THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER  1958
(Ostatni dzien lata)
Directed by Tadeusz Konwicki
62 minutes
In Polish with English subtitles

This is a great example of what was once considered 'European cinema' - meaning films that offered something more open and free than the story-driven and star-dazzled movies Hollywood was pumping out. Here we have a one hour Polish film that only explores the relationship of two people that meet on a summer beach on the Baltic coast. It is an unusual flick, it's a sort of documentary of emotions, with a surrealist edge.

It is totally stripped down, giving us time to think about what is going on. Time to reflect, to allow the mood to sink in. Space to understand details and nuances.
And since there is no gigantic long-winded story, we are more free to come to our own conclusions. No distractions. Serene cinematography and everything is dead simple. It was made by a crew of five people, a lightweight camera, 19,000 feet of black-and-white film stock, no props, two actors and a vast wide open beach. 

What are you looking for in a movie? Bright blue eyes, big stars with perfect bodies, lots of special effects and spectacular colors? A kind of high-octane testerone video-game cinema?   cluttered with stimulation like electric shock therapy, killing our attention span and powers of concentration? If so, this film is certainly not for you (or actually it might be exactly for you—it could change your life). 

One female viewer concluded "A depressed beachside version of Before Sunrise with meditation on loneliness, love, loss and the traumas of war. Intimate, poetic, melancholic and absolutely gorgeous to look at."

This will be a high-definition screening. 

+
THE BLACK TOWER  1987
Directed by John Smith
23 minutes
In English

The short films of British director John Smith are always captivating. They are experimental, but also relaxing, and always retain a sense of mystery and humor. Smith is a storyteller above all else, and his observations are quirky, fascinating, puzzling, ghostly, jarring, meditative. He takes the most ordinary things, and turns them into something extraordinary. Sometimes it takes him four years to make a fifteen minute film. As they unfold they draw you in, and then spit you back out again. He tries to show there are radically different ways of looking at the world. This one has been described as an "architectural horror film". Absolutely unique.