Season 5
"INvader / OUTsider"
Examining the lonely visitor and the unwelcome guest

After a not-so-brief hiatus, the Rowhouse Film Festival is back in 2013 with a new theme in its fifth season!  We've gathered together a series of movies that explores the relationship between self and other -- friend and stranger.  They express the sense of alienation one can feel regardless of being within or without.

We'll be looking at issues of citizenship and belonging, as well as discussing the role of the explorer, outlaw, interloper, and colonist in a series we're calling "INvader/OUTsider."

FOR THE UNINITIATED:  The Rowhouse Film Festival is an ongoing Sunday evening event at our house where we show movies, serve flavored popcorn, and encourage a lively discussion of the films afterwards.  You don't at all have to be a film buff or scholar to participate and enjoy.  Seating at our home (in the living & dining room) can be tight, so all we ask is that you let us know in advance if you're coming and kindly bring something to drink.

Past Seasons

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Miller’s Crossing

Miller's Crossing (1990).  Trusted adviser to 1920s Irish crime boss Lee O'Bannon, Tom Reagan's loyalty is tested when he takes up with O'Bannon's gal pal.  Meanwhile, rivals threaten the boss's racket.  Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, and Marcia Gay Harden star in this marvelously crafted, unnerving crime-era epic helmed by the Coen brothers. (Screened 7/14/13)

Dirty Pretty Things

Dirty Pretty Things (2002).  Undocumented immigrants Okwe and Senay work at a posh London hotel and live in constant fear of deportation. One night, Okwe stumbles across evidence of a bizarre murder, setting off a series of events that could lead to disaster -- or freedom. With Audrey Tautou and Chiwetel Ejiofor. (Screened 8/18/13)

Suddenly Last Summer

Suddenly Last Summer (1959).  In Tennessee Williams's tale of sexual repression set in 1937 New Orleans, rich widow Mrs. Venable (Katharine Hepburn) is distraught over the death of her son Sebastian during his vacation to Europe, where the two had traveled together every summer. This time, Sebastian had taken his cousin Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor), who appears to go mad the day Sebastian dies. Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) is called in to assess her mental state. (Screened 9/8/13)

Three Kings


Three Kings (1999).  When three American soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Walberg, & Ice Cube) stationed in Iraq find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, they embark on a secret mission that's destined to change everything.  Directed by David O. Russell.  (Screened 9/22/13)

The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven (1960).  Fed up with being brutalized and impoverished because of outlaw raids led by a merciless brigand each year, the besieged citizens of a small Mexican farming village hire seven American gunslingers to stave off the marauders once and for all.  Each of the hired guns comes for a different reason, and they must prepare the town to repel an army of 40 bandits who will arrive wanting food.  This iconic Western (starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, & James Coburn, among others) is a remake of the film Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. (Screened 10/13/13)

The Others

The Others (2001).  While awaiting the return of her soldier husband from World War II, a devout Christian (Nicole Kidman)-- the mother of two children with a rare sensitivity to light -- begins to suspect the family house is haunted in this supernatural thriller.  Directed by Alejandro Amenábar. (Screened 11/3/13)

Rear Window

Rear Window (1954).  As his broken leg heals, a wheelchair-bound James Stewart becomes absorbed with the parade of life outside his window and soon fixates on a mysterious man whose behavior has him convinced a murder has taken place.  He enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend (Grace Kelly) to investigate as they spy on the daily lives of a dancer, a lonely woman, a composer, a dog and more.  (Screened 11/17/13)

The Conversation

The Conversation (1974).  Made between The Godfather parts I and II (and in part an homage to the 1966 art movie classic Blow-Up), Francis Ford Coppola returns to small-scale film making with this intimate movie about an audio surveillance expert (Gene Hackman).  As someone who is indirectly involved in ruining the lives of others and who will go anywhere to bug a private conversation, he faces a moral quandary when he suspects that a couple whose conversation he's been hired to record will be murdered.  (Screened 1/12/14)

Milk

Milk (2008).  Sean Penn stars in this biopic about Harvey Milk, the openly gay activist and San Francisco politician who, in 1978, was murdered along with Mayor George Moscone by disgruntled city supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). (Screened 2/2/14)

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).  Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn star as wealthy Californians who consider themselves progressive until their only daughter brings home her African American fiancé (Sidney Poitier) in this snapshot of race relations in the late 1960s. The film was released in the same year as the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia.  It also earned two Academy Awards and eight other nominations. Stanley Kramer directs.  (Screened 3/16/14)

Attack the Block

Attack the Block (2011).  When aliens attack a South London neighborhood, a tough inner-city teen gang and an unlucky young woman pull together to protect their turf by any means necessary. But the extraterrestrials prove far more formidable than anyone the kids ever jumped on the streets, and their apartment complex is turned into into a war-zone.  (Screened 3/30/14)

Children of Men  (season finale!)

Children of Men (2006).  In this futuristic tale starring Clive Owen, humans have lost the ability to reproduce and face extinction. Things change when a single woman mysteriously becomes pregnant, prompting a conflicted government bureaucrat and his ex-wife (Julianne Moore) to join forces to protect her. (Screened 4/27/14)

Past Seasons

Season 1: Philadelphia
Season 1

Philadelphia, city of brotherly love, home of the cheese steaks and water ice (wudder ice).  The first season of the Film Fest explored Philadelphia beyond the stereotypes and clichés with a series of movies shot in or about our fair city.

Season 2: Swindlers, Liars, & Con Artists
Season 2

Con artists, swindlers, and liars should be despised for their treachery, and yet we all admire a good con for its elegance and mastery.  Join us as we watch talented con artists play on human vanity, naiveté and greed.

Season 3: On The Road
Season 3

The third season was called "On The Road."  Starting with the quintessential road movie, Easy Rider, we explored the genre of the road movie as a manifesto for freedom & wandering, and as the anti-establishment American dream. 

Season 4: Film Noir - Classics & Reduxions
Season 4

Film Noir is a genre that began in the 1940s with films that were black & white and traditionally shared common aesthetic and thematic characteristics: they were described as dreamlike, strange, erotic, cruel, and ambivalent, and they were often synonymous with "hard boiled" detective flicks and thrillers.  Since the classic era of noir, the genre has influenced countless movies, and its permutations now encompass a very wide range of films including westerns, sci-fi, horror, and indie.

The fourth season called "Film Noir: Classics & Reduxions" lookined into the mysteries & dark dreams of noir’s classics, reduxes, and revisionings from the past 60 years.