Belcourt Theatre Pop-Up Screenings

MUSTANG

Sunday, March 6 at 12:30pm at OZ Arts Nashville

Dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüve, Turkey, 2015, 94min, NR, Digital

Nominee – Best Foreign Language Film – 2016 Academy Awards

The feature debut of Turkish filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven is a sensitive and powerful portrait of sisterhood and burgeoning sexuality. Early summer in a village in Northern Turkey, five free-spirited teenaged sisters splash about on the beach with their male classmates. Though their games are merely innocent fun, a neighbor passes by and reports what she considers to be illicit behavior to the girls’ family. The family overreacts, removing all “instruments of corruption,” like cell phones and computers, and essentially imprisoning the girls, subjecting them to endless lessons in housework in preparation for them to become brides. As the eldest sisters are subjected to virginity tests and married off one by one, the younger sisters look on in fear and resolve not to succumb to the same fate. Co-written by noted writer-director Alice Winocour (DISORDER).

“[A] beautifully mounted debut … the director proves especially skilled with her cast of newcomers[,] whose powerful individualism as well as their vibrant bond together are perfect vessels for the script’s message” —

IN JACKSON HEIGHTS

Sunday, March 6, 3 p.m. at OZ Arts Nashville

Dir. Frederick Wiseman, USA, 2015, 190min, NR, Digital

Jackson Heights, located in the New York City borough of Queens, lays claim to being the world’s most diverse neighborhood. Locals say that 167 languages are spoken here. In contrast to urban blocks that are often more divided by ethnicity, Jackson Heights residents commingle in the same apartment buildings and shopping districts. In the Old Testament’s Tower of Babel story, diversity was a recipe for disaster. In Jackson Heights, it somehow works.

Frederick Wiseman is best known for documenting institutions (NATIONAL GALLERY, AT BERKELEY). He now brings his observational approach to IN JACKSON HEIGHTS, filmed over the summer of 2014, to create a keen understanding of how this special place ticks.