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film series - 2005 season

The 2006 Season of the Town Hall Feature Film Seminar

The 2006 season opened on Monday, November 21st with Winter Passing. Struggling twenty-something actress, Reese Holden, has been promised $100,000 by a book editor if she can secure for publication the love letters written by her legendary but reclusive father, Don, to her equally revered late mother. The journey leads her into his new family with unlikely siblings where secrets are revealed and Reese must come to terms with her father and their shared past and future. Studio: Sony Pictures. Starring: Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrel, Amelia Wagner and Amy Madigan. Screenwriter & Director: Adam Rapp. Rated R. Running Time 98 minutes.


Subsequent films were:

December 12 - When Do We Eat - the story of the "world's fastest Seder" gone horribly awry. It's about an old school dad who's as tough on his sons as his father is on him. On this night, however, one of the boys slips Dad a dose of a Ecstasy in order "to give him a new perspective." Studio: Fringe Pictures. Starring Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Lerner, Shiri Appleby, Ben Feldman, Mili Avital, Meredith Scott Lynn, Adam Lamberg, Cynda Williams and Jack Klugman. Screenwriter: Salvador Litvak & Nina Davidovich. Director: Salvador Litvak. Not Rated. Running time 90 minutes.


February 13 - Game 6 - combining real and fictional events, Game 6 centers around the historic 1986 World Series and a day in the life of a playwright who skips opening night to watch the momentous final game. Studio: IFC Films. Starring Michael Keaton, Griffin Dunne, Bebe Neuwirth, Catherine O'Hara, Tom Aldridge and Robert Downey, Jr. Screenwriter: Don Delillo, Director: Michael Hoffman. Rated R. Running time 1 hour 27 minutes.


February 27 - Sorry Haters - a modern day psychological thriller with political and social undertones. It begins in New York when Muslim cab driver, Ashade, picks up a professional woman, Phoebe. Although they have little in common, each share troubling urges and secret motivations. When Phoebe takes an interest in exonerating Ashade's incarcerated brother, a series of events are set in motion resulting in the revelation of a devastating hidden truth. Studio: IFC Films. Starring Robin Wright Penn, Abdellatif Kechiche, Sandra Oh, Josh Hamilton, Aasif Mandvi. Screenwriter & Director: Jeff Stanzler. Not rated. 83 minutes.


March 13 - Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School - the story of Frank Keene, a baker by trade but now a man consumed with his wife's death. When fate intervenes, he pulls over to help a stranger in a car wreck. The man near death urgently discloses a planned reunion, a meeting with a lost childhood love at a school for ballroom dance. Simply put, one man's dream becomes another man's destiny. Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films. Starring Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Astin, Donnie Wahlberg, David Palmer, Camryn Manheim, Adam Arkin, Sonia Braga, Elden Henson, Ernie Hudson, Miquel Sandovai, Octavia Spencer with Danny DeVito and John Goodman. Written by Randall Miller and Jody Savin. Directed by Randal Miller. Rated PG-13. Running time 103 minutes.


March 27 - On A Clear Day - after 40 years of working as a shipbuilder, the somewhat taciturn Frank has been let go from his job. Frank determines to salvage his self-esteem and tackle his demons by attempting the ultimate test of endurance - swimming the English Channel. Through his journey Frank rediscovers the bonds he shares with his wife and long estranged son. Studio: Focus Features. Starring Peter Mullen, Brenda Blethyn, Billy Boyd, Sean McGinley, Jamie Sives, Ron Cook, Benedict Wong and Jodhi May. Written by Alex Rose. Directed by Gaby Dellal. Rated PG-13. Running time 98 minutes.


April 10 - Water - the third in Deepa Mehta's elemental trilogy, following the acclaimed Fire and Earth. Water begins when 8-year-old child-bride Chuyia is widowed and sent to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Chuyia's feisty presence deeply affects the lives of the other residents, including a young widow, who falls for a Gandhian idealist. Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures. Starring Lisa Ray, John Abram, Seema Biswas and introducing Sarala. Written and Directed by Deepa Mehta. Rated PG-13. Running Time 113 minutes.


April 24 - United 93 - an unflinching drama about the passengers, crew, their families on the ground and the flight controllers who watched in the dawning horror as United Airlines Flight 93 became the fourth hijacked plane on the day of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil - 9/11. United 93 intends to dignify the memory of those on that flight, the men and women whose sacrifice remains one of the most heroic legacies of that tragic morning. Studio: Universal Pictures. Starring J.J. Johnson, Gary Commock, Polly Adams, Opeal Alladin, Nancy McDoniel, Starla Benford, Trich Gates, Simon Poland, Khalid Abdalla, David Alan Basche, Liza Colon-Zayas, Meghan Heffern, Oliva Thirlby, Cheyenne Jackson. Written & directed by Paul Greengrass. Rated R. Running time 93 minutes.


May 8 - The Motel - Ernest Chin is a chubby, thirteen-year-old, Chinese-American kid whose family owns and runs a motel. After school but before housework, Ernest works, changing sheets and cleaning the rooms, leading to comic confrontations that bring Ernest face-to-face with a charismatic Korean-American man reeling from a broken marriage. When he checks in, Ernest finds in him something of a mentor: but is this a case of the blind leading the blind-sided? Studio: Palm Pictures. Starring Jeffrey Chyau, Sung Kang, Jade Wu, Samantha Futerman, Alexis Chang, Stephen Chen. Written and Directed by Michael Kang. Not Rated. Running time 76 minutes.


May 22 - The Hidden Blade -the sequel to The Twilight Samurai. A low-level warrior named Munezo Katagiri finds himself caught among the shifting political and military winds of mid-19th-century Japan. The country is trying to slowly open itself to Western influence without losing its own identity. The warrior and his friend, Samon Shimada, dance carefully between Japan's social mores and the new ways of Western artillery and technology. Munezo's delicate position is complicated by his secret crush on his sweet family maid, Kie. Studio: Tartan Films. Starring Masatoshi Nagase, Takato Matsu, Yukitoshi Ozawa. Written and Directed by Yoji Yamada. Not Rated. Running Time 132 minutes.


June 5 - Wondrous Oblivion - Eleven year old David Wiseman loves cricket, he has all the kit but none of the skill, and is a laughing stock at school. When a Jamaican family moves in next door and builds a cricket net in the back garden, David is in seventh heaven. But in 1960's England the neighbors start to make life difficult for the new arrivals. David's family is caught in the middle, leaving him to choose between fitting in and standing up for his new friends. Studio: Palm Pictures. Starring Delroy Lindo, Emily Woof, Stanley Townsend, Sam Smith. Written and Directed by Paul Morrison. Rated PG-13. Running time 106 minutes.

June 26 - Boynton Beach Bereavement Club - A story of life, loss and love after 50. Retirement isn't what it used to be. After the loss of loved ones, members of an "Active Adult Community" meet at the local Bereavement Club in search of emotional support. The new energy in the club inspires more celebration than commiseration when members get back into the dating game. Studio: Samuel Goldwyn and Roadside Pictures. Starring Joseph Bologna, Dyan Cannon, Len Cariou, Sally Kellerman, Michael Nouri, Renee Taylor and Brenda Vacarro. Written by Shelly Gitlow and Susan Seidelman. Directed by Susan Seidelman. Not Rated. Running time 105 minutes.


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