Library film festival features obscure and popular titles

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001 | 2:49 a.m.

What: Marx Brothers' Film Festival.

Where: West Charleston Library, 6301 W. Charleston Blvd.

When: 1 p.m. today, with "Horse Feathers," followed at 2:30 p.m. by "Duck Soup,"; 1 and 3 p.m. Jan. 20 with "A Night at the Opera" and "Horse Feathers."

Tickets: Free

Information: 878-3597.

The Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup," Leonardo DiCaprio movies and Iranian films about women in a patriarchal society.

What's the connection? The films are being presented by the West Charleston Library as part of its ongoing film festival.

From a portrayal of the life of artist Frida Kahlo to a documentary about German Jewish refugees living in the American South, the West Charleston Library's lecture hall shows free movies monthly.

The Marx Brothers' "Horse Feathers" will be shown today at 1 p.m. "Duck Soup" will be shown at 2:30 p.m. "A Night at the Opera" and "Horse Feathers" will be shown Jan. 20.

The movies, selected from the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District's video collection, are a way of promoting library services and introducing different cultures, said Firouzeh Taghdir, performing arts center coordinator for the West Charleston Library.

"We're trying to get the public's attention," she said.

The films are arranged in conjunction with special dates, events, holidays and birthdays.

Famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's 1955 comedy "Smiles of a Summer Night," Marcel Camus' "Black Orpheus" and Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" will be shown in May as part of a festival featuring films that won awards at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Women's History Month Film Festival in March will feature Iranian movies. "Leila" (1997) tells the story of a recently married woman who is unable to conceive a child; "Zinat" (1994) is the story of a woman's effort to break free of traditional women's roles in southern Iran; and "Legend of the Sigh" (1991) follows the lives of four women from diverse backgrounds. The films are scheduled to be shown March 10.

Taghdir, who was born in Iran and raised in the United States, suggested the library show the Iranian films and scheduled in conjunction with the films a March 7 speaking engagement by Sattareh Farman Farmaian, author of "Daughter of Persia: A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem Through the Islamic Republic."

Farmaian's appearance is part of "Wednesday Women," a program Taghdir began three years ago to celebrate Women's History Month. The program is also held in four other area libraries.

"Our goal is to get the public's interest in different cultures," Taghdir said.

Documentaries from Jewish life in 1920s and '30s Germany to the Depression-era story involving attorney Samuel Liebowitz' representation of nine black youths charged with rape will be presented during Jewish Heritage Week in April.

A daylong holiday film festival in December featured Christmas celebrations in different countries, including "Christmas in the Holy Land," "Christmas in the Alps" and "Christmas in Sweden."

The film festivals began last fall. A Leonardo DiCaprio film festival in November featured such popular fare as "The Beach," "The Man With the Iron Mask" and "Titanic."

Taghdir said coordinators wanted to begin the festival with a popular name, and November is the month of DiCaprio's birthday. Stephen King was the first choice, but the library was unable to get the films it desired, she said.

The movies featuring DiCaprio drew the largest audiences.

"It's always a hit-and-miss thing with this town," Chad Simmons, production technician for the library district, said about turnout at film festivals. "You can never tell when you're going to have 200 (people) or when you're going to have one."

Simmons has scheduled film festivals for the West Las Vegas Library and suggested this month's Marx Brothers festival at the West Charleston Library.

Although the Marx Brothers films, as well as any other films released on video, can be checked out from the library or rented from a local video store, Simmons said there is still an audience for local film festivals.

"The thing about watching a movie at home versus watching it with a big crowd of people is the energy that comes from the crowd," he said. "There's a different energy that makes it more of an experience. It's more interactive than just watching television.

"I know that people would like to see (the Marx Brothers films) on the big screen," he said. "There's just not that much opportunity."

Simmons suggested including the Marx Brothers films because the comedies are "timeless."

"It's something that's always going to be fresh," he said. "It's not something that you see around town.

"It revolves on some absurd notion that they're characters just wrecking the place. Their early films are classic cinema. They were hilarious then. They're hilarious now."