Arlene Donnelly Nelson and David Nelson (Helen Hood Scheer was also a producer), the film shows how those individuals cope with their HIV-positive status. Both filmmakers will attend the screening.
The Mushroom Club shows the consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. As per the Academy's press release, The Mushroom Club, directed and produced by Steven Okazaki, "looks at the myths surrounding the devastating incident, the lives of the remaining survivors and the city's monuments to its dead. It reveals how Japan struggles to this day with a fateful moment in its past."
Unknown White Male tells the bizarre story of Doug Bruce, "a 35-year-old stockbroker-turned-photographer who one day, riding alone on a New York subway train, could not remember his name, where he worked, who his friends were or how much money he had in his bank account. Suffering from one of the rarest forms of amnesia, Bruce embarks on a profound journey to learn who he was and who he will become." Unknown White Male was directed by Rupert Murray and produced by Beadie Finzi.
All screenings in the series are free and open to the public. Doors open at 6 p.m. The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at the Academy's Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, 1313 Vine Street, at the northwest corner of Fountain Avenue and Vine Street in Hollywood. Parking is available behind the building through the entrance on Homewood Avenue, one block north of Fountain. For more information, call (310) 247-3600 or (310) 206-FILM.
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