Special Movie Showings

March 7
St. Johns River Revival – A Celebration of Our River
This is a celebration of the St. Johns River and the inspiration that it provides to so many people. In Marjorie’s Wake is a documentary that celebrates nature, literature, and “sense of place” by helping viewers better understand the work of Pulitizer-winning Florida author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings by highlighting a trip she once took on the St. Johns River. My St. Johns River, Our Responsibility is a 28-minute film produced by St. Johns Riverkeeper that focuses on our youth and their involvement with the St. Johns River. The film features high school finalists from the PSA Video Contest, kids who are tracking sources of pollution in their neighborhood, youth who use the river for recreation and shrimping, and students who are taking action in the classroom to protect the St. Johns River.
There will be presentations by Seth Dent and Keith Legette, two experienced sea kayakers who recently paddled the entire length of the St. Johns River (310 miles) in only 11 days and Michelle Thatcher, who has also traveled the entire length of the St. Johns River by kayak and is currently working on a documentary about her experience. There will be a performance by Jennifer Chase, an educator, playwright and musician. Jen has written and produced musical plays about the St. Johns that allow us to understand the powerful and creative force this historic river system has had on people here over time. Her original compilation of songs, “In Marjorie’s Wake”, was written to acknowledge her own inspiration from the St. Johns. 5 Points Theatre, 1025 Park Street, 2 – 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.stjohnsriverkeeper.org or www.mystjohnsriver.com.

March 10
Random Lunacy: Videos From The Road Less Traveled
All happy families are not alike, as proven by the radically itinerant Poppa Neutrino, and his family band of self-taught Dixieland musicians. Random Lunacy, directed by Vic Zimet and Stephanie Silber, follows The Flying Neutrinos as Poppa leads the family on a quest for pure freedom. They were homeless by choice, and for twenty years they documented their lives with an old HI-8 camera, capturing adventures that ranged from a stint in a Mexican circus to pitting a scrap raft against the Atlantic Ocean. Their greatest achievement – creating for themselves an alternate universe with a value system all its own. Down and out never looked so rich. Post Film Chat Back With Filmmaker. Part of the FCCJ Artist Series 2008-2009 Southern Circuit Tour Of Independent Filmakers. FCCJ Nassau Campus – Nassau Auditorium, 7 pm, Free Admission, Info: 632-3373 or www.artistseries.fccj.org

Around The World in Film at Theatre MOCA
MOCA will be showing award-winning films from the Jacksonville Film Festival on Thursdays at 7:30 pm. Cost is $6 for Members and $8 for Non-Members. Info: 366-6911 ×208.

March 5
More Shoes
Struggling filmmaker Lee Kazmir reads the words of Werner Herzog, who advises that one could learn what the art of cinema truly means by “walking alone for 5,000 kilometers – let’s say from Madrid to Kiev.” Kazmir takes the advice literally and sets out from Madrid to cross most of Europe on foot. Overcoming physical struggles, language barriers, and his own mental isolation, he meets a cast of characters along the way who teach him his greatest lessons. Through encounters both heartrending and hilarious, Kazmir begins to realize that to understand filmmaking, he will first have to understand life itself. March 12 Secret Trip A feature documentary from the China Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio about China’s postwar diplomatic missions and chronicling the experiences of the famous Communist politician Zhou Enlai and his secret meetings with Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. Full of previously unseen archive footage. March 19 Invisibles Produced by acclaimed Academy Award winning actor Javier Bardem. The Doctors Without Borders organization sponsored this five-piece documentary on atrocities being committed and inflicted upon the underrepresented and poverty stricken around the world. These five filmmakers each create a heartbreaking vision of the state of affairs currently seen throughout towns and villages destroyed by war, famine, disease, and chaos. Focusing on individuals in Barcelona, the Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic, and Colombia, the five shorts relate the painful conditions that these people are living in and all the agony they have suffered. March 26 Beyond the Call In an Indiana Jones meets Mother Teresa adventure, three middle-aged men, former soldiers and modern-day knights, travel the world delivering life saving humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians and doctors in some of the most dangerous yet beautiful places on Earth, the front lines of war. Their specialty is going where death from land-mines, bullets, or bombs is as frequent as death from hunger, disease, or the elements. Their personal convictions and courage drive them to places such as Afghanistan, Albania, Chechnya, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Rwanda and the southern Philippines, on a journey into the heart of humanity and the soul of courage.

Not Just for Baby Boomers Film Series
Enjoy free showings of Boomers’ favorite films on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays each month at 5:45 p.m. in the Main Library’s Hicks Auditorium. Info: (904) 630-1741. March 12 Rebel Without a Cause Three lonely teens try to find their places in the world in this saga of adolescent angst and rebellion that propelled James Dean to immortality. Nicholas Ray directed James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo, 1955. March 26 The Thin Man The chemistry was so right between Nick and Nora Charles that this film led to five sequels. The adventures of the suave detective, his sophisticated wife, and their clever dog Asta present a delightful combination of mystery and zany comedy. W. S. Van Dyke directed William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Maureen O’Sullivan, 1934.

March 27
The Neverending Story
The St. Augustine Amphitheatre presents Night Owl Cinema and will show The Neverending Story (Rated PG) on Friday, March 27. Doors open at 6:30 pm and movies begin at 8 pm. Food is available from local restaurants. The St. Augustine Amphitheatre, A1A South in St. Augustine. www.staugamphitheatre.com/cinema.php