ECC series to show best of foreign films
The best in foreign cinema will be shown this fall during the Elgin Community College Humanities Center's International Film Series.
Held the first Friday and third Tuesday each month, the series is part of the center's effort to foster cross-cultural understanding through cinema.
Screenings are held in the Visual and Performing Arts Center, Room VPA 191D, on the ECC Main Campus, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted to help support ECC study-abroad scholarships. For information about the film series, visit eccifs.org.
• Black Orpheus: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3, and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21. This 1959 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winning film transports the ancient Greek myth of a youth who travels to the land of the dead to bring back the woman he loves to the slums of modern day Rio de Janeiro. This bittersweet romantic tragedy has charmed audiences the world over with its beauty, color, and above all, its music.
• "Amores Perros": 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19. Internationally acclaimed upon its release in 2000, this film is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Three tales unfold on the streets of Mexico City, beginning with a street-wise kid named Octavio seeking to make enough money to flee and start a new life. He soon turns to a man who stages dog fights and begins to experience success with his own dog until the fighting spills outside the ring and leads to violence between the dog owners. Octavio's escape ends in a tragic accident that ties all the stories together.
• "Butterfly (La Lengua de las Mariposas)": 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16. On his first day of school, frail 8-year-old Moncho is so terrified by the imposing figure of his teacher Don Gregorio that he flees into the nearby woods. Despite his authoritarian appearance, the schoolmaster proves to be a kind, freethinking Republican who teaches Moncho the virtues of being good. The boy is soon spending much of his time with the elderly Gregorio in the Galician countryside of Spain, admiring such natural wonders as the tongue of a butterfly. However, Moncho's life changes forever when the Fascists roll into town.