**MERRICK FILM FORUM NEWS****

 

2009-2010 SEASON

 

Welcome to the Merrick Film Forum’s 52nd year of offering the community an

alternative to the standard movie fare. It is hard to believe we have been doing

this for so long.

 

We finished this year in relatively good shape financially. Because of the

problems in the New York State Senate we did not receive our usual grant.

Therefore we will have to increase our dues and admissions. The increase will be

$1.00 per movie. We will still be charging several dollars less per movie than

the senior price and even less than that for the regular price. We will still

have our discussion leaders as well as our coffee, tea etc.  This will enable us

to maintain our programs even with increasing costs for our films and other

expenses.

 

We had sad news, our long time treasurer and grants chairman as well as founding

member, Jack Ross passed away at the end of June. He will be sorely missed.

 

Our schedule this year will allow us to present most our films on the first

Friday of the month. We will meet on the second Friday, in October and January

and the third Friday in April.

 

We have allocated the same assignments to our Executive Board  members and we

all pitch in to assist on all the tasks whenever needed and share in choosing

films and we are very grateful for their efforts. They can always be relied on

to serve above and beyond.

 

Because we are still operating with a small number of dedicated Board members,

we could use assistance to maintain the FILM FORUM so that all of our members

can continue to come to our presentations and enjoy our films and discussions.

We need a Treasurer, a collation specialist and several people to help at the

door on film nights. We also could use some technically oriented people to

assist with the equipment setup. On the membership application there is a spot

for people to volunteer to join our Board. Please consider joining and helping

us continue to provide our series to the community.

 

If you would like to see the Film Forum, continue,  we need your help.  Not good

intentions, but a commitment to the nitty gritty work that is involved in

bringing our programs to the public. It’s not that hard, nor very time

consuming. But it does take a willingness to follow through on that which you

agree to do.  If you would like to work with us, please check the box on the

enclosed membership form or contact me,  or any board member. If you have any

questions, please call me at (516) 781-8685 or e-mail at jayh@broad.tc

 

Joe Sturniolo, is contacting speakers for each program. We expect many of your

favorite discussion leaders to be with us again this year. The board has

selected eight outstanding films. They are described starting on the next page..

Joe is also working on a new version of our web page that will be easier to

update and keep current as well as including a link to an email address to make

it easier to contact us.

 

As many of you know, we present fine films along with great speakers and

discussion leaders, plus coffee and cake during the discussion. All this for

only $5.00 per program (with annual $20.00 membership.)  

We have enclosed a membership application inside. Please fill out the

application ASAP, and return it to us with your check.  Because of the late

mailing of this newsletter, we will have your membership cards waiting for you

at the table at the door the first time you come. This will also allow us to

conserve on mailing expenses.

 

Our programs are held in the Merrick Avenue Middle School’s comfortable

auditorium and cafeteria. We start promptly at 8:00 PM.  They are usually held

on the first Friday of the month, October thru May. All the films, speakers and

program dates are subject to change due to factors beyond our control. We are

subject to the distributors ability to deliver the films on our schedule. Please

check the dates and save the calendar inside this brochure. We will make every

effort to inform you of changes in a timely fashion. Program postponements will

be made available to Channel 12 News. In addition our Website:

www.merrickfilm.org  will carry announcements.

 

                       See you at the movies!   

 

Jay H. Broad, President...Jack Ross, Treasurer, V.P. Grants

 

 

 

 

 

The Merrick Film Forum is pleased to offer the following programs for our 51st

season,

2009 - 2010

 

Names of Speakers/ Discussion Leaders will be on our post cards, sent out about

ten days before each program.

 

October 9, 2009 “Vitus

In this engaging drama a child prodigy finds a unique way of dealing with being

different. Vitus is no normal child. With a 180 IQ, a voracious appetite for

knowledge, and a preternatural gift for playing the piano, he finds it hard to

fit in with his peers. But like most parents of exceptional children, his

parents are overbearing, eager to see their child succeed. But as his parents

push and fellow children jeer, Vitus’s Grandfather simply allows the boy to be

himself.

 

2006.....123 min.....Swiss German / English.....PG

Speaker/Discussion Leader - TBA

 

November 6, 2009 “What’s Cooking

Coming together is the theme of “What’s Cooking”.This funny and mouth watering

and deeply moving vision of 21st century diversity and the future of the

American family – all set on Thanksgiving. Flowing from California kitchen to

California kitchen on this day of reunions and homecomings, we follow four

seemingly disparate families as they confront differences and familiarity;

laughter and festering anger, shiitake mushrooms and mashed potatoes; near

disaster and ultimately the astonishing power of love to connect them all.

 

2000.....109 min.....English / Spanish / Vietnamese ? Yiddish.....PG13

Speaker/Discussion Leader - TBA

 

December 4, 2009 “Merry Christmas”

This film is set in December 1914, where the French and Scots are fighting the

pesky Germans in the trenches. Morale is low on both sides as the soldiers

realize that it won’t all be over by Christmas after all. On Christmas eve the

sound of bagpipes prompts a German opera-singing soldier to start singing

carols, whereupon the Scots join in on the bagpipes and everyone applauds. It

isn’t long before the three leaders are meeting on the battlefield and declaring

a cease fire for Christmas. The cease fire includes games, drinking, presents,

burial of the dead, etc. The question is after all the camaraderie will the

soldiers be able to resume shooting each other afterwards?

 

2005.....French / German / English / Latin.....116 min.....PG13

Speaker/Discussion Leader - TBA                                                  

                    

January 8, 2010 La Buche 1999 ( The Kiss)

Christmas, family , and infidelity. Yvette's husband has died, and her grown daughters join her at the grave: Sonia, wealthy, bourgeois, and generous; Louba, living with their Dad Stanislas, singing at a Russian restaurant, pennilous, the mistress for the past 12 years of a man who will never leave his wife; Milla the youngest, acerbic, lonesome. Christmas was when they learned their parents were divorcing 25 years ago. Over the next few days, yuletide depression, Louba's pregnancy, Sonia's crumbling marriage, Stanislas's overtures to Yvette, and Milla's attraction to the man who's her fathers rent-free lodger lead each one to to re-examine, self, family and hopes. Is renewal possible?

Our speaker is

JO-ANN CARHART

 Head of Adult & Young Adult Services at the East Islip Public Library.  She has reviewed audio books for "School Library Journal" for more than 8 years.  She programs a series at the library called, First Friday Films - From Book to Film, and particularly loves films made in Britain.

 

French- English- Russian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 5, 2010 “Avenue Montaigne”            

Avenue Montaigne takes place on the fashionable Paris street from which the film

takes its name. People from a theater, an auction house, and a concert hall

gather in and around a central bistro where Jessica has wiggled her way into a

temporary job, having just moved to the big city. At the auction house   and

Jacques, is selling off his lifelong art collection and trying to reconnect with

his son. At the concert hall, classical pianist Jean Francois  is tired of being

on the road and wants to settle down into a more easy-going lifestyle, much to

the consternation of his manager/ wife. Meanwhile at the theater soap opera star

Catherine is trying desperately to impress director Brian  in order to play 

Simone de Beauvoir in his next film.  And in the middle of it all is wide-eyed

Jessica, who has an innocent love of life that captures the heart of just about

everyone she comes in contact with.

 

2006.....French / English.....100 min.....PG13

Speaker/Leader -TBA

 

March 5, 2010 “The Italian”

Despite the title, The Italian is actually a Russian film set at a bleak

orphanage in rural Russia. The story opens, when six year-old Vanya is

introduced to an Italian couple, who are hoping to adopt a child. Vanya is a is

a handsome bright eyed little boy and the couple takes an instant liking to him,

agreeing to give him a home.  It is quite clear to the other children, and to

little Vanya that he is in an extremely enviable position.  The adoption by the

Italians will take Vanya away from the miserable condition of the orphanage,

where the teenagers run a mini mafia, taking candy from the children and doling

out beatings whenever anyone withholds money from them. Vanya is nervous, though

accepting of his fate until the mother of another orphan comes to reclaim her

son, and she is told that he has already been adopted. When Vanya learns of

this, he is desperate to find out whether or not his own real mother is still

out there. 

 

2005.....Russian.....90 min.....PG13

Speaker/Discussion Leader - TBA

 

April 16, 2010 “After The Wedding”

In After the Wedding, a business man offers to make a huge donation to an Indian

orphanage        .  On fortunately, he makes some unreasonable demands on the

owner of the oil finish        including a bizarre request to return to his

native Denmark to participate in a wedding. Once he arrives, he realizes that he

is caught in the middle of an event that is far more than it appears .

 

Speaker/Discussion Leader - TBA                                                 

         

2006.....Danish / Swedish / Hindi / English.....120.....R

May 7, 2010 “Arranged”

 

 Two teachers starting their first year in a Brooklyn public school have more in

common than meets the eye. Though both women come from very different

backgrounds – is Rochel is Jewish Orthodox and Nasira  is Muslim -- they are

each going through arranged marriages. This character driven film surveys  their

developing friendship.

 

2009.....English / Hebrew / Arabic.....90 min

Speaker/Discussion Leader - TBA                                 

 

Directions To The Merrick Avenue Middle School

1870 Merrick Avenue

From Southern State Parkway

Exit at Merrick Avenue (Exit No. 24 S ) going South. 

Proceed South on Merrick Avenue.

Turn right at 7th Traffic Light into parking lot at the school.

From Sunrise Highway

At Merrick Avenue in Merrick, go North. 

Proceed North on Merrick Avenue.

Turn left at 4th Traffic Light into parking lot at the school.

Please park toward rear of parking area near the Auditorium entrance(Second

entrance)

 

 

DIRECTORY OF MERRICK  FILM FORUM SPEAKERS

 

Professor Michael D’ Innocenzo - Professor D’ Innocenzo is a well-known speaker

who has always been welcomed by our audiences.  He has been involved in local

politics for many years.  Professor D’ Innocenzo has received the Hofstra

University Distinguished Teacher’s Award and is the author of more than two

dozen books and other publications.

 

Mr. Milan Lucac - Mr. Lucac, now retired, has been in various positions

involving communications and media, primarily in Europe.  Milan spends most of

his winters in Europe teaching English.

 

Ms. Rhea Pollock - Ms. Pollock was born in Toronto and lived in Israel for 4

years during the Six Day War. She was formerly a social worker and is now a

librarian at the Brentwood Library.  Her interests include theater, politics and

travel.

 

Mr. George Rystar - Mr. Rystar is a retired English teacher and travels

extensively.  He has led several film discussions for us in the past.

 

Professor Karsten Struhl - Professor Struhl teaches Philosophy and Political

Theory (with emphasis on media and films) at Adelphi University, The New School,

John Jay College and New Rochelle University.  He recently edited a book on

cross-cultural philosophy.

 

Professor Karen Smith - Professor Smith has been with us for three years and has

received very good reviews from our members.

 

Ms. Maggie Gough - Ms Gough has led several discussions for us and has been well

received by our members                                                         

                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE MERRICK FILM FORUM

 220 NORTHWOOD COURT

JERICHO, NEW YORK   11753                                                       

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE  MAIL THIS  FORM TO:

THE MERRICK FILM FORUM,  220 NORTHWOOD COURT, JERICHO,  NY,   11753

WITH YOUR CHECK MADE PAYABLE TO “MERRICK FILM FORUM”

PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY

 

Name________________________________________ Telephone #___________________

                        

 Address_______________________________________________Apt. #_______________

 

Post Office______________________________ State_________ ZIP+4_______-_________

 

 E-Mail Address_________________________________________

 

Number of Memberships @ $20.00 Each _______   Amount Enclosed $___________

 

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (ANY FOUR PROGRAMS) - $20.00 PER PERSON

INDIVIDUAL ADMISSIONS SOLD AT THE DOOR:

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS WITH MEMBERSHIP CARD - $6.00 EACH

EACH PROGRAM WITHOUT MEMBERSHIP CARD - $7.00 EACH

 

Please include, on a separate sheet of paper, the names and addresses of

any persons whom you believe would like to receive this Newsletter

 

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If you are no longer interested in being on our mailing list, please send us

this part of this page with your address label.  We will delete your name from

our list.

 

PLEASE NOTE:  WE  DO  NOT  SELL  OR  SHARE  OUR  MAILING  LIST

 WITH ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION OR  INDIVIDUAL

 

 

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We are looking for some additional interested (and interesting) people to join

our Executive Board to help operate and manage the Merrick Film Forum. You will

help us to choose our films, pick speakers, serve refreshments, operate our

equipment, make decisions as required, etc.  We may have Executive Board

meetings about 2 weeks before each film program plus 2 or 3 meetings between May

1 and October 1 to plan and prepare for the next season.  If you would like to

join us, please sign below and put this strip in the envelope with your

membership application and check.  NOTE: Executive Board members must be members

of the Merrick Film Forum.

 

 

Name:___________________________________    Telephone 

No.:_____________________________         

 

 

 

 

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THE MERRICK FILM FORUM CALENDAR FOR 2009 - 2010

Please tear off  this Calendar and place it on your refrigerator for future use.

 

Friday, Oct.  9, 2009                                           Friday, Feb. 5, 

2010

                                                      

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009                                           Friday, Mar. 5, 

2010

 

Friday, Dec.4, 2009                                            Friday, April 16,

2010

 

Friday, Jan. 8, 2009                                              Friday, May 1,

 2010