John Magaro and Willa Fitzgeraldo star in director Dan Mirvish’s dark comedy “18 1/2,” which opens at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center Nov. 11.
Mirvish will be appearing at the 7:30 p.m. screening of “18 ½” on Nov. 11 for a Q&A with the audience at the Norman A. Geske Cinema Showcase, sponsored by the Friends of The Ross.
Continuing is “The Return of Tanya Tucker.”
“18 1/2” is a 1970s-era Watergate conspiracy thriller/dark comedy about a woman in the Nixon White House who tries to leak the 18 1/2-minute tape to a reporter.
The film starts in January, 1974, when the Watergate scandal is at a boiling point. Connie, a low level government stenographer, obtains a tape of Richard Nixon listening to, and then erasing, the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap that would eventually force him to resign the Presidency.
Connie takes the ferry to an isolated Chesapeake Bay town to leak the tape to a reporter, but a broken reel-to-reel player leads the two on a hunt to find a new machine so they can listen to the evidence. Along the way they encounter a Bossa Nova loving couple, a group of conspiracy-obsessed hippies, and nefarious forces working to stop them at every turn.
“18 1/2,” which is rated PG-13, is showing through Nov. 24.
Mirvish is a director, screenwriter, producer and author. He’s currently on the festival circuit with his new feature, 18½, a 70s Watergate thriller/dark comedy. Prior to that, he directed the award-winning feature Bernard and Huey, scripted by Oscar/Pulitzer-winner Jules Feiffer, and starring Oscar-winner Jim Rash and David Koechner which screened in over 30 film festivals on five continents, had a nationwide U.S. theatrical release, and sold to over 51 countries. He is the author of the bestselling non-fiction book “The Cheerful Subversive’s Guide to Independent Filmmaking” from Focal Press/Routledge. The fully updated, postpandemic 2nd Edition starting selling on July 6, 2021 and hit #1 on Amazon’s New Releases chart. His film Between Us, an award-winning feature starring Taye Diggs, Melissa George, David Harbour and Julia Stiles played in 23 festivals in seven countries, got a 50+ city theatrical release in the U.S., and sold to 145 countries, plus screening on Netflix, Showtime and Starz.
Dan was mentored by Robert Altman on his first film, Omaha (the movie), which led him to cofound the upstart Slamdance Film Festival. Dan’s film “Open House” prompted the Academy Awards to controversially rewrite their rules on the Best Original Musical category. Mirvish also co-wrote his bestselling, critically-acclaimed novel “I Am Martin Eisenstadt” (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) based on the fake McCain advisor who took credit for Sarah Palin not knowing Africa was a continent. Dan went on to get a master’s degree from University of Southern California film school, is a member of the Directors Guild of America and has guest lectured at more than 45 film schools and universities around the world.
“The Return of Tanya Tucker” follows Tanya’s richly creative, utterly captivating, bumpy ride back to the top as Brandi encourages her to push past her fears to create a new sound and reach a new audience. The writing, the experimenting, and refining of this new music mixes with all that came before – using rare archival footage and photographs to delve into Tanya’s history, beginning in a single wide trailer in Seminole, Texas.
Taking stock of the past while remaining vitally alive in the present and keeping an eye on the future, “The Return of Tanya Tucker” is a rousing exploration of an unexpected friendship built on the joy of a perfectly timed creative collaboration.
“The Return of Tanya Tucker,” which is rated R for language, is showing through Nov. 17.
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