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JULY means Cinema Summer Fun at THE DORIS DUKE THEATER

The Doris Duke Theatre continues to present an extraordinary array of award-winning films and concerts throughout the year. July brings the Hawaii premiere of an extraordinary surf documentary, the mind-blowing animation of Hayao Miyazaki, and the best of the great American musicals. 

NANKING
Directors: Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
China, 2007, 107 mins.
Mandarin, Japanese, English with English subtitles
The Academy award-winning team of Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman (Twin Towers) tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II. The film focuses on a group of unarmed Westerners who established a safety zone where more than 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Moving interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers are interwoven with staged readings (by Woody Harrelson, Stephen Dorff and others) of the Westerners’ letters and diaries.
• Monday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, July 1 and Wednesday, July 2 at1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, July 3 at 1 p.m. 

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members.
Scroll down for parking information.

 

SURFWISE
Director: Doug Pray
USA, 2007, 93 mins.

Like many American outsider-adventurers, Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz chased a utopian dream. He abandoned a successful medical practice for the nomadic life of a surfer. Unlike other American soul searchers like Thoreau or Kerouac, Paskowitz took his wife and nine children along for the ride. The tribe stayed in a 24-foot camper and lived a life unfathomable to most. New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis (she made Surfwise a Critics’ Pick) calls Paskowitz “a born pitchman, part carny, part evangelical, who even in his 80s continues to spread the Paskowitz gospel (clean living, clean surfing) with fervor. ... It’s Doc who revs up the story, opening the family’s book of life while doing unclothed calisthenics in front of Mr. Pray’s hovering camera. As he shares his philosophy and leathery skin, Doc doesn’t earn your attention—he commands it.”
• Saturday, July 5 and Monday, July 7 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, July 6, Tuesday, July 8, Wednesday, July 9, Thursday, July 10, Friday, July 11 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. 

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. 
Scroll down for parking information.

FOUR CLASSIC FILMS BY HAYAO MIYAZAKI
Bring the family to this series of gorgeously animated films by Japanese animation genius Hayao Miyazaki. Steve Mobley, the Honolulu Academy of Arts’ Japanese anime aficionado who curated the series, will introduce the series on Saturday, July 12.
Children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3!

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Japan, 1988, 86 mins.
Two young girls, Satsuke and her younger sister Mei, move into a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. They discover that their house and the nearby forest are inhabited by magical creatures— and adventures happen.
• Saturday, July 12, Sunday, July 13 at1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. Scroll down for parking information; children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3.
 

PORCO ROSSO
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Japan, 1992, 94 mins.
The Crimson Pig is the tale of Italian fighter ace Marco Pagot, who, following WWI, becomes a freelance bounty hunter chasing “air pirates” in the Adriatic Sea. In spite being cursed with the head of a pig, his bravery wins the heart of an aristocratic beauty.
• Monday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, July 15 at 1 p.m and 7:30 p.m.
$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. See www.honoluluacademy.org for parking information; children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3. 

SPIRITED AWAY
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Japan, 2001, 125 mins.

Ten-year-old Chihiro and her parents get lost in the country and wind up in an abandoned theme park that is actually a gateway to the world of spirits, gods and monsters. Through hard work, honesty, and luck, she is able to rescue herself and her parents from the clutches of the boss witch who wants to turn them all into animals.
• Wednesday, July 16, Thursday, July 17 at1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. Scroll down for parking information; children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3. 

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Japan, 2004, 119 mins.

A young woman named Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, and turned into an old woman, unable to tell anyone of her plight. She seeks aid from the reclusive wizard Howl, who lives in an ambulatory castle that roams the countryside. What price will she pay for his assistance?
• Friday, July 18 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museummembers. See www.honoluluacademy.org for parking information; children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3. 

 

 

HAWAII PREMIERE:
GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON 
Director: Alex Gibney 
USA, 2008, 118 mins.

Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney (Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room) and  producer Graydon Carter (the editor of Vanity Fair) take a probing look at the life of gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Through rare archival materials (such as home movies), the fast-moving, wildly entertaining documentary covers Thompson’s milestones—his ill-fated relationship with the Hell’s Angels, his 1970 bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his involvement in Sen. George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, and much more. Johnny Depp narrates and the soundtrack is iconic.

• Saturday, July 19, Sunday, July 20, Tuesday,July 22, Wednesday, July 23, Thursday, July 24,Friday, July 25 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Monday, July 21 at 7:30 p.m.

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members.
Scroll down for parking information.

  

GOTTA SING, GOTTA DANCE: 
CLASSIC AMERICAN MOVIE MUSICALS

You and your family have only seen Singin’ in the Rain on TV? For shame. Now’s your chance to catch the great American Technicolor musicals the way they were supposed to be seen—on the big screen. These MGM and Fox classics still sweep you off your feet with sumptuous sets, fabulous costumes and dance numbers that will make you tap your way home.

Special thanks to Alan L. Eyerly, who co-curated this series.

Children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3!

 

 

 

THE GANG’S ALL HERE
Director: Busby Berkeley
USA, 1943, 103 mins.

Busby Berkeley threw every wild idea that ever swirled out of his brain into this this legendary over-the-top wartime musical, and decades later, the film still exhilarates audiences as a campy jawdropper. Chorus girl Alice Faye waits for her boyfriend Andy Mason to return from the war in the South Pacific. Little does she know that he is...already engaged to another woman! But the real point is the spectacular production design and numbers—most famously, Carmen Miranda’s “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat,” with its chorus line of samba-dancing beauties holding giant bananas aloft. The film is one of Hollywood’s great Technicolor excursions into surrealism—Salvador Dali couldn’t have dreamed up anything more madcap.

• Sunday, July 27, Tuesday, July 29, Wednesday, July 30 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Monday, July 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Costume contest July 27 at 7:30 screening: Get out your fruit-bowl hat and channel Carmen Miranda—four free passes will go to the person wearing the most musical fabulous get-up.

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. See www.honoluluacademy.org for parking information; Children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3. 
 

MEET ME IN ST LOUIS
Director: Vincent Minnelli
USA, 1944, 113 mins.

See Judy Garland at her most winsome in this glorious movie that ushered in the golden age of the MGM musical. The film is worth seeing for “The Trolley Song” alone, and Garland’s haunting rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is unforgettable. Based on the memoirs of Sally Benson that first appeared in The New Yorker in the early nostalgic, romanticized look back at a well-to-do family living in St. Louis around 1903. Pure celluloid sugar, Saint Louis is one of Hollywood’s best but least ostentatious movie musicals.

• Thursday, July 31, Saturday, August 2, Sunday,August 3 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, August 1 at 1 p.m.

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. See www.honoluluacademy.org for parking information; Children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Director: Vincent Minnelli
USA, 1951,113 mins.

An American in Paris swept the 1951 Academy Awards with Oscars for best picture, screenplay, score, cinematography, art direction, set design and choreography (for the 18-minute closing ballet extravaganza). Featuring the timeless music of George and Ira Gershwin, this classic defined MGM as the studio for musicals. Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an ex- GI and struggling artist in postwar Paris. He is discovered by wealthy divorcée Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), who buys his paintings and encourages her friends to do the same. But at a nightclub Jerry meets  ---- and falls hard for --- Lise (newcomer Leslie Caron, discovered by Kelly in the Ballets des Champs Elyseés). She confesses that she's engaged to his friend Henri. They agree the best thing to do is part --- but can they?  Kelly's choreography is breathtaking and Minnelli's direction feels buoyantly assured. 

• Monday, August 4 at 7:30 p.m.

• Tuesday, August 5, Wednesday, August 6,Thursday, August 7 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

 $7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. See www.honoluluacademy.org for parking information; Children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3. 

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
Directors: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly
USA, 1952, 102 mins.

According to Roger Ebert, “There is no movie musical more fun than Singin’ in the Rain...it is a transcendent experience, and no one who loves movies can afford to miss it.” Produced during MGM’s most creative pinnacle, Singin’ is no Broadway adaptation—it was made directly for film. It’s 1927, and vaudeville actor Don Lockwood(Gene Kelly) finally becomes a silent-movie star—at a time when Hollywood is about to make the transition to talkies. He’s caught between the girl he loves, no-nonsense chorus girl Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), and his sexy, deluded co-star, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who thinks their onscreen romance is real. And then there’s Kelly’s athletic, acrobatic dancing—watch him run up walls, do backflips, and crash through a brick wall.

• Friday, August 8, Sunday, August 10, Tuesday,August 12 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Monday, August 11 at 7:30 p.m.

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museum members. See www.honoluluacademy.org for parking information; Children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3. 

 

WEST SIDE STORY
Directors: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
USA, 1961, 145 mins.

The winner of ten Oscars, West Side Story remains one of the boldest, most breathlessly dynamic musicals ever made. Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer are star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of an ethnic chain-linked fence in a New York turf war version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Street gangs the Jets and the Sharks confront each other with finger-snapping scorn, their violent run-ins staged in creeping, cat-like dances that build to a thumping crescendo amid vibrant set pieces. The groundbreaking combination of toe-tapping tunes, wailing pathos and thorny social issues creates a still-powerful experience. Portraying the downside of the American dream, Leonard Bernstein’s eloquent, demanding score is fused with Singin’ In The Rain Stephen Sondheim’s scathing lyrics and choreographer Jerome Robbins’s street ballets in a film that feels as contemporary now as it did in 1961.

• Wednesday, August 13, Thursday, August 14,Friday, August 15 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, August 16 at 1 p.m.

$7 non-members; $6 seniors, students, military; $5 museummembers.
Scroll down for parking information; Children are welcome, and kids under 12 get in for only $3.

 

General information: The Doris Duke Theatre opens its doors on Kinau Street one half-hour before each showing.
    Tickets for films may be purchased at the theater door on the day of screening, beginning one half-hour before each showing.
    Admission: $7 adults; $6 seniors, students and military; $5 Academy members.
    Parking: For weekday matinees, theater patrons may park in the lot behind the Academy Art Center at Linekona (entrance on makai side of Beretania) for $3 with theater validation. For evening screenings, you can park free at the Academy's lot at 1035 Kinau St., Diamond Head of Victoria Street. Handicapped parking is available in the small Luce Pavilion lot on Victoria Street. Patrons using handicapped stalls should proceed to the main entrance on Kinau Street.
    For the hearing impaired: The Doris Duke Theatre is equipped with the Easy Listener Hearing Assistance System. You can pick up a receiver at the ticket counter.
    For a listing of films and concerts, call 532-8768.
    For questions about films, call Gina Caruso, curator of film and media arts, at 532-3033.