PATHS TO THE WIRE: DAVID SIMON PRESENTS STANLEY KUBRICK’s PATHS OF GLORY

Book Signing w/ David Simon to Follow Screening of Rare 35mm Print of Kubrick’s Classic

Saturday, September 25, 7:00pm
MICA Brown Center
1301 Mount Royal Avenue

TICKETS: $10
Call 410.752.8083 to order in advance.

Maryland Film Festival is thrilled to announce that on Saturday, September 25, David Simon (creator of HBO’s  acclaimed series “The Wire,” and “Treme”) will host a screening of one of his favorite films, Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 classic film Paths of Glory. This unforgettable anti-war film was adapted from Humphrey Cobb’s 1935 novel Paths of Glory, just reissued by Penguin Classics with a brand-new introduction by Simon; Simon will also sign copies of the book after the film screening.

Loosely based on a true story, Cobb’s chilling story of injustice follows French soldiers during World War I. Forced to attack an impenetrable German position, the casualties are high, and in the aftermath several French troops are put on trial for cowardice, scapegoated by the officers and institutions that sent them into combat. Kubrick’s riveting film adaptation (co-written with legendary hardboiled author Jim Thompson) stars Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, and cult favorite Timothy Carey.

Paths of Glory – both the film and the novel – were major influences on David Simon in creating and writing “The Wire.” As he told The Baltimore Sun’s Michael Sragow, “When I was writing an institutional dynamic, I was thinking of the guys in Cobb’s book.” Further, Simon has called Kubrick’s adaptation “the most important political film of the 20th century… a favorite film [even] before I knew the book.”

Maryland Film Festival will screen PATHS OF GLORY at MICA’s Brown Center (1301 W. Mount Royal Ave.) at 7pm Saturday, September 25th, with David Simon introducing the film and answering questions from the audience after the screening. Additionally, copies of the new Penguin Classics edition of Humphrey Cobb’s novel (with Simon’s new introduction) will be on sale, alongside Simon’s own works, with Simon available to sign your copies. Tickets will be $10 and can be purchased by calling 410.752.8083.

For more information, read Michael Sragow’s piece on Simon and Paths of Glory (the novel and the film).

SALT, starring Angelina Jolie, FREE for Friends of the Festival!

Friends of the Festival is a membership program that supports the Maryland Film Festival throughout the year. For a contribution of $50 or more, our members receive benefits like:

  • FREE preview screenings from the art-house to Hollywood throughout the year
  • FREE movies before 6pm on the Friday of the Maryland Film Festival

Tuesday, July 20, 7:30pm

For more information or to sign up today and start seeing FREE SCREENINGS, call 410.752.8083 or click here to sign up online!

MORE ABOUT THE FILM:

Angelina Jolie stars in Salt, a contemporary action thriller from Columbia Pictures. As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who Is Salt?”

Click here to view the trailer!

SALT opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, July, 23rd!

Join Friends of the Festival now to see SALT and more FREE movies all year-round!

Mike Kuchar in the press!

Check out these articles in The Baltimore Sun and the City Paper about Mike Kuchar!

TONIGHT!!! Underground film legend MIKE KUCHAR
presents a career-spanning selection of his films, in person at the CHARLES THEATRE at 7pm!! Absolutely FREE!! This event will kick off MFF’s weekend of FREE Short Film Programs (in collaboration with Artscape). Shorts programs run Sat & Sun at the Charles Theatre from Noon-6pm.

MFF PRESENTS: FREE Shorts at The Charles during Artscape!

Click on the flier to see the full lineup of shorts programs presented by the Maryland Film Festival at The Charles Theatre this weekend:

MFF PRESENTS: AN EVENING WITH UNDERGROUND FILM LEGEND MIKE KUCHAR!

Maryland Film Festival proudly presents a career-spanning, FREE shorts program of work from legendary underground filmmaker Mike Kuchar, presented by the filmmaker!

MFF will kick off its Artscape 2010 programming on Friday, July 16th with five short films from Mike Kuchar, a major voice in the underground film scene since the 1960s, who will introduce his work and answer questions afterward. Kuchar pioneered a campy, stylized, and over-the-top hilarious style that provided inspiration for the likes of John Waters and Andy Warhol. His career began with 8mm films made in the Bronx as a teenager in the 1950s, and has evolved into a singular body of work that includes over 50 titles on 8mm, 16mm, and video formats.

Together with his twin brother and sometime collaborator, filmmaker George Kuchar, Mike co-authored the memoir Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool, published with an introduction from Waters. The brothers were also the subject of the documentary It Came From Kuchar (which had a fantastically well-received screening recently within The Charles’ Cinema Sundays series, hosted by MFF director Jed Dietz).

Festivalgoers lucky enough to have attended MFF 2000′s Brothers Kuchar showcase (which included one of Mike’s signature titles, 1965′s Sins of the Fleshapoids) know how charming an evening with Mike Kuchar and his work will be. Don’t miss this amazing event!

The films included in this special MFF/Artscape Mike Kuchar showcase:
The Craven Sluck (1967)
Stranger in Apartment 9F (1995)
Animal  (2009)
Echo’s Garden  (2010)
Medusa’s Gaze (2010)

THIS PROGRAM IS FREE and takes place at the CHARLES THEATER at 7pm on FRIDAY, JULY 16. FILMMAKER MIKE KUCHAR WILL INTRODUCE HIS FILMS AND ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS!

Call for Entries Now Open!

Maryland Film Festival 2011′s Call for Entries is open as of today, through December 15th!

http://www.md-filmfest.com/sub.cfm?ID=11

HAMILTON and PUTTY HILL Get Distribution!

MFF 2010 R.I.P.

As I do after every MFF, I’ve spent most of the day talking with people about their view of MFF 2010, and that’s always fun and instructive. You should head to the Mike Sragow Gets Reel blog on the Sun website, with MFF notes from Sragow, Kaltenbach and Krotki and lots of great pictures. Just go to www.baltsun.com and click anyplace MFF is mentioned. Volunteer screening tonight. We open MFF 2011 next May 5.  

–Jed Dietz, MFF Director

OPENING NIGHT AND DAY

The future Filmmakers Tent Village, site of tomorrow’s Filmmakers Taking Charge Conference and free panels through the weekend

As of this morning, we have exceeded all previous records for pre-sales in both categories, tickets and All Access !!

Tent Village construction is underway, and filmmakers are arriving from far and wide, the most exciting time of the year for all of us. LIVERPOOL director Lisandro Alonso has arrived from Buenos Aires, Tanya Hamilton, writer/director of NIGHT CATCHES US called before she left SF this morning where she’s had sold out screenings at the oldest film festival in America, and MOTHER AND CHILD writer/director Rodrigo Garcia is making a special trip in from LA to host his screening Sunday night. Over 70 filmmakers will join us over the weekend.

We’ve always had a special commitment to Short Films, and tonight we’re devoting our Opening Night to seven amazing films. It is a unique and encouraging glimpse of the broad range of creative energy that is drawn to moviemaking. We have 9 other Shorts Programs in MFF 2010.

Keep in touch throughout MFF 2010- Sragow and I join Tom Hall tomorrow on WYPR’s Maryland Morning with Sheila Kast (about 9:30, but you can hear it on their website, too), and there is a lot of blogging going on as MFF 2010 unfolds. Mike Sragow Gets Reel for the Sun has been terrific this week, and will be a good place to check during the weekend. Chris Kaltenbach and Amanda Krotki are already guest blogging.

–Jed Dietz, MFF Director

PUTTY HILL

It was fun doing the WJZ interviews with Matt Porterfield this morning- WJZ’s Ron Matz is so good at this, and it gave me and Matt a chance to catch up- Matt’s been travelling nonstop as an invited guest at festivals in places like Copenhagen and Buenos Aires since the premier of PUTTY HILL at the great Berlin Film Festival in February. I can’t wait for the screenings here. As Matt takes his place alongside Baltimore’s other great film artists- Levinson, Waters, Simon, all very different but deeply fascinated by specific parts of Baltimore- it’s worth asking: what is it about this city that continues to lure filmmakers to its neighborhoods?  If you go to the WJZ website, click on Morning Edition at the bottom, you can see the interview, or just click on the link: http://wjz.com/morningedition/Maryland.Film.Festival.2.1675647.html

–Jed Dietz, MFF Director