SPOTLIGHT ON
ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU

Sunday, October 8, 4:00 pm

Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center
Reception to follow at Smith & Hawken

SPOTLIGHT AND RECEPTION $50 BABE08P
SPOTLIGHT ONLY $25 BABE08R

In the time it takes to make three feature films, Alejandro González Iñárritu has established himself as an ingenious storyteller with an innate sense of our collective struggle toward redemption. His intense, penetrating work reminds us that, regardless of culture, language or place in society, we all share hope, passion and anguish. The first of his highly successful collaborations with writer and fellow Mexico City native Guillermo Arriaga produced Iñárritu’s devastatingly beautiful first feature, Amores Perros (1999). An exploration of the interconnected lives of far-from-perfect characters living in the capital city, the film received numerous international awards, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language film. Iñárritu’s English language follow-up 21 Grams (2003) spun another harrowing tale of three unexpectedly intertwined lives. His latest and most ambitious to date, for which he has already received the Best Director award at Cannes this year, Babel spans the globe to consider the distinctions among and similarities between experiences of vulnerability, loneliness and the power of misunderstanding, in a stunning study of the human condition.

Please join us for the Spotlight Award program, featuring the screening of Babel and an interview with Alejandro González Iñárritu. Following the Spotlight program, we move on to the new Smith & Hawken store at Strawberry Village Shopping Center for a party in honor of the talented director. The celebration features delicious food from Perry’s Gourmet Catering and fine Northern California wines.

SPONSORED BY
Gruber Family Foundation

BABEL         

US 2005 142 MINS

Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
Producer Steve Golin
Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga
Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto
Editors Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
Cast Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Gael García Bernal, Jamie McBride, Kôji Yakusho, Lynsey Beauchamp, Paul Terrell Clayton, Fernandez Mattos Dulce, Nathan Gamble
Print Source Paramount Vantage

In English, Spanish, Japanese and Arabic with English subtitles • With the gut-wrenching potency of Amores Perros, the dynamic volatility of 21 Grams and a multilingual narrative of intense human depth, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel positions the Mexican director firmly in the pantheon of master filmmakers. In many ways, the film’s plot is a neverending chain of events; we enter in the Moroccan desert, where a rifle shot rings out, instantly interlinking many lives: an American tourist couple frantically struggling to survive, a nanny crossing illegally with two American children into Mexico and a deaf-mute Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Though separated by culture and distance, these people are all hurtling toward a shared destiny. From one gripping story line to the next, we are engrossed in the paradox of humanity’s interconnectedness, despite our inability to truly communicate. Yet you will leave the theater desperate to converse. Therein lies Babel’s brilliance.—J. Parsont