Great Neck Arts Center - classes and programs in visual arts (including painting and ceramics), drama, music, dance (including ballet, hip-hop, modern, ballroom), fencing and film.

Film Series Archive

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The Furman Film Series presents a sophisticated cross-section of sneak previews of the best new independent, art, and foreign films. These extraordinary films are previewed to our audiences before their theatrical releases, and every screening is followed by a fascinating discussion with a special guest speaker — either the filmmaker themselves, or a distinguished film critic or scholar.

WHERE: The Clearview Squire Cinemas (115 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck).

WHEN: All screenings begin at 7:30 pm, with doors opening at 7 pm for series subscribers and 7:15 pm for individual ticketholders.

TICKETS: Tickets are $15 for an individual film and discussion OR $65 for a series subscription to all 5 films and discussions (a $10 savings).

ONLINE: To purchase tickets to an individual performance, click the “Add to Cart” button after the individual show. Tickets may be purchased online up to noon on the day of the show.

PHONE: Call (516) 829-2570

BY MAIL: Download the Mail Registration Form, complete and mail with check or credit card information to the Arts Center

IN PERSON: Visit the Arts Center at 113 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck during its regular hours

MANY SHOWS DO SELL OUT, in which case tickets may not be available at the door, so it is highly recommended that you subscribe or order individual tickets in advance.

Click here to join our e-mail list.

SUMMER 2010 SEASON

July 12

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO

From the producers of An Inconvenient Truth, Countdown to Zero is a gripping look at the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapon capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. Featuring an array of important international statesmen, including President Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf, and Tony Blair, Countdown to Zero makes an absolutely compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament.

Sneak preview!

Special guest speaker: JONATHAN GRANOFF, President of the Global Security Institute

Special guest respondents: MARGARET MELKONIAN, Executive Director, Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives; SHIRLEY ROMAINE, Great Neck SANE/Peace Action

July 26

THE EXTRA MAN

A sophisticated and moving comedy, The Extra Man stars Paul Dano as a lonely dreamer who moves to New York and rents a room in the ramshackle apartment of Kevin Kline, a penniless and eccentric playwright. When he’s not dancing alone to obscure music or singing operettas, Kline is performing the duties of an “extra man,” or a social escort for the wealthy widows of Manhattan high society. These two men develop a volatile mentor/apprentice relationship, and, through a series of urban adventures, form a memorable bond that bridges their differences. Co-starring Katie Holmes and John C. Reilly.

Sneak preview!

Special guest speaker: Movieline chief film critic STEPHANIE ZACHARECK

August 2

LAST TRAIN HOME

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the Chinese New Year, a mass exodus that is the world’s largest human migration. Last Train Home follows one couple who has embarked on this journey for over two decades. Like so many of China’s rural poor, they left behind their two infant children for grueling factory jobs. Their daughter Qin — now a restless and rebellious teenager — both resents their absence and longs for her own freedom away from school. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, Last Train Home uses one family to capture the human cost of China’s ascendance as a superpower.

Sneak preview!

Special guest speaker: DAVID SCHWARTZ, Chief Curator of the Museum of the Moving Image

August 16

A FILM UNFINISHED

At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film was discovered in an East German archive. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply “Ghetto,” the footage was of an unfinished Nazi propaganda film. One more reel was discovered years later. A FILM UNFINISHED presents the film in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing “the good life” enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, probing deep into the making of this now-infamous Nazi propaganda film. A film of enormous importance, A FILM UNFINISHED exposes the efforts of its perpetrators to propel their agenda and cast it in a favorable light, and ends up being one of the most powerful Holocaust films in recent memory.

Sneak preview!

Special guest speaker: GABRIEL SANDERS, Deputy Editor of Tablet Magazine

August 23

MY DOG TULIP

Featuring the voices of Christopher Plummer, Isabella Rosselini, and Lynn Redgrave (in the last film she ever made), My Dog Tulip is a hilarious and poignant animated film based on the beloved British novel by J.R. Ackerley, which provides a bittersweet retrospective account of Ackerley’s 14-year relationship with his pet Alsatian. In vivid and humorous detail, and using gorgeous and wildly imaginative animation techniques, the movie shows Tulip’s often erratic behavior as well as Ackerley’s determined efforts to ensure an existence of perfect happiness for her, in what ultimately emerges as a beautiful love story between man and dog.

Sneak preview!

Special guest speaker: My Dog Tulip producer NORMAN TWAIN