Canadian film "Long Pigs" is making its U.S. premiere, three years after it debuted at home. And it's making that premiere here at The Times Cinema on Thursday, April 22.
The picture -- the name of which comes from cannibal slang for the human body -- was directed by Toronto's Chris Power and Nathan Hynes and started out as a documentary about a modern-day cannibal. Some have described the finished product as a dark comedy documentary.
Milwaukee audiences will unlikely be surprised to find references to Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein in "Long Pigs."
What it is is an 83-minute look at Anthony McAlistar, whom the filmmakers' synopsis says, "is a jovial fellow who just happens to give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money in the cannibal serial-killer territory. Introduced preparing his own unsavory type of meal, Anthony regales the camera with philosophical anecdotes, aware that, as the subject of a documentary being shot by a pair of young filmmakers, he's the star of the program.
"The satire grows more pungent as the story progresses and the line between comedy and horror becomes thinner, calling into question not just Anthony's horrific actions but the role the camera plays in them. When does the media's fascination with watching become dangerous? And, when it comes to human lives, where is the line drawn between documentary and subject?"
The filmmakers and special effects director will be on hand to launch the film's U.S. tour, which begins here in Milwaukee. Showtime is 7 p.m. and admission is $5.
You can view a trailer on the film's Web site.
Also on tap on the silver screen this week in Milwaukee:
UWM's Union Theatre, which always boasts an interesting and engaging array of films has two good ones on offer this week and one of them is free.
"Araya" is a 1959 Venezuelan film in French and Spanish directed by Margo Benacerraf. The film -- which nabbed the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes the year of its release -- captures a day in the lives of three families living on the arid Arayan peninsula in northeastern Venezuela.
That land has been associated with salt for centuries and Benacerraf's film documents the difficult lives of the people who harvest the salt -- they're called salineros -- in an anachronistically gorgeous high contrast black and white.
The film was restored under the guidance of the director. And you can see it for free Saturday, April 24 at 5 and 9 p.m. and Sunday, April 25 at 5 p.m. at the Union Theatre on the second floor of the UWM Student Union, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Also screening on those dates, but at 7 p.m., is Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor's 2009 French/American co-production, "Sweetgrass."
Set in another arid landscape -- the American west -- "Sweetgrass" trails a band of modern cowboys who work for one of last big American ranching families in Montana. The filmmakers have called this picture "an unsentimental elegy to the American West."
Admission to "Sweetgrass" is $6 for the general public, $5 for UWM staff, faculty, alumni association members, senior citizens and non-UWM students, and $4 for UWM students.
A complete schedule of the Union Theatre's offerings is here.
