First Thursday Films are screened at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month at the Capri Theater, 2027 West Broadway in North Minneapolis.
This screening is a part of Black Cinema: Under the Skin, a program of films by Black filmmakers and exploring Black culture and experience. Topical and relevant in these turbulent times, Black Cinema aims to create a space for dialogue and better understanding. Presented with support by:
Twelve Years A Slave is based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender), as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) will forever alter his life.
PRESS
"Agonizingly magnificent." - Entertainment Weekly
"Don’t look away, this movie insists with measured, artful fury. Don’t dare look away." - The Boston Globe
"It is Ejiofor — bewildered, sorely tested, morally towering — whose staggered dignity anchors the film." - NPR
"The defining epic so many have longed for to examine — if not cauterize — America’s primal wound." - The Washington Post
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY
Steve McQueen (Director, Producer) is a British artist and filmmaker. In 2008, McQueen’s critically acclaimed first feature Hunger won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival among countless other international prizes. He followed with 2011’s incendiary film experience, Shame, a provocative drama about addiction and secrecy in the modern world. The film received numerous accolades and awards with McQueen winning the CinemAvvenire Award and FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice Film Festival as well as nominations from BAFTA, the British Independent Film Awards, the London Film Festival, Evening Standard British Film Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards.
In 1996, McQueen was the recipient of an ICA Futures Award, in 1998 he won a DAAD artist’s scholarship to Berlin and in 1999 - besides exhibiting at the ICA and at the Kunsthalle in Zürich - he also won the Turner Prize. McQueen has exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Documenta (2002 and 2007) and at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 where he represented Britain. His work is held in museum collections around the world including Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Pompidou.
In 2003, he was appointed Official War Artist for the Iraq war by the Imperial War Museum and subsequently produced the poignant and controversial project Queen and Country, which commemorated the deaths of British soldiers who died in the Iraq War by presenting their portraits as a sheet of stamps. In 2002, he was awarded the OBE and the CBE in 2011.
COMMUNITY PARTNER
FIRST THURSDAYS @ THE CAPRI
A series of films presented in partnership with the Capri Theater on the first Thursday of every month, with speakers invited to lead post-film discussions with audiences.
Browse First Thursdays @ The Capri films