November 27, 2018
A Bread Factory: Parts One and Two
(Dir. Patrick Wang, 2018)
Co-presented by MUBI.
Post-screening Q&A with actors Janet Hsieh and George Young, cinematographer Frank Berrera, and producer Matt Miller.
DOORS
6:30 PM
SCREENING
7:00 PM
LOCATION
Downtown Independent
251 S Main St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
This is the story of The Bread Factory, a community arts center in the small town of Checkford, told in two films.
Part One: For the Sake of Gold: After 40 years of running The Bread Factory, Dorothea and Greta are suddenly fighting for survival when a celebrity couple—performance artists from China—come to Checkford and build an enormous complex down the street catapulting big changes in their small town. (122 min.)
Part Two: Walk With Me a While: At The Bread Factory, they rehearse the Greek play, Hecuba. But the real theatrics are outside the theater where the town has been invaded by bizarre tourists and mysterious tech start-up workers. There is a new normal in Checkford, if it is even really Checkford any longer. (120 min.)
*Note: A Bread Factory will screen in two parts. There will be a short intermission between films. A single ticket grants admission to both films.
Wondrously moving, thoughtful and inventive. A warm and prickly humanist triumph.
- Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times
Utterly singular, endlessly warm, playful and lovable, a sprawling and prankish hangout comedy with no clear precedent... the kind of work that will become a point of comparison itself.
- Alan Scherstuhl, LA Weekly
As thorough and thoughtful a statement on art and life as any American filmmaker has given us... The journey is worth it. This film is miraculous, and we are lucky to have it.
- Matt Zoller Seitz, Rogerebert.com
Wang is a singular artist, but he taps into a rich tradition. [A Bread Factory] may remind some of the expansive comedies of Robert Altman, the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, or the work of Jacques Rivette. These are cinematic giants, and this director may be on his way to joining them.
- Bilge Ebiri, The New York Times
An astonishment and a revelation: with a ferociously dedicated, deeply empathetic, finely conceived sense of purpose, Wang offers a steadfast utopia of imagination, devotion, integrity, memory, and love in the face of hatred, corruption, despair, and loss. He dramatizes the value of art as the enduring embodiment and living memory of its creators’ humane relationships; he distills community and culture into a mighty cinematic force.
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
(Available to download after screening date)