Starring: Toby Smith, April Barnett, Will Power
A lost treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/romance.
Alarmed by the rate at which the young Black men around her are dying—indeed, “becoming extinct,” as she sees it—brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) attempts to preserve their existence in Polaroid snapshots, along the way forging a friendship with a woman in an abusive relationship (April Barnett), experiencing love and loss, and being drawn into the search for a serial killer who is terrorizing the city.
Capturing the vibrant community spirit of Oakland in the nineties, Smith crafts both a rare cinematic celebration of Black female creativity and a moving elegy for a generation of lost African American men.
Starring: Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu
17-year-old Suzume’s journey begins in a quiet town in Kyushu when she encounters a young man who tells her, “I’m looking for a door.” What Suzume finds is a single weathered door standing upright in the midst of ruins as though it was shielded from whatever catastrophe struck. Seemingly drawn by its power, Suzume reaches for the knob…. Doors begin to open one after another all across Japan, unleashing destruction upon any who are near. Suzume must close these portals to prevent further disaster. The stars. The sunset. The morning sky. Within that realm, it was as though all time had melted together in the sky–guided by these mysterious doors, Suzume’s journey to close doors is about to begin.
On June 13, 1978, the soon-to-be legendary rock band The Cramps went to play Napa State, a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Napa in Northern California. Opening for them was The Mutants, an eclectic septet of art school punks from nearby San Francisco. Also in the van was seminal Bay Area art collective Target Video, there to capture the show using one of the first video cameras available to the public, democratizing a medium controlled by mainstream media outlets.
What resulted may be the most unique punk show ever, as the two bands played for the residents at the hospital, a rehabilitation facility that was skimming the danger of being shut down by former California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Here for the first time ever: the long lost tape of The Mutants playing at Napa State and the full tape of The Cramps’ show, both unedited and fully remastered from the original reel-to-reel videotape. In between the shows is We Were There To Be There, a new short documentary about how the Napa State show happened and its lasting effect.
Starring: Ioana Iacob, Pola Geiger, Jörg Schüttauf
The Future of Film is Female presents a special preview screening of Natalia Sineinikova’s dystopian debut feature, WE MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
With echoes of The Lobster, this razor sharp Tribeca winner follows security officer Anna and her 16-year old daughter who live peacefully in a high-rise at the edge of the woods famous for its carefully curated community. Until the day a dog disappears and an irrational fear spreads through this would-be utopia with a view. A stunning debut feature by Natalia Sineinikova that is a bleak, yet comedic, examination of society.
A Hope Runs High release in association with Aspect Ratio
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green
The discovery of a clue to mankind’s origins on Earth leads a team of explorers to the darkest parts of the universe. Two brilliant young scientists lead the expedition. Shaw (Noomi Rapace) hopes that they will meet a race of benevolent, godlike beings who will in some way verify her religious beliefs, while Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) is out to debunk any spiritual notions. However, neither the scientists nor their shipmates are prepared for the unimaginable terrors that await them.
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, David Bowie, Andy Serkis
An illusion gone horribly wrong pits two 19th-century magicians, Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman), against each other in a bitter battle for supremacy. Terrible consequences loom when the pair escalate their feud, each seeking not just to outwit — but to destroy — the other man.
Starring: Shin’ya Tsukamoto, Tomorô Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara
A “metal fetishist” (Shin’ya Tsukamoto), driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he’s made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman (Tomorowo Taguchi) and his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.
Starring: Jeff Fahey, Lindsay Duncan, Kim Delaney, Brad Dourif, Zakes Mokae
After losing his arm in a car accident, a criminal psychologist has it replaced with a limb that belonged to a serial killer.
Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed, Owen Teague, Jeannie Berlin
Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a popular writer, and her husband Don, a well-liked therapist, share the kind of relationship that truly, seriously, for the love of God cannot be real: that is, they’re actually in love. Even after decades of marriage, parenting, and their own successful careers, their physical spark has somehow not diminished; in fact, they seem to relish the opportunity to share a single ice cream cone and drive others — including their son, Charlie — mad. Should it come as a surprise then that his own marriage is in crisis? But when Beth discovers that Don has been untruthful to her about his opinion of her work for years — Beth’s world comes crashing down. Has their whole relationship been one Big Fat Lie?
Starring: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, Maryann Plunkett, John Magaro, André Benjamin, James LeGros
A sculptor (Michelle Williams) preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt’s vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft.
