[IMC] Art Theater Co-op to host one week of acclaimed, recent "dangerous" documentaries

[The Art Theater]

PLEASE FORWARD

*Art Theater Co-op to feature one-week festival of recent cutting-edge
documentaries*

*Contact: Austin McCann
General Manager, the Art Theater Co-op
the.art.theater at gmail.com
727-409-3605*

Urbana, IL—One week after its re-opening as the first cooperatively-owned
art-house cinema in the country, the Art Theater Co-op is showing its
commitment to acclaimed, cutting-edge cinema. From September 14-20, the
theater will host the Dangerous Docs Festival, featuring five of this
year’s most highly acclaimed documentaries:* This is Not A Film, Ai Weiwei:
Never Sorry, 5 Broken Cameras, The Imposter*, and *The Island President*.
Normal ticket prices apply, although the theater is selling festival passes
as well in person at the theater.

The Art Theater Co-op is located at 126 W. Church St. in downtown Urbana.
The theater’s website is www.theCUart.com and you can also visit them on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheArtTheater .

Films were selected based on two criteria: critical response and
challenging content. While many documentaries rely on a “talking heads”
format – experts talking at the camera – these documentaries are all
acclaimed works of cinematic art while offering challenging content. McCann
suggests seeing more than one film in the festival: “There’s a number of
connections between the films: similar themes or predicaments or artistic
questions.”

The films are all acclaimed, each receiving at least a 95% “fresh” rating
on critic aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. “People hear the word
‘documentary’ and they reach for their pillow, and that’s something I want
to fix,” McCann opined. “That response happens because a lot of
documentaries are actually bad: they don’t give you anything to look at,
anything to feel. They don’t feel like films, they feel like lectures.”
With the Dangerous Docs Festival, McCann hopes to change that reality by
highlighting the documentary’s potential for being just as engaging and
pleasurable as normal movies.

Featured films include:

>From Iran, *This Is Not a Film*. Originally released to the festival
circuit in 2011, This is Not a Film is directed by Jafar Panahi, a
successful Iranian filmmaker who recently received a six-year prison
sentence and ban on making films or writing screenplays for 20 years. In
defiance of the ban, Panahi recorded a video diary of himself under house
arrest, making a work of art that asks about the boundaries of art under
serious risk. The movie was finished, then put on a flash drive and
smuggled out of Panahi’s residence in a cake, after which it was delivered
to Cannes Film Festival. Since then, the film has met with universal
acclaim. The film currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (a critic
aggregator site). The San Francisco Chronicle calls the film “an act of
political defiance, a moving personal document and a meditation on what
film is and can be.”

Another film in the festival, *5 Broken Cameras*, shares an interest in
filming as a political act. *5 Broken Cameras* started when Palestinian
farmer Emad Burnat bought a camcorder to film his fourth son being born.
Over the next five years, he ended up documenting—and participating
in—nonviolent resistance in his home town of Bil’in. The film’s title
refers to the destruction of each new camera Burnat purchases. The film was
completed with the assistance of Burnat’s close friend, the Israeli
filmmaker Guy Davidi. “I hope the film generates empathy and
understanding,” McCann hopes, “but conversation about the film and our
responses to it will be important toward that end.”

*Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry*, directed by Alison Klayman, is a look at the
hilarious and committed Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei as he works
on public art projects and battles Chinese authorities. The most obviously
fun film at the festival, audiences will get to know Weiwei, whose public
persona is part dissident, part rascal.

*The Island President* watches then-President of the Maldives Mohamad
Nasheed as he battles climate change and confronts the global power
structure. Climate change is affecting the Maldives more obviously than
most: the tiny island nation is losing more of its land to the rising seas
every year. In one memorable scene, President Nasheed holds a press
conference underwater to draw attention to his cause. The film contains a
mixture of gorgeous cinematography (primarily located on the Maldives) and
political observation. “There are a lot of documentaries about climate
change,” McCann admits, “but this is a special one, due to Nasheed’s story
and the gorgeous cinematography.” Sometimes called the “Mandela of the
Maldives,” Nasheed’s story, which includes years of imprisonment, is an
inspiring model of commitment to doing what’s right, a theme that crops up
through the Dangerous Docs Festival.

The last film included is a bit different, McCann admits. *The Imposter*,
directed by British director Bart Layton, is a gripping thriller about
Frederic Bourdin, who impersonated a missing Texas boy in the 1990s. “It’s
definitely creepier than the other films, more like a psychological
thriller, so I put it in the Late Night slot,” he said, referring to the
Art Theater’s well-received Late Night movie slot, generally reserved for
sci-fi and horror films and cult classics. But *The Imposter* has received
the same glowing press as the rest of the films: the Philadelphia Inquirer
wrote that “Layton's dazzling film is an exciting, edge-of-your-seat
experience superior to any Hollywood mystery you're likely to see for a
long time.”

The Art Theater Co-op is selling passes to the festival: $35 is a
full-price adult pass; there are discounts for seniors ($25) and students
($30). The pass gets you into all films, but normal ticket prices apply,
too, for those who won’t see the whole line-up.

In the past few years, the Art Theater has grown its audiences and seen its
business steadily grow. With the recent transition to a co-operative
organization, the co-op has high expectations for the theater and its
programming. “We’re known as the place to see a movie in central Illinois,”
McCann says, “And most of that is programming. We offer high-quality films
that people can’t see anywhere else. And sometimes it’s stuff no-one’s
heard of, but they trust the Art to bring in top-notch programming.”

The Dangerous Docs Festival starts September 14. Please contact McCann with
any questions.

-- 
Austin McCann, General Manager
The Art Theater Co-op
126 W. Church St.
Champaign, IL 61801
the.art.theater at gmail.com

On the web: www.theCUart.com
On FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheArtTheater
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