Thursday, April 03, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Beyond the Multiplex

This week's special screenings

The King of Masks

(NR, 91 min.) [Bian Lian] Gap-toothed Zhu Xu gives an enchanting performance in Chinese director Wu Tianming's 1996 film as an aging street performer in 1930s Sichuan province whose "male" apprentice in the art of face-changing turns out to be a girl (Zhou Renying). A simple, unexpectedly humorous tale of love overcoming prejudice and the dead weight of ancient tradition. [Mandarin dialogue, English subtitles] Contemporary Asian film series, Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St., 229-6383, $4. Tue., April 8 7:30 p.m. (with introduction by UNLV's Bob Benedetto at 7:15).

The Language You Cry In

(NR, 52 min.) Call it Roots--The Musical. In 1931, while researching the Gullah people of coastal Georgia and South Carolina, linguist Lorenzo Turner met Amelia Dawley, a fiftysomething woman who sang an ancient burial song from Sierra Leone, passed down through successive generations. Alvaro Toepke and Angel Serrano's 1998 film details a true-life scholarly detective story illustrating how Mende culture survived time, distance and the ravages of slavery. [English and Mende dialogue, with subtitles] Las Vegas Arts Center, 947 W. Lake Mead Blvd., 229-4800, free. Sat., April 5 1:00 p.m.

Vegas shorts

Local indie filmmakers screen their short films and videos. Christoph Ritenour's "Tender Undercoming" and "America's Underground;" Chad Simmons' "Progress," "Who Makes Your Reality?" and "American History (Abridged)." West Charleston Library, 6301 W. Charleston Blvd., 263-0081, free. Thu., April 10 7:00 p.m.--AA