Documentary
Saturday 21 September, 7 pm
Camino Skies (PG)
A story about life, love and loss on the Camino de Santiago, Camino Skies is an uplifting film about learning to live with grief. Exploring themes of spirituality, wellbeing and religion, Camino Skies is the inspirational journey of six strangers from New Zealand and Australia who embark on the historic 800 kilometre Spanish pilgrimage route, Camino de Santiago, to overcome the challenges that life has dealt them. Through blisters, shin splints and heat, the Camino forces pilgrims to defy their age and physical ability, as they each come to terms with recent loss. Both heart-breaking and inspirational, Camino Skies is an uplifting story about everyday people doing the extraordinary.
“A wonderfully genuine piece of filmmaking”, John Brierley, Camino Guides
“A meditative film that invites reflection and wonder”, Robert W. Monk, FilmInk
Music/Doco
Sunday 22 September, 3 pm
Sunday 22 September, 7 pm
Amazing Grace (G)
“Spine-tingling”, “sensational”, “rousing”: just a few of the words used for Aretha Franklin’s show-stopping performance in this previously unreleased film of her 1972 concert.
The legendary singer and daughter of a Detroit preacher was raised on gospel music. After a string of hits, at age 29 she returned briefly to her roots. Over two days at L.A.’s New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, accompanied by the Southern Californian Community Choir, Aretha sang from the heart and her astounding performance was captured by filmmaker Sydney Pollack. The resulting recording, Amazing Grace, became her most successful album, but the film of her performance – for multiple reasons – was never released…until now. In the audience her father, legendary gospel singers and Mick Jagger are squished alongside camera crew and sound technicians. But all eyes and ears are on the Queen of Soul herself – and she’s never been more mesmerising.
“A triumph of timeless artistry over transitory obstacles; its very existence is a secular miracle”
Richard Brody, New Yorker
Comedy/Family Theatre
Monday 23 September, 6 pm
You’ll Never Guess Where I Hid the Cheese
Choo Choo Troupe’s hilarious family show You’ll Never Guess Where I Hid the Cheese is presented by Arts Upper Hunter.
Bobbi and Wanda are Superheroes. They’re here to defeat the evil Mr. Cheesehead. But first they’re going to have a snack. And maybe a nap.
You’ll Never Guess Where I Hid the Cheese is a clown show. It’s Freddy Mercury with a cheesehead, extravagantly mimed escapes and lots of cheesy portmanteaus (“it’s a travescheese!”). Next to all this, it’s Steve Meagher on the keys, making the full range of kooky sound effects and musical wonders on a Korg R3 synthesizer.
The “out-of-the-ordinary” (The Plus Ones) Debbie Zukerman and “superb” (Adelaide Theatre Guide) Alicia Gonzalez are joined by Steve Marr, and together they’ll take you on an adventure into the heart of Cheese.
Tickets are $5 online (plus booking fee) or at the door.
Link to https://www.123tix.com.au/events/4292/youll-never-guess-where-i-hid-the-cheese-by-choo-choo-troupe
You’ll Never Guess Where I Hid the Cheese is produced by Choo Choo Troupe and supported by Arts On Tour and Create NSW.
2019 Dungog Festival
Friends of the James Theatre Inc presents three films across the 2019 Dungog Festival weekend. Enjoy a movie with comfort and old-style hospitality in Australia’s oldest still operating cinema. You can pre-purchase tickets online here. Tickets are also available at the door, but for our Saturday evening film “Yesterday” pre-purchase is recommended.
For further information on the Dungog Festival, go to www.dungogfestival.com.au
2019 Dungog Festival
Comedy, Fantasy, Music
Saturday 5 October, 5.30 pm
Yesterday (M)
From Director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and writer Richard Curtis (Love Actually), comes a magical mystery tour of a world without the Beatles. Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling musician with a single fan, his manager and childhood friend Ellie (Lily James). After a dismal gig at a local festival, Jack decides to hang up his guitar. But a mysterious global blackout hits while he’s biking home, and he’s knocked unconscious in the chaos. He wakes up in a world with a few missing pieces. Pepsi exists, but not Coca-Cola. Saturday Night Live is now taped on Thursdays. And to Jack’s increasing bafflement, nobody has heard of The Beatles. When Jack realises he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles, he finds himself with a very complicated problem, indeed.
NOTE: This film will start promptly, plan to arrive 5.15pm. Tickets will be available at the door but pre-purchase is recommended – here.
2019 Dungog Festival
Drama, Romance
Sunday 6 October, 2 pm
Cinema Paradiso (M)
Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Cinema Paradiso is the beautiful, enchanting story of a young boy’s lifelong love affair with the movies. Set in a small Italian town, Salvatore finds himself enchanted by the flickering images at the Cinema Paradiso, his village’s small theatre, and yearns for the secret of the cinema’s magic. When the projectionist, Alfredo, agrees to reveal the mysteries of moviemaking, a deep friendship is born. The day comes for Salvatore to leave the village and pursue his dream of making movies of his own. Thirty years later he receives a message that beckons him back home to a secret, beautiful discovery that awaits him.
From acclaimed film director Giuseppe Tornatore and with an exquisite score by Ennio Morriconi, we think this is simply one of the best movies ever made! Cinema Paradiso has not been seen on a theatre screen in Australia for many years, so if you’ve never seen this masterpiece before, or haven’t had the pleasure of watching it in a small country cinema, there is no better place to see it than the James Theatre during the Dungog Festival.
Tickets to all three films can be purchased here
2019 Dungog Festival
Drama/Comedy
Sunday 6 October, 7.30 pm
Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (MA15+)
Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing. Faded TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his long time stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) strive to achieve fame and success in the film industry, but they find it hard to make their way around an industry they hardly recognise anymore.
The ninth film from the legendary writer-director features a stellar ensemble cast and multiple storylines in a tribute to the final years of Hollywood’s golden age.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood also features Dakota Fanning, Luke Perry, Al Pacino, Damian Lewis and Kurt Russel.
Tickets to all three films can be purchased here
Drama, Romance
Sunday 13 October, 3 pm
Downton Abbey (M)
This October, you are cordially invited to return to Downton Abbey!
The television series Downton Abbey followed the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who worked for them at the turn of the 20th century in an Edwardian English country home. Over its 6 seasons, the series garnered 3 Golden Globe Awards, 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Special BAFTA award and 69 Emmy nominations in total, making Downton Abbey the most nominated non-US television show in the history of the Emmys – even earning a Guinness World Record for the highest critically rated TV show along the way.
The show’s main cast are set to return for the feature including award-winning actress Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery, and Elizabeth McGovern. In addition to the original cast, Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton (Maleficent, Doctor Who), Geraldine James, David Haig, Tuppence Middleton, Simon Jones, Kate Phillips, and Stephen Campbell Moore all appear in the film.
Also returning from the series is its creator, Academy-Award winner Julian Fellowes, who wrote the film’s screenplay. Brian Percival (The Book Thief, About a Girl), who directed the series’ pilot, directs the film.
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