Boston’s premiere documentary film discussion group The DocYard has announced the films for its upcomng 2015 Spring Season, running from January 26 to April 20 at the Brattle Theatre.
From The DocYard Newsletter:
Join us this fall to discover what is innovative and inspiring in nonfiction film today. Accompanying the screenings are an award-winning group of filmmakers from near and far traveling to Cambridge to discuss their work.
Spring Season Pass ($60): Reserve an all-access pass with one free screening!
Early Bird Season Pass ($50): Buy before Dec 25 and get TWO free screenings!
The DocYard Spring 2015 Season
Monday, January 26 at 7PM
HAPPY VALLEY / Directed by Amir Bar-Lev
In-person Q&A with Producer Ken Dornstein (FRONTLINE) and Director Amir Bar-Lev
For over 40 years, Joe Paterno was the celebrated head coach of Penn State’s storied football team. Then in November 2011 everything changed when longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse, setting off a firestorm of accusations.
Monday, February 9 at 7PM
ACTRESS / Directed by Robert Greene
In-person Q&A with Director Robert Greene
Brandy Burre had a recurring role on HBO’s The Wire when she gave up her career to start a family. When she decides to reclaim her life as an actor, the domestic world she’s carefully created crumbles around her. Using elements of melodrama and cinema verité, ACTRESS is both a present tense portrait of a dying relationship and an exploration of a complicated woman, performing the role of herself, in a complex-yet-familiar story.
Monday, February 23 at 7PM
NE ME QUITTE PAS / Directed by Sabine Lubbe Bakker & Niels van Koevorden
Skype Q&A with Directors Sabine Lubbe Bakker & Niels van Koevorden
Set in a village on the edge of Belgium, Bob (Flemish) and Marcel (Walloon) share their solitude, sense of humor and craving for alcohol. They have agreed that suicide is the best way out if worse comes to worst. In that case, they have chosen the perfect spot to do so: under Bob’s tree of life. Ne Me Quitte Pas is a Belgial drama about life on the brink of society in all its beauty, modesty, and irony.
Monday, March 9 at 7PM
UNDERGROUND (1976) / Directed by Mary Lampson, Emile de Antonio & Haskell Wexler
In-person Q&A with Co-director Mary Lampson
In 1975, filmmakers Mary Lampson, Emile de Antonio and Haskell Wexler gained access to five key members of the Weathermen, a violent activist group that was a part of the Students for a Democratic Society, and which went underground with plans to overthrow the U.S. government. Laura Poitras has called the radical 1976 documentary “one of the most courageous films I know.”
Monday, March 23 at 7PM
UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL / Directed by Kitty Green
Skype Q&A with Director Kitty Green
Ukraine’s topless feminist sensation FEMEN have stirred up a press frenzy across Europe. Outraged by the world’s image of Ukrainian women as either brides for sale or commodities of sex tourism, FEMEN bare their breasts in protest to disrupt this perception and agitate against these brutal patriarchal forces. The film offers a glimpse inside the world’s most provocative feminist organization.
Monday, April 6 at 7PM
FOREST OF THE DANCING SPIRITS / Directed by Linda Västrik
In-person Q&A with Co-producer Mila Aung-Thwin and Skype Q&A with Director Linda Västrik
Akaya, Kengole, Dibota and their friends and family are hunters-gatherers (and also great story-tellers) who guide us through their world. They explain their origins, myths, and the very spiritual meaning of life. Their religion is playful and highly creative in dealing with deeply serious matters of life and death, and may be the oldest human religion practiced on earth today.
Monday, April 20 at 7PM
DIVIDE IN CONCORD / Directed by Kris Kaczor
In-person Q&A with Director Kris Kaczor and Producer David Regos
In 1775, Concord patriots fired the infamous ‘shot heard round the world’ that began a Revolution and defined a nation. Now a local eighty-four year-old woman has waged another seemingly unwinnable battle. For three years Jean Hill has been trying to rid the town of single-serve plastic bottles of water. Complete with strong opposition from local merchants and the bottled water industry, Jean is once again leading the controversial crusade.
The DocYard is a program of the LEF Foundation. Series sponsors include the Cambridge Arts Council/Massachusetts Cultural Council, Center for Independent Documentary, Irving House at Harvard, Rule Boston Camera, MassArt Continuing Education and the Open Documentary Lab at MIT.