The 3rd edition of the Refocus Film Festival returns to Downtown Iowa City from October 17-20.
"An annual celebration of cinema, Refocus features dozens of films, filmmakers, music, art and conversation centered on the art of adaptation." In a very literary town, this is a very literary film festival, with many films adapted from books, many of which are available at the Iowa City Public Library!
The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami
Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert
981.1/Kopenawa
Literary Nonfiction, Nature, Political
The shaman and spokesman for the Yanomami tribe of the Brazilian Amazon describes the culture conflicts his people have faced in Western industrial society and global politics, issuing a plea for the native peoples of the Amazon.
With so little of the world affected by commercialization, this is such an important message to hear. Excited to see the film that was inspired by this important book. Here's some information about the 2024 film: In collaboration with Brazil’s indigenous Yanomami people, this documentary follows leader and shaman Davi Kopenawa as he fights to return the world to balance in closely observed rituals and trenchant comments on the ruthless logic of a materialistic outside culture. Based on the shaman's book of the same name, the film tackles illegal logging, gold mining, and the deadly mix of epidemics these intrusions spread that threaten the existence of the Yanomami. With an acute understanding of geopolitical forces, Davi Kopenawa holds up a mirror to capitalist societies of “the merchandise people” and the unsustainable lifestyle of the so-called “developed countries” that threatens the survival of humanity as a whole.
- Katie
Aelita, Queen of Mars
Tolstoy
Aelita, The Queen Of Mars is a Socialist science fiction spectacle and in 1924 was the first big-budget movie from Soviet Russia. A year and a half in the making, it was intended as ideologically correct mass entertainment which could compete both in Russia and abroad with the Hollywood films that dominated Soviet and world screens while also earning plaudits for artistic innovation such as had greeted The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and other German expressionist films. Aelita is a fantastic adventure about Los, an engineer living in Moscow, who dreams of Aelita, the Queen of Mars, and builds a spaceship to take him to her. They fall in love, but Los soon finds himself embroiled in a proletarian uprising to establish a Martian Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! This story is based loosely upon a novella by Alexei Tolstoy, a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy, who had established a reputation for popular novels, poetry and drama before 1917 and who had just returned to Moscow after emigrating during the Revolution. The director, Yakov Protazanov, was a pre-Revolutionary Russian film giant who was persuaded to give up a successful new career in France and Germany to offer his skill and prestige to the untried Soviet film industry. The most interesting element in this film - the basis for its enduring fame - is its design: amazing Martian costumes and sets by the distinguished abstract painter Alexandra Exter and her accomplished prot-g-, Isaak Rabinovich. Informed by cubism and other design trends in France, Italy and Germany, they are executed in the distinctively Russian avant-garde style of the day, known as constructivism. Despite its long inaccessibility, Aelita has survived in excellent condition. This bizarre and haunting work has at last been restored to view in a first class edition with new English intertitles and a new piano score by Alexander Rannie based upon vintage themes by Sergei Prokofiev.
Based of a Tolstoy's novel, the silent film is available through your Kanopy subscription, but at ReFocus Film Festival musician Marc Ribot will perform a live score to accompany Yakov Protazanov’s pioneering 1924 sci-fi film Aelita: Queen of Mars, which is celebrating its centennial anniversary!
- Katie
All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren
Set in the 1930s, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, who begins his political career as an idealistic man of the people but soon becomes corrupted by success and caught between dreams of service and an insatiable lust for power.
Part of the presentation of classic films, come see the 1949 film on the big screen! More about the film:
Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford with a powerhouse Oscar-winning performance) is a dynamic backwoods personality who rides a wave of populist fervor straight into the governor's mansion, only to fall prey to the corruption and influence peddling that he pledged to fight. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren, this dynamic political noir took home the Academy Award for Best Picture. The timeless story of corruption remains as vital and engaging today as it did 75 years ago—a somber reminder of the intoxicating influence of our political machine.
- Katie
Nightbitch
Rachel Yoder
An artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced that she is turning into a dog and, as her symptoms intensify, struggles to keep her alter-canine-identity a secret, until she meets a group of mothers who may also be more than what they seem.
This is one of my favorite books I've read in the last decade. As an artist and mother, I saw myself in it. The feminist rants were spot-on and relatable and it will be fun to see how those play out on film. It's also been a joy to see Iowa City writer Rachel Yoder have the movie rights for her book bought by Amy Adams before the book was even released! Seeing this film on the festival's opening night with other rabid fans will be great fun!
About the 2024 film: Adapted from the celebrated novel by Iowa City author Rachel Yoder, director Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) tells the story of a small city artist-turned-stay-at-home-mom (Amy Adams), trapped by her domestic duties and the weight of motherhood. With a well-meaning yet oblivious husband (Scoot MCnairy) and a group of new mom friends she can't relate to, she is overwhelmed, exhausted, and longing for more. Her heightened sentiments begin to manifest physically. As her body begins to change, she is seized by strange appetites and desires—getting in touch with a more animalistic side of her being in a comedic nightmare of motherhood infused magical realism that takes a turn for the canine.
- Katie
Racialism and the media Black Jesus, Black Twitter, and the first Black American president
Venise T. Berry
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Diverse Characters, Read Woke, Nonfiction, Political
"Racialism and Media: Black-ish, Black Jesus and the First Black American President is an exploration of how the nature of racial ideology has changed in our society. Yes, there are still ugly racists who push uglier racism, but there are also popular constructions of race routinely woven into mediated images and messages. This book examines selected exemplars of racialism moving beyond traditional racism. In the Twenty-First century, we need a more nuanced understanding of racial constructions. Denouncing anything and everything problematic as racist or racism simply does not work, especially if we want to move toward a real solution to America's race problems. Racialism involves images and messages that are produced, distributed, and consumed repetitively and intertextually based on stereotypes, biased framing, and historical myths about African American culture. These images and messages are eventually normalized through the media, ultimately shaping and influencing societal ideology and behavior. Through the lens of critical race theory chapters examine issues of intersectionality in Crash, changing Black identity in Black-ish, the balancing of stereotypes in prime-time black male and female roles, the power of Black images and messages in advertising, the cultural wealth offered through Black Twitter, biased media framing of the first Black American President, the satirical parody of Black Jesus, contemporary Zip Coon stereotypes in film, the problematic popularity of ghettofabulous black culture, and finally the evolution of black representation in science fiction"
Before watching the doc, read the book! How are negative depictions of race portrayed and what can be done about it? Curious how the film will take such a broad subject and capture it in a short doc! Racialism in the Media was written by Iowa professor Venice Berry. Her brother, also in Iowa City, Steve Toriano Berry made a documentary to accompany it. This event will take place at the Library as part of the 2024 Iowa City Book Festival: https://www.icpl.org/events/52476/icbf-24-film-screening-racialism-and-media
- Katie
Small Things Like These
Clair Keegan
"It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church." --
Ooh! Excited for this film adaption of a book that unfolded like a movie in my mind! Here's a description of the film:
While making a delivery to the local convent, devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) makes a shocking discovery. Christmas 1985 in small town Ireland is going to take a turn for this working class family. In this unflinching look at the Magdalene laundries, workhouses for unwed mothers run by the Catholic Church, Bill must confront the complicity of his town and the harm done by the church he was raised in. Adapted from Claire Keegan's award-winning historical fiction novel of the same name by acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Enda Walsh, this powerful drama examines the personal and historical truths that shaped a people.
- Katie
The trial
Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924.
FICTION Kafka, Franz
Classics
Published against Kafka's dying wishes by his friend who couldn't let the book be lost to history. Now his most famous work, you'll find film adaptations, analysis, and multiple editions of this story in our ICPL collection to prepare you for watching the most recent film adaptation. I'm someone who like to read the original text first, but in this case, I might save rereading this for the first time in after seeing the film.
About the1962 film:
Orson Welles’ thrilling and cinematic adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel follows Josef K (Anthony Perkins), a meek bank clerk as he is accused of an unspecified crime. Forced to navigate an increasingly hostile bureaucracy as he seeks both answers and the opportunity to clear his name, Josef K’s reality crumbles around him. Shot in shadowy black-and-white, largely in an abandoned subway station in Paris, Welles’ adaptation of Kafka skillfully encapsulates the claustrophobia and culture of suspicion that is so central to its source text.
- Katie
Upgrade soul : a graphic novel
Daniels, Ezra Claytan, author, illustrator.
GRAPHIC NOVEL Daniels
For their 45th anniversary, Hank and Molly Nonnar decide to undergo an experimental rejuvenation procedure, but their hopes for youth are dashed when the couple is faced with the results: severely disfigured yet intellectually and physically superior duplicates of themselves. Can the original Hank and Molly coexist in the same world as their clones? In Upgrade Soul, McDuffie Award-winning creator Ezra Claytan Daniels asks probing questions about what shapes our identity-Is it the capability of our minds or the physicality of our bodies? Is a newer, better version of yourself still you? This page-turning graphic novel follows the lives of Hank and Molly as they discover the harsh truth that only one version of themselves is fated to survive.
The film "We are not alone" being featured at Refocus Film Fest is based off of another work of the same title by Ezra Claytan Daniels. To get a taste of Daniel's work, this is a great place to explore his work!
- Katie
Bottoms up and the devil laughs, A journey through the deep state
Kerry Howley
"Who are you? You are data about data. You are a map of connections--a culmination of everything you have ever posted, searched, emailed, liked, and followed. In this groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction, Kerry Howley investigates the curious implications of living in the age of the indelible. Howley's subjects face a challenge new to history: they are imprisoned by their past selves, trapped for as long as the Internet endures. A soap opera set in the deep state, Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs is a free fall into a world where everything is recorded and nothing is sacred, from a singular writer unafraid to ask essential questions about the strangeness of modern life"--
Read this book to get a taste of Kerry Howley's unique voice and go see "Winner" at the fest! More about the film:
In 2017 Reality Winner leaked classified documents to The Intercept exposing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election leading to the longest prison term ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media. Refocus Film Festival alum Susanna Fogel (Cat Person) directs this adaptation of University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program MFA graduate Kerry Howley's 2017 profile of Winner for New York Magazine. Starring Emilia Jones as the titular translator, we get an inside look into her personal history from precocious high schooler questioning authority to conflicted but highly paid private government contractor. With a stunning turn from Zach Galifianakis as her opioid addicted father who taught her to damn the man, this humorous and heartfelt story humanizes a public figure known for one courageous act and a funny name.
- Katie
If you search the ICPL collection for this title, you'll find many adaptations of this story, from films, to audio books, and ebooks, even a comic book! Ripe for adaptation "Alexandre Dumas's novel of justice, retribution, and self-discovery" is a great adventure. Originally translated from French, "This novel tells the story of Edmond Dantes, wrongfully imprisoned for life in the supposedly impregnable sea fortress the Chateau d'If." A tale of escape, treasure, and revenge, reading this newly edited version in advance of seeing the film, will enhance your screening!
- Katie