Summer campus film schedules announced

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Cinematheque and the Wisconsin Union Directorate (WUD) Film Committee have assembled summer programming that will entertain and enlighten. The offerings include American film hits from the 1990s, gems from a Pan-African film festival and a continuing series called “Teletek: TV Treasures from the Center for Film and Theater Research.” And for an extra shot of butter on the popcorn, all the screenings are free.

WUD’s program, Lakeside Cinema, is truly lakeside — films are shown on the Memorial Union Terrace, 800 Langdon St., at 9 p.m. on Monday evenings. This summer’s series is named “Highs in the 90s,” as all the films are from that decade. Films remaining on the schedule are “Wayne’s World,” June 22; “Jurassic Park,” June 29; “The Lion King,” July 6; “Clueless,” July 13; “Scream,” July 20; “Men in Black,” July 27; “There’s Something About Mary,” Aug. 3; and “The Matrix,” Aug. 10.

If the weather does not cooperate, the action moves indoors to the Rathskeller. The free screenings are intended for UW–Madison students, faculty, staff, Union members and their guests.

Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., kicks off its summer programming at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 3, with a projectionist’s choice. The selection is “Bigger Than Life,” 1956, directed by Nicholas Ray, with James Mason, Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau. After exposing youth angst the previous year in “Rebel Without a Cause,” Ray takes on the darkness of suburban conformity in this film.

This summer, Cinematheque will devote Thursday evenings to selections from FESPACO, the largest African film festival in the world and the biggest regular cultural event on the African continent. Aliko Songolo, UW–Madison professor of French and African languages and literature, will introduce all 11 films in the series and lead a discussion following each screening; all begin at 7:30 p.m.

• Thursday, July 9: “Ezra”: The 2007 winner of FESPACO’s most prestigious award, “Ezra” addresses the disturbing practice of abducting children for military service in the continent’s recent civil wars through 16-year-old Ezra’s memories of his 10 years with a rebel faction.
• Thursday, July 16: FESPACO short films: “Article 15 bis” is a contemporary fable that examines the abuse of power by private guards. “Bintou” is the story of a mother who decides to send her daughter to school against her husband’s wishes. But first she needs to scrape up enough money.

“Menged” shows that a lot can happen on the trip to the market in the Ethiopian countryside. A father and his son follow everybody’s well-intended advice, but eventually come to their senses in this tale about a country in transition between tradition and modernism.

• Thursday, July 23: “Making of Tunisia”: Bahta, an unemployed 25-year-old, leads a group of break dancers in Tunisia. When the Iraq war breaks out in 2003, he falls in with a group of militants who try to take him down a destructive path.
• Thursday, July 30: “Juju Factory”: A writer is supposed to write a travel guidebook about his African neighborhood in Brussels, but he’d rather write about the reality his research exposes.

Cinematheque has decided to make the “Teletek” series an annual event. This summer’s selections demonstrate the brilliance and diversity of 1960s TV, including police shows, campy comedies and probing documentaries.

• Friday, July 10: Coppers in the Sky: An episode of the hard-boiled “The Untouchables” and the goofy “Car 54 Where Are You?” show both sides of crime fighting. For an extra treat, the screenings include the original commercials.
• Friday, July 17: Small Screen Documentary: “The Scientist” is about the race toward a research discovery that also gives a view into the world of 1960s, male-dominated academia, from the politics to the parties. “Three Men on a Raft” has an American, a German and a Scot meeting by chance in Mexico, where they realize they share a common dream: building a raft and floating the Amazon with a tiny monkey and a large snake. “Westerns European Style” goes behind the scenes of filming a spaghetti western. The soundtrack includes “A Gringo Like Me.”
• Friday, July 24: Before Jane Roe: “The Benefactor” is a socially conscious fiction that has a father-and-son defense team taking on the case of an illegal abortion doctor. “Abortion” is a pro-choice-leaning documentary that takes a hard look at the abortion issue in 1968 America.
• Friday, July 31: Batman!: The good and the bad are obvious in this comic book come to life. The four episodes are full of funny fighting sounds (Bap! Bonk! Kapow!) and vehicles that would make any commute way more fun (batcycle and batboat, not to mention the ever reliable standby, the batmobile).