Taking a Break this Season

Movie Club Members (past and present),

I’m writing you to let you know that the Movie Club will be taking a break this season (2010-2011). During the 2010 season we found that attendance was noticeably dwindling, and, for the first time, we were no longer covering our exhibition costs.

As a non-theatrical venue doing licensed exhibition, our choice of mainstream artistic films has been limited to a small subset of those already available on DVD. Our distributors also restrict the types of advertising that we may do. Operating within these limits, it is hard to imagine what we could do differently to ensure that we cover our expenses in the future.

With this in view, our board has voted to donate the balance of the Ouray Movie Club’s checking account and our capital items (movie screen and popcorn machine) to The Friends of the Wright Opera House.

It is our hope that the Movie Club finds a new home in future years under the auspices of “the Friends of the Wright.” If you would like to make sure that the tradition of the Movie Club continues in Ouray, I urge you to step up and make a donation to Friends of the Wright, if you haven’t already done so. (www.savethewright.org)

Once the Friends have acquired the Wright, I will gladly provide guidance to them with regard to screening movies in the future. If you would like to help with a future movie club at the Opera House, please drop me a line by email and I will create a list of interested volunteers to provide to the Friends.

Thanks to all of you who have supported us over the years and to Dan King and Sandra Boles who helped get the Movie Club off of the ground many years ago. Also thanks to everyone who volunteered their time operating popcorn machines, selling tickets, sweeping up, helping us assemble or disassemble the screen, etc. Special thanks to the following volunteers (in no particular order): Myrna Spaulding, Sandra Boles, , Kathleen Norris Cook, Carla Deger, June Kirchner, Suzie Jones, and John Draper. Forgive me if I’ve overlooked anyone.

In the meantime, I will be maintaining the official Movie Club websites:

ourayfilm.com
Find us on Facebook

Please feel free to use these sites, especially the Facebook site, to continue to keep up on regional movie screenings, provide reviews of movies you’ve just seen, etc.

Season Finale Pirate Radio - Friday April 23rd

April 23rd, 2010
Showtime: 7 p.m.
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Wright Opera House
Staring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans
Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Runtime: 135 min.
Categories: Documentary

Eric Notes: This is our season finale. A fun film, filled with great music, especially for anyone who came of age in the sixties.


Synopsis:
Celebrated filmmaker Richard Curtis brings audiences his most personal comedy to date. Writing and directing the story of a band of rogue deejays who captivated British radio listeners in the ’60s, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that, incomprehensibly, preferred jazz, Curtis welcomes us aboard The Boat That Rocked.
[IMDB Entry]
[Trailer]
[Add to my calendar]

Admission: Everyone is welcome at $7.50 per ticket. 2010 Movie Club members may use their punch cards.

The Garden - Friday April 9th

April 9th, 2010
Showtime: 7 p.m.
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Wright Opera House
Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Runtime: 80 min.
Categories: Documentary

Eric Notes: An excellent Oscar nominated documentary.


Synopsis:
This film is an engaging and powerful look at the famous political and social battle over the largest community garden in the U.S (located in south central LA). The politics of power and greed tragically intersect with working class families who rely on this communal garden for their livelihood. This film exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.
[IMDB Entry]
[Trailer]
[Add to My Calendar]

Admission: Everyone is welcome at $7.50 per ticket. 2010 Movie Club members may use their punch cards.

Precious - Friday March 26th

March 26th, 2010
Showtime: 7 p.m.
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Wright Opera House
Starring: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’ Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Care, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz
Director: Lee Daniels
Runtime: 109 min.
Categories: Drama

Eric Notes: Winner of two Oscars. This film was the highest rated in our pre-season evaluations and, for a while, it looked like we couldn't get it this season. So we are very pleased to present the Oscar winner for best supporting actress and best screenplay. See it on the big screen in Ouray.


Synopsis:
Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Clareece “Precious” Jones, a sixteen-year-old African–American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father. Precious may sometimes be down but she is never out. She finds her answer when she is asked to join a special school that will lead her from darkness to light.
[IMDB Entry]
[Trailer]

Admission: Everyone is welcome at $7.50 per ticket. 2010 Movie Club members may use their punch cards.



Precious Trailer - The most amazing bloopers are here

The Country Teacher - Friday March 12th

March 12th, 2010
Showtime: 7 p.m.
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Wright Opera House
Director: Bohdan Sláma
Runtime: 113 min.
Categories: Drama, Czech Republic

Eric Notes: This is this year's Movie Club selection from the film festival circuit. This Czech film was an official selection in Toronto and Venice and a winner of the Czech Oscar®. It is a beautifully crafted film. Special thanks to the film's distributor, Film Movement, for helping to make this screening in Ouray possible.


Synopsis:
A gifted and well-qualified young teacher takes a job teaching natural sciences at a grammar school in the country. Here he makes the acquaintance of a woman and her troubled 17-year old son. The teacher has no romantic interest in the woman but they quickly form a strong friendship, each recognizing the other's uncertainties, hopes and longing for love.

When the teacher's ex-boyfriend comes to visit from the city, he quickly realizes that nobody in the village knows that the teacher is gay and harbors a secret affection for the teenage boy. His jealous actions set in motion a series of events that will test the inner strength and compassion of the teacher, the woman and her son to a breaking point. A beautifully shot, powerfully acted, profoundly moving story of desire, responsibility, forgiveness and the need to belong, from the internationally-acclaimed director of Something Like Happiness and Wild Bees.
[IMDB Entry]
[Trailer]

Admission: Everyone is welcome at $7.50 per ticket. 2010 Movie Club members may use their punch cards.




Sponsor:

filmmovement.com

A Serious Man - February 26th

Friday, February 26th, 2010
Showtime: 7 p.m.
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Wright Opera House
Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Runtime: 105 min.
Rating: R|Parental Guide
Categories: Comedy, Drama

Eric Notes: This year's selection from the Coen Brothers. Who else could make this modern take on the Book of Job (why bad things happen to good people) into a seriously entertaining and thoughful comedy?


Synopsis:
This dark comedy centers on Larry Gopnik, a Jewish college professor in the Midwest during the 1960s. He watches his life unravel as his wife prepares to leave him for his pompous colleague, his deadbeat brother won't get off the couch, his son is having problems at school and his daughter is stealing money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job.
[Official Site]
[Trailer]

Admission: Everyone is welcome at $7.50 per ticket. 2010 Movie Club members may use their punch cards.

Elegy - February 12th

February 12th, 2010
Showtime: 7 p.m.
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Wright Opera House
Director: Isabel Coixet
Stars: Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, and Dennis Hopper
Runtime: 112 min.
Rating: R|Parental Guide
Categories: Romance, Drama

Eric Notes: This is an excellent romance/drama for the weekend before Valentine's Day. Bring your date or significant other.


Synopsis:
Elegy charts the passionate relationship between a celebrated college professor and a young woman whose beauty both ravishes and destabilizes him. As their intimate connection transforms them-more than either could imagine-a charged sexual contest evolves into an indelible love story. With humanistic warmth, wry wit and erotic intensity, this film explores the power of beauty to blind, to reveal and to transform.

[IMDB Entry]
[Trailer]

Admission: Everyone is welcome at $7.50 per ticket. 2010 Movie Club members may use their punch cards.


Thanks to The Blue Pear for their sponsorship of this showing.

Sundance!

Sundance 2010 is in full swing and you can watch for Sundance news at the lower right of this site. Learn more about last year's Sundance audience award winner and Friday's (Jan 21st) Movie at the Wright- The Cove in this short interview presented by the Sundance Channel.

Coming Soon

Elegy - 2/12
A Serious Man - 2/26

Visit our Events listing at Facebook for more info. on upcoming features.

The Cove - January 22nd

January 22nd, 2010
Showtime: 7 p.m.
Doors: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Wright Opera House
Director: Louie Psihoyos
Runtime: 92 min.
Rating: PG-13|Parental Guide
Categories: Drama

Synopsis:
This film begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the dolphins that played the title character in the television show “Flipper.” He has now discovered a terrifying secret in a secluded cove where thousands of dolphins are hunted for meat and underhanded dealing to the entertainment industry.

[Official Site]
[Trailer]

Admission: Everyone is welcome at $7.50 per ticket. 2010 Movie Club members may use their punch cards.

The Cove Trailer