Friday at the Movies

Featured Speaker: Andy Friedenberg

Osher is pleased to reprise our pre-Covid Wednesday
at the Movies on Friday mornings during the spring
quarter. The movies will be screened in Classroom
129 and will be on-campus only. Films selected
will vary from foreign language films introduced
by Osher favorite Andy Friedenberg (Apirl 26th and May 31st), founder of the
San Diego Cinema Society, to others selected by our
Osher colleagues.

April 26: As It Is in Heaven
Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2005
Academy Awards, As It Is in Heaven is the story
of Daniel, a successful international conductor who
returns to his childhood village in Sweden. Soon
thereafter, the local church choir seeks him out to
solicit his advice. He can’t refuse, and nothing in
the village is the same again. As the amateur choir
develops and grows, he is drawn to the people of
his old hometown, makes friends and finds love...
A beautiful and engaging film, As It Is in Heaven is
a wonderful story about life and love that is sure to
inspire and delight. In Swedish with English subtitles.

May 3: Kidnapped
A Cannes Film Festival award-winning Italian film
directed and co-written by Marco Bellocchio, the
movie tells the story of Edgardo Mortara, a young
Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, who in 1858, after
being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his
family to be raised and educated as a Christian. His
parents’ struggle to free their son became part of a
larger political battle that pitted the papacy against
forces of democracy and Italian unification

May 31: The Fencer
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for
the 88th Academy Awards, The Fencer is a 2015
biographical drama about the life of Endel Nelis, an
accomplished Estonian fencer and coach. Fleeing
from the Russian secret police because of his
controversial past, the young Estonian fencer is
forced to return to his homeland, where he begins to
train a group of young children in the art of fencing.

The past, however, catches up with him, and Endel
must choose between letting his students down or
putting his life in danger. In Estonian, Russian, and
Armenian with English subtitles.

Presenter Biography

Andy Friedenberg is a member of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In
1983 he founded the popular Cinema Society of
San Diego. He graduated from Boston University
School of Public Communications with a B.S.
in communications, pursued a career in the
film industry, and worked with both Columbia
Pictures and United Artists as regional publicity/
promotional manager. He is frequently heard on
local radio and television shows on the subject of
motion pictures, and he leads film lovers around
the country to film festivals and arts tours here
and abroad.

Coordinator: David Guggenheim