This touring program runs Friday through Thursday, May 26 through June 1. Unless otherwise noted, all screenings are by video projection at Facets Cinematheque, and tickets are $9, $5 for members. For more information call 773-281-4114 or visit www.facets.org.
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R The Liberace of Baghdad Originally director Sean McAllister planned to make a movie about life in Baghdad immediately after the so-called end of the second gulf war, but when he befriended Samir Peter, the articulate, funny, resolutely chain-smoking title character of this 2004 documentary, he opted instead to train his video camera on him. Once the most popular concert pianist in Iraq, Samir formerly maintained a rather extravagant lifestyle, with a large, lavish house and plenty of booze and women. By the time McAllister finds him, he’s holed up in a small room in the basement of a Baghdad hotel, playing nightly for a scattering of mercenaries and military personnel and too afraid to make the trek back to his house each night to join his children. In English and subtitled Arabic. 75 min. (JK) a Mon 5/29, 7 PM, and Thu 6/1, 9 PM
R Omagh Originally broadcast on Irish TV, this 2004 drama chronicles the events surrounding the August 1998 car bombing that claimed 29 lives in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The crime occurred four months after the Good Friday agreement, carried out by a group of IRA hard-liners who felt that negotiation amounted to capitulation. Using handheld camera, director Pete Travis renders the events in a flat, unemotional style, telling the story from the perspective of the Gallaghers, who lost a 21-year-old son to the bombing. The first half casts them as grieving victims, though the second traces their gradual empowerment as they demand that the bumbling local police identify, arrest, and prosecute the culprits. With Gerard McSorley, Michele Forbes, and Brenda Fricker. 106 min. (JK) Tickets for this benefit screening and reception are $75, $150, and $250, and must be purchased in advance at 212-216-1805. Michael Gallagher, the family patriarch, and Carroll Bogert, associate director of Human Rights Watch, will attend. a Thu 6/1, 6 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago.
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