films Archives - Evanston Public Library

Kanopy Offers Free Streaming Movies with Your Library Card

Kanopy is here!

The Evanston Public Library is now offering free access to Kanopy, an all-movie streaming service. Kanopy brings more than 30,000 of the world’s best films to stream on computers, tablets, and other mobile devices. EPL cardholders can sign up to start streaming films instantly onto any computer, television, mobile device or platform at the Kanopy website: kanopy.com

The Kanopy collections includes recent indie hits like Ladybird, Moonlight, and The Florida Project; classics like Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator, and Modern Times as well as Rashomon and The Little Shop of Horrors; and award-winning documentaries like the 2017 Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro and Sundance Film Festival winner Mother of George. Kanopy’s motto is “thoughtful entertainment,” and the films often have social and cultural value or are difficult or impossible to view anywhere else.

Films can be streamed onto any computer, television, mobile device or platform by downloading the Kanopy app for AppleTV, iPhone, and iPad; Android TV and Android; and Fire TV and Fire Tablet. Library users can stream three films per library card per month. Each movie is available for 72 hours (3 days). Many of the titles are unavailable on DVD. The foreign language collection is especially impressive, as are the number of documentaries and Criterion Collection films.

“A Garden of Cinematic Delights” says the The New York Times.

Available films include award-winning documentaries, rare and hard-to-find titles, film festival favorites, indie and classic films, and international films from France, Germany, Japan, Scandinavia, and Italy. The films come from such sources at PBS, the Film Board of Canada, New Day Films, and A24, as well as The Great Courses, Samuel Goldwyn, Music Box Films, and thousands of independent filmmakers.

Kanopy was founded in 2008 by CEO Olivia Humphrey as an educational tool for colleges and universities. Before, only Northwestern students in Evanston were able to use Kanopy as it is available through their academic library system. Now everyone in town with an Evanston Public Library card can benefit.

Book to Film Adaptations: Coming to a Theater Near You!

October 10, 2018

Oscar season is still months away, but autumn is traditionally the time of year when movie studios start to release the films they feel have the best shot at Oscar gold. This year, a whole slew of new films are based on books (all of which you can find in your friendly neighborhood library). Want to be ahead of the game? Then put these books on hold pronto:

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Barry Jenkins already got Oscar gold when Moonlight pulled out its surprise win. Now he’s turned to a James Baldwin classic and the film festival circuit is already in love. Expect major buzz about this movie and soon.

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Sheff’s gutting tale of his son’s battle with addiction isn’t the only addiction film out this year, but it may well be the best. Starring young Timothée Chalamet, last seen in another literary adaptation, Call Me By Your Name.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger by Lee Israel

Melissa McCarthy takes on a serious role as a sympathetic novelist that gets caught up in forgeries gone too far. It’s a departure for the usually goofy McCarthy, and may well end up granting her some Oscar gold.

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

Plenty of copies of this book are on our shelves, so don’t hesitate to pick one up. Emma Thompson stars in this tale of a leading high court judge who must render a verdict when a teen boy refuses medical treatment on religious grounds.

First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen

Ryan Gosling makes a break for Best Actor gold in his performance as the first man to walk on the moon.

Richard Attenborough, Actor and Director, 1923-2014

August 25, 2014

British actor and director Richard Attenborough died on Sunday at the age of 90. Although a familiar actor in Britain, it wasn’t until he was cast in the 1963 war film The Great Escape that he became established in Hollywood. He won Golden Globe Awards for best supporting actor in The Sand Pebbles in 1966 and again in 1967 for his role in Doctor Doolittle. He also acted in Indian director Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players and in Steve Spielberg’s hit Jurassic Park. His later years were devoted to directing, including his 1982 epic Gandhi which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won eight. His earlier directing jobs include the 1969 satirical musical Oh! What a Lovely War; Young Winston in 1972; A Chorus Line in 1985, and Cry Freedom in 1987. Mr. Attenborough was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1967, was knighted in 1976, made a baron in 1993 and given a seat in the House of Lords. For more about this distinguished “giant of British cinema” see today’s NYT article. And check the EPL catalog for more of his films.

Laura

25th Anniversary for "Do the Right Thing"

July 1, 2014

The Academy Film Archive celebrated director Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing with a Silver Anniversary screening last Friday. Set in New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood “the film about racial tension reaches a boiling point on a scorching summer day in Brooklyn.” President and Mrs. Obama joined the celebration via videotape where they talked about seeing Do the Right Thing on their first date. The president said: “So Spike, thank you for helping me impress Michelle, and thank you for telling a powerful story. Today, I’ve got a few more grey hairs than I did back in 1989. You don’t look like Mookie anymore. But Do the Right Thing still holds up a mirror to our society, and it makes us laugh, and think and challenges all of us to see ourselves in one another.” You can read the entire NPR article here.

Laura

Actress and Activist Ruby Dee, 1922-2014

June 12, 2014

Actress Ruby Dee died Wednesday at her home in New Rochell, NY at the age of 91. A passionate and versatile performer, she received accolades for her role in the 1970 Athol Fugard drama Boesman and Lena, and her role as Ruth Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark drama A Raisin in the Sun. She went on to reprise that role in the 1961 film version with one reviewer noting: “Is there a better young actress in America, or one who can make everything she does so effortless?” Her film career included roles in the films of Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever) as well as for a supporting role in the 2007 film American Gangster, for which she won an Oscar nomination. A lifelong civil rights activist, along with her husband Ossie Davis, Ms. Dee “lent her voice and presence to the cause of racial equality outside show business.” In With Ossie and Ruby, she wrote” The largest piece of unfinished business before humankind is, in our opinion, poverty, spiritual as well as material, racism, yes, and sexism, too; Struggle is all there is, and we are still committed.” Read more about this legendary actress in today’s NYTimes and NPR tributes. And check the EPL catalog for more of her works.

Laura

Alain Resnais, Acclaimed French Filmmaker, Dead at 91.

March 4, 2014

French filmmaker Alain Resnais died on Saturday in Paris at the age of 91. Most well-known for his films Last Year at Marienbad and Hiroshima Mon Amour, Mr. Resnais was often associated with French New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francoise Truffaut. “Fascinated by the ability of film editing to take apart and reassemble fragments of time, Mr Resnais incorporated the effects of scrambled memories, deja vu and fantasy into his work.” Born in 1922 in Brittany, he began making short films at the age of 14. Although most of his films were serious in nature, he loved cartoons, comedy and Broadway musicals, and was inspired by the television show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Recently honored at the Berlin Film Festival for his last film “The Life of Riley”, Mr. Resnais was editing drafts for his next project from his hospital bed. Read more about this influential director in this NYT article. And check the EPL catalog for his works.

Laura

Chaplin in the "Limelight" (Again)

February 3, 2014

Footlights, an unpublished novella written by Charlie Chaplin in 1948 will be released Tuesday at the British Film Institute in London. The book which inspired Chaplin’s film Limelight (the only film where Chaplin and Buster Keaton appear on screen together) will be sold on Amazon.com and through the Italian film restoration institute, the Cineteca di Bologna. It was reconstructed by Chaplin biographer David Robinson and researchers at the institute from drafts found in Chaplin’s private archive in Switzerland. The release of the book is part of the Chaplin centennial celebrating his first screen appearance in the film “Kid Auto Races at Venice” in 1914. Read more in this NYT article – and check the EPL catalog for films and related material on the legendary actor, director and author.

Laura

The Library as Film Star

August 9, 2013

NPR’s All Things Considered continues its series on public libraries in this story by Bob Mondello highlighting the library “on stage, on screen, and in song.” He refers to stereotypes such as Marian in The Music Man, George Bailey’s wife Mary in It’s A Wonderful Life, and Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set as well as more sophisticated images (Lucien’s Library in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, the monastery library in The Name of the Rose and the amazing library at Hogwarts. Songs are also mentioned, including Jimmy Buffett’s “Love in the Library”, and Tori Amos’s album Tales of a Librarian with tracks arranged in the Dewey Decimal System. Check out some of these films from the EPL Library collection and enjoy the entire article here.

Laura

Film in "Blume"

June 7, 2013

Judy Blume has been a best-selling author since her first novel Iggie’s House was published in 1970. Although she’s sold more than 80 million books none of them have been produced as a feature film until today. Her 1981 young adult novel Tiger Eyes will open in select theaters around the country – and has already won a jury prize at a film festival screening. Judy Blume’s son Lawrence directed the film and both mother and son wrote the script. It was “a real homemade movie,” according to Lawrence, who thought the book very cinematic when he first read it as an 18-year-old. The story of teenage girl Davey who has to adjust to life in New Mexico after her father is killed stars Willa Holland of “Gossip Girl.” Ms. Blume will be in Chicago this weekend to accept the 2013 ChicagoTribune Young Adult Literary Prize at the Printers Row Literary Festival. See the articles in today’s NYT and Chicago Sun-Times, and check out the library catalog for the many books by the acclaimed author.

Laura

A Salute to Philip Roth – An American Master

March 13, 2013

Celebrations are in the works to help commemorate Philip Roth’s 80th birthday next week (March 19). For those of us who can’t get to Newark for the $35 bus tour traveling to places recalled in his books, or who weren’t invited to the literary party given by New York magazine, we can look forward to the new American Masters film Philip Roth: Unmasked which has its world theatrical premiere beginning today at Film Forum in New York City and premieres nationally Friday, March 29 on PBS stations. Although Mr. Roth grants very few interviews, he allowed a journalist to spend 10 days interviewing him on camera, culminating in this 90-minute documentary–which will be purchased for the library collection. You can read the entire NYT article here. And check out the EPL catalog for books by and about the Philip Roth.

Laura