Sedona, AZ: The multiple award-winning film and audience sensation “Precious” premieres in Sedona on Tuesday, Jan. 12. There will be two screenings of the film at 4 and 7 p.m. at Harkins Sedona Six Theatres.
The film is being presented by the Sedona International Film Festival in this one-night-only special engagement as part of its popular Second Tuesday Cinema Series. The critically-acclaimed film has been playing to standing ovations at festivals and in limited theatrical release across the country.
Lee Daniels’ “Precious” is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome.
“Precious” just received three prestigious Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Gabourey Sidibe, and Best Supporting Actress for Mo’nique. An official selection and high-profile film at the Cannes Film Festival, “Precious” also garnered three top awards from the Sundance Film Festival and is the first film ever to win Audience Choice Awards at both Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals.
“I am so excited about SIFF being able to bring this film to Sedona. ‘Precious’ is one of the most powerful and moving films I have ever seen,” said film festival operations director Debbie Williams who attended a premiere screening of the film at the Heartland Film Festival. “I hope the subject matter doesn't scare people away, as they would then miss one of the best films of this decade.”
Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.
Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One.
Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.
Since its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, “Precious” has confounded notions of what an “urban film” is, touching people of all backgrounds with its dramatic, vividly realized story of a Harlem teenager who overcomes tremendous obstacles to discover her own worth, beauty and potential.
“Precious” is remarkable both for what it is — a film whose heroine is a dark-skinned, plus-size young woman in 1987 Harlem; and for what it is not — a static, standard-issue treatise on the disadvantaged. Directed with passion and imagination by Lee Daniels, written with elegant economy by Geoffrey Fletcher, and brilliantly performed by a fearless ensemble cast, “Precious” is a journey into a world whose specific realities may be far from our own, but whose fundamental human truths — and fundamental human hopefulness — are recognizable to us all.
Daniels produced the Academy Award-winning “Monster’s Ball” and the multiple award-winning “The Woodsman”. “Precious” marks his second directorial effort.
Critics are raving about “Precious” and all are agreeing it is a film not to be missed, many calling it the most important film of this generation. Roger Ebert gives it his highest four-star rating. Peter Travers from Rolling Stone calls it the best film of the year and says it “leaves you moved like no film in years. It has a spirit that soars!” The New York Times calls the film “a genuine work of art.” Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly raves “You feel you’ve witnessed nothing less than the birth of a soul.”
The title sponsor for the event is M&I Bank. The series is also made possible by a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Sedona and the Sedona Community Foundation.
“Precious” will be shown at Harkins Sedona Six Theatres on Tuesday, Jan. 12 at 4 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $10, or $8 for Film Sedona members, and will be available starting at 3 p.m. that day in the Harkins lobby. Cash or checks only. Film Sedona members can purchase tickets in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office, 1785 W. Hwy. 89A, Suite 2B, or by calling 928-282-1177. For more information, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.com.
Article courtesy of Patrick Schweiss.
Posted January 8, 2010.
