Cinefiles has never been about Jonah and Joseph, not even after we took our readers on that memorable voyage through the digital ether. But with only two weeks left as your correspondents, we’re struggling to fulfill our mission of keeping the campus community informed about each week’s offerings at the Film Series when there are so many loose ends to tie up. Who will keep track of everyone’s favorite Big Red Bird (aka the Cardinal) and its flock of feisty chicks when we’re gone? Who’s going to pose shocking and innovative trivia questions after we relinquish our post at the Cinefiles HQ? Who will champion the column that continues to sweep The Argus every season? And who will keep fighting the good fight with Redbox?

Our answer: It could be you! That’s right, the Film Board Application has been released through various streams, but if you haven’t been able to get your digital paws on a copy, feel free to send another message to your favorite address, cinefilesdigital@gmail.com, and we’ll set you up with the golden ticket. The app is due Friday, Feb. 24, and, come March, two of the lucky applicants will not only join the group responsible for programming each quarterly Film Series calendar, but will also inherit the keys to the Cinefiles HQ, our regular spot in The Argus, and the password to the coveted Cinefiles inbox!

We still have no clue whose idea it was for The Argus to devote a quarter of a page each week to lifting the lid off that week’s four films, but we’ve been overcoming our differences as a duo to bring our readers top-tier coverage for the last two years. When Jonah took the seat next to Joseph following Andreas’s departure in March 2015, the Board issued a collective groan that emanated from Marc’s office through the halls of the CFS. How could this odd couple—a pair of kids who had nothing in common—make anything work, let alone have a weekly column responsible for describing every screening in the Goldsmith in an innovative and refreshing way? Admittedly, the answer is abstract, but anyone who rereads our dozens of column posts in order of their publication will notice a subtle fusion, the merging of minds, the coalescence of sensibilities that occurs when four hands massage the keys of a single laptop every Sunday for 24 electric months.

Here are the last questions we’ll ever ask of our readers as part of the Cinefiles Superfan Search 2017®. The winner of our contest will be announced next week before joining the Cinefiles for an elegant Dinner in Town. Answers should be sent to our inbox at cinefilesdigital@gmail.com.

1. Facehuggers, crop circlers, and that little freak E.T. For over a century, cinema has introduced audiences to a galaxy’s worth of interstellar intruders. CGI has only upped the ante when it comes to Martian meltdowns. When James Cameron dreamed of Na’vi scaling floating mountains to hunt the toruk of Pandora, he didn’t write the idea off as Unobtanium—an impossible vision. Instead, he ordered an army of Hollywood black hats to bend binary and meet his dark demands. These days, you can’t step five feet in a Cineplex without coming face to three-eyed face with another gelatinous goon. So tell us: Which is your favorite visitor from another world?
2. Any well-wishes for us, the departing duo?

 

“Embrace of the Serpent”

2015. Colombia. Dir: Ciro Guerra. With Nilbio Torres, Antonio Bolivar. 125 min.

Wednesday, February 22. 8 p.m. Free.

How far would you go for a magical flower? That’s one of many questions posed by this Amazonian odyssey, which offers a scathing indictment of colonialism, a brilliant corrective to Western-made tropical adventures like “Apocalypse Now,” and a devastating ode to indigenous populations. You’ll never see the jungle the same way again.

 

“The Kind Words”

2015. Israel/Canada. Dir: Shemi Zarhin. With Rotem Zissman-Cohen. 118 min.

Thursday, February 23. 8 p.m. Free.

After the death of their mother, three siblings embark on an international road trip to try to uncover family secrets. Their trek from Israel to France becomes as much about the journey itself as the answers they seek. As the siblings reconnect they must confront what they thought they knew about each other and try to figure out who they really are.

 

2017 Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films

Friday, February 24. 8 p.m. $5.

A little joy, a little sadness, a little cuteness, a little melancholy… and a whole lot of dazzling art. Enormous studios and fledgling animators alike push forward the boundaries of motion pictures one passion project at a time. We’re pleased to once again offer a chance for this vital work to live on the big screen in all its lavish detail.

 

The Conformist

1970. Italy/France/Germany. Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli. 111 min.

Saturday, February 25. 8 p.m. Free.

A self-loathing fascist flunky opts to use his Parisian honeymoon as a pretext to assassinate his politically dissenting former professor—all in the name of normalcy. Bertolucci’s dense texturing and lusciously baroque style render this trenchant critique of servility in utterly cinematic terms.