Movie Club | Gene Siskel Film Center

Everyone's in the club! Just by attending the monthly Movie Club film and participating in the conversation, you are in! Each month we invite all audience members to join informal conversations led — but not monopolized — by carefully selected facilitators.

Gene Siskel Film Center Closed Wed. 1/30
F** YOUR HAIR & '63 BOYCOTT rescheduled to Sat. 2/2

Due to the extreme weather expected on Wednesday, January 30, the Gene Siskel Film Center offices and theaters will be closed.
However, on Saturday at noon we will be screening F*** YOUR HAIR and '63 Boycott with both director Jason Polevoi of F*** YOUR HAIR and director Gordon Quinn of '63 Boycott present for a Q&A after the screening.

If you have already purchased tickets for Wednesday night you have three choices:
• Use them for a Saturday screening;
• Exchange them for tickets to any future film at the Gene Siskel Film Center;
• Receive a refund.

Stay warm and safe!

We look forward to seeing you at the movies…
Gene Siskel Film Center Staff

First Chicago run!

Mapplethorpe

2018, Ondi Timoner, USA, 102 min.
With Matt Smith, Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey

Film series: Runs & Limited Engagements

BUY TICKETS

“A superb performance by former "Doctor Who" Matt Smith…bold and brilliant, an act of possession.”--Keith Uhlich, Hollywood Reporter

“Artistry to match its subject…audiences will feel unable to tear themselves away from its protagonist’s lavish self-destruction.”--Lena Wilson, The Wrap

This fictionalized biopic of iconic photographer Robert Mapplethorpe follows the hedonistic self-destructive trajectory of an artist who spared no one, not even himself, in the creation of the transgressive erotic work that put his career on the knife’s-edge of controversy. Young Mapplethorpe (Smith, of "Doctor Who" and "The Crown"), the conflicted product of a punitive Catholic childhood and runaway from a military prep school, arrives in Manhattan and links up with fellow penniless artist Patti Smith (Rendón), a short-term lover but long-term soulmate. The gift of an old camera changes everything. Actor Smith fully inhabits the role of the beautiful, charismatic “shy pornographer,” as Mapplethorpe embraces his gay identity and comes into his own as an ambitiously driven photographer under the patronage of art collector and new lover Sam Wagstaff (Hickey), leaving a string of broken hearts, cruel betrayals, and used and abused men in his wake. MAPPLETHORPE benefits from the full authorization of the artist’s estate, enabling a host of provocative key works to be depicted authentically. Note: Contains nudity and sexual activity. DCP digital. (BS)

The Wednesday screening is a Movie Club event, the conversation will be led by David J. Getsy, Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor of Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

PREVIOUSLY

Filmmakers in person!

F*** Your Hair

Chinga Tu Pelo

2018, Jason Polevoi, USA, 38 min.

Film series: Stranger Than Fiction

Showtimes:

Fri, Jan 25th 8:15pm
Sat, Jan 26th 5:00pm
Sat, Feb 2nd 12:00pm

The triumphant story of how a little Chicago microbrewery succeeded in flipping off the president and mobilizing a community got its start after the 5 Rabbit Cervecería received a major order with a downside. Married brewery owners Andres Araya and Mila Ramirez, Latin American immigrants, rejoiced when they were selected to brew the house brand for the new Trump Tower, a coup for such a small business. Joy turned to horror with Trump’s shocking public characterizations of Hispanic immigrants. They pulled their beer out of the tower, but what to do with all that product? The answer lay in imaginative relabeling of the golden ale as Chinga Tu Pelo, or F••• Your Hair. Thirsty Chicago beer drinkers, bar owners and restaurateurs rose to the protest challenge with glee, and set 5 Rabbit on a new path to social action. DCP digital.

Preceded by ’63 BOYCOTT (previously screened in Chicago). This then-and-now look at the historic 1963 boycott against the Chicago Public Schools focuses on a massive protest that brought 200,000 students to the streets and ultimately brought down schools superintendent Benjamin Willis for promoting discriminatory practices and de facto segregation in South Side schools. Director Quinn updates the fight for equality in the schools to the present day, with a contrasting look at the same issues in new guises under the administration of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. DCP digital. (BS)

'63 Boycott

2016, Gordon Quinn, USA, 30 min.

Film series: Stranger Than Fiction

Showtimes:

Fri, Jan 25th 8:15pm
Sat, Jan 26th 5:00pm
Sat, Feb 2nd 12:00pm

This then-and-now look at the historic 1963 boycott against the Chicago Public Schools focuses on a massive protest that brought 200,000 students to the streets and ultimately brought down schools superintendent Benjamin Willis for promoting discriminatory practices and de facto segregation in South Side schools. Director Quinn updates the fight for equality in the schools to the present day, with a contrasting look at the same issues in new guises under the administration of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. DCP digital. (BS)