Ran, Akira Kurosawa’s final epic masterpiece, will run at Film Forum from Feb. 5-18. A new 35mm print struck from the original camera negative, Ran (literally, “Chaos”) is being presented as part of Film Forum’s yearlong celebration of director Kurosawa’s centennial. Based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, the story revolves around a medieval Japanese lord who decides to divide his domain among his three sons, instructing them with a parable: individually, three arrows can easily be broken; together, they are strong. Tragedy ensues as greed leads to betrayal.
Lesbian Cinema Arts presents Training Rules at the Center Feb. 26. Narrated by international swimming legend Diana Nyad (National Public Radio), the film examines how women’s collegiate sports, caught in a web of homophobic practices, destroyed the dreams of many of its most talented athletes. Specifically, the documentary examines Penn State’s women’s basketball program under 26 year veteran Rene Portland who had three rules in her program: No drinking, No drugs, No lesbians. After years of discrimination (as documented in the film), Portland was sued by a player and Penn State was forced to confront the issue.
Don’t miss Oscar’s Docs: 1953-75: Nature and Humanity, the annual collaboration between the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Museum of Modern Art featuring documentary films from the 1950s through the 1970s that explore the natural world in all its complexity. Running from Feb. 8-14, Oscar’s Docs comprises 15 Oscar-nominated short- and feature-length nonfiction films that pre-date today’s green films and prioritize a sense of adventure and urgency in their structure and advocacy. World-renowned films such as Jerome Hill’s Albert Schweitzer (1957) and Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s World Without Sun (1964) are included, as are unparalleled profiles of environmental figures, and documentaries that make pleas for the preservation of locations as far-flung as Mount Everest and the Serengeti.
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