All films will be screened at Summerside Empire Theatres Studio 5 on the second Wednesday of each month starting at 6:30 p.m.
Organizers of Filmworks say the response from the community has been positive, indicating the need for alternative cinema like this “to round out the cultural and entertainment options in Summerside and area.”
The first film of the series, scheduled for Jan. 9, is “Midnight’s Children” directed by Deepa Mehta and based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Salman Rushdie. At the stroke of midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, as India proclaims independence from Great Britain, two newborn babies, one born to wealth and the other to poverty, are switched by a nurse in a Bombay hospital. Their lives parallel India’s journey of triumphs and disasters in this visually stunning epic film.
On Feb. 13, the Canadian film “Still” will be featured. Directed by Michael McGowan and starring former Academy Award nominees James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold, “Still” is based on the true story of Craig and Irene Morrison, an aging couple from St. Martin’s, N.B., who run into conflict with a building code inspector when Craig begins building a new home for their final years using the traditional methods he has always known.
Filmworks Summerside is particularly pleased to present this film, with its insightful dramatization of a recent story from this region of ordinary people battling bureaucracy, brought to life “by tear-jerkingly moving performances out of two deeply experienced actors.” (Adam McDowell – National Post review)
“Anna Karenina,” the latest screen adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel as directed by Joe Wright (“Atonement;” “Pride and Prejudice”) will be shown on March 13. Starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, this lush and stylistic version of the epic love story is brilliantly set against a theatrical backdrop, with stagehands changing the sets as the star-crossed lovers play out their fateful romance.
The final two films of the series, scheduled for April 10 and May 8, will be “The Sessions” (starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, and William H. Macy), about American poet and journalist Mark O’Brien, confined to an iron lung for most of his life, who decides at age 38 to lose his virginity to a sex surrogate; and “Quartet,” a British comedy set in a retirement community for former opera musicians and featuring Dustin Hoffman in his directorial debut.
Season passes for the film series and tickets to individual films are available at Samuel’s Coffee House and Lefurgey Cultural Centre in Summerside. Tickets and passes may also be purchased from the Filmworks Summerside team, who will be at the Summerside Farmers’ Market on Saturday, Jan. 5, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
