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“Cairo Time” and “Medicine for Melancholy” are the movies for the February 10 “Hot Night on Holman” at the Community Artists’ Collective, 1413 Holman at LaBranch in the Midtown Art Center Tea Room.

The evenings, scheduled once a month in 2012, feature cinema with sustainability themes, vegan comfort food, organic wine, art and live music.

A discussion after the movies will be facilitated by urban planners Jay Crossley and Zakcq Lockrem and Planners’ Revolution staff.

Entries from some of the more than 60 artists in the 16^th Annual Citywide African American Artist Exhibition, sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, through Five-A (the African American Art Advisory Association at the MFAH) will be on display.

“Cairo Time,” released in 2009, is a romantic drama about a brief, unexpected love affair that catches two people completely off guard.  Starring Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig, the film was named the best picture at the Directors’ Guild of Canada in 2010.

The movie is a love letter to a city where people's lives are bound to the countryside as well as the old cities modernized with technology.  The story concerns the clash of two very different cultures and how the past and present collide to form such a layered city as Cairo. Wonderful scenes within the city are shown as well as exceptional cinematography of the surrounding countryside. The White Desert and the Pyramids stand out, etched out in the land, seemingly by giants who preceded modern civilization.

“Medicine for Melancholy,” released in 2008, is a love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African-American 20-somethings dealing with the conundrum of being a minority in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco. The film won awards at the San Francisco Film Critics’ Circle and the Sarasota Film Festival.

 “Hot Nights on Holman” are presented by Planners’ Revolution, the community development division of the Community Artists’ Collective.  The idea for “Hot Nights” was generated by the April 2011 “Hot Block on Holman” event,  a one-day living workshop designed to energize Midtown/Third Ward and demonstrate how well-designed streets and roads can create safer, more accessible neighborhoods in which to live, play, work and shop.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The movies begin at 7:00 p.m. Cost is $5 person, which includes free cocktails.  $15 gets you admission, cocktails, popcorn, a meal and wine. The Vegan Comfort Café will be open from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Bike parking is available on Holman, and free auto parking is located behind the Midtown Arts Center. 

For more information contact The Collective at 713-523-1616 or visit http://bit.ly/q31bMl.

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The Community Artists’ Collective programs are supported in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and the Texas Commission on the Arts and through collaborations with community organizations.  The Collective is a member of the Fresh Arts Coalition.