April 2022 - Minding the Gap
April is here and we are very excited for the next Cinema Club screening on Monday night. It has been a long time since we've shown a documentary and Minding the Gap is in our humble opinion one of the best documentaries to come out in recent years.

Minding the Gap is the premiere feature from first-time filmmaker Bing Liu. The documentary follows three young men - one of whom is Liu - who have grown up together in the Rust-Belt town of Rockford, IL. Skateboarding is a shared passion among them. Liu's filming that started out with making cool skating videos blossoms into a full exploration of their sometimes volatile lives as they each try to figure out what is next.

Reminder: Cinema Club meets in the Aspen Drive Library Meeting Room in Vernon Hills. Masks optional.

Here's a few articles to skim beforehand.
This review from Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com is a sample of what so many critics saw in this little documentary that came out of nowhere, and why it was championed by so many upon release.

"Liu's generosity as a filmmaker refuses to consign any character to either/other categories. They're always both/and."
There is no shortage of interviews with filmmaker Bing Liu about Minding the Gap, but they are mostly from film and entertainment outlets. This interview from Free Skate Magazine is one of the most insightful interviews for understanding the unique perspective Liu brings from being part of the skateboarding community.

"I was thinking if someone was to tell me about this film… There’s nothing that someone could tell the skateboarder in me that would make me wanna watch this film!"
You might want to wait until after seeing the film to read this because it dives deep. But for fans it was exciting to learn that Minding the Gap was joining the prestigious Criterion Collection, meaning its physical release would receive a true cinephile's treatment full of goodies - one of which is this excellent essay by writer Jay Kaspian Kang.

"How can life be simultaneously filled with thoughtless joys and with terrors that we cannot escape?"
Next Movie: A Raisin in the Sun
May 16, 2022
Aspen Drive Library Meeting Room

1961 | Not Rated | 2h 8 min
Living together in a cramped Chicago apartment, an African-American family must decide what to do with a substantial insurance payment they will soon receive.

REMINDER: You must register for each Cinema Club screening. Receiving this newsletter is not an indication you are registered for next month's showing.