Holiday Film Festival December 5, 2009

The Olde North Charleston Picture House will be participating again this year in the City’s Holiday Festival. Two films will be shown: Bill & Opus (a 24 minute cartoon); Joyeux Noel (the feature award-winning film). The cartoon begins at 2:15. There will be a 15-minute break with the feature film, rated PG-12, beginning at 3 p.m. Admission to either or both films is free. Seating is limited to 75 persons.

“Bill & Opus” is a wish for wings that worked. This heartwarming animated movie is based on “Bloom County,” a comic strip that ran throughout the 1980s, centered in a fanciful Middle American town where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where animals can talk. Bill is a large orange tabby cat who often is in a “catatonic” state while Opus is a large-nosed penguin with a herring addiction. “Bill and Opus” is a wacky holiday story that follows flight-fancying Opus' comical quest to overcome avian evolution and take to the friendly skies. Joined by his flaky feline friend Bill, Opus asks Father Christmas to fulfill his one aspiration in life: to be able to fly. Features a fine cast of comedic actors, including an uncredited cameo by Dustin Hoffman.

Joyeux Noel is a Golden Globe and Oscar nominated film directed by Christian Carion. In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man's Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. The film dramatizes one such section as the French, Scottish and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate its occurrence.

The second film will end at 5 pm. More than enough time to catch the North Charleston Holiday parade and tree lighting event. Box office opens at 2 pm for the cartoon and again at 2:45 for the feature film. Free popcorn will be served and drinks along with candies will be available.

This holiday film marks the first anniversary of the Greater Park Circle Film Society, which operates one of only two nonprofit movie houses in the entire state. In 2009, the Olde North Charleston Picture House presented 30 independent films, documentaries, and shorts. It has also hosted community post-film discussions on issues ranging from health care to housing development and has presented the Lowcountry Indie Shorts Festival in collaboration with the Carolina Film Alliance.

Executive Director, Dr. James Sears, says that the film fest is a holiday gift to the community. According to him, there will be a major announcement regarding the 2010 film calendar and movie house venue at the December 5 event.

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ABOUT US

The Olde North Charleston Picture House features independent films, documentaries, and shorts representing the themes of “humanitas” (coined by Cicero to define the “good person”) and “communitas” (feeling of social equality, solidarity & togetherness). The Greater Park Circle Film Society, which sponsors the theater, is a non-profit member organization whose purpose is to educate the Lowcountry public on all aspects of media arts. In so doing, the Society presents films not generally shown in local, commercial theaters, offers related educational programs, and fosters civic engagement.