Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Cat Video Fest returns to the Strand


CatVideoFest returns to the Strand for the second year. Laughing at cat videos has been proven to provide health benefits to the audience. Seriously.

CatVideoFest is a compilation reel of the latest and best cat videos culled from countless hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and, of course, classic internet powerhouses. CatVideoFest is a joyous communal experience, only available in theaters, and raises money for cats in need through partnerships with local cat charities, animal welfare organizations, and shelters to best serve cats in the area. 
CatVideoFest 2020 at the Strand Theatre will benefit Paws Rescue to help with their work. Paws Rescue is a non-profit, no-kill animal rescue located in Vicksburg, Mississippi since 2004.

CatVideoFest is committed to raising awareness and money for cats in need around the world. A percentage of the proceeds from each event go to local animal shelters and/or animal welfare organizations.

By focusing our fundraising efforts on behalf of local shelters and organizations, we're able to divert money and attention directly to the places and causes that need it most. For example, in some communities the feral cat population is the most pressing concern, whereas in another location, spaying and neutering takes precedent. We trust local people working on behalf of cats to know and understand the problems that need to be solved.

The 70-minute-reel of cat videos is family-friendly and can be enjoyed by anyone.
And the popcorn is free...

Cat Video Fest tickets are $10. Available at Highway 61 Coffeehouse and at the door on the day.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Big Weekend at the Strand: John Carter Cash and more...

Big weekend at the Strand 
3 programs:

Friday, February 21 at 7
 Triste Adagio
(new film by Vicksburg filmmaker: 
Mike Gillis)

Saturday, February 22 at 7
Honeyland
(Oscar nominated documentary)

Sunday, February 23 at 5:30
Dragon Song
A film and live concert featuring
John Carter Cash


New Short Film:
Friday, February 21/ 7:00 PM
Triste Adagio
Directed by Mike Gillis


Made right here in Vicksburg. Come see Brelynn Beck, Cassidy Lampkin, Alana LaTorre, Morgan Nelson. Sarah Randolph, Ellie Jones and Mike Gillis in this film about a young dancer.

Written, produced and directed by Mike Gillis.

Tickets: $10 available at Highway 61 Coffeehouse and at the door ($12).

Feature Film:
Saturday, February 22 / 7 PM
HoneyLand
Oscar nominated for Best International Film and Best Documentary Feature.

In Macedonia, the last native beekeeper relies upon traditional methods to harvest honey deep in the mountains. However, her livelihood is jeopardized when a nomadic farming family attempts to infringe on her beekeeping.
$6 advance tickets at Highway 61 Coffeehouse / $8 at the door.
Film and Concert:
Sunday, February 23 / 5:30 PM
Dragon Song
John Carter Cash, having been involved in music all his life, is an accomplished and award winning record producer. However, his activities in the creative world reach far beyond just music production. He is also a singer-songwriter, and author. The grandson of Maybelle Carter and the only son to John R Cash and June Carter Cash, he preserves the family legacy and is a caretaker to the heritage of his musical ancestors.

His latest project: Dragon Song is a film based on the aftermath of the Civil War in Oregon and Tennessee. Survivors Lamberic White (John Carter Cash) and Spiney Shamblins (Eric Hamilton) remain lost in the ongoing chaos of a living hell. Lamberic, enraged by Spineys drunken abuse of his wife Veronica (Ana Cristina Cash), responds with grim measures, leading to a momentous consequence.

The film was produced by John Carter Cash and April Kimbrell, in addition to John Carter, his wife, recording artist Ana Cristina Cash and Eric Hamilton, the film features appearances by Cash's son Joseph Cash, chart-topping singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson, and Damon Fielder.

Hamilton is a "hometown boy" from Port Gibson, Mississippi. He is a singer/songwriter in Nashville and has a prominent role in the film.

The event will include a presentation of the 20 minute film, a Q&A, and a musical performance featuring: John Carter Cash, Ana Cristina Cash, Eric Hamilton, Justin Johnson, and Sweepy Walker.

$15 Tickets available at Highway 61 Coffeehouse and online: 

The Strand Theatre is located at 717 Clay Street in the Adolph Rose Building in downtown Vicksburg. It opened as a movie theatre in 1934, and closed about 30 years later. In 2011, the Westside Theatre Foundation, a 501 (c) (3), began the ongoing task of rehabbing the theatre and bringing it back to life as a movie theatre and performance space.      

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Rigoletto on the lake / opera onscreen at the Strand

Rigoletto on the Lake onscreen at the Strand Sunday, February 16 at 2 PM

Verdi’s Thrilling Masterpiece Performed on the Breathtaking Bregenz Lake Stage
Giuseppe Verdi’s masterwork –compelling, blood-curdling and beautiful –is being performed for the first time on the breathtaking water stage of Lake Constance, Bregenz.

One of Verdi’s most popular works, Rigoletto is an unforgettable tale of a sacrifice and revenge; of a father’s rage and a daughter’s shame. It features several of opera’s best-known arias-including Rigoletto’s passionate denouncement “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata,” Gilda’s dreamy “Caro nome” and the Duke’s instantly recognizable “La donna è mobile.”Rigoletto was first performed in 1851 and is the first of the extraordinary “middle-period” trio of Verdi masterpieces that also includes La Traviata and Il Trovatore. Directed and designed by Philipp Stölzl, this timeless tragedy will delight audiences with a powerhouse combination of entertainment and emotional intensity from the spectacular shore of Lake Constance, Bregenz.

Please Note: Rigoletto on the Lake contains a sequence of flashing lights, which might affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitivity.

Running Time: 140 minutes (incl. 15-min. intermission)

Start Time: 2 PM

Rating: Treat as PG13

Language: Italian, with English subtitles

Tickets: available at Highway 61 Coffeehouse: $15

2 movies at the Strand: Joker and the Lighthouse

2 movies in one night:
Joker & Lighthouse
Joker: Sat., Feb. 15 at 7 PM  
Lighthouse: Sat., Feb. 15 at 9:30 PM   
 
Yes, 2 Oscar nominated films in one night:
First, Joker:
Joaquin Phoenix walked away with the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Joker.

Forever alone in a crowd, Arthur Fleck seeks connection. Yet, as he trods the sooted Gotham City streets and rides the graffitied mass transit rails of a hostile town teeming with division and dissatisfaction, Arthur wears two masks. One, he paints on for his day job as a clown. The other he can never remove; it's the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel he's a part of the world around him, and not the misunderstood man whom life is repeatedly beating down. Fatherless, Arthur has a fragile mother, arguably his best friend, who nicknamed him Happy, a moniker that's fostered in Arthur a smile that hides the heartache beneath. But, when bullied by teens on the streets, taunted by suits on the subway, or simply teased by his fellow clowns at work, this social outlier only becomes even more out of sync with everyone around him.

Joker - Saturday, February 15 at 7 PM
Advance tickets at Highway 61 Coffeehouse: $6
$8 at the door

Followed by
The Lighthouse
 
Nominated for Best Cinematography
starring  Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson
 
Two lighthouse keepers fight to keep their sanity while stranded on an isolated island.

Lighthouse: Saturday, February 15 at 9:30 PM
$6 advance tickets available at Highway 61 Coffeehouse / $8 at the door...

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts Saturday, February 8 at the Strand

2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts 

Animated: Sat., Feb. 8 at 6:30 PM 
Live Action: Sat. Feb. 8 at 8:30 PM 

 (it's 2 separate programs, but come see them all)  It's time to crank the movies back up at the Strand for 2020, and since it's Oscar season, we start with a month of Oscar nominees...  So, on the night before the awards we present both Animated & Live Action shorts:  If you come to either of these programs you are guaranteed to see an Oscar winner.    

Program One:
Animated Nominees: 

 (Saturday / 6:30 PM) 

 Daughter (Dcera) CZECHIA/15 MINS/2019 Director Daria Kashcheeva Synopsis: In a hospital room, the Daughter recalls a childhood moment when as a little girl she tried to share her experience with an injured bird with her Father. A moment of misunderstanding and a lost embrace has stretched into many years all the way to this hospital room, until the moment when a window pa...(come see it)  

Hair Love USA/7 MINS/2019 Director Matthew A. Cherry  Synopsis: It's up to Daddy to give his daughter, Zuri, an extra-special hairstyle in this story of self-confidence and the love between fathers and daughters.  

Kitbull USA/9 MINS/2019 Director Rosana Sullivan  Synopsis: KITBULL, directed by Rosana Sullivan and produced by Kathryn Hendrickson, reveals an unlikely connection that sparks between two creatures: a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pitbull. Together, they experience friendship for the first time.  

Mémorable FRANCE/12 MINS/2019 Director Bruno Collet  Synopsis: The world appears to be changing for Louis, a painter, and his wife Michelle. In fact, recently all sorts of strange things have been happening to them.  

Sister USA/8 MINS/2018 Director Siqi Song  Synopsis: A man thinks back to his childhood memories of growing up with an annoying little sister in China in the 1990s. What would his life have been like if things had gone differently?  

$6 Advance tickets at Highway 61 Coffeehouse  
At the door: $8  




Program Two:
Live Action Nominees 
 (Saturday / 8:30 PM) 
 A Sister BELGIUM/16 MINS/2018 Director Delphine Girald  Synopsis: A night. A car. Alie is in danger. To get by she must make the most important phone call of her life.  

Brotherhood TUNISIA, CANADA/25 MINS/2018 Director Meryam Joobeur  Synopsis: Mohamed is deeply shaken when his oldest son Malik returns home after a long journey with a mysterious new wife.  

Nefta Football Club FRANCE/17 MINS/2018 Director Yves Piat  Synopsis: Two young brothers come across a donkey in the desert. Strangely, the animal wears headphones over its ears and is carrying bags full of a white powder on its back. 

Saria USA/23 MINS/2019 Director Bryan Buckley Synopsis: Saria 12, and her sister Ximena, devise a daring plan to escape horrendous abuse in the orphanage that houses them.  

The Neighbors' Window USA/20 MINS/2019 Director Marshall Curry Synopsis: Alli is a mother of young children, frustrated with her daily routine and husband. But her life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street and she discovers she can see into their apartment.  

$6 Advance tickets at Highway 61 Coffeehouse 
At the door: $8 
















 








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