Global Film Festival focuses on 'Journeys and Passages'
{{youtube:medium:center|DCrHL3ftmVg, The 2014 GFF Trailer}}
The 2014 W&M Global Film Festival, the theme of which is “Journeys & Passages,” runs Feb. 13-16 and will, in part, celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Reves Center for International Studies.
To that end, the Kimball Theater will show a documentary on the Reves Center on Feb. 13 at 5 p.m., followed by a reception in the Kimball lobby from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Among those featured in the film will be William & Mary President Taylor Reveley, Provost Michael R. Halleran, Reves Center directors and staff, along with past and present students. All will be commenting on the Reves Center and its mission of connecting William & Mary to the world.
While the complete schedule of events and details may be accessed at http://filmfestival.wm.edu, here are some of the highlights from a full weekend of cinema:
Thursday, Feb. 13, 7:30 – "The Congress" ($5 general admission, $3 students w/IDs).
Released in 2013 and directed by award-winning Ari Folman, this part-animated, part-live action film stars Robin Wright as an aging out of work actress who accepts one last job. The consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Friday, Feb 14, 9:30 – "Blue is the Warmest Color"
Co-sponsored by the W&M French and Francophone Film Festival, “Blue” centers on 15-year-old girl named Adèle who dreams of experiencing her first love. She imagines that a mysterious, blue-haired girl she encountered in the street – a confident, older art student -- slips into her bed and possesses her with an overwhelming pleasure. That blue-haired girl who will soon enter Adèle's life for real, making way for an intense and complicated love story that spans a decade.
Saturday, Feb. 15, 1 p.m. – "Kuky se vraci/Kooky" (Free at Williamsburg Library theater).
This 2010 film from the Czech Republic and director Jan Sverak involves a young man with asthma named Ondra, whose mom throws away his favorite toy: a musty old stuffed bear named Kooky. That night Ondra dreams that Kooky is determined to find his way back home from the dump. In the boy's fantasy, the bear gets lost in a forest occupied by strange animals and remarkable beings that he never heard of while living on the toy shelf in Ondra's room. Even in this small imaginary world, true good exists as does real evil, which Kooky must face up to in order to become a real hero.
Saturday, Feb. 15, 9 p.m. – "Nieulotne/Lasting"
Twitchfilm.com described this film as “Guilt and indecision narrate a story of two young Polish students trying to come to terms with their own escalating problems. To appreciate how precious life really is, they must first stand face to face with sudden tragedy and important decisions that not only gradually lead them further into adulthood, but also force them to reinterpret the meaning of love completely anew.”
Among more mainstream films being shown are "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (Library, Feb. 8, 1 p.m.), Disney’s first-ever live action film; "2001: A Space Odyssey" (Kimball, Feb. 13, 10:30 p.m.), the film that launched the science-fiction epoch of film-making that still exists today; and "The Gold Rush" Kimball, Feb. 16, 12:30 p.m.), one of Charlie Chaplin’s most critically acclaimed and iconic films.
General admission for most GFF screenings is $1 for all seats.Tickets to select marquee screenings will be $3 for W&M and other students (ID required if over 18) and $5 for general admission.
Please note: Tickets to sold-out screenings only guarantee you a seat if you are in your seat 10 minutes before screen time. Ten minutes prior to all soldout screenings, empty seats will go to those in the “rush line.”
All ticket stipulations and all other information are available here: http://filmfestival.wm.edu.
