Date: Friday, January 27, 2017

The extraordinary odyssey of a U.S. musician of Cape Verdean ancestry to Tannu Tuva, in central Asia, where nomadic people throat sing more than one note simultaneously, using vocal harmonics. A bluesman, Paul Pena, blind and recently widowed, taught himself throat singing and was by chance invited to the 1995 throat-singing symposium in Kyzyl. Helped by the “Friends of Tuva,” Pena makes the arduous journey. Singing in the deep, rumbling kargyraa style, Pena gives inspired performances at the festival, composes songs in Tuvan, washes his face in sacred rivers, expresses the disorientation of blindness in foreign surroundings, and makes a human connection with everyone he meets.

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Date: Friday, January 13, 2017

Following the successful Uke Circle and Wisco Luau prior to Jake Shimabukuro’s 2016 DCA concert, DCA is hosting a winter luau and screening the PBS Documentary Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings. The documentary is the portrait of an musician whose virtuoso skills on the ukulele have transformed all previous notions of the instrument’s potential. Through intimate conversations with Shimabukuro, the film reveals the cultural and personal influences that have shaped the man and the musician. On the road from Los Angeles to New York to Japan, the film captures the solitary life on tour: the exhilaration of performance, the wonder of newfound fame, the loneliness of separation from home and family.

Sponsored by:
Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: Peter Jackson, Rated PG-13, 2003, 201 Minutes

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King brings Peter Jackson’s mammoth adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic to a close in suitably epic fashion. Instead of starting just where the previous film left off, however, it goes far back in time to the moment the tormented creature Gollum first came to possess the One Ring. In this flashback, actor Andy Serkis (who voiced Gollum and performed his movements onset prior to the final CGI effects) finally gets to appear onscreen, portraying Gollum’s former self, Sméagol. This disturbing scene serves as a potent reminder that the Ring seeks to corrupt even the well-intentioned Frodo (Elijah Wood), who is increasingly struggling with the dark power of the Ring himself. Thus, the film returns to the present, following Frodo, Sam (Sean Astin), and Gollum as they journey ever closer to the foreboding land of Mordor. Released in December 2003, The Return of the King topped even its massively successful trilogy predecessors at the box office, and went on to garner a whopping 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture — winning in all the categories in which it was nominated and tying the record of total awards won with Ben-Hur and Titanic. Author: Dana Rowader

Date: Friday, March 11, 2016

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: Peter Jackson, Rated PG-13, 2002, 170 Minutes

The second film in Peter Jackson’s series of screen adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s internationally popular Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers literally begins where The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ended, with the Fellowship splitting into three groups as they seek to return the Ring to Mordor, the forbidding land where the powerful talisman must be taken to be destroyed. Frodo (Elijah Wood), who carries the Ring, and his fellow Hobbit Sam (Sean Astin) are lost in the hills of Emyn Muil when they encounter Gollum (Andy Serkis), a strange creature who once carried the Ring and was twisted by its power. Most of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was shot in tandem with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King during a marathon 18-month shooting schedule, overseen by Peter Jackson. Author: Mark Deming

Date: Friday, March 4, 2016

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: Peter Jackson, Rated PG-13, 2001, 178 Minutes

New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson fulfills his lifelong dream of transforming author J.R.R. Tolkien’s best-selling fantasy epic into a three-part motion picture that begins with this holiday 2001 release. Elijah Wood stars as Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit resident of the medieval “Middle-earth” who discovers that a ring bequeathed to him by beloved relative and benefactor Bilbo (Ian Holm) is in fact the “One Ring,” a device that will allow its master to manipulate dark powers and enslave the world. Frodo is charged by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to return the ring to Mount Doom, the evil site where it was forged millennia ago and the only place where it can be destroyed.

Date: Friday, February 26, 2016

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: Michael Matzdorff, Not Rated, 92 Minutes

Joe Peterson is a burned-out children’s book writer who, on the brink of a mid-life crisis, leaves town with his best friend to do the Polar Bear Plunge in the dead of winter in Northern Wisconsin.

Date: Friday, February 5, 2016

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: James Marsh, Rated PG-13, 2014, 123 Minutes

James Marsh’s biopic of the celebrated scientist Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything, stars Eddie Redmayne as the famous figure. Enrolled as a graduate student at Cambridge, Hawking establishes himself as one of the leading minds of his generation, and begins to win the heart of Jane (Felicity Jones). After one of his earliest breakthroughs, Hawking is diagnosed with ALS, and he becomes less and less able to control his own body. With the loyal Jane at his side, he continues his work. However, as the years progress, Jane starts to feel more like a nurse than a wife, and Hawking begins to have feelings for a woman who is hired to care for him. The Theory of Everything screened at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Author: Perry Seibert.

Date: Friday, January 29, 2016

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: Charlie Siskel/John Maloof, Rated NR, 2013

Who is Vivian Maier? Now considered one of the 20th century’s greatest street photographers, Vivian Maier was a mysterious nanny who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that went unseen during her lifetime. Since buying her work by chance at auction, amateur historian John Maloof has crusaded to put this prolific photographer in the history books. Maier’s strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never-before-seen photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her.

Date: Friday, January 22, 2016

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: Timothy Erskine, Not Rated, 110 Minutes

Door County’s own sci-fi adventure! Shot on location in beautiful Door County, this is the World Premiere of the film! A spaceman lands his ship in Newport State Park while a local resident is taking a meditation walk. They join forces to disarm an alien power generator, lost during the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, before it blows up Door County. Fun for the entire family.

Date: Friday, February 27, 2015

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of tickets to The Emissary’s World Premiere will benefit
– Friends of Gibraltar (FOG)
– Door County Humane Society
– Door County YMCA

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik

Director: Michael Matzdorff, Not Rated, 92 Minutes

Joe Peterson is a burned-out children’s book writer who, on the brink of a mid-life crisis, leaves town with his best friend to do the Polar Bear Plunge in the dead of winter in Northern Wisconsin.

Date: Friday, February 6, 2015

Sponsored by: Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik, Fish Creek Civic Association and Fish Creek Winter Games