Real Art Ways | Independent Cinema | Contemporary Art | Live Art

Science on Screen: New Fungi Found in Connecticut

Real Art Ways Science on Screen® season invites you to experience the unique combination of a feature film and a relevant talk from a notable local figure in science.

Film: Know Your Mushrooms

“As with all of Mann’s films, his enthusiasm is infectious. He comes to praise mushrooms, not to bury them, and long may his frying pan sizzle.” – Toronto Star

“A playfully informative look at various types of fleshy fungi and the folks who avidly consume them.” – Variety

Ron Mann investigates the miraculous, near-secret world of fungi with über myco visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans as they lead us on a hunt for the wild mushroom and the deeper cultural experiences attached to fungi life.

Combining material filmed at the Telluride Mushroom Fest with animation and archival footage along with a neo-psychedelic soundtrack by The Flaming Lips and The Sadies, Know Your Mushrooms opens the doors of perception and takes the audience on a longer, stranger trip.

a person surrounded by a diversity of mushrooms

Pre-Film Talk | 6:30 PM

Dr. DeWei Lee will discuss the roll mushrooms and the mycelial network play in forest ecology.

Speaker: Dr. DeWei Li, of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Dr. Li has expertise in mycology in the following: spatial and temporal patterns of airborne fungi, relationships of airborne fungi and air quality, characterization of airborne fungal spores; indoor fungi, sampling strategy of indoor fungi investigation, fungi of air quality importance; biosystematics of Stachybotrys and allies. His expertise also includes biocontrol of Botrytis cinerea; utilizing ectomycorrhizae for solid waste remediation.

Dr. Li investigated indoor fungi/molds and airborne fungi and their relationships with allergies and environmental factors. His studies determined airborne fungal compositions and populations, and explicated causal relationships between airborne fungal spores and allergenic responses of patients and the functional relationships between airborne fungi in residential buildings and outdoors. His studies also characterized the seasonal and diurnal patterns of airborne fungal spores. During his postdoctoral research, his focus was on biocontrol of gray mold, Botrytis cinerea. He isolated and evaluated three promising biocontrol agents for controlling grey mold on vegetables and ornamental plants. The efficacies of the biocontrol agents in relation to host development and environmental factors were studied in laboratory and greenhouses.

Science on Screen is an initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.

Updates to Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

2022 Oscar Shorts – DOCUMENTARY B

Opening Friday, Feb 25. Individual trailers can be viewed HERE.

Three Songs for Benazir, Afghanistan; directors: Gulistan Mirzaei, Elizabeth Mirzaei

The story of Shaista, a young man who – newly married to Benazir and living in a displacement camp in Kabul – struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with the responsibilities of starting a family. Gulistan and Elizabeth Mirzaei’s remarkable access sheds light on the experience of modern-day Afghans who live, love, and seek space for themselves amid constant instability. Nominated for the 15th Annual Cinema Eye Honors and winner of six jury awards, including Best Short at Full Frame.

Lead Me Home, USA; director: Pedro Kos, Jon Shenik

500,000 Americans experience homelessness every night. LEAD ME HOME is a documentary short by Jon Shenk and Pedro Kos that captures the experience from multiple perspectives. This immersive, cinematic film personalizes the overwhelming issue by telling the real-life stories of those going through it as a first step toward challenging uninformed attitudes and outmoded policies and gives the audience a rare, in-depth look at the scale, scope and diversity of unsheltered America today.

The Queen of Basketball, USA; director: Ben Proudfoot

She is one of the greatest living women’s basketball players. 3 national trophies. Scored the first basket in women’s Olympic basketball at the ‘76 Olympics. Drafted to the NBA. But have you ever heard of Lucy Harris?

Oscar shorts banner for 2022

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Science on Screen: Often Overlooked Lives of Insects and Why They Matter

Real Art Ways Science on Screen® season invites you to experience the unique combination of a feature film and a relevant talk from a notable local figure in science.

Film: Microcosmos

“Microcosmos is an amazing film that allows us to peer deeply into the insect world and marvel at creatures we casually condemn to squishing.” – Chicago Sun-Times

“Despite its G rating, Microcosmos deals frankly with the natural world’s realities of life, love and dinnertime. But for any child who enjoys the sight of a good-looking insect, it’s a must.” – NY Times

It may appear tiny to the human eye, but there is no denying that the insect kingdom — as captured by the filmmakers behind this documentary — is as dramatic, action-packed and beautiful as any other. Indeed, using a variety of film techniques and an inspired score, the moving image of a beetle pushing a ball of dung takes on the mythic quality of Sisyphus with his boulder. Meanwhile, endless caterpillar caravans suggest, amazingly, the rhythm of modern highways during rush hour.

a grasshopper climbing upside-down on a branch

Microcosmos (1996 France)
Directed by Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou

Pre-Film Talk | 6:30 PM

Dr. Michael Singer will discuss the the complex, hidden world of insects and how humanity (and climate change) impact their delicate system.

Speaker: Dr. Michael Singer

Professor of Biology at Hall-Atwater Laboratories, Wesleyan University. His research is ultimately aimed at understanding the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Toward this end, he studies the ecological and evolutionary processes driving trophic interactions among terrestrial plants, insect herbivores, and carnivores that eat insect herbivores (tri-trophic interactions). These organisms collectively account for over 50% of all 1.9 million described species on Earth.

He is interested in the significance of tri-trophic and other species interactions for generating biodiversity (e.g., Singer and Stireman 2005, Janson et al. 2008), ecological specialization (Singer 2008, Forister et al. 2012), and predicting the dynamics of ecological networks (Singer et al. 2012, 2014). This tri-trophic paradigm can also reveal new phenomena, such as the discovery of self-medication behavior in insect herbivores (Singer et al. 2009). His approach to testing and developing ecological and evolutionary theory uses information at a range of temporal and spatial scales as well as several levels of biological organization. Consequently, this work is often collaborative, involving the disciplines of community and landscape ecology, evolutionary ecology, chemical ecology, behavioral science, neurophysiology, biochemistry, systematics, conservation biology and natural history.

Science on Screen is an initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.

Updates to Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Science on Screen: On a Wing and a Prayer

Real Art Ways Science on Screen® season invites you to experience the unique combination of a feature film and a relevant talk from a notable local figure in science.

Film: Son of Monarchs

“The film’s rich imagery will be imprinted in your memory, returning to you in dreams.” – NY Times

After his grandmother’s death, a Mexican biologist living in New York returns to his hometown, nestled in the majestic monarch butterfly forests of Michoacán. The journey forces him to confront past traumas and reflect on his hybrid identity, sparking a personal and spiritual metamorphosis.

Pre-Film Talk | 6:30 PM

Jay Kaplan will discuss the the migratory patterns of butterflies and how those patterns have been impacted by climate change.

Speaker: Jay Kaplan

Jay Kaplan. Jay has served as the director of the Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton since 1975. Jay holds a B.S. in Conservation Education from Cornell University and an M.S. in Outdoor Education from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a past president of the Hartford Audubon Society and the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) and remains active with both organizations, and has served o numerous boards and committees.

He is the longtime Compiler of the Hartford Christmas Bird Count and Summer Bird Count, and serves as chair of the COA’s Avian Records Committee, a statewide group that evaluates rare bird records for Connecticut. Jay currently serves as a director of the Canton Land Conservation Trust and is a member of Canton’s Conservation and Open Space Commissions. For the past 25+ years, he has coordinated the Farmington Valley Butterfly Count, and has seen wide fluctuations with regard to monarch butterfly populations in our area.

Science on Screen is an initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.

Updates to Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Lunaya: A Yak In The Classroom

“The film is a fable, to be sure, and one that unfolds at a leisurely pace, not a tough-minded psychological drama. But it’s sharp-witted as well as soulful, reasonably suspenseful and brings news from a little-known area of the world.” – Wall Street Journal

Oscar nominated for Best International Feature Film

Synopsis:

An aspiring singer living with his grandmother in the capital of Bhutan dreams of getting a visa to relocate to Australia.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Licorice Pizza

“A film of immense, swirling complexity, and its elaborateness… comes off as a sort of defiance, of resistance to current modes of easy and consumable viewing.” – The New Yorker

“Both [Haim and Hoffman] inhabit the screen with a sympathetic responsiveness and a rare immediacy. Their incarnation of the ardors and audacities of youth is among the marvels of recent movies, and with them Anderson rediscovers something greater than his own youth—the youth of the cinema itself.” – The New Yorker

“Quite possibly the year’s best film – easily its most delightful surprise.” – NPR

“A shaggy, fitfully brilliant romp.” – NY Times

“If Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” doesn’t make you happy, the trouble may be that you’re clinically depressed, anhedonic or don’t care for movies in general.” – Wall Street Journal

“In large part thanks to its fresh-faced stars, the charming Hoffman and the wildly charismatic Haim, I’m hard pressed to think of a recent movie whose world I would have liked to stay in longer.” – Slate

Synopsis:

Oscar Nominated: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay

“Licorice Pizza” is the story of Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. Written and Directed by heralded filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, this potent coming-of-age drama tracks the treacherous navigation of first love. Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits and Benny Safdi also star.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

2022 Oscar Shorts – LIVE ACTION

Opening Friday, Feb 25. Individual trailers can be viewed HERE.

Ala Kachuu – Take and Run, Switzerland; director: Maria Brendle

Sezim, 19 years old, wants to fulfill her dream of studying in the Kyrgyz capital when she gets kidnapped by a group of young men and taken to the hinterland. There, she’s forced to marry a stranger. If she refuses the marriage, she is threatened with social stigmatization and exclusion. Torn between her desire for freedom and the constraints of Kyrgyz culture, Sezim desperately seeks a way out.

On My Mind, Denmark; director: Martin Strange-Hansen

Henrik wants to sing a song for his wife. It has to be today, it has to be now. It’s a question of life, death and karaoke.

Please Hold, USA; director: KD Davila

In the not-so-distant future, MATEO (20s, Latino) is arrested by a police drone without explanation. Finding himself locked in a fully automated jail with no means of recourse, Mateo realizes he’s fallen through some kind of crack in the system. To get out alive he’ll have to go head-to-head with the labyrinthine, computerized bureaucracy of the privatized American justice system, in search of an actual human being who can set things right.

The Dress, Poland; director: Tedeusz Lysiak

Lust, sexuality and physicality. These are the deepest desires virgin Julia suppresses while working at a wayside motel. That is until she crosses paths with a handsome truck driver, who soon becomes the object of her fantasies…

The Long Goodbye, UK; director: Aneil Karia

Riz and his family are in the middle of preparing a wedding celebration when the events unfolding in the outside world arrive suddenly on their doorstep. The result is a devastating and visceral feat of filmmaking, and a poignant poetic cry from the heart.

Oscar shorts banner for 2022

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

2022 Oscar Shorts – DOCUMENTARY A

Opening Friday, Feb 25. Individual trailers can be viewed HERE.

Audible, USA, director: Matt Ogens

AUDIBLE is a cinematic and immersive coming of age documentary following Maryland School for the Deaf high school athlete Amaree McKenstry and his close friends as they face the pressures of senior year and grappling with the realities of venturing off into the hearing world. Amaree and his teammates take out their frustrations on the football field as they battle to protect an unprecedented winning streak, while coming to terms with the tragic loss of a close friend. This is a story about kids who stand up to adversity. They face conflict, but approach the future with hope – shouting to the world that they exist and they matter.

When We Were Bullies, Germany/USA; director: Jay Rosenblatt

A mind-boggling coincidence leads the filmmaker to track down his fifth grade class and fifth grade teacher to examine their memory of and complicity in a bullying incident 50 years ago.

Oscar shorts banner for 2022

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

2022 Oscar Shorts – ANIMATION

Attention Parents: The film distributor tells us that Robin Robin, the first animated short, is good for children. The second animated short, Boxballet, less so. The last three are definitely not for kids.

Individual film trailers can be viewed HERE.

Robin Robin, UK, directors: Daniel Ojari, Michael Please

Robin Robin is the tale of a small bird with a very big heart. After a shaky nativity of her own – her unhatched egg falls out of the nest and into a rubbish dumpster – she comes out of her shell, in more ways than one, and is adopted by a loving family of mice burglars. More beak and feathers than fur, tail and ears, more cluck and klutz than tip-toe and stealth, she is nonetheless beloved by her adopted family, a Dad Mouse and four siblings. As she grows up, though, her differences make her something of a liability, especially when the family take her on furtive food raids to the houses of the humans (pronounced ‘Who-mans’) in the dead of night. Neither fully bird, nor fully mouse, Robin embarks on a food heist of her own to prove herself worthy of her family and also, hopefully, to bring them back a Christmas sandwich. Along the way, she encounters a curmudgeonly magpie who has a house full of glittery things that he’s stolen and, as it turns out, an unlikely heart of gold. He has set that heart on stealing the sparkling star from the top of a local who-man family’s Christmas tree. And who better to help him than the eternally optimistic Robin herself. The adventure brings them face-to-terrifying-face with a menacing, yet very cool Cat, who has a warm place for birds and mice alike: her tummy. Can they survive? Can they bring home the sandwich and the star? And, most of all, can Robin discover, and learn to love, who she really is, delighting her family and earning her wings in the process?

Boxballet, Russia, director: Anton Dyakov

One day, a delicate ballerina named Olya meets the rough, surly boxer Evgeny. The contrast between their worlds and their philosophies is so sharp that even the possibility of these two characters crossing paths seems incredible.

Affairs of the Art, UK/Canada, directors: Joanna Quinn, Less Mills

With Affairs of the Art, director Joanna Quinn and producer/screenwriter Les Mills continue the series of beloved, hilarious and award-winning animated UK films starring Beryl, a 59-year-old factory worker who’s obsessed with drawing and determined to become a hyper-futurist artiste. We also meet her grown son, Colin, a techno geek, her husband, Ifor, now Beryl’s model and muse, and her sister, Beverly, a fanatical narcissist living in LA. Affairs of the Art provides glimpses into Beryl’s, Beverly’s and Colin’s peculiar childhoods, and we see that obsession is in this family’s DNA. The first co-production between Beryl Productions International and the National Film Board of Canada, Affairs of the Art features Quinn’s signature hand-drawn animation with attitude and Mills’ raucously humorous scenarios, in an endearing romp through one family’s eccentric addictions.

Bestia, Chile, director: Hugo Covarrubias

Inspired by real events, Bestia enters the life of a secret police agent in the military dictatorship in Chile. The relationship with her dog, her body, her fears and frustrations, reveal a macabre fracture in her mind and a country.

The Windshield Wiper, Spain, director: Alberto Mielgo

Inside a cafe while smoking a whole pack of cigarettes, a man poses an ambitious question: “What is Love?”. A collection of vignettes and situations will lead the man to the desired conclusion.

Oscar shorts banner for 2022

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Breaking Bread

“Makes a mouthwatering case for dinner table diplomacy.” – LA Times

“A captivating and mouth-watering delight that will nourish your heart, mind and soul.” – NYC Movie Guru

“Peace in the Middle East has been an elusive dream for decades, but, Hawk suggests, perhaps the answer is peace through food.” – The Australian

Synopsis:

“Breaking Bread” follows Arab and Jewish chefs in Haifa, Israel as they collaborate in the kitchen. Connected through a shared love of food, the chefs unite to celebrate their cultures and the food of their region free from political and religious boundaries. Welcome to the A-Sham Arabic Food Festival. Founded by Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, the first Muslim Arab to win Israel’s MasterChef, the festival invites Arab and Jewish chefs to celebrate their shared culinary history as they exchange stories, recipes and techniques. A celebration of the region’s diverse cuisines and people, “Breaking Bread” offers a mouth-watering taste of rich culinary traditions that will leave you wanting more.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Who We Are

“The film’s content isn’t ritual at all. It’s one man’s answer, eloquent and heartfelt, to the challenge of reframing our discussion of a subject that has us numb from repetition.” – Wall Street Journal

“Both broad-ranging and deep, covering a history that is political, legal, cultural, economic, psychological, emotional, moral and, in the end, also profoundly personal.” – Washington Post

“An engaging and essential essay film that makes its points clearly, backed by evidence, for those open-minded enough to consider their education incomplete.” – Variety

NY Times Critic’s Pic.

Synopsis:

Interweaving lecture, personal anecdotes, interviews, and shocking revelations, in WHO WE ARE: A Chronicle of Racism in America, criminal defense/civil rights lawyer Jeffery Robinson draws a stark timeline of anti-Black racism in the United States, from slavery to the modern myth of a post-racial America.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Red Rocket

“Red Rocket isn’t like any other movie you’ve seen this year. Expect the taste of pink sparkle doughnuts to linger.” – Boston Globe

“Baker couldn’t have cast a better performer [than Rex] to encapsulate the world of near-success that Red Rocket evokes, a strange parallel dimension that serves as a cracked mirror to the mainstream pop culture of the period.” – ABC News (Australia)

“Raunchy, restless” – Chicago Tribune

“Freewheeling and kissed by the magic hour light like Baker’s previous movies, Red Rocket is among the filmmaker’s best works.” – RogerEbert.com

“This is vivid, real-life film-making, without the need of an epic budget.” – Guardian

Synopsis:

The audacious new film from writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), starring Simon Rex in a magnetic, live-wire performance, Red Rocket is a darkly funny and humane portrait of a uniquely American hustler and a hometown that barely tolerates him.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

The Worst Person in the World

““The Worst Person in the World” strikes me as believable, beautiful, roving, annoying, and frequently good for a laugh. Like most of Trier’s work, it also takes you aback with its sadness, which hangs around, after the story is over, like the smoke from a snuffed candle. ” – The New Yorker

“The romantic drama for people who hate romantic dramas.” – Toronto Star

“The film may be the prime example of how to restore fun, significance, and even a little bit of sex to the well-worn terrain of the romantic comedy.”
– Slant Magazine

“Any film that can combine questions of mortality with funny, fully alive scenes of sex, social awkwardness, professional screw-ups and throwaway fun is a rich one. Its brilliant, full-on performance from Reinsve deserves to be celebrated far and wide.” – Time Out

Oscar nominated: International Feature Film.

Synopsis:

Director Joachim Trier returns with another modern twist on a classically constructed character portrait of contemporary life in Oslo. Chronicling four years in the life of Julie, The Worst Person in the World examines one woman’s quest for love and meaning in the modern world. Fluidly told in twelve chapters, the film features a breakout performance by Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve as she explores new professional avenues and embarks on relationships with two very different men (Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordrum) in her search for happiness and identity.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

The Tragedy of Macbeth

“The pursuit of power by any means necessary – and the moral injury that ensues – feels both ancient and urgently new, especially when it’s animated by the artistry and acute intelligence on display here.” – Washington Post

“Washington’s voice is, as ever, a marvel. He seethes, raves, mumbles and babbles, summoning thunderstorms of eloquence from intimate whispers. The physicality of his performance is equally impressive, from his first appearance, trudging heavily through the fog, until his final burst of furious, doomed mayhem.” – New York Times

“A triumph that breathes fiery new life into an enduring classic.” – The Daily Beast

Synopsis:

Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand star in Joel Coen’s bold and fierce adaptation; a tale of murder, madness, ambition, and wrathful cunning.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Memoria

“Weerasethakul is unpacking a sensation everyone has probably experienced at one point in their life: the feeling that something is cosmically out of whack.” – The Atlantic

“A vision from the future — a declaration of faith in a medium that hasn’t lost its power to astonish.” – Los Angeles Times

“Weerasethakul’s long takes and subtle observations seem to tune a viewer’s perceptions to a hidden realm of being.” – The New Yorker

“Watching this film reminded me of when I was 17, hearing Revolution 9 on The White Album for the first time. It left a residue of happiness in my heart.” – Guardian

“A hallucination.” – Salon

Synopsis:

Ever since being startled by a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, Jessica (Tilda Swinton) is unable to sleep. In Bogotá to visit her sister, she befriends Agnes (Jeanne Balibar), an archaeologist studying human remains discovered within a tunnel under construction.
Jessica travels to see Agnes at the excavation site. In a small town nearby, she encounters a fish scaler, Hernan (Elkin Diaz). They share memories by the river. As the day comes to a close, Jessica is awakened to a sense of clarity.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

The Velvet Queen

“Gorgeous, humbling, looking out-, up- and inward, the documentary “The Velvet Queen” is the rare nature film about not only beauty and beasts but also the very human urge to make sense of our place in it all.” – Los Angeles Times

“A wondrous nature documentary.” – New York Times

“What an epic cat movie!” – POV Magazine

“A hypnotic tone, thanks in no small part to a gorgeous score from the two geniuses Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.” – RogerEbert.com

Synopsis:

World-renowned wildlife photographer Vincent Munier (three-time BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year) and novelist/geographer Sylvain Tesson (author: Consolations of the Forest, 2013), search for the majestic, elusive snow leopard kitty cat.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Parallel Mothers

“Melodramatic genius….Almodóvar leaves us with an overwhelming sense that the pursuit of justice, by right, is women’s work.” – The New Yorker

“Everything here is connected and the story flows and flows, achieving a breathless momentum that reveals its intricate design only in retrospect.” – Los Angeles Times

“Parallel Mothers is a movie of infinite tenderness, that rare ode to motherhood that acknowledges mothers as women first and mothers second.” – TIME Magazine

Starring Penélope Cruz, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Julieta Serrano, and Rossy de Palma.

Synopsis:

Two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and become pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Flee

“Flee expands the definition of documentary” – The Hollywood Reporter

“This is a Special Film” – Deadline

“Impossible to forget” – The Guardian

“Remarkable” – Time Out

“Incredibly Intimate” – Variety

“Jaw-dropping” – Time Out

“Stunning” – The Wrap

“Truly Unique” – Thrillist

3 Oscar Nominations: Best Documentary, Best Animated Feature, Best International Film

Synopsis:

Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

2021 Global Health Film Festival – Fauci

Real Art Ways is proud to partner with Connecticut Children’s to present the 2021 Global Health Film Festival. Connecticut Children’s Center for Global Health team is dedicated to improving the physical and emotional health of children around the world by supporting our staff and faculty in their activities to build the capacity of nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers in developing countries.

Admission is free. Email Maureen Kenna at mkenna@realartways.org to reserve seats.

Synopsis:

With his signature blend of scientific acumen, candor and integrity, Dr. Anthony Fauci became America’s most unlikely cultural icon during COVID-19. A world-renowned infectious disease specialist and the longest-serving public health leader in Washington, D.C., he has valiantly overseen the U.S. response to 50 years’ worth of epidemics, including HIV/AIDS, SARS and Ebola. FAUCI is an unprecedented portrait of one of our most vital public servants, whose work saved millions while he faced threats from anonymous adversaries. Directed by Emmy winners John Hoffman (The Weight of the Nation, Sleepless in America) and Janet Tobias (Unseen Enemy), the film is executive produced by Academy Award winner Dan Cogan (Icarus) and two-time Academy Award nominee Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?, The Farm: Angola, USA). The documentary features insights from President George W. Bush, Bill Gates, Bono, former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary Sylvia Burwell, former national security advisor Susan Rice, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden and key AIDS activists, plus Dr. Fauci’s family, friends and former patients.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE

Beans

“A thoughtful, stirring reflection by someone who survived it all, quietly demanding acknowledgement not just of her land, but of her life.” – Variety

“If rendering their stories artfully through a camera lens opens just one mind, then “Beans” is already an unmitigated triumph.” – indiWire

Synopsis:

Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.

Safety In Our Cinema:

As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Real Art Ways Cinema is designated Cinema Safe. Learn more about Cinema Safe HERE