Film Archives

These films have been screened by the Arena Theater Film Club:

12/9/2024              Director: Stephen Daldry. Cast: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, the film tells the story of one young boy's journey from heartbreaking loss to the healing power of self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the tragic events of September 11.​

11/25/2024            Touch of Evil (US, 1958) Director: Orson Welles. Cast: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh. When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas (Heston) begins his investigation, along with American police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles). When Vargas begins to suspect that Quinlan and his shady partner, Menzies, are planting evidence to frame an innocent man, his investigations into their possible corruption quickly put himself and his new bride, Susie (Leigh), in jeopardy.

11/11/2024             Brewster McCloud (US, 1970) Director: Robert Altman. Cast: Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy. The black comedy follows a young recluse who lives in a fallout shelter under the Houston Astrodome, where he is building a pair of wings in order to fly. He soon becomes a chief suspect in a series of bird-related murders.

​10/28/2024          Election (US, 1999) Director: Alexander Payne. Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick.  A black comedy, based on Tom Perrotta's 1998 novel of the same name. The plot revolves around a student body election and satirizes politics and high school life.

10/14/2024         Moneyball (US, 2011) Director: Bennett Miller. Cast: Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jonah Hill. Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
 
4/8/2024               Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (US, 2004) Director: Michel Gondry. Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's bizarre love story about a man who has all memories of his girlfriend erased after they break up.
Joel (Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. Out of desperation, he contacts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), to have Clementine removed from his own memory. But as Joel's memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover his love for Clementine. 

3/25/2024             Double Indemnity (US, 1944) Director: Billy Wilder. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather. An insurance salesman is seduced by a conniving woman into a scheme to murder her husband and make it look like an accident in order to collect his impressive life insurance policy.

3/11/2024             Magnolia (US, 1999) Director: Paul Thomas Anderson. Cast: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Melinda Dillon, Philip Seymour Hoffman. An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning set in the San Fernando Valley on one random day.


2/26/2024             Rebecca (US, 1940) Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders, Nigel Bruce.
 Alfred Hitchcock directed this Oscar-winning Daphne du Maurier story of a marriage haunted by the aura of the husband's dead first wife. Academy Awards for best picture and best cinematography.
Romance becomes psychodrama in the elegantly crafted “Rebecca,” Alfred Hitchcock’s first foray into Hollywood filmmaking. A dreamlike adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, the film stars the enchanting Joan Fontaine as a young woman who believes she has found her heart’s desire when she marries the dashing aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (played with cunning vulnerability by Laurence Olivier). But upon moving to Manderley—her groom’s baroque ancestral mansion—she soon learns that his deceased wife haunts not only the estate but the temperamental, brooding Maxim as well.

2/12/2024             Faces Places (France, 2017) Director: Agnès Varda. Legendary filmmaker Agnès Varda and photographer JR travel the French countryside, encountering people and places that become the subjects of their public art installations.
 A late-career triumph of lovingly handcrafted humanism, Agnès Varda’s Academy Award–nominated penultimate film sees the octogenarian director joining forces with the thirty-something street photographer JR. Crisscrossing rural France in their roving camera-mobile—a truck that produces larger-than-life portraits of the people they meet, which are then pasted onto local walls—the pair encounter an array of farmers, former miners, dockworkers, and others whose stories form a collage of a country where meaningful traditions persist in the face of encroaching modernity.

​1/22/2024             Lone Star (US, 1996) Director: John Sayles. Rated: R.  Runtime: 135 minutes. Cast: Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Stephen Mendillo, Kris Kristofferson, Matthew McConaughey. A Texas sheriff investigates a 40-year-old murder-mystery in this study of deep-rooted racial tensions and long-buried secrets.
Filmed on location along the Rio Grande in southern and southwestern Texas, the film received critical acclaim, with critics regarding it as a high point of 1990s independent cinema as well as one of Sayles' best films.

1/8/2024               ​Strictly Ballroom (Australia, 1992) Director: Baz Luhrmann. Rated: PG. 
Dynamic choreography enhances this story of a rebellious dancer (Paul Mercurio), his novice partner (Tara Morice) and a prestigious competition. It's the magical story of a championship ballroom dancer who's breaking all the rules, and his ugly duckling dancing partner. Together they make their dreams come true. 

​12/11/2023           ​The Birds (1963) ​Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Stars Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy and Suzanne Pleshette. Filmed on the Sonoma Coast, this iconic thriller should be experienced on the big screen to be fully appreciated. Hitch said, “The next scream you hear may be your own!"
Hitchcock’s suspense film, based on the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, features innovative special effects, soundtrack, and an apocalyptic theme that influenced later "revenge of nature" disaster films.

​11/27/2023         A Fish Called Wanda (1988)  Director: Charles Crichton. Rated: R. Stars John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. Some consider it one of the funniest movies of all time, with members of the Monty Python troupe wreaking havoc as American jewel thieves Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline try to make off with the loot. Also starring Michael Palin and John Cleese.
Kevin Kline took home an Oscar® for his performance as a self-absorbed Lothario, but it would be hard to single him out as the best thing about the film. The fact is, the entire cast of this hilarious comedy is perfect: John Cleese as the conservative barrister defending a member of sexy Jamie Lee Curtis's gang, Ms. Curtis as the conniving crook out to grab the haul for herself, and Michael Palin as the stuttering, animal-loving hit man whose attempts to murder a little old lady only decrease the size of her poodle pack.


​11/13/2023          Midnight Cowboy (1969) Director: John Schlesinger. Stars John Voight as Joe Buck and Dustin Hoffman as “Ratso” Rizzo. Three Oscars®: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
​One of the British New Wave’s most versatile directors, John Schlesinger came to New York in the late 1960s to make Midnight Cowboy, a picaresque story of friendship that captured a city in crisis and sparked a new era of Hollywood movies. Jon Voight delivers a career-making performance as Joe Buck, a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy city women; he finds a companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida, played by Dustin Hoffman in a radical departure from his breakthrough in The Graduate. 

​10/23/2023          Eat Drink Man Woman (1995) In Mandarin with English subtitles. Director: Ang Lee. Rated PG. Cast: Sihung Lung, Kuei-Mei Yang, Yu-Wen Wang. A Taiwanese-American comedy-drama directed by Ang Lee. Members of the Zhu family navigate the challenges of love, life, tradition and family. 
From celebrated director Ang Lee comes a movie so visually stunning that it spans the "beautiful balance of elements mellow, harmonious and poignantly funny." (The Washington Post) Trouble is cooking for widower and master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) who's about to discover that no matter how dazzling and delicious his culinary creations might be, they're no match for the libidinous whims of his three beautiful but rebellious daughters.

​10/9/2023            Phenomenon (1996) Director: Jon Turteltaub. Rated PG. Cast: John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Jeffrey DeMunn, Robert Duvall. John Travolta stars as a kind, amiable, everyman in a small Northern California town, inexplicably transformed into a genius with telekinetic powers. ​On the night of his 37th birthday, George Malley (Travolta) is knocked to the ground by a mysterious, blinding light and suddenly develops amazing mental abilities! With his newfound knowledge, George astounds everyone in town. But when his incredible powers cause even his oldest friends to turn away, George comes to realize that his wondrous experience has changed him and the lives of everyone around him forever. 

4/10/2023         Black Orpheus (US, 1959) In Portuguese with English subtitles Director: Marcel Camus. Cast: Marpessa Dawn, Breno Mello. The film adapts the Hellenic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the contemporary favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival, known for its costumed parades and celebrations. Orpheus (Breno Mello), a trolley car conductor, is engaged to Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira) but in love with Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn). A vengeful Mira and Eurydice's ex-lover, costumed as Death, pursue Orpheus and his new paramour through the feverish Carnival night.

3/27/2023         Topkapi (US, 1964)  Director: Jules Dassin. Cast: Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley. A conman gets mixed up with a group of thieves who plan to steal a jeweled dagger from an Istanbul museum, the Topkapi.

3/13/2023         Keeper of the Flame (US, 1942) Director: George Cukor. Cast:  Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn. Academy Award winners Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy star in this searing drama about the dangerous truths revealed when a reporter researches a story about a war hero.

2/27/2023        Do the Right Thing (US, 1989) Director: Spike Lee. Cast: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee. On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. Set on one block of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy Do or Die neighborhood, at the height of summer, this 1989 masterpiece by Spike Lee confirmed him as a writer and filmmaker of peerless vision and passionate social engagement.

2/13/2023         Portrait of a Lady On Fire (2019) In French with English subtitles Director: Celine Sciamma.
Cast: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel. In 1770, the young daughter of a French countess develops a mutual attraction to the female artist commissioned to paint her wedding portrait. Passion brews quietly between an artist and her subject in this sumptuous eighteenth-century romance from Céline Sciamma, one of contemporary French cinema’s most acclaimed auteurs.

1/23/23       The 22nd Annual Animation Show of Shows featuring Q&A with curator Ron Diamond.The 22nd ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS represents the work of artists from ten countries, including nine women. Funny, moving, engaging, and thought-provoking, the ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS not only has something for everyone, but is a remarkable and insightful microcosm of our world.

1/9/23         Fisherman’s Friends (UK, 2019) Director: Chris Foggin. Cast: Daniel Mays, James Purefoy, David Hayman, Dave Johns, Sam Swainsbury, Tuppence Middleton, Noel Clarke, Christian Brassington, Maggie Steed and Jade Anouka. The film is based on a true story about Fisherman's Friends, a group of Cornish fishermen from Port Isaac who were signed by Universal Records and achieved a top 10 hit with their debut album of traditional sea shanties.

12/12/22        Mrs. Henderson Presents (USA, 2005) Director: Stephen Frears. Cast: Judy Dench, Bob Hoskins, Christopher Guest. Laura Henderson (Dame Judi Dench) buys an old London theater and opens it up as the Windmill, a performance hall which goes down in history for, amongst other things, its all-nude revues.
 
11/28/22    The Wizard of Oz (USA, 1939) Director: Victor Fleming. Cast: Judy Garland, Roy Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton. The family classic is everybody's cherished favorite, perennial fantasy film musical from MGM during its golden years, following Dorothy and her dog Toto as they get caught in a tornado's path and somehow end up in the Land of Oz

11/14/22     The Castle (Australia, 1997) with English subtitles   Director: Rob Sitch Cast:  Michael Caton, Tiriel Mora. A working-class family from Melbourne, Australia, fights city hall after being told they must vacate their beloved family home to allow for infrastructural expansion.
 
10/24/22     Day for Night (France, 1973) In French with English subtitles
Director: François Truffaut  Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, and Truffaut as himself. A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew. GUEST HOST Bryan Cebulsky, a local expert on the films of François Truffaut.

10/10/22              Fast Times at Ridgemont High (USA, 1982) 40th Anniversary screening featuring Q&A with director's assistant Carrie Frazier.

6/7/22          The Sting (USA, 1973) Director: George Roy Hill. Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Eileen Brennan, Charles Durning, Robert Earl Jones. Paul Newman and Robert Redford star as Depression-era con men out to fool a big-time criminal in this Best Picture Oscar winner. Following the murder of a mutual friend, aspiring con man Johnny Hooker (Redford) teams up with old pro Henry Gondorff (Newman) to take revenge on the ruthless crime boss responsible, Doyle Lonnegan (Shaw). Hooker and Gondorff set about implementing an elaborate scheme, one so crafty that Lonnegan won't even know he's been swindled. As their big con unfolds, however, things don't go according to plan, requiring some last-minute improvisation by the undaunted duo.

5/4/22         Ben-Hur (1959) Director: William Wyler. Cast: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe. “Ben-Hur” is MGM's three and a half hour, wide-screen epic Technicolor blockbuster - a Biblical tale, subtitled “A Tale of the Christ.” The film won a record 11 Oscars.
 Heston plays a Palestinian Jew who is battling the Roman Empire at the time of Christ. His actions incur the wrath of a childhood friend, now a Roman tribune. Although forced into slavery on a galley and compelled to witness the cruel persecution of his family, he survives, harboring dreams of vengeance. Heston finally meets his rival in a justly famous chariot race and rescues his suffering family.

4/4/22           Stagecoach (USA, 1939) Director: John Ford. Cast: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Claire Trevor, John Carradine, Andy Devine. John Ford's landmark Western revolves around an assorted group of colorful passengers aboard the Overland stagecoach bound for Lordsburg, New Mexico, in the 1880s. An alcoholic philosophizer (Thomas Mitchell), a lady of ill repute (Claire Trevor) and a timid liquor salesman (Donald Meek) are among the motley crew of travelers who must contend with an escaped outlaw, the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), and the ever-present threat of an Apache attack as they make their way across the Wild West.
 
3/7/22           The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France, 1964) Director: Jacques Demy Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuevo. In French with English subtitles A young woman separated from her lover by war faces a life-altering decision in one of the most revered and unorthodox movie musicals of all time. An angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched to stardom by this dazzling musical heart-tugger from Jacques Demy.


2/7/22           McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1973)  Director: Robert Altman. Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, John Schuck, William Devane. Altman's revisionist Western about a gambler and a prostitute who go into business together running a bordello and tavern in a Northwest mining town. Julie Christie was nominated for Best Actress as Mrs. Miller.
 
1/24/22          Reds (USA, 1981) Director: Warren Beatty. Cast: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Maureen Stapleton, Jack Nicholson, Edward Herrmann. Political drama about the stormy romantic partnership of journalist-revolutionary Jack Reed, author of "Ten Days That Shook the World," and writer-artist Louise Bryant, set against the backdrop of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

1/10/22         O Brother Where Art Thou? (USA, 2000) Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter. Quirky Coen Brothers’ effort follows Depression-era convicts who escape a Mississippi chain gang and embark on an odyssey to find a hidden treasure.

1/3/22         House of Sand and Fog (2000)  Director: Vadim Perelman. Cast: Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher. Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) deliver stunning performances as two strangers whose conflicting pursuits of the American Dream lead to a fight for their hopes at any cost.

12/27/21     Shall We Dance (1937) Director: Friz Freleng, Mark Sandrich. Cast: Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake their marriage for publicity purposes before falling in love for real in this delightful musical comedy starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their seventh film together.

12/13/21     Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Director: Stanley Kramer. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Werner Klemperer, Maximillian Schell. Best Picture nominee about the 1948 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials and the aging American judge who presides over it. Maximilian Schell, as a defense attorney, won a Best Actor Oscar.

12/6/21       The Serpent's Egg (USA, 1978) Director: Ingmar Bergman. In English and German with subtitles
Cast: Liv Ullman, David Carradine, Gerd Froebe. Bergman explores the horrors of 1920s Germany and creates a hell on earth in this psychological thriller that casts a hypnotic spell of evil (Newsweek). The director’s sole big-budget Hollywood production, for which he created a surreal and atmospheric Berlin on a Munich soundstage, The Serpent’s Egg conjures a Kafkaesque nightmare about the decaying society that gave rise to the horrors of Nazism.

11/22/21      The Usual Suspects (USA,1995) Director: Bryan Singer  Cast: Kevin Spacey, Benicio del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Giancarlo Esposito, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak. A suspect in custody begins to lay out the complex and intriguing story of how a police line-up of criminals ends up working together on a high-earning heist that goes a little bit wrong...But what IS the truth…

11/8/21        My Man Godfrey (USA, 1936) Director: Gregory La Cava  Cast: Carol Lombard, William Powell, Eugène Pallette, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick. Carole Lombard and William Powell dazzle in this definitive screwball comedy—a potent cocktail of romantic repartee and social critique.

11/1/21        Perfect Strangers (Perfectos Desconocidos) (Spain, 2019) In Spanish with English subtitles. Director: Manolo Caro Cast: Bruno Bichir, Cecilia Suárez, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Mariana Trevino, Miguel Rodarte. When a group of best friends get together during a lunar eclipse to share an intimate dinner in the tasteful house of Eva and Antonio, they suspect it's just another typical night until the hostess proposes a game.

10/25/21       Matewan (USA, 1987) Director: John Sayles. A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.

10/11/21       A Clockwork Orange (USA, 1971) Director: Stanley Kubrick  Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Aubrey Morris, Warren Clarke, In Kubrick’s dark satire, set in a dismal dystopian England, classical music-loving proto-punk Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his "Droogs" (friends) spend their nights embarking on "a little of the old ultraviolence," assaulting people in the streets and in their homes. Finally captured by the police, Alex undergoes rehabilitation in the form of aversion therapy as brutal and horrifying as any of his offenses.

10/4/21         Casablanca (USA, 1942) Director:  Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henried. In this Oscar-winning classic, and one of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue features American expat Rick Blaine (Bogart), who plays host to gamblers, thieves and refugees at his Moroccan nightclub during World War II ... but he never expected Ilsa (Bergman) - the woman who broke his heart -- to walk through that door.


Note: Arena Theater Film Club was dark from March 2020 through September 2021, due to pandemic.)

3/9/20          Lola (Germany, 1981) (In German with English subtitles) Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf
 A homage to Von Sternberg's 'The Blue Angel,' Fassbinder's film follows a stuffy municipal building commissioner whose morality is tested when he unknowingly falls in love with Lola, the paid mistress of a corrupt property developer.
 Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute (Sukowa) exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor (Mario Adorf) against the new straight-arrow building commissioner (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Fassbinder’s homage to Josef von Sternberg’s classic “The Blue Angel” stands as a satiric tribute to capitalism.

3/2/2020      State and Main (USA, 2000)  Director: David Mamet. Cast: Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Patti LuPone. An obnoxious film crew invades a New England town. Winning satire. Walter Price is directing a movie that has gone over budget. Having been kicked out of his New Hampshire filming location, Price must quickly find a new, low budget location that can quickly pass as a 19th Century village. He soon comes across the quaint town of Waterford, Vermont. According to the brochure the town is equipped with a firehouse, a mill and a population eager for the glitter of Hollywood - Price thinks he has it made. However, he soon finds out that the mill, a crucial piece in the film, was destroyed several years ago in a fire. This is the first in a series of mishaps, including a star who prefers young girls…

2/24/2020    Ikiru (Japan, 1952) Director: Akira Kurosawa  The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat and his final quest for meaning. The screenplay was partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. One of the greatest achievements by Akira Kurosawa, “Ikiru” shows the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an explora­tion of death.

2/10/2020    My Favorite Year (USA, 1982) Director: Richard Benjamin. Cast: Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy. It is 1954, and the larger-than-life, swashbuckling movie star Alan Swann is set to make his first television appearance on the hugely popular show, The Comedy Cavalcade. Given Swann's reputation as a wild, unpredictable alcoholic, the producers give their new writer, young Benjy Stone, the job of babysitting Swann and getting him to the show on time and sober. The experience is far more stressful than Benjy expected, but after some adventures, he and Swann both learn some valuable lessons and develop a friendship.

2/3/2020       The Lady from Shanghai (USA, 1948)   Director: Orson Welles. Cast: Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, Ted de Corsia Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot. Considered vintage Welles, his famous hall of mirrors climax hailed as one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history

1/27/2020     Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins (USA, 2019). Director: Janis Engel. RAISE HELL is a documentary about the celebrated national political columnist and Texan, Molly Ivins who used her razor sharp wit to speak truth to power.
This is the story of media firebrand Molly Ivins, six feet of Texas trouble who took on the Good Old Boy corruption wherever she found it. Her razor sharp wit left both sides of the aisle laughing, and craving ink in her columns. She knew the Bill of Rights was in peril, and said "Polarizing people is a good way to win an election and a good way to wreck a country." Molly's words have proved prescient. Now it's up to us to raise hell!

1/13/2020    You Can't Take it With You (USA, 1938) Director: Frank Capra. Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer  Oscar-winning version of the play about a romance between members of two very disparate families, she's from an eccentric clan, while he's the gentlemanly son of stuffy, snobbish parents.

1/6/2020       21st Animation Show of Shows (2019)  Director: Ron Diamond. Skype Q&A with Director/Curator Ron Diamond following the screening. The ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS, a curated selection of the “best of the best” animated short films created by students and professionals around the world, returns to theaters across North America this fall. Featuring 10 films from seven countries, the 2019 edition of the program offers an array of highly imaginative, thought-provoking, and moving works that reflect the filmmakers’ unique perspectives and their relationship to the world.

12/10/2019      What They Had (2018)  Director: Elizabeth Chomko. Cast: Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster. A family debates what to do when the matriarch's Alzheimer's worsens.

12/2/2019      Tampopo (Japan, 1985) Director: Juzo Itami. Cast: Ken Watanabe, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto. The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle-shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges—our appetites.

11/11/2019     They Shall Not Grow Old (USA, 2018)  Director: Peter Jackson A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of the end of the war. On the centenary of the end of the First World War, Academy Award® winner Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) presents an extraordinary new work showing the Great War as you've never seen it. Using state of the art technology to restore original archival footage that's more than 100 years old, Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell this story: the men who were there.      
    
11/4/2019       Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1964)  Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara. Cast: Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Hiroko Itô. One of the sixties' great international art-house sensations, "Woman in the Dunes" was for many the grand unveiling of the surreal, idiosyncratic worldview of Hiroshi Teshigahara. One of cinema’s most bristling, unnerving, and palpably erotic battles of the sexes, as well as a nightmarish depiction of everyday Sisyphean struggle, for which Teshigahara received an Academy Award nomination for best director.
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10/28/2019     You Can't Take it With You (USA, 1938)  (This film is rescheduled 1/13/2020 because of Public Safety Power Shutdown cancellation)

10/14/2019     The River and The Wall (USA, 2018)  Director: Ben Masters. Cast: Ben Masters, Jay Kleberg, Filipe DeAndrade. Five friends journey from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a border wall on the natural environment.

10/7/2019      M (Germany, 1931, black&white) Director: Fritz Lang. Peter Lorre stars as serial killer Hans Beckert in Lang’s harrowing masterwork "M," a suspenseful panorama of private madness and public hysteria.  Lang merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller.

9/30/2019      Manhattan Short Film Festival ONE WORLD - ONE WEEK - ONE FESTIVAL. Over 100,000 film lovers in over 350 cities across six continents gathered during one week for one reason...to view and vote on the 10 Finalists' Films in the 22nd Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival.

9/23/2019     Disobedience (USA, 2017) Director: Sebastián Lelio Cast: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola, Cara Horgan, Mark Stobbart. A formerly exiled woman returns to her orthodox Jewish family after the death of her father. Her family is shocked by her visit, but her sister-in-law is inspired by her presence to break free from the rigid rules and guidelines of their faith.
 
9/9/2019     Blindspotting (USA, 2018)    Director: Carlos Lopez Estrada. Cast: Tisha Campbell-Martin, Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Ethan Embry, Janina Gavankar. A black ex-con trying to finish out his year-long probation witnesses a brutal police shooting, an incident that begins to haunt him and ultimately forces him to re-examine his relationship with his white best friend, a man who is known to be reckless.  

8/26/2019     Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky (USA, 2013)
Director: Michel Gondry. Cast: Noam Chomsky, Michel Gondry. This animated documentary consists of interviews with linguist Noam Chomsky, who discusses his ambitious and comprehensive theories about how language develops.

8/12/2019          Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (USA, 2018) Director: Gus Van Sant. Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, Jack Black, Beth Ditt A cartoonist finds new purpose in life after a serious car crash leaves him a quadriplegic. Along the way, he receives help from his AA sponsor and develops a tender relationship with a caring physical therapist. Based on the autobiography of John Callahan.

8/5/201919         Sorry to Bother You (USA, 2018) Director: Boots Riley. Cast:  Lakeith Lee Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer, Kate Berlant, Tom Woodruff Jr., Michael X. Sommers, Robert Longstreet
In an alternate reality of present-day Oakland, Calif., telemarketer Cassius Green finds himself in a macabre universe after he discovers a magical key that leads to material glory. As Green's career begins to take off, his friends and co-workers organize a protest against corporate oppression. Cassius soon falls under the spell of Steve Lift, a cocaine-snorting CEO who offers him a salary beyond his wildest dreams.

7/22/2019    Fellini's Roma (Italy, 1972) Director: Federico Fellini. Cast: Britta Barnes, Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence. Episodic, impressionistic portrait of Rome spans 40 years in the life of filmmaker Federico Fellini, who co-wrote the script, directed and plays his older self.

7/8/2019     The Grass Harp (USA, 1996)  Director: Charles Matthau. Cast: Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau. Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s.
 
7/1/2019      The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (USA, 1966) Director: Norman Jewison. Cast: Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin. Best Picture nominee is a Cold War spoof about a Soviet sub that runs aground off New England, where the locals literally get up in arms to protect their native soil.
 
6/24/2019     A Very Long Engagement (France, 2004) Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jodie Foster. The film tells the story of a young woman's relentless search for her fiancé, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.

6/10/2019     Leave No Trace (USA, 2018) Director: Debra Granik. Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Foster, Jeffery Rifflard. A veteran faces his trauma when he and his daughter rejoin society after living off the grid.

6/3/2019     Meeting Gorbachev (documentary, 2018) Director: Werner Herzog, Andre Singer. Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, sits down with filmmaker Werner Herzog to discuss his many achievements. Topics include the talks to reduce nuclear weapons, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of his country.

5/13/2019     Round Midnight (USA, 1986) Director: Bertrand Tavernier. Cast: Dexter Gordon, François Cluzet, Gabrielle Haker, Sandra Reaves-Phillips, Lonette McKee, Christine Pascal, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson. A troubled, but talented musician flees the US to escape his problems, finding refuge and support in Paris.

5/6/2019        Spartacus (USA, 1960)  Director: Stanley Kubrick Rated: Runtime: PG-13 196 minutes. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis. Historical epic re-creates the life and times of Thracian gladiator Spartacus, who led a bloody slave insurrection against Rome from 73 to 71 B.C.

4/29/2019       Children of Paradise (France, 1945)  Director: Marcel Carné. Cast: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir, María Casares, Gaston Modot, Fabien Loris
The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan and the four men who love her. Poetic realism reached sublime heights with "Children of Paradise," widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman (Arletty) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault, in a longing-suffused performance for the ages).

4/15/2019      The Party (UK, 2017)  Director: Sally Potter Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. After being appointed as Health Minister, career politician Janet invites a handful of friends over to join her and her husband, Bill, for a celebration. But the evening turns explosive when Bill chooses the moment to make two shocking revelations.

4/8/2019        The Eagle Huntress (Mongolia, 2016) in Kazakh and English. Director: Otto Bell. Cast: Aisholpan Nurgaiv, Daisy Ridley, Rys Nurgaiv. Aspiring to be an eagle hunter -- a role historically performed only by men -- Mongolian teen Aisholpan Nurgaiv dedicates herself to the art of taming and training golden eagles to hunt game in the stark Altai Mountains.

4/1/2019         Strangers on a Train (USA, 1951) Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock directed this classic suspense tale--widely considered one of the master's best works--tapping into the evil that lies hidden just beneath the surface of each of us.
 Tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is enraged by his wife's refusal to finalize their divorce so he can wed a senator's daughter Anne (Ruth Roman). He strikes up a conversation with a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), and unwittingly sets in motion a deadly chain of events.

3/25/2019      I Called Him Morgan (Sweden and USA, 2017) Director: Kasper Collin. Sonoma-Mendocino Coast Whale and Jazz Festival film. In English. Cast: Lee Morgan, Kasper Collin, Larry Reni Thomas, Wayne Shorter, Paul West. Decades after serving a prison sentence for killing jazz musician Lee Morgan, his common-law wife, Helen, reflects on their lives and his legacy.

3/11/2019       Double Jeopardy (USA, 1999)  Director: Bruce Beresford.  Cast: Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood, Annabeth Gish, Roma Maffia. Framed for the murder of her husband, Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) survives the long years in prison with two burning desires sustaining her -- finding her son and solving the mystery that destroyed her once-happy life. Standing between her and her quest, however, is her parole officer, Travis Lehman. Libby poses a challenge to the cynical officer, one that forces him to face up to his own failings while pitting him against his superiors and law enforcement colleagues.

3/4/2019        The Triplets of Belleville (France, 2003)  Director: Sylvain Chomet Animation. When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters--an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire--to rescue him.

2/25/2019      Citizen Kane (USA, 1941)  Director: Orson Welles. Cast: Orson Welles, Dorothy Comingore, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, George Coulouris. Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. Alone at his fantastic estate known as Xanadu, 70-year-old Charles Foster Kane dies, uttering only the single word, “Rosebud.” So ends the odyssey of a life ... and begins a fabulous tale of the rise to wealth and power--and ultimate fall--of a complex man: A boy abandoned by his parents inherits a fortune, builds a global newspaper empire and aspires to become President of the United States, but he loses everything over an affair with an untalented nightclub singer.

2/11/2019      Melancholia (Denmark, 2011,  with Sweden, France and Germany) Director: Lars von Trier. Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt. Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth. Justine (Dunst) and Michael (Skarsgård) celebrate their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of Justine’s sister Claire (Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire’s best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth threatening the very existence of humankind…

2/4/2019       Orpheus (France, 1950) Director: Jean Cocteau.  Black & white, in French with English subtitles. Cast: Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares. A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.

1/28/2019     A Mighty Wind (USA, 2001) Director: Christopher Guest.  Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 88 minutes. Cast: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer, Bob Balaban. Spoof traces 1960s folk acts as they reunite to play a live TV concert at New York's Town Hall. Among them are Mitch & Mickey, once a duo in both music and life who sang love songs until the collapse of their relationship. For the members of The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey, time has not been kind. As the  concert approaches, apprehension sets in, romances are rekindled and ambitions are permanently deferred.

1/14/2019     Persona (Sweden, 1966)  Director: Ingmar Bergman.  Cast: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook. A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together. By the mid-sixties, Ingmar Bergman had already conjured many of the cinema’s most unforgettable images. But with the radical "Persona," he attained new levels of visual poetry.

1/7/2019        The Thin Man (USA, 1934) Director: W.S. Van Dyke. Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell. The first of a series of six films featuring the irresistible William Powell and Myrna Loy chemistry as husband and wife sleuths who solved murders with the aid of their wire-haired terrier, Asta.

12/10/2018     Beyond Rangoon (UK, 1995) Director: John Boorman. In a role originally intended for Meg Ryan, Patricia Arquette plays Dr. Laura Bowman of an American abroad in a strange country. It's 1988 and Laura is desperate to flee the United States and the memory of her husband and son's murders. Accompanied by her sister, Andy (Frances McDormand), she heads for Burma just as the peaceful protests against the country's military government take a more violent turn. Andy and the rest of their party flee in a hurry, but Laura is forced to stay behind when she loses her passport. A former professor (Aung Ko) offers her guidance to the border of Thailand, where they both hope to make their escape.

12/3/2018       How I Won the War (UK, 1967)  Director: Richard Lester.  Among the first of the late 60s anti-war films that reflected growing concern over the Vietnam War, "How I Won the War" takes a cold, dark look at the Good War, World War II. The black comedy, adapted from Patrick Ryan's 1963 novel, stars Michael Crawford as bungling British Army Officer Lieutenant Earnest Goodbody, with John Lennon (in his only non-musical role, as Musketeer Gripweed), Jack MacGowran (Musketeer Juniper), Roy Kinnear (Musketeer Clapper) and Lee Montague (Sergeant Transom) as soldiers under his command.

11/26/2018     Mask (USA, 1985)  Director: Peter Bogdanovich  Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz) is an intelligent, outgoing and humorous teenager who suffers from a facial deformity called "lionitis" and has now outlived his life expectancy. Cher plays Rocky's mother, who with uncompromising love and fierce determination helps Rocky overcome pain, loneliness and prejudice to emerge as an outstanding young man, an inspiration to his classmates and teachers. This extraordinary film is based on the real-life story of Rocky Dennis.

11/12/2018     Wings (USA, 1927) "Silent" film, digitally restored in 2012 by Paramount Pictures with original music score and sound effects by Ben Burtt. Directors: William A. Wellman, Harry d'Abbadie d'arrest. The first Best Film Oscar went to this aerial World War I adventure about two fledgling aviators itching to take on the Kaiser's aces. Look for a very young Gary Cooper as a veteran flier.

​11/5/2018       Harold and Maude (USA, 1971) Director: Hal Ashby. With the idiosyncratic American fable "Harold and Maude," countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become the cult classic of its era. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man (Bud Cort) from a wealthy family and a devil-may-care, bohemian octogenarian (Ruth Gordon). Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, "Harold and Maude" dissolves the line between darkness and light along with the ones that separate people by class, gender, and age, and it features indelible performances and a remarkable soundtrack by Cat Stevens.

10/29/2018     A Ghost Story (USA, 2017)  Director: David Lowery. Cast: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Will Oldham. Acclaimed director Lowery ("Ain't Them Bodies Saints," "Pete's Dragon") returns with a singular exploration of legacy, loss, and the essential human longing for meaning and connection. Recently deceased, a ghost returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife, only to find that in his spectral state, he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away.
 
10/22/2018     Tokyo Godfathers (Japan, 2003) Animation  Director: Satoshi Kon Japanese filmmaker Satoshi Kon directs his third anime feature with the holiday film Tokyo Godfathers. The story takes place in Shinjuku, Tokyo, on Christmas Eve. Middle-aged has-been Gin, aging transvestite Hana, and teenage runaway Miyuki are three homeless friends who have formed a kind of makeshift family structure. Their bond is tested when they find an abandoned baby while searching for food in a garbage dump. They have no choice but to care for the infant themselves. The group travels throughout the city, searching for the baby's parents and coping with their personal reactions to the situation.

10/8/18           Rumble Fish (USA, 1983) Director: Frances Ford Coppola Cast: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane In this deeply personal tale of estrangement and reconciliation between two rebellious brothers, set in a dreamlike and timeless Tulsa, Coppola gives mythic dimensions to intimate, painful emotions.

10/1/2018      MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2018 Filmgoers in Point Arena unite with audiences in over 300 cities spanning six continents to view and judge the work of the next generation of filmmakers from around the world. Lacrimosa (Austria), a young woman finds her lost lover in a world of ever-changing surreal landscapes. But love, she discovers, is more complicated than she imagines.
Fauve (Canada), set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer...
Someone (Germany), Germany, at the end of WWII. The Red Army fight for every inch of ground in the streets of the city. Greta and her family are hiding in a cellar hoping for mercy. Greta’s father, however, intuits for a very good reason that the Soviets will take brutal revenge. Based on a true story. German with English subtitles.
Chuchotage (Hungary), during a professional conference in Prague, two interpreters in the Hungarian booth hilariously vie for the attention of one listener.
Her (Kosovo), to escape a marriage arranged by her extremely religious father, a young girl seizes the chance to run away and save more than herself.
Fire in Cardboard City (New Zealand), when Cardboard City catches fire, it's up to an energetic fire chief and his brave deputies to save its citizens from the encroaching flames.
Baghead, (UK), haunted by grief, a man asks questions only the recently deceased can answer. The dead get their say in the hidden chamber of a mysterious pub. You may not like what you hear.
Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times (UK), Alistair and Samir meet five different times, but it is only when they meet as old men that they can finally put their prejudices aside and meet as friends.
Home Shopper (USA), in a loveless marriage, Penny finds solace in the hypnotic escape of the home shopping channel.

9/24/2018      The Long Goodbye (USA, 1973)  Director: Robert Altman Cast: Elliott Gould, Jim Bouton, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden. "It's OK with me...." Applying his deconstructive eye to the "film noir" tradition, director Altman updated Raymond Chandler in his 1973 version of Chandler's novel, The Long Goodbye. Private detective Philip Marlowe (Gould) is asked by his old buddy Terry Lennox (Bouton) for a ride to Mexico. He obliges, and when he gets back to Los Angeles is questioned by police about the death of Terry's wife. Marlowe remains a suspect until it's reported that Terry has committed suicide in Mexico. Marlowe doesn't buy it but takes a new case from a beautiful blond, Eileen Wade (van Pallandt), who coincidentally has a past with Terry.

9/10/2018      RBG (USA, 2018) Documentary. Director: Betsy West, Julie Cohen An intimate portrait of an unlikely rock star: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. With unprecedented access, the filmmakers explore how her early legal battles changed the world for women. At the age of 84, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon.

8/27/2018      A Perfect Day (USA, 2015) Director: Fernando León de Aranoa  Cast: Benicio del Toro, Tim Robbins, Melanie Thierry, Olga Kurylenko. It's just another day on the job for a band of badass war zone rescue workers as they defy death and confront war's absurdities. The setting is 1995, "somewhere in the Balkans." Over the course of 24 breathless hours, Mambrú (del Toro), leads his team of humanitarians-including hard-bitten, wisecracking veteran B (Robbins) and new recruit Sophie (Thierry)-as they deal with a most unexpected crisis, layers of bureaucratic red tape, and the reappearance of Mambrú's old flame (Kurylenko).

8/13/2018      Volver (Spain, 2006) Director: Pedro Almodóvar Rated: R Runtime: 121 minutes
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo.  Revolving around an eccentric family of women from a wind-swept region south of Madrid, Cruz plays Raimunda, a working-class woman forced to go to great lengths to protect her 14-year-old daughter Paula. To top off the family crisis, her mother Irene comes back from the dead to tie up loose ends.

8/6/2018        Sunset Boulevard (USA, 1950) Director: Billy Wilder Rated: NR Runtime: 111 minutes
Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark. A fading movie star enlists a young screenwriter to aid her comeback, but her oversize ego turns the challenge into an uphill battle.
With caustic, bitter wit in a story that blends both fact and fiction and dream and reality, co-writer/director Wilder realistically exposes (with numerous in-jokes) the corruptive, devastating influences of the new Hollywood and the studio system by showing the decline of old Hollywood legends many years after the coming of sound.

7/23/2018      Taxi Driver (USA, 1976) Director: Martin Scorsese. Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris. A mentally unstable Vietnam veteran makes his living as a cabbie in New York, attempts to date a campaign worker, and befriends an underage hooker who he tries to get out of the life.
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle (De Niro) takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city. When Travis meets pretty campaign worker Betsy (Shepherd), he becomes obsessed with the idea of saving the world, first plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate, then directing his attentions toward rescuing 12-year-old prostitute Iris (Foster).

7/9/2018       Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (USA, 1997)  Director: Jay Roach. Cast: Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael York, Seth Green, Robert Wagner. In this spoof of '60s super-spies, a world-class playboy and part-time special agent, Powers is defrosted after 30 years in a cryogenic freeze to match wits with his nemesis, Dr. Evil (also played by Myers). Possessing antiquated spy skills and mod mannerisms from the '60s, Austin must confront a villain like no other while making peace with his own out-of-date, swinging sexuality.

7/2/2018        Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (USA, 2014) Director: Catherine Bainbridge. Filmmaker Bainbridge's documentary tells the story of a profound, essential, and, until now, missing chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence. Featuring music icons Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, Robbie Robertson, Redbone, Randy Castillo, Taboo, "Rumble" shows how these talented Native musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives.

6/25/18          A Face in the Crowd (USA, 1957) Director: Elia Kazan. Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick. The study of a megalomaniacal TV personality (Andy Griffith in his film debut), whose guitar and folksy humor take him from an Arkansas jail to national popularity.
 Ambitious young radio producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) finds a charming rogue named Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith) in an Arkansas drunk tank and puts him on the air. Soon, Rhodes' local popularity gets him an appearance on television in Memphis, which he parlays into national network stardom that he uses to endorse a presidential candidate for personal gain. But the increasingly petulant star's ego, arrogance and womanizing threaten his rise to the top.

6/11/2018      The Singing Revolution (Estonia, 2007)  Director: James Tusty Between 1986 and 1991, the people of Estonia protested against their Soviet occupiers in large rallies. Although these protests were fundamentally peaceful, the Estonians used a weapon powerful enough to rattle an empire: song. Patriotic songs, to be precise, which the Soviets had outlawed in Estonia. Thousands upon thousands would assemble to sing in defiance. This documentary unveils the story of a population that stood up against their oppressors with nothing but their voices and their pride.

6/4/2018        Monty Python and the Holy Grail (UK, 1975) Directors: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones  A comedic send-up of the grim circumstances of the Middle Ages as told through the story of King Arthur and framed by a modern-day murder investigation. When the mythical king of the Britons leads his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail, they face a wide array of horrors, including a persistent Black Knight, a three-headed giant, a cadre of shrubbery-challenged knights, the perilous Castle Anthrax, a killer rabbit, a house of virgins, and a handful of rude Frenchmen.

5/14/2018      Sunset Boulevard (USA, 1950)   --Rescheduled August 6, 2018

5/7/2018        Land of Mine (Denmark, 2015)  Written and Directed by Martin Zandvliet Rated: R for violence, some grisly images, and language. Based on extraordinary true events, Zandvliet’s multi award-winning historical drama tells a gripping story of redemption and forgiveness, as it follows a group of captured soldiers in Denmark in the immediate aftermath of WWII. Denmark 1945. The defeated German occupiers have retreated but have left a cruel parting gift – the beaches of the west coast of Denmark are studded with more than a million landmines. The British and Danish come up with a plan: use German prisoners of war, many of them teenage boys, to clear the beaches. This oppressively tense drama follows one squad of callow, terrified soldiers who have barely grown out of childhood and into their uniforms, and the Danish officer who grudgingly becomes their protector.

4/23/2018      42 Grams – An intimate portrait of a complicated chef (USA, 2017) Director: Jack C. Newell Skype audience Q&A with filmmaker followed  screening. After working at some of the world’s best restaurants, Jake’s aggressive personality kept him from finding a kitchen to call home. A chef without a restaurant, Jake began cooking fifteen-course menus out of his apartment. Alongside his dedicated wife Alexa, their “underground” restaurant becomes a foodie hot spot. The experience is unique: they present refined flavors while dirty dishes soak in their bedroom. A year later, they take out a lease on an abandoned chicken joint to open a real restaurant, 42 Grams. The film follows them developing menus, hiring and firing staff, shows Jake’s temper, the strains on their marriage, and what they risk in their pursuit of the American Dream.

4/9/2018       I Confess (USA, 1953) Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, O.E. Hasse. Based on the turn-of-the-century play "Our Two Consciences" by Paul Anthelme, this Alfred Hitchcock film is set in Quebec. Clift plays a priest who hears the murder confession of church sexton O.E. Hasse. Bound by the laws of the Confessional, Clift is unable to turn Hasse over to the police.

4/2/2018        Keep On Keepin’ On (USA, 2014)  with  Sonoma Mendocino Coast Whale & Jazz Festival
Director: Alan Hicks Cast: Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Justin Kauflin, Arturo Sandoval
 The film depicts the friendship of music legend and teacher Clark Terry, 89 and Justin Kauflin, a 23-year-old, blind piano prodigy.  Kauflin, who suffers from debilitating stage fright, is invited to compete in an elite Jazz competition, just as Terry’s health takes a turn for the worse. As the clock ticks, we see two friends confront the toughest challenges of their lives.

3/26/2018       Loving Vincent (USA, 2017)
This animated feature brings the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil painting, hand-painted by 125 professional oil painters who traveled across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be a part of the production. As remarkable as Vincent's brilliant paintings is his passionate and ill-fated life, and mysterious death. "Loving Vincent" was first shot as a live action film with actors, and then hand-painted over frame-by-frame in oils. The final effect is the interaction of the performance of the actors playing Vincent's famous portraits, and the performance of the painting animators, bringing these characters into the medium of paint.

3/12/2018       Running on Empty (USA, 1988) Director: Sidney Lumet  In this family drama from director Sidney Lumet, Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti play Arthur and Annie Pope, a pair of '60s radicals who have eluded the FBI for 16 years after bombing a napalm laboratory as a Vietnam War protest. The couple moves around the country with their two sons -- young Harry (Jonas Abry) and his older teenage brother, Danny (River Phoenix). On the verge of adulthood, Danny longs to set out on his own and live a more stable life, but he knows this could mean permanent separation from his family.

3/5/2018        Zabriskie Point (USA, 1969) Director: Michelangelo Antonioni. Writer-director Michelangelo Antonioni's vision of late-1960s America is on full display in this tale that mixes romance and revolution as it explores the love affair between a pot-smoking secretary (Daria Halprin) and a rebel seeking a cause (Mark Frechette).

2/26/2018      Dr. Strangelove (UK, 1964) Director: Stanley Kubrick  A fanatical U.S. general launches a nuclear attack on Russia during the Cold War, but the President and his advisors are shocked to learn that the Russians have technology to destroy the world in the event of an attack on them.  Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is producer/director Kubrick's brilliant, satirical, provocative black comedy/fantasy regarding doomsday and Cold War politics that features an accidental, inadvertent, pre-emptive nuclear attack.
 
2/12/2018       Marty (USA, 1955) Director: Delbert Mann. Slice-of-life Bronx tale about a shy and lonely butcher looking for love, and possibly finding it with a not-too-glamorous and equally shy schoolteacher. A Best Picture winner. This acclaimed romantic drama follows the life of Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine), a stout bachelor butcher who lives with his mother (Esther Minciotti) in the Bronx. Always unlucky in love, Marty reluctantly goes out to a ballroom one night and meets a nice teacher named Clara (Betsy Blair). Though Marty and Clara hit it off, his relatives discourage him from pursuing the relationship, and he must decide between his family's approval or a shot at finding romance.

2/5/2018         Singin' in the Rain (USA, 1952) Directors: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen. Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor star in this masterpiece of the classical Hollywood musical - filled with memorable songs, lavish routines and Kelly's fabulous song-and-dance number performed in the rain.
 A spoof of the turmoil that afflicted the movie industry in the late 1920s when movies went from silent to sound. When two silent movie stars', Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont, latest movie is made into a musical a chorus girl is brought in to dub Lina's speaking and singing. Don is on top of the world until Lina finds out.

1/29/2018       19th Annual Animation Show of Shows Curated by Ron Diamond followed by Skype Q&A
The Animation Show of Show presents 16 exceptional and inspiring animated shorts from around the world. "At a time of increasing social instability and global anxiety about a range of issues, the works in this year’s show have a special resonance, presenting compelling ideas about our place in society and how we fit into the world," said Ron Diamond.
Featuring internationally acclaimed animated short films from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S., the films include Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s Annecy Grand Prix-winning “The Burden,” a melancholy, funny and moving film that explores the tribulations, hopes and dreams of a group of night-shift employees, uniquely capturing the zeitgeist of our time.
Other program highlights include Los Angeles-based Irish director David O'Reilly's visually stunning "Everything," based on a 1973 talk given by the renowned British-American philosopher Alan Watts,  and the 1964 classic "Hangman," by Paul Julian and Les Goldman which was recently restored by the Animation Show of Shows as part of its film preservation program. As a special treat, the Show of Shows will also be presenting "Next Door," a 1990 student film made at Cal Arts by the two-time Oscar-winning Pixar director Pete Docter.

1/22/2018        City Lights (USA, 1931) Director: Charlie Chaplin. City Lights, the most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin, is also his ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. The writer-director-star achieved new levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street (a magical Virginia Cherrill) and mistakes him for a millionaire. Though this Depression-era smash was made after the advent of sound, Chaplin remained steadfast in his love for the expressive beauty of the pre-talkie form. The result was the epitome of his art and the crowning achievement of silent comedy.

1/8/2018        Beauty and The Beast (France, 1946) Director: Jean Cocteau  Jean Cocteau’s sublime adaptation of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy-tale masterpiece—in which the pure love of a beautiful girl melts the heart of a feral but gentle beast—is a landmark of motion picture fantasy, with unforgettably romantic performances by Jean Marais and Josette Day. The spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death in Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) have become timeless icons of cinematic wonder.

12/11/2017     Babette's Feast (Denmark, 1987) Director: Gabriel Axel At once a rousing paean to artistic creation, a delicate evocation of divine grace, and the ultimate film about food, the Oscar-winning Babette’s Feast is a deeply beloved treasure of cinema. Directed by Gabriel Axel and adapted from a story by Isak Dinesen, it is the lovingly layered tale of a French housekeeper with a mysterious past who brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late nineteenth-century Denmark. Babette’s Feast combines earthiness and reverence in an indescribably moving depiction of sensual pleasure that goes to your head like fine champagne.

12/4/2017    The Disappearance of Alice Creed (UK, 2009) Director: J Blakeson. British neo-noir thriller about the kidnapping of a young woman by two ex-convicts.
 
"11/27/2017  Sullivan's Travels (USA, 1941)  Director: Preston Sturges. Tired of churning out lightweight comedies, Hollywood director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) decides to make "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"—a serious, socially responsible film about human suffering. After his producers point out that he knows nothing of hardship, Sullivan hits the road disguised as a hobo. En route to enlightenment, he encounters a lovely but no-nonsense young woman (Veronica Lake)—and more trouble than he ever dreamed of.
 
11/13/2017   Imitation of Life (USA, 1959) Director: Douglas Sirk. The legendary Lana Turner stars in this 1959 version of Fannie Hurst's emotionally charged drama, which chronicles two widows and their troubled daughters as they struggle to find true happiness amidst racial prejudice.
 

11/6/2017     The Groove is Not Trivial (USA, 2016) Director: Tommie Smith Q&A with director Tommie Smith via Skype. A documentary about Alasdair Fraser’s musical journey. "The Groove is Not Trivial" follows master fiddler Fraser’s personal journey in search of self-expression, a quest that has led him to dig deep into his Scottish musical roots. There he finds a universal pulse —a  groove — that runs through his virtuosic performances with cellist Natalie Haas and his dynamic teaching at his wildly popular, freewheeling fiddle camps in California, Scotland, and Spain. At his gatherings around the world for musicians of all ages and abilities, ‘the groove’ is a through-line from the past that sparks hopeful possibilities for the future.

10//23/2017     Wrestling Alligators (USA, 2016) Director: Andrew Shea Producer James Eowan attended  the screening. The greatest change to happen to Native Americans in the last 50 years is the creation of legalized gaming on Indian reservations, a revolution that has made self-reliance a reality for many tribes. James E. Billie, the man responsible for this revolution, born an outcast in the Florida swamps, is an alligator wrestler, warrior, poet, and leader of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. He took his people from welfare subsistence at the mercy of the federal government to being wealthy beyond their wildest imaginings.

10/9/2017         The Right Stuff (USA, 1983) Director: Philip Kaufman. This adaptation of the non-fiction novel by Tom Wolfe chronicles the first 15 years of America's space program. By focusing on the lives of the Mercury astronauts, including John Glenn (Ed Harris) and Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn), the film recounts the dangers and frustrations experienced by those involved with NASA's earliest achievements.

10/2/2017          Manhattan Short Film Festival        Filmgoers in Point Arena  joined audiences in over 250 cities on six continents during the week of September 28 to October 8 to judge the work of the next generation of filmmakers when the 20th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival screens at Arena Theater. The finalists are: "Do No Harm" (New Zealand), "Behind" (Spain), "Fickle Bickle" (USA), "Hope Dies Last" (United Kingdom), "The Perfect Day" (Spain), "Just Go!" (Latvia), "Mare Nostrum" (Syria), "Viola, Franca" (Italy), "In a Nutshell" (Netherlands) "8 Minutes" (Georgia). Visit http://www.manhattanshort.com/finalists.html for more about the films.

​ Amy (UK, 2015) Cast: Amy Winehouse, Yasiin Bey, Mark Ronson, Tony Bennett, Pete Doherty
A look at the life of talented but troubled British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011. The film includes rare interviews with the subject and previously unreleased songs.
 
9/11/2017          Ashes and Diamonds (Poland, 1958) Director: Andrzej Wajda. On the last day of World War II in a small town somewhere in Poland, Polish exiles of war and the occupying Soviet forces confront the beginning of a new day and a new Poland. In this incendiary environment we find Home Army soldier Maciek Chelmicki, who has been ordered to assassinate an incoming commissar. But a mistake stalls his progress and leads him to Krystyna, a beautiful barmaid who gives him a glimpse of what his life could be. Gorgeously photographed and brilliantly performed, Ashes and Diamonds masterfully interweaves the fate of a nation with that of one man, resulting in one of the most important Polish films of all time.

92/2017             Scarecrow (USA, 1973) Director: Jerry Schatzberg Rated: R Runtime: 112 minutes
 Cast: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan, Ann Wedgeworth, Richard Lynch. An ex-con learns the value of friendship in Jerry Schatzberg's picaresque road movie: Trying to hitch a ride on a desolate California road, ex-con Max (Hackman) meets ex-sailor Lion (Pacino). They are both headed east, as Max dreams of opening a deluxe car wash in Pittsburgh and Lion believes that the wife and child he left behind will still welcome him home. The two decide to journey together, forging an increasingly deep yet uncertain friendship. When the pair hits Detroit, Max must decide if he should forge on alone or sacrifice his carefully guarded savings to help his friend.
 
8/28/2017           Concussion (USA, 2015) Director: Peter Landesman  Cast: Will Smith, Stephen Moyer, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Eddie Marsan A dramatic thriller based on the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of American immigrant Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player and fought for the truth to be known. Omalu's emotional quest puts him at dangerous odds with one of the most powerful institutions in the world.

8/14/2017    The Red Shoes (USA, 1948) Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Cast: Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Léonide Massine, Robert Helpmann. The singular fantasia from Powell and Pressburger is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Technicolor feasts ever concocted for the screen. Shearer is a rising star ballerina torn between an idealistic composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack Cardiff, Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable, hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, now dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the artist.


8/7/2017      Kings of the Road (Germany, 1976) Director: Wim Wenders Rated: NR Runtime: 176 min, B&W In German with English subtitle. Cast: Rüdiger Vogler, Hanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer. A roving film projector repairman (Rüdiger Vogler) saves the life of a depressed psychologist (Hanns Zischler) who has driven his Volkswagen into a river, and they end up on the road together, traveling from one rural German movie theater to another. Along the way, the two men, each running from his past, bond over their shared loneliness. "Kings of the Road," captured in gorgeous compositions by cinematographer Robby Müller and dedicated to Fritz Lang, is a love letter to the cinema, a moving and funny tale of male friendship, and a portrait of a country still haunted by war.
Wenders began the film without a script. Instead, there was a route that he had scouted out beforehand: through all of the little towns along the Wall that still contained a movie theater in this era of cinematic mass extinction. The old moving van with the film projectors in the back becomes a metaphor for the history of film—it is no coincidence that the film is dedicated to Fritz Lang. This “men’s story” also treats the themes of the absence of women, of loneliness, and of postwar Germany. At one point, Bruno says to Robert: “The Yankees have colonized our subconscious.”

7/24/2017    SOLARIS (Soviet Union, 1972) Director: Andrei Tarkovsky Rated: PG Runtime: 166 minutes In Russian, German with English subtitles. Cast: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet. Ground control has been receiving mysterious transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is dispatched to investigate, he experiences the same strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his consciousness.

7/10/2017    The Man Who Knew Infinity (UK, 2015) Director: Matt Brown  Cast: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Stephen Fry, Toby Jones, Jeremy Northam. Written and directed by Matthew Brown, the biopic is the true story of friendship that forever changed mathematics. In 1913, Srinivasa Ramanujan (Patel), a self-taught Indian mathematics genius, traveled to Trinity College, Cambridge, where over the course of five years, forged a bond with his mentor, the brilliant and eccentric professor, G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), and fought against prejudice to reveal his mathematic genius to the world.

7/3/2017      Two documentaries by Les Blank: An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen—mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad. Seemingly off-the-cuff yet poetically constructed, these films are humane, sometimes wry, always engaging tributes to music, food, and all sorts of regionally specific delights.
The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (USA, 1994) This portrait of the free-spirited painter and singing cowboy Gerald Gaxiola is a testament to creativity unencumbered by commerce. What happens when a dedicated husband and father quits his job, adopts the persona of a Western-Movie Singing Cowboy, takes on the entire art establishment (including Christo and Andy Warhol), and refuses to accept money for his art? Meet Gerry Gaxiola, AKA The Maestro, an ex-wage slave who gave up everything to make art for its own sake. The Maestro’s story could inspire a whole new generation of Van Goghs.
Dry Wood (USA, 1973) Blank ventured back to Southwest Louisiana for this work of ramshackle beauty, an immersion in the region’s black Creole community that teems with delightful detail. The featured music in this Les Blank film is that of “Bois Sec” (Dry Wood) Ardoin, his sons and Canray Fontenot. Theirs is an older, rural style of Cajun music which Blank uses to weave together incidents in the lives of the Fontenot and Ardoin families. Highlights include a rollicking country Mardi Gras, work in the rice fields, a “men’s only” supper, and a hog-butchering party (that follows the hog from the kill to sausage). Like other Blank films, it expresses respect for living life ‘simply, lovingly, openly and slowly’.
 
About the director:
6/26/2017      I Am Not Your Negro (2017) - documentary. Director: Raoul Peck. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, "Remember This House." The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript.
Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material.
"I Am Not Your Negro" is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.


6/12/2017      Mary Jane - A Musical Potumentary (2017) with filmmaker  Q&A live via Skype Humboldt County-centric characters face various issues in the marijuana milieu. With Emmy-nominated filmmaker, John Howarth, Dell’Arte has transformed Mary Jane the Musical into a film exploring different facets of the marijuana industry in Humboldt County and examines all aspects of the local pot culture, from its regional economic importance to the grim particulars of violence and environmental degradation.
 
6/5/2017      Altered States (1980) Director: Ken Russell. Cast: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid, Miguel Godreau Harvard scientist Eddie Jessup's (Hurt) mind-altering experiments on himself, involving a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber, get out of control when his handiwork shuttles him back and forth on the evolutionary spectrum -- from human to ape-man. Equal parts sci-fi actioner, 1960s psychedelic trip and farce, the film was based on a Paddy Chayefsky novel and received Oscar nominations for music and sound.

​5/22/2017     Doctor Zhivago (1965) Director: David Lean. Cast: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Rod Steiger, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Alec Guiness. Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago covers the years prior to, during, and after the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of poet/physician Yuri Zhivago (Sharif). In the tradition of Russian novels, a multitude of characters and subplots intertwine within the film's 197 minutes (plus intermission).

5/8/2017      Casablanca (1942) Director:  Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henried. In this Oscar-winning classic, and one of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue features American expat Rick Blaine (Bogart), who plays host to gamblers, thieves and refugees at his Moroccan nightclub during World War II ... but he never expected Ilsa (Bergman) - the woman who broke his heart -- to walk through that door. Ilsa hopes that with Rick's help, she and her fugitive husband (Henreid) can escape to America. But the spark that brought the lovers together still burns brightly.
 

5/1/2017       Being There – A Story of Chance (1979) Director: Hal Ashby Cast: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart. The film is a provocative black comedy -- a wonderful tale that satirizes politics, celebrity, media-obsession and television.
Simple-minded Chance (Peter Sellers), a gardener who has resided in the Washington, D.C., townhouse of his wealthy employer for his entire life and been educated only by television, is forced to vacate his home when his boss dies. While wandering the streets, he encounters business mogul Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who assumes Chance to be a fellow upper-class gentleman. Soon Chance is ushered into high society, and his unaffected gardening wisdom makes him the talk of the town.

4/24/2017       Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) Director: Miranda July. Cast: John Hawkes, Miranda July, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Carlie Westerman, Natasha Slayton. A handful of disparate characters, both adults and children, find themselves navigating the tricky waters of intimacy in this award-winning independent comedy drama. Eccentric Christine seeks emotional connections in the modern world while newly single shoe salesman Richard copes with his recent separation and his teenage son experiences a sexual awakening.
 
4/10/2017       Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Director: Nicholas Ray.  Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Rochelle Hudson. The landmark film that solidified Dean's image with the public follows the story of rebellious middle-class teens, disenfranchised with their parents, and given to a life of thuggery and deadly dangerous drag racing to win over women. The film is considered Hollywood's best 50s film of rebellious and restless youth (and sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll) that spawned many other lesser teen exploitation films in its wake.
 
4/3/2017          The Amazing Nina Simone (USA, 2015)  documentary by Jeff Lieberman. Skype Q&A with the director following the screening. Much beloved and often misunderstood, the story of America’s most overlooked musical genius is finally brought to light in “The Amazing Nina Simone.” Director Jeff Lieberman  (”Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria”) takes audiences on Nina’s journey from the segregated South through the worlds of classical music, jazz joints & international concert halls. Navigating through the twists & turns of the 1960s fight for racial equality, the film delves deep into Nina’s artistry and intentions, answering long-held questions behind Nina’s most beloved songs, bold style, controversial statements, and the reason she left America.
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3/27/2017        Animal Farm (1954) Adapted from George Orwell's classic satire on Stalinism, this full-length animated film employs farmyard animals to depict the foibles that are inherent in political systems. The pigs of Manor Farm stage a coup against their cruel master (they're rebelling against substandard conditions in their sty) and attempt to establish a prosperous new regime, only to learn that absolute power always corrupts -- absolutely.

3/13/2017       The Lovers and the Despot (United Kingdom, 2016) Directors: Robert Cannan and Ross Adam. The film tells the story of young, ambitious South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee, who met and fell in love in 1950s post-war Korea. In the 70s, after reaching the top of Korean society following a string of successful films, Choi was kidnapped in Hong Kong by North Korean agents and taken to meet Kim Jong-il. While searching for Choi, Shin also was kidnapped, and following five years of imprisonment, the couple was reunited in North Korea by the movie-obsessed Kim, who declared them his personal filmmakers. Choi and Shin planned their escape, but not before producing 17 feature films for the dictator and gaining his trust in the process.
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3/6/2017         A Night at the Opera (1936) Director: Sam Wood. Cast: Groucho, Chico, Harpo Marx with Margaret Dumont, Kitty Carlisle. The musical comedy, "A Night at the opera," is the sixth of thirteen Marx Brothers feature films and universally considered to be the Marx Brothers' best and most popular film, receiving critical acclaim when released. The most famous of the comedy team's routines are included here, the crowded shipboard stateroom scene, the contract-tearing scene between Groucho and Chico, the rearranged furniture and bed-switching sequence to elude a private detective, the operatic finale (a lavish production number) with Harpo swinging Tarzan ape-like on stage fly ropes in tune to Verdi's music, and sprinkled throughout - Groucho's zippy one-line insults and flirtations with his perennial nemesis, Margaret Dumont.

2/27/2017      Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (USA, 2016) Director: Werner Herzog. The Oscar®-nominated documentarian Werner Herzog ("Grizzly Man," "Cave of Forgotten Dreams") chronicles the virtual world from its origins to its outermost reaches, exploring the digital landscape with the same curiosity and imagination he previously trained on earthly destinations as disparate as the Amazon, the Sahara, the South Pole and the Australian outback. Herzog leads viewers on a journey through a series of provocative conversations that reveal the ways in which the online world has transformed how virtually everything in the real world works - from business to education, space travel to healthcare, and the very heart of how we conduct our personal relationships.

​2/13/2017      Before the Rain (Macedonia, France 1994) Director: Milch Manchevski Cast: Katrin Cartlidge, Rade Serbedzija, Grégoire Colin, Labina Mitevska, Jay Villers, Silvija Stojanovska. This acclaimed Macedonian drama,  Milcho Manchevski's first feature film, presents intersecting romantic storylines set both in that country and abroad. A young monk named Kiril (Grégoire Colin) becomes involved with Zamira (Labina Mitevska), an Albanian girl accused of murder, while far away in London, Aleksander (Rade Serbedzija), a weary photojournalist, meets with his married lover, Anne (Katrin Cartlidge). When Aleksander returns to his Macedonian village, his life crosses paths with characters from earlier in the film. "Before the Rain" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Golden Lion award at 51st Venice International Film Festival.

2/6/2017         18th Animation Show of Shows (2016) Curated by Ron Diamond, with Skype Q&A following screening. "The Animation Show of Shows" returns for its second year in theaters with 12 charming family-friendly films. Highlights include “About a Mother,” a new folktale with echoes of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” Disney/Pixar’s sweet “Piper,” and the latest in 360º storytelling in Google’s touching father-and daughter-journey “Pearl” by Academy Award® winner Patrick Osborne. The show also features a late-night bonus of four provocative shorts exclusively for mature audiences. Many of these shorts have garnered awards from prestigious festivals around the world.

​1/23/2017        Chinatown (USA, 1974) ​Director: Roman Polanski. Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry López, Diane Ladd, John Hillerman. "You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Cross's water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Polanski's critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies.
 
1/9/2017     Inherit the Wind (USA, 1960) Director: Stanley Kramer  Spencer Tracy (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Fredric March square off as opposing attorneys Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady, respectively, in this blistering courtroom drama about the famed 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial," in which a Tennessee teacher was taken to task for teaching Darwinism in the classroom. The film also earned Oscar nods for its editing, screenplay and cinematography. Gene Kelly co-stars as a newspaper reporter.
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1/2/2017     The Wave (Norway, 2015) Director: Roar Uthaug  Nestled in Norway's Sunnmøre region, Geiranger is one of the most spectacular tourist draws on the planet. With the mountain Åkerneset overlooking the village — and constantly threatening to collapse into the fjord — it is also a place where cataclysm could strike at any moment. After putting in several years at Geiranger's warning centre, geologist Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) is moving on to a prestigious gig with an oil company. But the very day he's about to drive his family to their new life in the city, Kristian senses something isn't right. No one wants to believe that this could be the big one, especially with tourist season at its peak, but when that mountain begins to crumble, every soul in Geiranger has ten minutes to get to high ground before a tsunami hits, consuming everything in its path.

12/26/2016    Malcolm (Australia, 1986) Director: Nadia Tass. Cast: Colin Friels, John Hargreaves, Lindy Davies, Chris Haywood, Charles "Bud" Tingwell, Beverly Phillips. In this wacky heist film that swept the Australian Film Institute Awards, Colin Friels plays the titular character -- a shy mechanical genius who gets caught up in a crime spree after being fired for building a tram. Forced to take in lodgers (Lindy Davies and John Hargreaves), Malcolm soon realizes that his skills for invention could be helpful to his new roomies -- who happen to be thieves. Now, he must build the perfect getaway car.

12/12/2016    Giant (USA 1956)  Director: George Stevens Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Mercedes McCambridge, Carroll Baker, Jane Withers In Oscar-winning director George Stevens's sprawling epic, Texas cattleman Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) journeys to Virginia in the early 1920s, falls in love with aristocratic, independent-minded Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor) and takes her back to his ranch -- setting the stage for an intergenerational saga that spans decades. James Dean (in his last film appearance; he died in a car crash before the film was released) co-stars as sulking, nouveau riche Jett Rink — the root of Bick's worries.
   
12/5/2016      The Godfather II (USA, 1974) Director: Francis Ford Coppola. Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, John Cazale. In this legendary continuation and sequel to his landmark 1972 film, "The Godfather," Coppolla parallels the young Vito Corleone's rise with his son Michael's spiritual fall. The Corleone family roots are explored, tracing Don Vito's journey from Sicily to a life of organized crime in New York. In a parallel story, his grown son Michael extends operations to Cuba and contends with more betrayal and murder.
 
​11/14/16        East Side Sushi (USA, 2014) Director: Anthony Lucero. Cast: Diana Elizabeth Torres, Rodrigo Duarte Clark and Kaya Jade Aguirre. Q&A with filmmaker Anthony Lucero. Bay Area filmmaker Lucero’s first feature length movie, a fusion of cultures and flavors that tells the story of a Latina working-class single mother who strives to become a sushi chef. 

​11/7/2016       The Godfather (USA, 1972) Director: Francis Ford Coppola Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga "The Godfather" is a touchstone of cinema. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son, Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. When Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge in this Oscar-winning epic.

10/24/2016       Bella (2006, USA) Director: Alejandro Monteverde. Cast:  Eduardo Verástegui, Manny Perez, Tammy Blanchard. An international soccer star is on his way to sign a multi-million dollar contract when a series of events unfold that bring his career to an abrupt end. A beautiful waitress, struggling to make it in New York City, discovers something about herself that she's unprepared for.

​10/10/2016        Mustang (2015, France/Turkey) Director:  Deniz Gamze Ergüven. "Mustang" is an internationally co-produced drama film directed by Turkish-French director Ergüven. The film depicts the lives of five young orphaned sisters and the challenges they face growing up as girls in a conservative society.

​10/3/2016         White Heat (USA, 1949) Director: Raoul Walsh. With James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien.  Brutal, psychotic criminal Cody Jarrett trusts no one, least of all his unfaithful wife Verna and overly ambitious right-hand man Ed Sommers; no one, that is, except his equally criminal mother, the only one who can soothe the blinding migraines that plague him.

9/26/2016          Manhattan Short Film Festival (Various countries, 2016) The 19th Annual Short Film Festival MANHATTAN SHORT took place in over 250 cinemas across six continents between September 23 and October 2, 2016. MANHATTAN SHORT is the only event of its kind that will be shown simultaneously across the world during a one-week period, with the Best Film and Best Actor awards determined by ballots cast by the audiences in each participating cinema. The 10 MANHATTAN SHORT finalists include The Tunnel (Norway), Carousel (England), Kaputt (Germany), Ella Got A Promotion? (USA), Hold On (The Netherlands), Bravoman (Russia), Overtime (Australia), Gorilla (France), I Am A Pencil (Australia), The Last Journey of the Enigmatic Paul WR (France).

9/12/2016          Inside Llewyn Davis (USA, 2013) The visionary chroniclers of eccentric Americana Joel and Ethan Coen present one of their greatest creations in Llewyn Davis, a singer barely eking out a living on the peripheries of the flourishing Greenwich Village folk scene of the early sixties. As embodied by Oscar Isaac in a revelatory performance, Llewyn (loosely modeled on the Village folk legend Dave Van Ronk) is extraordinarily talented but also irascible, rude, and self-defeating.

8/29/2016          Sunset Song (UK, 2015)  Director: Terence Davies Sunset Song is an intimate epic of hope, tragedy and love at the dawning of the Great War. A young woman’s endurance against the hardships of rural Scottish life, based on the novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, told with gritty poetic realism by Britain’s greatest living auteur.

8/22/2016      The Ramen Girl (USA, 2008) ​Director: Robert Allan Ackerman  An American slacker (Brittany Murphy, "8 Mile," "Girl, Interrupted") abandoned by her boyfriend in Tokyo finds her calling in an unlikely place: a local ramen house run by a tyrannical chef who doesn't speak of a word of English. Undaunted by the chef's raging crankiness, Abby convinces him to teach her the art of ramen preparation...and despite hilarious clashes of culture and personality, she learns how to put passion and spirit into her life as well as her cooking. 

​ 8/8/2016        Footlight Parade (USA, 1933) James Cagney channels Busby Berkeley (who choreographs the stunning, kaleidoscopic dance routines) as a Broadway director who comes up with a scheme to break into movies through, well, stunning, kaleidoscopic dance routines.

​8/1/2016         The Double Life of Véronique (France, 1991) Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski Kieślowski's international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Though unknown to each other, two women share an enigmatic, emotional bond,

​7/25/16        Anomalisa (USA, 2015)  Director: Charlie Kaufman  The film, which Kaufman co-directed with the stop-motion animator Duke Johnson, is about motivational speaker and customer services guru Michael Stone (Thewlis), whose anxieties have robbed him of all joy.
 On a speaking tour he checks into the Hotel Fregoli and immediately retreats to his room in search of peace. That’s Fregoli as in "Fregoli delusion," the psychiatric disorder that causes the sufferer to believe everyone in the world but them is somehow the same person. But then he meets Lisa (Leigh), an exuberant sales rep who has her share of hard-luck stories, of loves lost and opportunities missed. Michael relates to her loneliness, but admires her resilience, something he lacks. And when she sings for Michael — a slowed-down, seriously heartbreaking take on Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun" — he's a goner.
 
7/11/16        The Philadelphia Story (USA, 1940) Director: George Cukor Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart Socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) prepares to remarry, but her ex (Grant) and a tabloid reporter (Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winner Stewart) have other ideas as they converge on her home for a fateful visit. The three stars form an incomparable trio in one of the most tantalizing screwball romances ever. 

​6/27/16         Kontroll (Hungary, 2003, subtitled) The surreal, atmospheric thriller set in the Budapest subway system, the world's second oldest, is the directorial debut of Nimrod Antal.
Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi) is a subway enforcement officer working in the oppressively gray underground transit system in Hungary, whose job consists of ensuring commuters have paid to ride the train. A quirky young woman (Eszter Balla) catches his eye, and their relationship suggests that Bulcsú might escape from the drudgery of his subterranean life and finally see sunlight again. But first he needs to find out why passengers are jumping -- or being pushed -- to their deaths onto the tracks.

​6/13/16      Moonstruck (USA, 1987) Director: Norman Jewison. The romantic comedy from director Norman Jewison ("Fiddler on the Roof") and Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley stars Academy Award winners Cher, Nicolas Cage and Olympia Dukakis. Cher is  Loretta, an unlucky in love Italian widow who finds romance through the intervention of the Manhattan moon. With her wedding to a close friend just weeks away, she meets and falls hopelessly in love with his younger brother (Cage). 
​
 6/6/16          Sliding Doors (USA, UK, 1998) ​Director: Peter Hewitt. British actor Peter Howitt wrote and directed this British romantic comedy-drama with a "road not taken" premise. Howitt's storyline branches in two directions: Helen (Paltrow) loses her job at a classy London PR firm, has a run-in with a purse-snatcher, and finds her boyfriend Gerry (Lynch) in bed with his former girlfriend Lydia (Tripplehorn). But what if it were one of those days when everything goes right? As the sliding doors close while she stands on a subway platform in the London underground, Helen ponders the events in her alternate reality.

5/23/16        Z (France, 1969) ​Director: Costa-Gavras. With Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irene Papas A pulse-pounding political thriller, Greek expatriate director Costa-Gavras’s "Z" was one of the cinematic sensations of the late sixties, and remains among the most vital dispatches from that hallowed era of filmmaking. 
This Academy Award winner—loosely based on the 1963 assassination of Greek left-wing activist Gregoris Lambrakis—stars Yves Montand as a prominent politician and doctor whose public murder amid a violent demonstration is covered up by military and government officials; Jean-Louis Trintignant is the tenacious magistrate who’s determined not to let them get away with it.

5/9/16          The Jerk (USA, 1979) ​Director: Carl Reiner. Steve Martin (who co-wrote the script with Carl Gottlieb) stars in one of his first big-screen comedies. Navin (Martin) believes he was born a poor black child in Mississippi. He is, however, actually white. Upon figuring this out, he heads north to St. Louis to find himself. This leads to one misadventure after another as he invents gadgets, dodges bullets, joins the carnival and seeks love in the arms of beautiful Marie (Bernadette Peters).

5/2/2016       Chimes at Midnight (France, Spain, Switzerland, 1965) Director: Orson Welles. The crowning achievement of Orson Welles’s later film career, "Chimes at Midnight" returns to the screen after being unavailable for decades. This brilliantly crafted Shakespeare adaptation was the culmination of Welles’s lifelong obsession with the Bard’s ultimate rapscallion, Sir John Falstaff, the loyal, often soused childhood friend of King Henry IV’s wayward son, Prince Hal.

​4/25/2016      There Will Be No Stay (documentary, USA, 2016) ​Director: Patty Ann Dillon. A documentary about the men who are tasked by society with carrying out the death penalty. "There Will Be No Stay" is a first-hand look at executioners and explores the intersecting lives of a team of executioners, the pressures they’re put under, and the unbearable toll the act of taking another’s life has on their own. It is a journey of compassion and consequence through a process shrouded in secrecy.  Skype Q&A with filmmaker followed.

​4/11/2017      Coffee and Cigarettes (USA, 2004) Director: Jim Jarmusch. A comic series of eleven short vignettes that build on one another to create a cumulative effect as the characters discuss things as diverse as caffeine popsicles, Paris in the twenties, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide, all the while sitting around sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes.

4/4/2016         Lady Be Good (USA, 2014) Director: Kay D. Ray. The 80-minute documentary concentrates on the contributions of American women instrumentalists in jazz from the early 1920s to the 1970s and the development and extent of the all-woman jazz groups. LADY BE GOOD captures the lost stories of female jazz musicians in provocative and often humorous interviews with women musicians, big band leaders, jazz authors and historians. Skype Q&A with filmmaker followed.

​3/28/2016        Brazil (UK, 1985) Director: Terry Gilliam. In the dystopian masterpiece Brazil, Jonathan Pryce plays a daydreaming everyman who finds himself caught in the soul-crushing gears of a nightmarish bureaucracy.

3/14/2016       Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (USA, 1974)  Director: Martin Scorcese. Ellen Burstyn plays Alice Wyatt, a newly-widowed 35-year-old lounge singer with a bratty 12-year-old son (Alfred Lutter) and a very uncertain future. Her pursuit of broken dreams lands her a waitressing job in an Arizona diner, where she befriends foul-mouthed Flo (Diane Ladd) and meets and falls in love with a divorced farmer (Kris Kristofferson).

​3/7/2016         The Manchurian Candidate (USA, 1962) The 1962 film is director-producer John Frankenheimer's chilling, brilliant, Cold War thriller about brain-washing, conspiracy, the dangers of international Communism, McCarthyism, assassination, and political intrigue. Laurence Harvey plays a brainwashed Korean war hero who has been programmed as a Soviet sleeper/mole agent to assassinate a Presidential candidate.

2/22/2016        The Sapphires (Australia, 2012) Director: Wayne Blair. Inspired by a true story, the film follows four indigenous Australian women, Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), Julie (Jessica Mauboy) and Kay (Shari Sebbens) as they seize a risky, but irresistible, chance to launch a professional career singing for U.S. troops in 1968 Vietnam. With the help of an R&B-loving Irish musician, Dave Lovelace (Chris O'Dowd) as their manager, the women transform themselves into a sizzling soul act and set out to make a name for themselves hundreds of miles from home. 

​2/8/16         Shadow of a Doubt (USA, 1943) This film has often been considered as director/producer Alfred Hitchcock's best American film - and it was purportedly his own personal favorite. The cynical, film-noirish, war-time film was shot on location in the small, story-book town of Santa Rosa, California. It's about Uncle Charlie, a psychotic killer whose namesake niece, and his adoring teenager-heroine named Charlie, but her opinion of him slowly changes as she probes into his evil, murderous secrets - and her life becomes endangered. 

​2/1//16        A Hard Day's Night (United Kingdom, 1964) Filmed at the height of the "Beatlemania", it's a 'typical' day in the life of the Beatles, including many of their famous songs. Directed by Richard Lester.

​1/25/16        Shun Li and The Poet (Io sono Li, Italy, 2011) Award-winning film about a Chinese barmaid (Tao Zhao) and a Slavic fisherman (Rade Serbedzija) who find friendship and more in an Italian fishing village.

​1/11/16        The 17th Annual Animation Show of Shows (USA, 2015) The Animation Show of Shows is a cinematic showcase for new animation, representing the apex of animation compilation programs, prized by industry professionals, students, and fans. Ron Diamond joined the Q&A discussion at the Arena Theater Film Club via Skype.

​1/4/16          An Enemy of the People (USA, 1978) A scientist stands against an entire town when he discovers their medicinal spa is polluted. Steve McQueen ("The Getaway," "Bullitt") stars as an idealistic, small-town doctor who discovers that the local hot springs, which the townsfolk market for their "medicinal" effects to drive up tourism, are polluted by runoff from the local tanning mill. Preceding the film at 6:30 p.m. was a free screening of Savannah Power's new 12-minute short "Hush".  The film centers on a young woman suffering from selective mutism and childhood memories of bullying and must overcome her inability to speak in order to stand up for herself.

12/14/15      Roxanne (1987) The romantic comedy is a modern retelling of Edmond Rostand's 1897 verse play Cyrano de Bergerac, adapted by Steve Martin and starring Martin and Daryl Hannah. 

12/7/15        A Better Life: Life and Meaning in a World without God (2015) New York-based photographer and filmmaker Chris Johnson interviewed prominent atheist figures such as Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Dan Dennett, Derren Brown, Pat Churchland, Julia Sweeney, Penn & Teller, and many more asking them what brings meaning and joy to their lives. The film visually captures the diversity of non-believers and the ways they maintain a better life, not in spite of their atheism, but because of it.

11/9/2015     Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015) Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney delivers a critical examination of Jobs who was at once revered as an iconoclastic genius and a barbed-tongued tyrant.

11/2/2015      Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead  – The Story of the National Lampoon (documentary)  (2015) 
From the 1970s thru the 1990s,  the groundbreaking humor magazine The National Lampoon pushed the limits of taste and acceptability – and then pushed them even harder. Parodying everything from politics, religion, entertainment and the whole of American lifestyle, the Lampoon eventually went on to branch into successful radio shows, record albums, live stage revues and movies, including Animal House and National Lampoon’s Vacation. The publication launched the careers of legends like John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Christopher Guest and Gilda Radner, who went on to gigs at Saturday Night Live and stardom.

10/26/15       Paris, Texas  (1984) German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard.

10/12/15     The Last Wave (1977) Director Peter Weir follows up on his critically acclaimed masterpiece Picnic at Hanging Rock with this surrealist psychological drama. Richard Chamberlain stars as Australian lawyer David Burton, who takes on the defense of a group of aborigines accused of killing one of their own.

10/5/15       Auntie Mame (1958) The legendary Rosalind Russellrecreates on screen her Broadway triumph as an eccentric grande dame who teaches her 10-year old nephew to appreciate life. As a special guest, we welcomed actress Joanna Barnes, who starred as Gloria Upson in "Auntie Mame."

9/14/2015    Tootsie (1982) Dustin Hoffman in Sydney Pollack's hit comedy as Michael, a down-on-his-luck New York actor who poses as a woman to get a soap opera gig. A stellar cast includes Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Teri Garr, George Gaynes, Bill Murray, and, in a breakthrough performance, Jessica Lange.       

8/24/2015    English Vinglish  (2012) A quiet, sweet tempered housewife endures small slights from her well-educated husband and daughter every day because of her inability to speak English.

8/10/15        What We Do in the Shadows (2014), a hilarious mockumentary following a group of vampires who try to fit into modern-day life of in Wellington, New Zealand. 

8/3/2015      The Big Store (1941), the madcap Marx Brothers comedy with Tony Martin and Margaret Dumont. Screened with Betty Boop cartoon, The Impractical Joker.

7/27/15        Iris, documentary by the late Albert Maysles about the flamboyant 93-year-old style maven Iris Apfel.

7/13/15        The American Nurse, documentary exploring some of the biggest issues facing America, aging, war, poverty, prisons, by recording the unique experiences of nurses at work.

7/5/15          The One That Got Away (1957, UK) director Roy Ward Baker. Drama of the true story of Franz Von Werra, allegedly the only German ever to have been captured by the British during World War II, to be interred in prisoner-of-war camps and to have successfully escaped back to his homeland 

​6/22/15        White God, a cautionary tale about an abandoned dog, failing in his efforts to find his beloved owner and eventually joining a canine revolt against their human abusers.


6/8/15           The Lady Eve, classic Hollywood screwball comedy with Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda and Charles Coburn about a conniving father and daughter who attempt to bamboozle a wealthy heir at a cruise ship card table.

6/1/15           Around The World in 80 Days, (1956) epic adventure spectacle based on Jules Verne's novel starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Jose Greco, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton and Buster Keaton. Shown in Technicolor in the original Todd-AO Roadshow version with overture and intermission at 183 minutes.

5/11/15        Frances Ha, a story about a young dancer in contemporary New York trying to sort out her ambitions, her finances, and, above all, her intimate but shifting bond with her best friend, Sophie.

5/4/15           Witness of the Prosecution, Billy Wilder's 1957 courtroom drama with Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton and Tyrone Power. A British lawyer gets caught up in a couple's tangled marital affairs when he defends the husband for murder.

4/27/15        The Wrecking Crew, a 2008 documentary about the studio musicians who helped create the West Coast Sound and were behind some of the biggest hits of the 1960s and '70s, "California Girls," "Strangers in the Night," "Mrs. Robinson," "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin."

4/13/15        Pioneer, 2013. Norwegian thriller set at the beginning of the 1980s Norwegian oil boom centering on a deep-sea diver whose obsession with reaching the bottom of the Norwegian Sea leads to tragedy.

3/23/15        “The Two Faces of January” (USA, 2014) A suspense thriller adapted from a novel by Patricia Highsmith about a wealthy American couple on a European trip whose friendship with a con-artist morphs into a love triangle rife with envy, obsession and murder.

3/9/15           “Europa Report” (USA, 2013) A documentary-style science fiction thriller about a contemporary mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to investigate the possible existence of alien life within our solar system.

3/2/15           Elvis and Anabelle (USA, 2007) Q&A with director Will Geiger.

2/23/15        Lawrence of Arabia (UK, 1962) The classic masterpiece by David Lean captures the epic story of a larger-than-life, idealistic adventurer with Super Panavision 70 mm scope, magnificent color cinematography and poetic imagery of the desert.

2/9/15           Force Majeure (Sweden, 2014) Award-winning psychodrama about a Swedish model family in the aftermath of a natural disaster. 

2/2/15           Groundhog Day (USA, 1993). Comedy with Bill Murray as ornery weatherman Phil who finds himself stuck in a time warp on  Groundhog Day.

1/26/15        Born Yesterday (1950). Judy Holliday stars in an Oscar-winning performance with William Holden and Broderick Crawford in the story of an uneducated young woman and an uncouth, older, wealthy mobster who comes to Washington to try to "buy" a Congressman.

1/12/15        In a World (2013). Director: Lake Bell.

1/5/15           The Shop on Main Street (1965) Humor and tragedy fuse in this scathing exploration of one cowardly man's complicity in the horrors of a totalitarian regime. Preceded by a screening of  Savannah Power's 20-minute student film “Monster.”

12/8/14        Starman (1984). Director John Carpenter's romantic science fiction odyssey starring Jeff Bridges as an innocent alien from a distant planet who learns what it means to be a man in love.

12/1/14        To Have and Have Not (1944). Howard Hawks movie full of intrigue and racy banter that features Humphrey Bogart as world-weary gun-runner and 19-year-old Bacall as a sultry siren-in-distress in their first movie together.

11/10/14      Il Sorpasso (1962). The ultimate Italian road comedy stars the unlikely pair of Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant as, respectively, a waggish, freewheeling bachelor and the straitlaced law student he takes on a madcap trip from Rome to Tuscany.

11/3/14        The Big Lebowski (1998) The hilariously twisted comedy-thriller stars Jeff Bridges (The Dude), John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore in the Coen brothers' irreverent cult hit that blends unforgettable characters, kidnapping, a case of mistaken identity and White Russians.

10/27/14      Life Itself, (Documentary, USA, 2014). Film adaptation of Roger Ebert's 2011 memoir that explores the legacy of Roger Ebert's life, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning film criticism at the Chicago Sun-Times to becoming one of the most influential cultural voices in America.

10/13/14      Close Encounters of the Third Kind, (USA, 1977). Steven Spielberg's epic science fiction adventure about a disparate group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence.

10/6/14        The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Italy, 1966). Sergio Leone's final chapter of the classic spaghetti western trilogy with Clint Eastwood as the taciturn, enigmatic loner. Shown in Techniscope and the full length version of 177 minutes.

9/22/14        Stop Making Sense (Documentary, USA, 1984). This legendary Talking Heads performance, as captured by director Jonathan Demme, is still considered one of the greatest concert films of all time.

9/8/14           Tasting Menu (Spain, 2013) On the closing night at a world-famous bistro, the evening turns into a farce of manners and misunderstandings as an eclectic mix of customers flocks to the eatery. In Spanish w/English subtitles.

8/25/14        The Double (2013) British director Richard Ayoade returns with this darkly comic adaptation of Dostoevsky's novella featuring a tour de force dual performance from Jesse Eisenberg and co-starring Mia Wasikowska.

8/11/14        Mystery Train (1989) Director Jim Jarmusch's story of three journeys that converge at the iconic Graceland in Memphis is also a paean to the music it gave the world.

8/4/14           Horse Feathers (1932) The four Marx Brothers - Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo - perform in this classic parody of college life.

7/28/14        Forbidden Planet (1956)
This 1956 pop adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest is said to be one of the best, most influential science fiction movies ever made.

7/14/14        Slaughterhouse-Five (1972). Director George Roy Hill's version of Kurt Vonnegut's  novel about Billie Pilgrim, who survives the horrific firebombing of Dresden during World War II and subsequently lives out simultaneous lives in the past, present, and future.

7/7/14           Return to Homs (2013), a documentary by director Talal Derki that follows two close friends whose lives have been upended by the battle raging in Syria. In Arabic with English subtitles.

6/23/14        Nora's Will (Mexico, 2010)
A comedy about lost faith and eternal love that centers on a man battling the last request of his newly deceased ex-wife. In Spanish with English subtitles.

6/9/14           The Dhamma Brothers, (USA, 2008) documentary. An overcrowded, violent maximum-security prison in Alabama's prison system is dramatically changed by the introduction and influence of an ancient meditation program.

6/2/14           “Smoke Signals," (USA, 1998)A contemporary road movie about two Native Americans on both a literal and figurative journey and the first feature film to be written, directed, and co-produced by American Indians.

5/12/14        “My Night at Maud's:" A devout Catholic meets up with a Marxist friend and they spend the evening in deep philosophical conversations about love and religion with a young divorcee named Maud.

5/5/14           Moulin Rouge, 1952, The film traces the life and work of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as he worked in the bohemian subculture of Paris in the late 19th century.

4/28/14        No Place on Earth (2012, USA) Documentary. A cave exploration in Ukraine leads to the unearthing of a story of World War II survivors who once found shelter in the same cave.

4/14/14        I Wish (2011, Japan) A 12-year-old,  separated from his brother due to his parents' divorce, believes that the new bullet train will create a miracle when the first trains pass each other at top speed.

4/7/14           Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988, USA) A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family.

3/31/14        Harlem Aria (1999, USA) A young man chases his dream from Harlem to downtown New York, but  his life becomes entwined with two other people on the street.

3/10/14        Compliance (2012, USA) A prank caller convinces an innocent young employee, in this disturbing thriller.

3/3/14           Only Human (Spanish/Argentine, 2004), When a Jewish girl brings home her Palestinian fiancé to meet her parents, it sets off a series of zany events.

2/24/14        Mr. Nobody (Belgium, 2009), science fiction drama about the last mortal on Earth and the choices he made during his life, directed by Jaco Van Dormael.

2/10/14        Bless Me, Ultima (2013), a drama set in New Mexico during WWII, centered on the relationship between a young man and an elderly medicine woman who helps him contend with the battle between good and evil that rages in his village, directed by Carl Franklin.

2/3/14           Divorce Italian Style (Italy, 1961) with Marcello Mastroianni: A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife, directed by Pietro Germi.

1/27/14        Lars and The Real Girl (2007), an American-Canadian comedy drama with Ryan Gosling portraying a sweet yet socially inept young man who develops a romantic relationship with an anatomically correct doll, directed by Craig Gillespie.

1/13/14        Good Ol' Freda (2013), the band's former secretary tells her personal stories for the first time in 50 years. Director Ryan White's film is one of few documentaries supported by the living Beatles.

1/6/14           Le Plaisir (1952) Director Max Ophuls demonstrates his storytelling skills in three tales by Guy de Maupassant about the limits of spiritual and physical pleasure. In French with English subtitles.

12/9/13        The Last Command, a 1928 silent movie with a sound track by the Alloy Orchestra. A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.

12/2/13        The Great Buck Howard, a 2008 comedy-drama about a has-been mentalist who attempts to revive his fading career with the help of a law school drop-out and a fiery publiscist.

11/11/13      The First Grader, a 2010 biographical film directed by Justin Chadwick, and based on the story of a Kenyan man who enrolled in elementary education at the age of 84.

11/4/13        V for Vendetta, a 2005 British action thriller film directed by James McTeigue, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom.

10/28/13      Flawless (2008), a slick period heist movie in which an odd couple conspire to loot an evil London diamond company for which they both work; with Michael Caine and Demi Moore.

10/14/13      An American in Paris (1951), one of the greatest, most elegant, and most celebrated of MGM's '50s musicals with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.

10/7/13        The Intouchables, a 2012 French comedy drama about a stuffy rich employer who finds his life enriched by a wise black man from the Paris ghettos and takes lessons in funky music and the joys of marijuana.

9/23/13        Bagdad Café, German comedy about a Bavarian tourist stranded in a remote truck stop in the Mojave Desert.

9/9/13           Women on the Land: Creating Conscious Community, a documentary about the work of women during the 1970s back to the land movement in Mendocino County.
Q&A with filmmakers will follow screening.

8/26/13        Venus and Serena a documentary about the tennis sisters and their complex relationship with each other.

8/12/13        Bubble Steven Soderbergh's groundbreaking drama with non-actors about a small-town industry -- a doll-making factory.

8/5/13           Shoot the Piano Player (1960)  François Trauffaut's comedy about melancholy.

7/22/13        Into the White (2012) In World War II, a German and Allied pilot shoot each other down over Norway, and rely on each other for survival.

7/8/13           The Brass Teapot

7/1/13           French Cancan

6/24/13        Hey Bartender, a documentary about the new generation of bartenders

6/10/13        To The Wonder

5/13/13        A Place at the Table

5/6/13           Oscar Shorts animation

4/8/13           Marian McPartland In Good time, a documentary about the great jazz pianist.

4/1/13           Close-Up. Pretending to be well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf making his next movie, Hossain Sabzian enters the home of a well-to-do family in Tehran, promising it a prominent part in his next movie.

3/25/13        The Sound of Noise. Chaos and anarchy envelope a city in sound.

3/11/13        The Horse's Mouth. Alec Guiness as a ideosyncratic artist.

3/4/13           Crazy Love. Scandal in the 1950's!

2/25/13        Jake Shimabukuru: A Life on Four Strings. Documentary about passion for ukulele.

2/11/13        F for Fake Orson Welles's puzzle of a film.

2/4/13           Two Days In New York

1/28/13        North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock. Cary Grant climbing Mount Rushmore -- life size!

1/14/13        L'Avventura. Antonioni's lugubrious mystery film.

1/7/13           Horse Boy

12/10/12      Harvest

12/3/12        Undertow

11/26/12      Magic of Belle Isle. Morgan Freeman in warm human story.

11/12/12      League of Ordinary Gentlemen. A documentary about bowlling!

10/22/12      Broken English

10/8/12        Queen of Versailles. A documentary about wretched excess and its downfall.

10/1/12        La Ronde. (1950) An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900.

9/24/12        The Good Doctor. (2011) A young doctor goes to unconscionable extremes in order to remain in the service of a female patient.

9/10/12        Zazie Dans le Metro

8/27/12        Headhunters. (2011) Norwegian crime thriller.

8/13/12        Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) A documentary on 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, his renowned Tokyo restaurant, and his relationship with his son and eventual heir, Yoshikazu.

8/6/12           Casino Jack and the United States of Money

7/30/12        These Amazing Shadows (2011) Tells the history and importance of The National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself. With filmmaker Q&A

7/23/12        Who Bombed Judi Bari?

7/2/12           Tiny Furniture

6/25/12        Secrets and Lies

6/11/12        "Will" (2011), Screenplay by Boonville native Zack Anderson. With filmmaker Q&A

5/28/12        Greek coming of age story "Attenberg." In Greek with English subtitles.

5/14/12        Norwegian drama/comedy "Happy Happy."

5/7/12           "Beginners" with Christopher Plummer.

4/9/12           "My Afternoons with Margueritte," the story of an illiterate man who bonds with an older and well-read woman.

4/2/12           2010 comedy/drama "Another Year."

2/27/12        Five animated shorts nominated for 2012 Oscars.

2/13/12        “The Names of Love (Le nom des gens)” a French romantic comedy. Director: Michel Leclerc

2/6/12           "Inside Moves," Directed by Richard Donner

1/30/12        "The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls"

1/9/12           "Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune," a documentary about folk singer Phil Ochs.

12/12/11      Academy Award winning and Oscar nominated animated shorts from Argentina, England, France, Spain, Poland, Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

9/12/11        "My Perestroika" by Robin Hessman. About the last generation to grow up in the Soviet Union.

8/1/11           "In July," a whimsical romantic comedy from Germany, by award winning director Fatih Akin.

6/27/11        2011 Academy Award-nominated animated short films plus two other award-winning shorts.

5/9/11          Lve action short films nominated for this year’s Academy Awards.

5/2/11           “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” the Tennessee Williams drama starring Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives.

4/25/11        "Animal Kingdom" (Australia crime drama)

4/11/11        “Tango,” written and directed by Carlos Saura.

4/4/11           “Let's Get Lost,” 1988 documentary about jazz trumpeter-singer Chet Baker.

3/28/11        Walkabout

2/28/11        “All Good Things” (2010)

2/14/11        “A Man and a Woman” (1966

1/24/11        “Julia,” a 2008 French crime drama.

1/7/11           “Inhale” (2010) directed by Baltasar Kormakur.

11/29/10      2009 British drama “Fish Tank.”

10/25/10      Japanese family drama “Still Walking.”

10/11/10      “Daddy Longlegs” (2009), independent film drama.

10/4/10        “The Extra Man” (2010)

9/27/10        “Man on Wire”

9/13/10        “Let it Rain” a comedy by French directror Agnes Jaoui.

9/6/10           “The Father of My Children” by French director Mia Hansen-Love.

8/30/10        “I AM LOVE” by Italian director Luca Guadagnino.

8/23/10        “The Magdalene Sisters,” (2002)

8/9/10           Documentary "Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story" followed by Q&A session with Director Lee Storey by phone.

8/2/10           Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran.”

7/26/10        Irish drama “Ondine,”

7/12/10        “The Station Agent”

7/5/10           “Head Trip,” a documentary that chronicles the journey of the Bay Area’s iconic “Doggie Diner Heads” on a cross-country trek to New York.

6/28/10        “Love on the Run,” part of French director Francois Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel series.

6/14/10        “Caramel” by Lebanese actress/director Nadine Labaki.

6/7/10           Francois Truffaut’s “Bed and Board,” the fourth film in his Antoine Doniel series.

5/10/10        Francois Truffaut’s “Stolen Kisses”

5/3/10           “Antoine and Colette,” the second of Francois Truffaut’s five-part “Antoine Doinel” series, with an animated version of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” set to a new recording by the Philharmonia Orchestra.

4/25/10        The Vanishing

3/22/10        “Sicko” by Michael Moore. With Skype Q&A with Michael Moore

3/14/10        The Commitments

3/1/10           Once

2/22/10        Encounters at the End of the World

2/15/10        Ballets Russe

1/25/10        USC Shorts

1/11/10        The 400 Blows

12/22/09      Babes in Toyland

12/15/09      The Way Bobby Sees It

12/8/09        Breakfast with Scott

12/1/09        400 Blows

11/17/09      ATC Youth Center Films

11/10/09      The Last Picture Show

11/3/09        Boudou Saved from Drowning

10/27/09      Bed and Board

10/20/09      Blanc

10/5/09        Burden of Dreams

9/28/09        La Strada

8/8/09           The Last Lullaby

7/13/09        Rivers of a Lost Coast

7/6/09           Au Revoir, Les Enfants

6/29/09        King of Hearts

6/15/09        Elling

6/1/09           Black Orpheus

5/18/09        Playtime

5/11/09        Mon Oncle

5/4/09           Mr. Hulot's Holiday

4/27/09        November Chile

4/20/09        Cabin in the Sky

4/6/09           Anita O'Day A Life of a Jazz Singer

3/30/09        The Stanford Prison Experiment

3/23/09        The Dictator Hunter

3/16/09        Trade

3/2/09           Cargo: Innocence Lost

2/23/09        Der Freund

2/9/09           The Blue Angel

2/2/09           Rules of the Game

1/26/09        Night on Earth

1/5/09           La Pointe Courte

10/27/08      First Do No Harm

9/14/08        Power and Passion

6/16/08        Color of Paradise

5/12/08        Seven Beauties

4/14/08        Cleo de 5 a 7

4/7/08           Vagabond

4/4/08           Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

2/25/08        Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

9/29/07        Like Water for Chocolate

9/20/07        Silence of the North

9/17/07        Fantasia

9/6/07           War Made Easy

7/30/07        Taken for a Ride

6/18/07        Bonnie and Clyde

6/4/07           Man for All Seasons

5/14/07        Dreamscape

3/19/07        The Magnificent Seven

3/12/07        The Seven Samurai