May is always a busy month for movie lovers at the Flint Institute of Arts. Not only is the museum’s Friends of Modern Art film series continuing, but May also brings the annual Karen Schneider Jewish Film Festival of Flint to the FIA Theater.
This is the festival’s 12th year, all but the first having taken place at the FIA as a collaboration between the museum and the Flint Jewish Federation. As always, the festival menu highlights aspects of Jewish life, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Among the event’s five films are three documentaries: In Search of Israeli Cuisine, which opens the festival on May 15; Rosenwald, the story of Sears executive and Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (May 16); and Rock in the Red Zone, which juxtaposes the energy of Israeli-created rock ’n’ roll with the destruction of war (May 18).
Also slated are an Israeli drama, Apples from the Desert (May 17), and a comedy from the U.K., Dough (May 19), which stars Jonathan Pryce as a curmudgeonly London baker whose bread sales shoot sky-high via unexpected means. Admission is $5 at the door for each of the festival movies.
Meanwhile, the FOMA series continues with two films on May’s first full weekend. The 1948 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rope will be shown on one night only – May 5 – followed by an even greater classic, Macbeth. This not-to-be-missed version of the Shakespearean tragedy, to be screened May 6-8, co-stars Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender and Academy Award winner, Marion Cotillard.
Two Oscar-winning actors, Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins, will appear on-screen May 13-15 in a Spanish seriocomedy, A Perfect Day. It intends to capture the insanity of war in showing a group of aid workers attempting to resolve a crisis in Bosnia.
Born to Be Blue, the FOMA selection for May 20-22, stars Ethan Hawke as trumpeter Chet Baker in a reimagining of sorts of the legendary jazzman’s life. Baker is haunted by his past to the point that he may never play music again, but an enigmatic young woman (Carmen Ejogo) changes his life.
Capping the month, on May 27-29, is Songs My Brothers Taught Me, a drama about a Native American family threatened with separation after an unforeseen tragedy. Set on a South Dakota reservation, the film is populated largely by a nonprofessional cast.
For show times and info on all FIA events, visit FlintArts.org or call 810.234.1695.
