HIV art & a rare form of amnesia are two of the topics of the Oscar-nomianted documentaries to be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In Rupert Murray’s Unknown White Male, a man unexpectedly loses his memory and must rediscover who he is.
The documentary short subject Positively Naked, the Oscar-nominated documentary short subject The Mushroom Club and the documentary feature Unknown White Male 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 (website). 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.
‘God Sleeps in Rwanda’ & ‘Darwin’s Nightmare’ Screening
Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman’s documentary short subject God Sleeps in Rwanda and Hubert Sauper’s documentary feature Darwin’s Nightmare, which both earned Oscar nominations in 2005, will be screened on Wednesday, June 6, as the final 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.
God Sleeps in Rwanda tells the story of five women who, as per the Academy’s press release, “rebuild their lives, redefine their roles in society and bring hope to a nation that was left nearly 70 percent female as a result of the 1994 genocide.” Producer-directors Acquaro and Sherman will be present at the screening to discuss the film and take questions from the audience.
Hubert Sauper’s Darwin’s Nightmare depicts “the impact of the Nile perch, a predator so voracious that it has nearly extinguished the entire stock of native fish species in Lake Victoria. Yet because of its prized white fillets, the destructive fish resides at the center of a booming multinational food industry that trades food for weapons, producing an ungodly alliance between African ministers, European Union commissioners, Russian pilots, Indian factory owners, native fishermen and Tanzanian prostitutes.”
That is globalization on the micro level – in other words, it’s the real deal. In addition to its Oscar nod, Darwin’s Nightmare won both the French Academy’s César for best first film and the 2004 European Film Award for best documentary. It was produced by Edouard Mauriat, Anne-Cécile Berthomeau, Antonin Svoboda, Martin Gschlacht, Barbara Albert and Hubert Toint.
The screenings 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.