Bay College’s Film Series Announces 2018 Schedule

News

Our race to the Oscars begins!  The Film Series at Bay College once again celebrates the art of film- making, showing the best in international, documentary, and independent cinema.  This year’s roster is filled with award-winning, critically-acclaimed, audience-approved movies. 

To start the school year on Thursday, September 13th, Won’t you be my Neighbor? will be shown in conjunction with a number of children’s advocacy groups in the U.P.  This popular documentary is an intimate glimpse into the life of beloved children’s programmer Fred Rogers, eponymous host of the iconic PBS children’s series “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.”  It is “the must-see documentary of the year,” according to Stephanie Archer of FilmInquiry magazine.  Newsday agrees, calling it a “poignant tribute to the mild-mannered father-figure who served as moral compass to generations.”

This film, by Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville – whose films 20 Feet from Stardom and Best of Enemies were Film Series favorites -- takes us past the comfy sweaters and home-town friends, into the creative genius whose legacy continues to educate and inspire children around the world.  A.O Scott of The New York Times says Won’t you be my Neighbor? is one of the “best American movies in theaters right now.”

Bay College’s second film in the series on October 4th is Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot directed by two-time Oscar nominee Gus Van Sant., which premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival.  Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Jack Black, this movie is based on the autobiography of political cartoonist John Callahan.   Critic David Edelstein calls Phoenix’s performance “brilliance onscreen.” Adam Graham from The Detroit Free Presssays it’s an “appropriately unorthodox remembrance” in this “off-kilter biopic about an off-kilter guy.”  This movie highlights the redemptive and healing power of art. 

The film series continues with the one of the most talked about movies of the year, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman on November 15th.  Based upon the true story of the 1970s infiltration of America’s most notorious supremacist group, the movie shows how African-American police officer Ron Stallworth (played by John David Washington, Denzel’s son) and Jewish-American detective (Adam Driver) contact and then join the KKK working undercover.  It’s a plot you wouldn’t believe if you didn’t know it was true.  Richard Brody from The New Yorker magazine, says, “Lee also offers a clear, specific, and wondrous, if wary, view of change that's possible because, at one time and to some extent, it actually happened.”

Bay College’s 2018 Film Series season ends on December 6th with The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Festival.  When high school student Cameron is shipped off to conversion therapy by her parents, she finds an unlikely community of peers at the center.   This coming-of-age story is anchored by the strong performance of grown-up child star Chloe Grace Moretz.

All Film Series movies are shown in Bay College’s Besse Center Theater at 7 p.m. in Escanaba.  Tickets are $5 general public and $2 for students with a valid student ID and are available at the box office or can be purchased online. For more information visit www.baycollege.edu.