Meloncholy Midwest featured in series from Film Streams

The tagline for the Coen brothers' film Fargo was that "a lot can happen in the middle of nowhere." Thanks to an Omaha-born culture guru and the newest series from Film Streams, the metro area has a chance to see just how true that assumption is.

Starting on Nov. 16, the Ruth Sokolof Theatre, operated by Film Streams, began its "Nebraska and the Great Plains in the Movies" series. Along with more recent films like About Schmidt and Fargo, the series is showing older classics like Terrence Malick's Badlands and the documentary A Time for Burning, a rarely-seen look at racial tensions in 1960s Omaha.

"I think it's very interesting to see the various ways in which this part of the world, physically, culturally and spiritually have been depicted over the last 70 years," explained Kurt Andersen, a novelist, public radio host and New York Magazine columnist. Andersen, a Film Streams board member, helped curate the exhibit.

The idea for the series originally started in New York, where Andersen currently resides when Film Streams' director, Rachel Jacobson, was at the WYNC radio station with Andersen.

"I talked to him early on when I knew I was going to move home and set this up," explained Jacobson. "We had a few different ideas for what he could do but this is one that he was really excited about and I think it had a lot to do with his role as a cultural commentator."

Andersen explained that when coming up with his list of films, he wasn't intending to find patterns between them. However, after watching numerous films about the Great Plains, certain connections became obvious.

"[There's] the potential dullness, or quiet, or emptiness or all those things which are a double-sided coin and beautiful or spooky, or sublime or it drives you crazy," Andersen said. "Then the third option is the Coen brothers/Alexander Payne [one], which is this interesting in-between version where there's this edge of melancholy but its also funny and people are also good but they're not saintly."

Film Streams' communications director, Casey Logan, said it wasn't until he saw the films in a series that he noticed similar patterns.

"I think it's very interesting to view it with people who are from here and think of how it does represent this part of the country to the rest of the world," he said.

Jacobson added that the series also gives her organization an opportunity to facilitate discussions within the community about issues that may be triggered through reactions to the films in the series. In particular a post-film discussion of A Time for Burning will feature public figures like state senator Ernie Chambers and KETV's Ben Gray.

"We invited a lot of people from the community who either have some sort of relationship to it or are involved in conversation about civil rights today," Jacobson explained.

Andersen's view is that if the series can facilitate those types of discussions and expose people to films they haven't seen before it will have been a success.

"I think it's really fun because here are movies that are very seldom played on TV and once in a very rare opportunity anywhere in America to see them in theaters," he said. "You can see Beowulf or the next Steve Carell movie anytime."

The A Time for Burning discussion, moderated by Ben Gray, will follow tonight's 7:15 p.m. showing.

More information about the discussion, Film Streams and the rest of the series can be found at filmstreams.org. Additionally, more information on Andersen can be found at his Web site, kurtandersen.com.