LUNAFEST

Sponsored by First Congregational Church.
Various, 90 minutes

LUNAFEST Website

A traveling film festival of award-winning short films by, for and about women. On the tour this year are nine films dealing with chemotherapy, getting dumped, a gymnast, a mother and daughter selling tacos, a bicycle designer, a shy photographer and a day at the river.

SPECIAL Short Film Presentation: Chick Book

At the 6 pm Saturday showing, at First Congregational, the evening will also include refreshments and a special showing of a 30-minute film by Saginawian Kelly Coffey. Titled Chick Book,, it finds a sports-loving guy expecting Detroit Tigers tickets from his girlfriend for his birthday – but instead receiving a life-changing book. Coffey also will speak briefly about filmmaking and answer questions.

Just the Lunafest films will also show at a 3 pm Thursday at Hoyt Library. Proceeds from this presentation will benefit the Saginaw Underground Railroad.

Bernie

Sponsored by Saginaw Medical Federal Credit Union
USA, 2011, 104 minutes, Comedy/Crime/Drama, PG-13

Synopsis: In small-town Texas, the local mortician (Jack Black) strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine). And when he kills her, he goes to great lengths to create the illusion that she's alive.

Website / Movie Trailer

“The director surpasses himself in this true story."”

–Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Blackthorn

Sponsored by Public Libraries of Saginaw
Span, 2011, Western, 92 minutes, R

Synopsis: In Bolivia, Butch Cassidy – now calling himself James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard) – pines for one last sight of home; an adventure that aligns him with a young robber, gangs and lawmen. Based on the legend that Butch and the Sundance Kid were not killed in a shootout in Bolivia.

Website / Movie Trailer

“"It ain't Paul Newman and Robert Redford, but it ain't bad.”

–Tom Long, Detroit News

Farewell, My Queen

France, 2012, Drama/History, 100 minutes, R

Synopsis: A look at the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her ladies in waiting – and the passions, debauchery, nobility and chaos that engulfed the court – in the final days before the French Revolution.

Website / Movie Trailer

“Matching the strength of the actresses and their personal drama is the film's masterful sense of time and place.”

–Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

The Giant Mechanical Man

USA, 2012, Comedy/Drama, 94 minutes, PG-13

Synopsis: An offbeat romantic comedy about a street performer who paints himself silver and the soft-spoken zoo worker who falls for him.

Filmed in Detroit.

Website / Movie Trailer

“It won't change your life but it might lighten your heart.”

–Tom Long, Detroit News

Hysteria

Sponsored by Mondays at 7 Book Club/ David and Audrey Lewis.
UK, 2011, Comedy/Romance, 100 minutes, R

Synopsis: A surprising story about how Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) devised the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science, at the very peak of Victorian prudishness. Also stars Maggie Gyllenhal, Jonathan Pryce.

Website / Movie Trailer

FACEBOOK Site

“Good vibrations all around.”

–Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

In Darkness

Poland/Germany, 2012, Drama, 145 minutes, R

Synopsis: Based on a true story, a sewer worker and petty thief in a Nazi occupied Polish city encounters a group of Jews trying to avoid capture. For money, he hides them in the labyrinth of the town's sewers and thus begins an unlikely alliance.

Oscar nominee for best foreign language film.

Website / Movie Trailer

“When it's over, you'll be relieved to come up for air. You'll also be glad you took the plunge down under.”

–Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

The Intouchables

Sponsored by Delta Public Broadcasting.
France, 2011, Comedy/Drama/Biography, 112 minutes, R

Synopsis: A rich Paris quadriplegic seeks a live-in caretaker. A young offender from the projects is hired. And a close friendship blossoms.

Cesar,Tokyo Film Festival winner.

Website / Movie Trailer

“The superb actors demolish stereotypes about race and social class by finding a common humanity in their characters. Acting this good forgives a lot of sins.”

–Peter Travers, Rolling Stone