Documentary Films

Let it Be

Thursday, August 6, 2008

7:30 p.m., Community Room

A special screening of the film Let It Be (on film, it's never been released on video or DVD) about the making of the album Let it Be and the breaking up of the band that changed music, The Beatles. Presented by local film historian and archivist Bruce Lawton.

As Real as Your Life

As Real As Your Life

A film screening with director/writer Michael Highland

Tuesday July 31, 2007

7:30 p.m., Community Room

Written and directed by life long video game addict and Princeton native Michael Highland, As Real As Your Life explores the personal and social repercussions of spending more time playing in the virtual world than in the real one. The film brings to light the enormous potential for video games to change our society. This short film was screened to acclaim at the 2006 Princeton Student Film and Video Festival and other festivals in the U.S. Intended for a teen and adult audience.
more info on the film

A Family Undertaking
Thursday

August 2, 2007
7:00 p.m.
Running time: 60 min.

Post-screening discussion led by Laurie Powsner, the Executive Director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Princeton.

Prior to the 20th century, most Americans prepared their dead for burial with the help of family and friends, but today most funerals are part of a multimillion-dollar industry run by professionals. "A Family Undertaking" explores the growing home-funeral movement by following several families in their most intimate moments as they reclaim the end of life, forgoing a typical mortuary funeral to care for their loved ones at home.

This is a screening in partnership with public television’s P.O.V. series, shown in special preview of its Season 20 broadcast screening air date on PBS.

more info on the film

Revoluntion '67

Revolution '67


Thursday June 21, 2007
7:00 p.m.
Running time: 90 min.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno, and activists and community organizers Larry Hamm and Richard Cammarieri.

This is a screening in partnership with public television’s P.O.V. series, shown in special preview of its Season 20 broadcast screening air date on PBS.

photo: "REV '67 Nat'l Guard and Crowd"Donated by Corbis-Bettmann

"Revolution '67" is an illuminating account of events too often relegated to footnotes in U.S. history — the black urban rebellions of the 1960s. Focusing on the six-day Newark, New Jersey outbreak in mid-July, "Revolution '67" reveals how the disturbance began as spontaneous revolts against poverty and police brutality and ended as fateful milestones in America's struggles over race and economic justice.

For more information go to the filmmakers' Web site or the P.O.V. Web site.

This is a screening in partnership with public television’s P.O.V. series, shown in special preview of its Season 20 broadcast screening air date on PBS.

Friday April 13, 2007 -- 6:30 PM

at McCosh 10, Princeton University Campus

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Running Time: 92 min.

Film screening followed by Q&A with its director, Chris Paine

The screening is sponsored in partnership with the Princeton University Pace Center, Princeton Environmental Institute, Graduate Student Government, Undergraduate Film Organization, Princeton Public Library, and Evil Twin Booking.

Admission is free.

THE FILM:

It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky few who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General Motors begin crushing its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles? There were 5,000 people who wanted an EV1, but GM wouldn't let them have it. Come watch “Who Killed the Electric Car” to learn about why one of the most promising environmental technologies in the history of transportation was wiped out by more than just General Motors.

Writer/Director Chris Paine's first documentary feature film Who Killed the Electric Car? premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 before its release by Sony Pictures to critical acclaim in 100 US markets. The film also played at festivals in Tribeca, Seattle, San Francisco, Newport, Atlanta, Telluride, Deauville, Canberra, Berlin and Milan.

 

“LOST BOYS OF SUDAN”

Joseph Deng and Megan Mylan

Friday November 17, 2006

10 a.m. at the Princeton Public Library

Free Community Screenings of Award-winning Documentary

photo: Joseph Deng and Megan Mylan

Lost Boys of Sudan, a critically acclaimed documentary that follows two Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America, is coming to Princeton for two free public screenings on Friday November 17, 2006.

At each screening, the film’s director, Megan Mylan, and Jospeh Deng, one of the young men from the “Lost Boys” group who now lives in Philadelphia, answered questions at the 10 a.m. screening in the first floor Community Room at the Princeton Public Library and at a 7:30 p.m. showing at Princeton University.

“Lost Boys of Sudan” tells the story of Santino Chuor and Peter Dut, who were orphaned in the longest-running civil war in Africa. Along with thousands of other children, they walked hundreds of miles, surviving lion attacks and militia gunfire, to reach a refugee camp in Kenya. There they were chosen to come to America, where they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American suburbia.

The evening screening was at 7:30 p.m. at 10 McCosh Hall on the Princeton University campus, sponsored by the Princeton University chapter of Amnesty International, The Pace Center, STAND, and Brother’s Keeper.

more info on the film

All films are screened in the library's Community Room on the first floor. Free admission.

Opinions expressed during programming at Princeton Public Library do not necessarily reflect the views of the library, its staff, trustees or supporters.