Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchette, Meryl Streep, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet
Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system. The problem: it’s on a direct collision course with Earth. The other problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. With the help of Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), Kate and Randall embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), to the airwaves of The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry). With only six months until the comet makes impact, managing the 24-hour news cycle and gaining the attention of the social media obsessed public before it’s too late proves shockingly comical — what will it take to get the world to just look up?!
Starring: Ella Ballentine, Ryan James McDonald, Olivia Scriven, Luke Bilyk
Special preview screening before the wide release. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
Set in suburban Newfoundland in 1987, Nicole Dorsey’s debut feature is a dreamy account of two converging lives.
Fifteen-year-old Jackie (Ella Ballentine) is navigating the tricky transition between vulnerable adolescence and impending adulthood. The film opens with Jackie auditioning for her school choir with a gorgeous rendition of “Hey, Who Really Cares?”, by obscure early-’70s psychedelic folk singer Linda Perhacs. It’s a symbolic overture for a promising young woman from a broken home. Raised by her aunt and living under the cloud of all the disappointments endured by the women in her family, Jackie finds herself giving in to internal and external pressures — partying, skipping school, and hitchhiking — in search of her own identity. Her choices leave her speeding inevitably towards Dennis (Ryan McDonald), a socially inept loner with a volatile dark streak and delusional fantasies of adoring women at his beck and call.
Black Conflux is a vibrant and stunning debut, one that shies away from conventions common to small-town coming-of-age stories. Dorsey exhibits an inspiring cinematic style — both assured and mature — as she reflects on the past and her own experience. Exploring womanhood, isolation, and toxic masculinity, Black Conflux is a bracingly relevant narrative for today. – Ravi Srinivasan, TIFF 2019
A lack of connection – both human and digital – plagues a lonely New Yorker during the early months of the covid-19 shutdown.
Starring: Keith Poulson, Jason Grisell, Theodore Bouloukos, Hunter Zimny, Kyle Brown
An emerging performance artist finally gets a coveted show at a Manhattan gallery BUT right as he begins his durational, provocative piece, the entire city shuts down for COVID-19. Unswayed, he locks himself in a white cube space to continue his performance for an audience of none.
Preview screening of the new Poly Styrene doc before its February release!
Poly Styrene was the first woman of color in the UK to front a successful rock band. She introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain, with a rare prescience.
As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements. But the late punk maverick didn’t just leave behind an immense cultural footprint. She was survived by a daughter, Celeste Bell, who became the unwitting guardian of her mother’s legacy and her mother’s demons. Misogyny, racism and mental illness plagued Poly’s life, while their lasting trauma scarred Celeste’s childhood and the pair’s relationship.
Featuring unseen archive material and rare diary entries narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga, this documentary follows Celeste as she examines her mother’s unopened artistic archive and traverses three continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother.
Starring: Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Jude Hill
Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh, Belfast is a poignant story of love, laughter and loss in one boy’s childhood, amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s.
The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most revered bands. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Todd Haynes, The Velvet Underground shows just how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions: the band is both of their time, yet timeless; literary yet realistic; rooted in high art and street culture. The film features in-depth interviews with the key players of that time combined with a treasure trove of never-before-seen performances and a rich collection of recordings, Warhol films, and other experimental art that creates an immersive experience into what founding member John Cale describes as the band’s creative ethos: “how to be elegant and how to be brutal.”
Starring: Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Tony Goldwyn, Jon Bernthal
Based on the true story that will inspire the world, King Richard follows the journey of Richard Williams, an undeterred father instrumental in raising two of the most extraordinarily gifted athletes of all time, who will end up changing the sport of tennis forever. Driven by a clear vision of their future and using unconventional methods, Richard has a plan that will take Venus and Serena Williams from the streets of Compton, California to the global stage as legendary icons. King Richard is a profoundly moving film that shows the power of family, perseverance and unwavering belief as a means to achieve the impossible and impact the world.
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Honor Swinton Byrne, James Spencer Ashworth
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic but manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him by making her graduation film and sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
