August 1st 1966 was the day our innocence was shattered. A sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the iconic University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes in what was a previously unimaginable event. When the gunshots were finally silenced, the toll included 16 dead, three dozen wounded, and a shaken nation left trying to understand. Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation in a dynamic, never-before-seen way, TOWER reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.
Rebecca Hall stars in director Antonio Campos’ third feature film, a behind-the-scenes look at the news crew at a 1970’s television station. Aspiring newswoman Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) finds herself butting heads with her boss, who pushes for sensationalized stories to drive up ratings. Based on true events, this intimate and sensitive portrait of a woman on the brink is grounded by Hall’s impeccable and transformative performance. Also starring are Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”), Maria Dizzia (“Orange Is The New Black”), and Timothy Simons (“Veep”). Plagued by self-doubt and a tumultuous home life, Christine’s diminishing hope begins to rise when an on-air co-worker (Michael C. Hall) initiates a friendship which ultimately becomes yet another unrequited love. Disillusioned as her world continues to close in on her, Christine takes a dark and surprising turn. Based on true events, Campos’ intimate and sensitive portrait of a woman on the brink is grounded by Hall’s impeccable and transformative performance as Christine. Rounding out the supporting cast are superlative performances by Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”), Tracy Letts (“Homeland,” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright), Maria Dizzia (“Orange Is The New Black”), Timothy Simons (“Veep”) and J. Smith-Cameron (“Margaret”).
The magnificent Sônia Braga stars in the new film by acclaimed Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighboring Sounds), about a retired music critic battling a corrupt real-estate firm as she struggles to hold on to her apartment.
Brazilian writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho, in the follow-up to his extraordinary 2013 feature debut Neighboring Sounds, continues to mine concerns about the alienating effects of urban development in Recife. Yet where that first film drew its insights from a broad range of characters uneasily cohabiting in a modern high-rise, Aquarius focuses on an individual: Clara (Sônia Braga, magnificent), a retired music critic and the sole tenant of an older apartment block being bought up by ruthless condo developers. After surviving a bout of cancer and the loss of her beloved husband, Clara is hardly about to let herself be bullied by the “generous” offers or insidious charms of Diego (Humberto Carrão), the American-educated scion of a powerful local real-estate firm. Diego tries everything in his power to force Clara out of her home, including hosting a noisy orgy in the suite above Clara’s — one that leaves a putrid mess in its wake. But when Clara starts pushing back, secrets are revealed, exposing the festering corruption that infects so much big business in Brazil. Aquarius is a harsh study of classism, nepotism, and the lack of corporate accountability, but it is also about the meaningfulness of places and things: the history and memories contained in an apartment, a piece of furniture, or an LP purchased years ago in a used record store. Mendonça Filho has crafted a suspenseful drama about our relationship to the physical world. In doing so, he has given the inimitable Braga one of the finest roles of her storied career — a career she will discuss in detail in this year’s In Conversation With… programme.
Clara (Sonia Braga, “Kiss of the Spider Woman”), a 65-year-old widow and retired music critic, is the last resident of the Aquarius, one of the few buildings of its age and character that remains in a rapidly changing seaside Recife neighborhood. Now that the other apartments have been swept up by a company with ambitious plans for redevelopment, pressures to move on surround Clara from all sides. But she has pledged to leave only upon death, and will engage in a cold war with the developers to keep a home that has been a silent witness to her entire life. The resulting confrontation is mysterious, frightening and nerve-wracking, tingeing even Clara’s most familiar routines with the tension of a thriller. But it is her passion for those close to her, for music, for her memories of past loves, and hunger for future ones, that makes the film a tremendous kaleidoscope of life’s pleasures and our reasons for defending them, from Brazil’s great chronicler of its present moment, Kleber Mendonça Filho.
HELD OVER! Winner – Audience Award, Best Actor (Rolf Lassgård) – Guldbagge Awards 2016 Best Actor – Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award 2016 Opening Night Selection – Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival 2016 Closing Night Selection – Stony Brook Film Festival 2016 Stepping from the pages of Fredrik Backman’s international best-selling novel, Ove is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has given up on life. Enter a boisterous young family next door who accidentally flattens Ove’s mailbox while moving in and earning his special brand of ire. Yet from this inauspicious beginning an unlikely friendship forms and we come to understand Ove’s past happiness and heartbreaks. What emerges is a heartwarming tale of unreliable first impressions and the gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it’s shared. One of Sweden’s biggest locally-produced box office hits ever, director Hannes Holm finds the beating heart of his source material and Swedish star Rolf Lassgård, whose performance won him the Best Actor award at the 2016 Seattle Int’l Film Festival, affectingly embodies the lovable curmudgeon Ove.
From director Keiichi Hara (Colorful) and Japanese powerhouse Production I.G (creators of Ghost in the Shell) comes a remarkable story of the daughter behind one of history’s most famous artists, Hokusai. As all of Edo (present day Tokyo) flocks to see the work of the revered painter Hokusai, his daughter O-Ei toils diligently inside his studio. Her masterful portraits, dragons and erotic sketches – sold under the name of her father – are coveted by upper crust Lords and journeyman print makers alike. Shy and reserved in public, in the studio O-Ei is as brash and uninhibited as her father, smoking a pipe while sketching drawings that would make contemporary Japanese ladies blush. But despite this fiercely independent spirit, O-Ei struggles under the domineering influence of her father and is ridiculed for lacking the life experience that she is attempting to portray in her art. Miss Hokusai‘s bustling Edo is filled with yokai spirits, dragons, and conniving tradesmen, while O-Ei’s relationships with her demanding father and blind younger sister provide a powerful emotional underpinning to this sumptuously-animated coming-of-age tale. *Stay after the film for a talk about Hokusai, his daughter and the evolution of woodblock printing in Japan with Ann H. Sievers, Director and Curator, Art Museum, University of Saint Joseph. Also, visit the exhibition, HANGA NOW, Contemporary Japanese Print Makers at the University of St. Joseph, on view through December 18, 2016.
HELD OVER! Robert Redford narrates the life stories of two Harvard psychology professors renowned for their experiments with mind-expanding psychedelics: Timothy Leary, who ignited a global counterculture movement, and Richard Alpert, who journeyed to the East and became the spiritual teacher Ram Dass. “Dying to Know” is an intimate portrait celebrating two very complex, controversial characters in an epic friendship that shaped a generation. In the early 1960s Harvard psychology professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert began probing the edges of consciousness through their experiments with psychedelics. Leary became the LSD guru, challenging convention, questioning authority and as a result spawned a global counter culture movement landing in prison after Nixon called him “the most dangerous man in America.” Alpert journeyed to the East becoming Ram Dass, a spiritual teacher for an entire generation who continues in his 80’s teaching service through compassion. With interviews spanning 50 years the film invites us into the future encouraging us to ponder questions about life, drugs & the biggest mystery of all: death. In 1995 after years of estrangement Leary found out that he was dying of cancer. The first person he called was Ram Dass. In the 60s they had collaborated on a book entitled, ‘The Psychedelic Experience‘ which was based on The Tibetan Book of The Dead and explored the similarities of the psychedelic experience and the dying process. Each holding a remarkably different point of view about death they share their thoughts/perspectives and rekindle the love they have always felt for one another. In this provocative film the viewer is a fly on the wall, observing an intimate conversation between Leary and Ram Dass just a few months before Leary’s death. It is a genuine exploration and an emotional respectful goodbye between two life long companions. We include subsequent interviews with Leary as he shares his dying process with us. Ram Dass, who suffered a stroke himself not long after Tim’s passing, shares his own perspective on death and dying. This story is much larger than a simple conversation between two old friends. It embraces the arcs of their entire lives helping us understand how two Harvard professors became counter – culture icons. We will explore their upbringing, early life and their fateful meeting at Harvard where together they ran fully sanctioned experiments into the nature and use of psilocybin and LSD before being fired in 1963. We follow them from Harvard to Millbrook where their experimentation continued and ultimately their friendship was tested and fractured. They both went their own way becoming legends in their own right. These chapters are highlighted using archival footage and stills. This tale of taboos: sex, drugs and death includes interviews in 2012 with Dr. Andrew Weil, Huston Smith, Roshi Joan Halifax, Ralph Metzner, Joanna Harcourt-Smith, Lama Tsultrim Allione, John Perry Barlow, Peggy Hitchcock and Zach Leary. Robert Redford’s iconic voice as narrator gives a classic American feel and tone. Dillingham, the Producer/Director has contributed on & off 17 years of her life to this labor of love. She uncovers the wisdom these two men have as they continue to guide us on the next revolution – a right to access our own consciousnesses and our own death.
Harry & Snowman follows the Cinderella story of Dutch immigrant Harry deLeyer and his transformative relationship with a broken down Amish plow horse –named Snowman – that he rescued off a slaughter truck bound for the glue factory. In less than two years, Harry and Snowman would go on to win the triple crown of show jumping, beating the nation’s blue bloods and traveling the world together as they became the media darlings of the 1950s and 60s. Their chance meeting at a Pennsylvania horse auction saved them both and crafted a friendship that would last a lifetime, as told by 86-year-old Harry firsthand.
WINNER – 2015 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL – ECUMENICAL JURY PRIZE NOMINEE – 2015 EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS – BEST DIRECTOR (Nanni Moretti) & BEST ACTRESS (Margherita Buy) WINNER – 2015 ITALIAN ACADEMY AWARDS – BEST ACTRESS (Margherita Buy) & BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Guilia Lazzarini) Acclaimed Italian auteur Nanni Moretti returns to brilliant form with his semi-autobiographical and award-winning new dramedy MIA MADRE, with the stunning Margherita Buy starring as a director struggling to balance life and art. John Turturro costars as an American actor starring in Buy’s film-within-a-film. Margherita (Buy) is directing a new social drama, set against the backdrop of an industrial dispute. Try as she may to remain professional, the emotional turmoil of her private life is taking a toll: an affair with one of her actors (Enrico Ianniello) has come to an end, her adolescent daughter (Beatrice Mancini) is failing Latin, but most troubling is the recent hospitalization of her formidable, beloved mother Ada (Giulia Lazzarini). While her brother Giovanni (Moretti) gradually allows himself to be engulfed by his mother’s last days, taking extended leave to prolong his bedside vigil, Margherita’s tough schedule makes more than a daily visit tricky. Meanwhile, the famous American actor Barry Huggins (the fabulous John Turturro) has arrived, a needy and capricious personality whose brash presence on set sees things go from bad to worse, and whose general ineptitude might finally push Margherita over the edge… With characteristic openness to life’s big questions, Moretti’s mature and hugely entertaining film skillfully manoeuvres between pathos and comedy as it considers the uneasy relationship between artistic ambition and everyday life, the real and the imagined. Widely acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival as Moretti’s best film since the Palme d’Or winning The Son’s Room, and named best film of the year by the influential Cahiers du Cinéma, MIA MADRE is another rich and affectingly humanist work from one of world cinema’s true masters
Real Art Ways celebrates Arthouse Theater Day with a special late show of the newly remastered 1979 horror classic, Phantasm. PHANTASM: REMASTERED has been given a loving 4K restoration from the original camera negative and a brand new 5.1 audio soundtrack, overseen by longtime fan J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot. The residents of a small Oregon town have begun dying under mysterious circumstances. Following the death of a friend, thirteen-yearold Mike finds himself compelled to investigate. After discovering that the town’s mortician (a sinister and malevolent character Mike nicknames “the Tall Man”) is responsible for murdering and reanimating the dead, Mike seeks help from his older brother, Jody, and best friend and ice cream man Reggie. Working together, these three friends must lure out and confront the Tall Man, all the while avoiding his rabid minions and his flying chrome killing device, the deadly silver sphere. Filmmaker Don Coscarelli comments, “When I made Phantasm three decades ago, the term “indie” didn’t have the same positive connotations that it does today. But that’s what Phantasm was. And in the decades since, the art house movement has cultivated an appreciation for independent films that break molds and push boundaries. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that in 2016, art houses have embraced Phantasm and are giving it new life on Art House Theater Day. It’s really a dream come true to see it playing in so many exceptional theaters on the big screen, the way I originally intended.”
Maria (María Mercedes Coroy) is set to marry a much older foreman at the coffee plantation, but she has a crush on Pepe, who has fanciful dreams of getting rich in the U.S. After consummating their flirtation, Pepe leaves for the States—without Maria, who soon learns she is expecting a baby. A difficult pregnancy assisted only by traditional medicine finally leads her to the hectic big city, but on very grim terms. Shot in collaboration with the Kaqchikel Mayans of Guatemala’s coffee-growing highlands, Jayro Bustamante’s exquisitely shot debut feature (winner of a top prize at the Berlinale and Guatemala’s Oscar submission) explores what tradition and modernity mean for women living in marginalized communities.
Unlocking the Cage follows animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. After 30 years of struggling with ineffective animal welfare laws, Steve and his legal team, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), are making history by filing the first lawsuits that seek to transform an animal from a “thing” with no rights to a “person” with legal protections. Supported by affidavits from primatologists around the world, Steve maintains that, based on scientific evidence, cognitively complex animals such as chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants have the capacity for limited personhood rights (such as bodily liberty) that would protect them from physical abuse. Using writs of habeas corpus (historically used to free humans from unlawful imprisonment), Wise argues on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State. Unlocking the Cage captures a monumental shift in our culture, as the public and judicial system show increasing receptiveness to Steve’s impassioned arguments. It is an intimate look at a lawsuit that could forever transform our legal system, and one man’s lifelong quest to protect “nonhuman” animals.
Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot) is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious skiing accident. Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship that she experienced with Georgio (Vincent Cassell). Why did they love each other? Who is this man that she loved so deeply? How did she allow herself to submit to this suffocating and destructive passion? For Tony, a difficult process of healing is in front of her, physical work which may finally set her free.
On January 9, 2006 The New York Times sent shockwaves through the literary world when it unmasked “it boy” wunderkind JT LeRoy, whose tough prose about a sordid childhood had captivated icons and luminaries internationally. It turned out LeRoy didn’t actually exist. He was the creative expression of 40-year-old San Francisco former phone-sex operator turned housewife, Laura Albert. Author: The JT LeRoy Story takes us down the infinitely fascinating rabbit hole of how Laura Albert—like a Cyrano de Bergerac on steroids—breathed not only words, but life, into her avatar for a decade. Albert’s epic and entertaining account plunges us into a glittery world of rock shows, fashion events, and the Cannes red carpet where LeRoy becomes a mysterious sensation. As she recounts this astonishing odyssey, Albert also reveals the intricate web spun by irrepressible creative forces within her. Her extended and layered JT LeRoy performance still infuriates many; but according to Albert, channeling her brilliant fiction through another identity was the only possible path to self-expression.
One of the most ambitious independent films in recent years, the striking feature debut from Zachary Treitz (winner of Best New Narrative Director at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) recreates Kentucky in 1861 to tell the story of two brothers (Morton and Maloney) whose strained relationship splinters amidst the encroaching chaos of the Civil War. With a lyrical naturalism and wry humor, this “instant-classic Western” (Richard Brody, The New Yorker) sets intimate human drama against the sweeping tide of history.
Sensual and elegant, Catherine Corsini’s SUMMERTIME follows Carole and Delphine as they fall in love against the backdrop of early feminist activism in 1971 France. After living in the city, Delphine is called home to help with her family farm in the countryside and is forced to choose between her responsibility to them and the life of love she had in Paris with Carole. An enlightening tale about the infatuation of first love and its universal themes.
When 13-year-old Jake’s (Theo Taplitz) grandfather dies, his family moves from Manhattan back into his father’s old Brooklyn home. There, Jake befriends the charismatic Tony (Michael Barbieri), whose single mother Leonor (Paulina Garcia), a dressmaker from Chile, runs the shop downstairs. Soon, Jake’s parents Brian (Greg Kinnear) and Kathy (Jennifer Ehle) — one, a struggling actor, the other, a psychotherapist — ask Leonor to sign a new, steeper lease on her store. For Leonor, the proposed new rent is untenable, and a feud ignites between the adults. At first, Jake and Tony don’t seem to notice; the two boys, so different on the surface, begin to develop a formative kinship as they discover the pleasures of being young in Brooklyn. Jake aspires to be an artist, while Tony wants to be an actor, and they have dreams of going to the same prestigious arts high school together. But the children can’t avoid the problems of their parents forever, and soon enough, the adult conflict intrudes upon the borders of their friendship. Directed by Ira Sachs (LOVE IS STRANGE, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, FORTY SHADES OF BLUE) with his trademark humanism and insight, LITTLE MEN highlights the New York City landscape with a story of life-defining friendships in the midst of familial turmoil.
From Academy Award® winning director Roger Ross Williams, LIFE, ANIMATED is the inspirational story of Owen Suskind, a young man who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films. This emotional coming-of-age story follows Owen as he graduates to adulthood and takes his first steps toward independence. The subject of his father Ron Suskind’s New York Times bestseller, Owen was a thriving three year old who suddenly and inexplicably went silent – and for years after remained unable to connect with other people or to convey his thoughts, feelings or desires. The website for Suskind’s book, Life, Animated opens with this statement: “Our son Owen, like so many with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), has an ‘affinity’—in his case, a deep connection to the Disney movies he’s watched countless times to make sense of an often-bewildering world. We wrote about Owen in Life, Animated, and received scores of letters describing affinities from anime to Minecraft to maps.” Over time, through repeated viewings of Disney classics like THE LITTLE MERMAID and THE LION KING, Owen found useful tools to help him to understand complex social cues and to re-connect with the world around him. LIFE, ANIMATED evocatively interweaves classic Disney sequences with verite scenes from Owen’s life in order to explore how his identification and empathy for characters like Simba, Jafar, and Ariel gave him a means to understand his feelings and allowed him to interpret reality. Beautiful, original animations offer rich insights into Owen’s fruitful dialogue with the Disney oeuvre as he imagines himself heroically facing adversity as a member in a tribe of sidekicks. Owen’s story is a moving testament to the many ways in which stories can serve as a means of persevering through the dark times, leading us all toward the light.
Two Days Only – Saturday and Sunday, September 10 & 11 at 3 PM. On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese was repeatedly attacked on a street in Kew Gardens, Queens. Soon after, The New York Times published a front-page story asserting that 38 witnesses watched her being murdered from their apartment windows–and did nothing to help. The death of Kitty Genovese, 28, quickly became a symbol of urban apathy. The Witness follows the efforts of her brother Bill Genovese as he looks to uncover the truth buried beneath the story. In the process, he makes startling discoveries about the crime that transformed his life, condemned a city, and defined an era.
Special Presentation – Three Nights Only! • World Premiere, Opening Night Selection – Sundance Film Festival • Closing Night Selection – AFI DOCS • Official Selection – HotDocs Toronto • Official Selection – Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival Arguably the most influential creator, writer, and producer in the history of television, Norman Lear brought primetime into step with the times. Using comedy and indelible characters, his legendary 1970s shows such as All In the Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons, boldly cracked open dialogue and shifted the national consciousness, injecting enlightened humanism into sociopolitical debates on race, class, creed, and feminism. Lear was born in New Haven and grew up in Hartford, graduating from Weaver High School in 1940. Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You is the definitive chronicle of Mr. Lear’s life, work, and achievements, but it is so much more than an arm’s-length, past-tense biopic; at 93, Mr. Lear is as vital and engaged as he ever was. Top-notch cinéma vérité documentarians Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp, 12th & Delaware, DETROPIA) seize the opportunity to fashion a dynamic portrait that matches the spirit of their subject. Breaking down the fourth wall to create an evocative collage where past and present intermingle, they reveal a psychologically rich man whose extraordinary contributions emerge from both his personal story and a dialogue with the world. Starring: Norman Lear; George Clooney; Jon Stewart; Rob Reiner; Amy Poehler; Phil Rosenthal
