Des Moines Film Society asked some of our favorite local writers and film fanatics to pick their favorite film of 2015. You can read them all at DMFS: Best of 2015. What am I to make of the fact that George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road is the best film of the year? This is virtually the definition of a popcorn movie--a big, loud, spectacle which isn’t so much about something as it is about how...
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When Ames native and former Des Moines-based filmmaker Nicolaas Bertelsen presents Yosemite, a film he produced, Thursday night at Fleur Cinema, it will bring him full circle on a journey that began eight years ago when he left Iowa to further his filmmaking career in Los Angeles. "I didn't just go off to California to chase a dream and go broke," he said. "I mean, I did all those things, but I did this too." Bertelsen -...
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The Great Alone is a documentary which follows a three-time Iditarod sled-dog racing champion, Lance Mackey, as he battles to complete the race and earn a fourth title. The film is premiering Feb. 9 at theaters across the country, including (potentially) at Southridge 12. However, each screening needs at least 31 reservations in order for the film to screen, and as of right now, the Southridge screening has only 23. If you'd like to see the...
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Des Moines Film Society asked some of our favorite local writers and film fanatics to pick their favorite film of 2015. You can read them all at DMFS: Best of 2015. “I no longer exist,” Nelly, a Jewish nightclub singer shot in the head and left for dead in a Nazi concentration camp, says after seeing herself in a broken mirror amongst the rubble of her former home. The gunshot wound left her disfigured, and despite begging...
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After much hard work, we are proud to re-launch a greatly expanded version of our website, desmoinesfilm.org. Among the new features are a Calendar, which will feature the best film special programming in Des Moines, whether presented by us or the other great theaters and art organizations in town. We want to be your indispensable spot for what's going on in the Des Moines film scene. We are also launching a dedicated blog, which will feature the...
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Des Moines Film Society asked some of our favorite local writers and film fanatics to pick their favorite film of 2015. You can read them all at DMFS: Best of 2015. A few years ago, after seeing Charles Ferguson’s Oscar-winning feature documentary Inside Job, I couldn’t stop recommending it to people as a lucid, compelling explanation of the 2008 financial crisis. As a documentary, however, it proved a hard sell; not everyone is willing to watch...
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If you're one of the millions anticipating the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens this week, the question isn't so much if you're going to see the movie, but how. In Des Moines, we are lucky enough to have three choices in format: Standard and 3D (both projected digitally), or IMAX (projected on film). The Science Center of Iowa IMAX Dome Theater is one of only seven theaters in the US screening The Force Awakens on...
Read MoreQuentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight was shot on Panovision 70mm film* - the widest and richest cinema format, used for epics like Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia. And while the film will be mass-distributed digitally when it hits theaters on Christmas Day, the 70mm version is also rolling out as an exclusive Road Show in a few select cinemas around the country. The Road Show release format was popular in the 1960s, often for big "event pictures. Road...
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