Filmspotting

Just in time for your Oscar bets, the Bill Cosford is please to bring back the Oscar Nominated Shorts Program for this year, including both Live Action and Animation.  The Live Action nominees include new filmmakers and veterans as well as stories from around the globe.  Join us for this special collection of celebrated short films before the Academy Award ceremony. (Runtime: approximately 100minutes)

Everyday Sunshine is a documentary about the band Fishbone, musical pioneers who have been rocking on the margins of pop culture for the past 25 years. From the streets of South Central-Los Angeles and the competitive Hollywood music scene of the 1980′s, the band rose to prominence, only to fall apart when on the verge of “making it.”

Laurence Fishburne narrates Everyday Sunshine, an entertaining cinematic journey into the personal lives of this unique Black rock band, an untold story of fiercely individual artists in their quest to reclaim their musical legacy while debunking the myths of young Black men from urban America.  Highlighting the parallel journeys of a band and their city, Everyday Sunshine explores the personal and cultural forces that gave rise to California’s legendary Black punk sons that continue to defy categories and expectations.  featuring Fishbone, Flea, Ice-T, Gwen Stefani, Perry Farrell, Bob Forrest, Branford Marsalis, and George Clinton.

At the heart of Fishbone’s story is lead singer Angelo Moore and bassist Norwood Fisher who show how they keep the band rolling, out of pride, desperation and love for their art. To overcome money woes, family strife, and the strain of being aging Punk rockers on the road, Norwood and Angelo are challenged to re-invent themselves in the face of dysfunction and ghosts from a painful past.

Part of the Reality Bites: Documenting the Real series, the Cosford is proud to present a film about "the most influential man you've never heard of."  The film shed's light on one of America's most important thinkers and the foundation of countercultural thinking.  Paul Goodman's 1960 best-seller Growing Up Absurd defined a time along with canonical texts like The Feminine Mystique, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and The Medium is the Message.  A polymath - a poet, essayist, playwright, and psychothearpist - Goodman questioned and critiqued cultural conditions set by conservative hegemony. Candidly bisexual, while maintaing a marriage and raising two children, Goodman is somewhat of an enigma, a intensely fascinating individual that has had a substantial impact on American culture.

The cities of Zurich and Viennaon the eve of World War I are the setting for a dark tale of sexual and intellectual discovery. Drawn from true-life events, A Dangerous Method takes a glimpse into the turbulent relationships between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung, his mentor Sigmund Freud and Sabina Spielrein, the troubled but beautiful young woman who comes between them. Into the mix comes Otto Gross, a psychiatrist who encourages Jung to cross therapist-patient boundaries. This exploration of sensuality, ambition and deceit sets the scene for the pivotal moment when Jung, Freud and Sabina come together and split apart, forever changing the face of modern thought.

Albert Nobbs is a moving and powerful portrait of one woman's struggle with personal identity, gender and self-assurance set in 19th century Ireland. Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons) stars as the title character, Albert Nobbs, who has lived her life as a man for thirty years, and works as a butler in a high-end hotel in Dublin. Albert is intensely private and solitary, closely guarding her intense secret. But then, after thirty years of keeping up the charade, she suddenly finds her way of life challenged by the unexpected arrival of a house painter who turns out to understand Albert better than anyone she could have imagined and a new love that threatens to destroy everything she's worked so hard to build.