

PREVIOUSLY
Saving Brinton
2017, Tommy Haines, John Richard, and Andrew Sherburne, USA, 90 min.

"A celebratory documentary…sensitive, humane filmmaking." - Wesley Morris, The New York Times
"Delightful…Anyone who loves movies is bound to love SAVING BRINTON." - Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
A nitrate copy of THE TRIPLE-HEADED LADY, an elaborately hand-tinted short by French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, thought to be lost, comes astonishingly to light in an Iowa farmhouse, but that is only one part of the remarkable story of heartland film history told in this engaging documentary. Mike Zahs - amiable retired history teacher, part-time farmer, and eccentric fulltime hoarder living in tiny Washington, Iowa - discovers a vast trove of artifacts from the estate of William Franklin Brinton, an entrepreneurial theater owner whose barnstorming shows once introduced his rural audiences to the moving-picture wonders of the dawning twentieth century. Zahs becomes a crusader for preservation of the priceless horde, including film reels, catalogues, posters, handwritten journals, and more, and soon the unassuming teacher is hobnobbing with the elite of the film preservation world in France and the U.S. A portrait of small-town Iowa is integral to this warm-hearted chronicle, which includes a complete viewing of the restored Méliès film. DCP digital. (BS)
Saturday, July 21: Film subject Michael Zahs and filmmakers Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne are scheduled to appear for an audience discussion moderated by Michelle Puetz, Curator of Collections and Public Programs at Chicago Film Archives. This screening is a Movie Club event.
Wednesday, July 25: Filmmaker John Richard is scheduled to appear for audience discussion following the screening.
Five Seasons: The Gardens Of Piet Oudolf
2017, Thomas Piper, USA, 75 min.

"You might liken his plant compositions to the frenetic glory of his countryman Willem de Kooning, except the fury is replaced with a dense, living canvas that never seems to lose its serenity." - Adrian Higgins, Washington Post
"A pleasure on multiple fronts: sensorially, conceptually, narratively." - Jennifer Reut, Landscape Architecture Magazine
Five seasons in the gardens and career of Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, creator of Chicago's acclaimed Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, are traced in this lush documentary that blooms with details of Oudolf's other high-profile projects including Manhattan's High Line and the waterfront Battery Gardens. Beginning with an autumn walk through the designer's own sprawling but intricately planted garden in the Dutch village of Hummelo, the film conveys his deep and thoughtful appreciation for botanical life in all its seasons. Oudolf cites Lurie Garden as the turning point in his development as a designer, a project that propelled him to new thinking about ecology and the use of native plants. As the designer undertakes a major new project for a gallery and arts center in southwest England, seen from start to finish, he seeks inspiration from nature in locations including the gloriously bluebonnet-covered hills of West Texas. DCP digital. (BS)
Friday 6/15 at 7:45 PM: This screening is a Movie Club event, facilitated by director Thomas Piper and moderated by Laura Ekasetya, Director and Head Horticulturist of Lurie Garden. Attendees will receive a Daelmans stroopwafel.