In Celebration of Black History Month,
Part One
(Part Two coming in March)
 Catch
a Fire
Speaker: Les Payne, Pulitzer Prize winning Newsday
columnist and former editor
Tuesday, February 20 at 7pm
Members $6
• Public $9
Advance reservations recommended at box office or by phone, 631-423-7611
Before Patrick Chamusso became one of the African National
Congress's most respected militants, he was an easygoing
coal worker. A foreman at a South African refinery,
Patrick (Derek Luke) swallows apartheid's daily humiliations
in order to provide for his family. All that changes
when he is accused of bombing the refinery. He is arrested
and mercilessly interrogated. When security police chief
Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) finally releases him, Patrick
has been radicalized by the ordeal. Patrick joins the
ANC's military wing and begins plotting an act that
will make him Vos' most dangerous adversary. Luke turns
in a terrific performance as a man finding his political
principles even as his personal life starts to unravel.
Catch a Fire carries both the electric charge of Phillip
Noyce's spy thrillers (Patriot Games and Clear and Present
Danger) and the complex sense of motivation he brought
to Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Quiet American. Screenwriter
Shawn Slovo, who also wrote the landmark drama A World
Apart, returns here to a history in which her father,
ANC leader Joe Slovo, then President of the African
National Congress played a part. Her story makes room
for the telling deceptions both sides used. All is fair
in war, but Catch a Fire shows the high price that must
be paid. -Cameron Bailey
South Africa, 2006, 98 min., rated PG-13, in Afrikaans,
Zulu, & English with English subtitles • Director:
Phillip Noyce • Writer: Shawn Slovo • Cast:
Robert Hobbs, Derek Luke, Bonnie Henna, Tim Robbins,
Terry Pheto, Michele Burgers • 2006 Toronto International
Film Festival
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