FILM

Gathr to preview indie films

Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star in Le Week-End, being screened at the Gathr Preview Series today.
Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star in Le Week-End, being screened at the Gathr Preview Series today.

Fans of independent cinema have a new option in central Arkansas through a film series being held at the newly opened Ron Robinson Theater in the River Market District.

The Gathr Preview Series is offering Little Rock audiences the first opportunity to see the best new award-winning independent films in theaters before anyone else in the nation, including film going audiences in New York and Los Angeles.

“We launched it almost a year ago in late April 2013,” explains Little Rock native Richard Matson, now of Los Angeles and head of distribution and acquisitions for Gather Films in Los Angeles. “We began the series here in Little Rock at the Market Street Cinema and when the Ron Robinson Theater opened in February, moved it over there.”

Matson explains the film series is also being held in 12 other cities, most of them medium-size like Little Rock.

“The point of this is to give audiences the chance to be able to participate in the life of the movies and see them first before they have been critically reviewed,” Matson says.

Post-screening discussions of the films are hosted by special guest Philip Martin, this newspaper’s chief film critic, MovieStyle editor and columnist.

Matson says, “I’m so excited that the theater has a video camera. Once it’s installed, we will start taping the post-screening discussions and share them with all the other cities involved in the film series.”

Three films are set to be screened this month:

7 p.m. today, Le Week-End. Roger Michell’s Le Week-End stars Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as a long-married couple who return to Paris for a long weekend for the first time since their honeymoon, in hopes of renewing their relationship or possibly saying adieu to it. When the pair run into their old American academic friend Morgan, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, their discord escalates to humorous levels.

7 p.m. Monday, The Raid 2. In the sequel to The Raid, rookie cop Rama goes undercover with the thugs of Jakarta and plans to bring down the gangster syndicate and uncover the corruption within his police force.

7 p.m. March 27, Hide Your Smiling Faces, an exploration of rural American life as seen through the eyes of youth. Following a neighborhood tragedy, two adolescent brothers face evolving relationships, the mystery of nature, and their own mortality.

A membership to the series, priced at $19 per month, includes a guaranteed seat to the four sneak previews each month, which include special events, guest speakers and prizes. Memberships can be bought online at gathr.us/series/little-rock-previews.

Those interested in attending the previews on an individual basis can purchase tickets, at $10 per film, online or at the door.

Gathr Preview Series 7 p.m. today, Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock Admission: $10 per event;

$19 per month (501) 320-5715 gathr.us

Weekend, Pages 36 on 03/13/2014

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