Astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home. Thankfully, his time on the moon is nearly over, and Sam will be reunited with his wife, Tess, and their three-year-old daughter, Eve, in only a few short weeks. Finally, he will leave the isolation of the moon base that has been his home for so long, and he will finally have someone to talk to beyond “Gerty,” the base’s well-intentioned, but rather uncomplicated computer. Suddenly, Sam’s health starts to deteriorate. Painful headaches, hallucinations and a lack of focus lead to an almost fatal accident on a routine drive on the moon in a lunar rover. While recuperating back at the base, Sam meets a younger, angrier version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfill the same three-year contract Sam started all those years ago. Admission is $6 for all UM alumni, faculty, and staff, and is free for students. General admission is $8. The film screens on Friday, August 21 at 7 p.m., Saturday, August 22 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, August 23 at 2 and 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.cosfordcinema.com.

The Frost School of Music Piano Preparatory Program is now accepting applications for the 2009-2010 academic year. Courses include Group Piano (for children 5 years of age and older, adults, and visually impaired students), Jazz Group Piano, Music Theory, and Ensemble, as well as private piano lessons. Orientation will take place on Saturday, August 22 at 11 a.m. in the Volpe Building, Room 101. For more information, call 786-853-4041 or e-mail [email protected]. Additional information about the program can be found at www.umpianoprep.org.

With a tone all its own, this film manages to be three things at once: a portrait of life lived under a dictatorship, a bitter critique of an individual who will do anything to reach his goal, and a blackly comic satire of celebrity obsession. Raul Peralta (Alfredo Castro) is a 50-something man who lives in Santiago during the fearful, suffocating days of Augusto Pinochet’s rule.

Raul is obsessed with John Travolta’s character from Saturday Night Fever–hence the film’s title–to the point where he’s even bought a white suit similar to Manero’s. Each weekend, he performs with a group of dancers at a bar, recreating the moves from his favorite movie. He finds an even more important purpose when a television station announces that they’re holding a Tony Manero dance- and look-alike contest. In such a stifling social climate, Raul takes matters into his own hands, doing whatever it takes to make his dream come true. The tone of Tony Manero is virtually impossible to describe, for the film’s most brutal moments are actually its funniest. Tony Manero is a startlingly original achievement, marking Lorrain as a director to watch in the future.

The film is in Spanish with English subtitiles. Admission is $6 for all UM alumni, faculty, and staff, and is free for students. General admission is $8. The film screens on Friday, August 21 at 9  p.m., Saturday, August 22 at 5  and 9 p.m., and Sunday, August 23 at 4 and 8 p.m. For more information visit www.cosfordcinema.com.