Ojai Playhouse

Oscar Restrepo's obsession with poetry brought him no glory. Aging and erratic, he has succumbed to the cliché of the poet in the shadows. Meeting Yurlady, a humble teenager, and helping her cultivate her talent brings some light to his days, but dragging her into the world of poets may not be the way.

Billy Preston was 5 years old when he backed gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. Over the following six-decade career, Billy contributed his signature sound to the greatest artists of his time, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Sly Stone, Ray Charles, Rufus, Eric Clapton, and others, while establishing himself as a GRAMMY-winning solo artist. Despite his success, Billy struggled to reconcile his deep relationship with the Black church with his sexuality, setting off a lifelong quest to find love and acceptance.

Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.

A group of Calcutta city slickers, including the well-off Asim (Soumitra Chatterjee), the meek Sanjoy (Subhendu Chatterjee) and the brutish Hari (Samit Bhanja), head out for a weekend in the wilderness. Before long, however, the friends find themselves neglecting nature in favor of hard drinking and hitting on the nearby tribeswomen. But as the men spend more time with the local people, they begin to realize that the social standings that mean so much to them hold no importance in the wild.

A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap experiments.

A mysterious Hollywood stuntman and mechanic moonlights as a getaway driver and finds himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbor.

A nightclub performer hires a naive chorus girl to become his new dance partner to make his former partner jealous and to prove he can make any partner a star.

After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne's in "The Scarlet Letter," which she is currently studying in school - until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

A day in the life of the employees of Empire Records. Except this is a day where everything comes to a head for a number of them facing personal crises - can they pull through together? And more importantly, can they keep their record store independent and not swallowed up by corporate greed?

With any and all things crypto being pushed by celebrities, influencers, and politicians alike, actor-turned-author and director Ben McKenzie decides to investigate. Leveraging his celebrity status to gain access to eager prospectors, McKenzie finds himself unraveling the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrency. This skeptical but evenhanded take on the present and future of what we consider money gives a firsthand account of the chaotic financial frontier of our time.

A man trapped in a endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don't, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.

David Fincher's 1999 cult classic Fight Club is returning to movie theaters in April. The one-night-only theatrical run will take place on April 22, giving audiences a chance to see the film in 4K Ultra HD ahead of its upcoming Blu-ray rerelease.

A group of queer best friends gather in Fire Island Pines for their annual week of love and laughter, but a sudden change of events might make this their last summer in gay paradise.

With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.

A devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.

An executive of a shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped and held for ransom.

Rob Gordon is the owner of a semi-failing record store located on one of the back streets of Chicago. He sells music the old-fashioned way, on vinyl, with his two wacky clerks - the hysterically funny rock snob Barry and the more quietly opinionated underachiever Dick. But Rob´s business isn't the only thing in his life that's floundering - his needle skips the love groove when his longtime girlfriend Laura walks out on him. And this forces him to examine his past failed attempts at romance the only way he knows how!

When novelist Ohm Bauman retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, he is consumed by tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance forces him to confront dark corners of his past.

With unprecedented access to the official archives and intimate recollections from the band, both current and past, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition invites fans to experience one of the most iconic journeys in music history. Spanning five decades, this electrifying documentary charts the band’s rise from the pubs of East London to the world’s biggest stadiums. Featuring exclusive interviews with band members and contributors such as Javier Bardem, Lars Ulrich and Chuck D, as well as all- new animated sequences of the band's legendary mascot, Eddie, the film offers a rare and intimate look at Iron Maiden’s uncompromising vision and unwavering connection with their truly global army of fans.

A visionary neuroscientist explores the limits of consciousness through isolation tanks, communication with dolphins, and psychedelic experiments, transforming himself from researcher to mystical explorer.

After becoming a mother disrupted her career as an artist, Mierle Laderman Ukeles published a daring manifesto: from now on, all her acts of childcare and household maintenance would be performance art. The Manifesto propelled Ukeles into the 1960’s avant-garde, a largely male scene that prized the solitary creator but scorned those who “keep the dust off the pure individual creation.” Recognizing that this devaluation of care was systemic, Ukeles began scaling up her maintenance revolution to include collaborations with the often invisible cleaners and guards who care for museums - poking at the concealed hierarchies embedded in the white cube space. In 1977, in a move that would radically reframe public art, Ukeles was invited to establish an unprecedented artist-in-residency at the NYC Sanitation Department, where she championed a demeaned but essential class of workers within a vast urban system. Set during the impassioned social and artistic upheavals of the late 20th century and using newly digitized archival footage, Maintenance Artist is the story of an artist who raised maintenance to an art form and became a force in contemporary art.

How might your life be better with less?

Long-buried wounds rise to the surface when iconic pop star Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel) on the eve of her comeback performance.

Documentary about the American indie band Pavement, which combines scripts with documentary images of the band and a musical mise-en-scene composed of songs from their discography.

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Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

When a green ogre named Shrek discovers his swamp has been 'swamped' with all sorts of fairytale creatures by the scheming Lord Farquaad, Shrek sets out with a very loud donkey by his side to 'persuade' Farquaad to give Shrek his swamp back. Instead, a deal is made. Farquaad, who wants to become the King, sends Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona, who is awaiting her true love in a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. But once they head back with Fiona, it starts to become apparent that not only does Shrek, an ugly ogre, begin to fall in love with the lovely princess, but Fiona is also hiding a huge secret.

Undeterred by armed soldiers, smooth-talking politicians, and riot police, journalist Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. Steal This Story, Please. is a gripping portrait of the trailblazer whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the front lines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news show Democracy Now!, Goodman broadcasts stories and voices routinely silenced by commercial media. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water, The Janes) take us behind the scenes with the warm, wisecracking granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi - raised in a tradition of asking hard questions - as she navigates a news landscape reshaped by technology, corporate consolidation, and political assaults on truth itself. Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please. is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: what happens to democracy when the press surrenders to power?

From the Academy Award®-winning filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once and Navalny; a father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created... and what’s at stake if we get it wrong.

The estranged children of a once-famous artist hire a forger to complete his unfinished works so they can be "discovered" and sold after his death.

A marine biologist teaches his dolphins to communicate in English but shady characters plan to kidnap the trained mammals for a more sinister purpose

A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.

A disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded, only to be double-crossed by his boss.

A young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.

“‘If one day Studio Ghibli decides to produce an animator from outside the studio, it will be him’, was Miyazaki’s pronouncement after watching Dudok de Wit’s Oscar-winning animated short Father and Daughter… Sixteen years after Father and Daughter, Studio Ghibli and Dudok de Wit’s collaboration has come into being. It begins in the middle of a storm. Grey waves and raindrops engulf the screen. In the corner, a tiny head surfaces and then sinks. The nameless man is washed up on a beach with bits of his broken boat. A crab crawls up his leg. When he goes to explore, the view pulls right back so all we see is a remote island while his cries ring out. His only company is a cast of crabs (such an apt collective noun!). Several times he tries to escape with a makeshift bamboo raft, but each time a mysterious force in the water breaks up his boat. Eventually he discovers his secretive aggressor: the titular red turtle.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros., and follows The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was released in 2023 and earned more than $1.3 billion worldwide. Both the 2023 film and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are produced by Chris Meledandri of Illumination and Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo. The film will be co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo and will be released worldwide by Universal Pictures. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is directed by returning filmmakers Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, from a screenplay by returning screenwriter Matthew Fogel, with Brian Tyler returning to compose the score.

In Iquitos, gateway to the Peruvian Amazon, Nexy (Silvia Chávez) lives on the margins, sometimes as a sex worker, haunted by the memories and folklore of her rural childhood. She meets Miguel (Johnny Palacios) a sociologist visiting from Lima, studying the spiritual traditions and socioeconomic disparities of the region. Miguel encourages Nexy to consult a curandero (Melitón Delgado), who suggests she participate in a healing ceremony. Together, they travel into the jungle, seeking to deepen the healing in a natural environment. When Nexy vanishes, both Miguel and Melitón seek guidance from ayahuasca, and experience profound revelations while in the embrace of the medicine. In depicting ayahuasca-induced visions, filmmaker Nora de Izcue avoided the American tropes of frantic psychedelic visual effects, and instead depicts the spiritual journeys as a series of elegantly composed tableaus, through which the camera often glides on a waterborne platform. These moments of detachment from the “reality” of the narrative enfold the viewer in poignant and often profound meditative states. Melitón Delgado, who portrays the shaman in the film, was an actual ayahuasquero, and served as technical consultant on the film, with his mother Alicia Vda. de Delgado. The Wind of Ayahuasca was the first film to offer an authentic and honest depiction of an ayahuasca healing ceremony and the first Peruvian feature by a woman director. It was restored in 2K from an English-subtitled 35mm print in 2018, in cooperation with the Perú Ministry of Culture.

The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.

"Wild Style," is a groundbreaking 1983 film, vividly capturing the essence of early hip-hop culture with its dynamic blend of graffiti art, breakdancing, DJ'ing, and MC'ing. Set against the backdrop of The Bronx, New York City, the film chronicles the journey of a graffiti artist ‘Zoro’, weaving a narrative that has cemented its status as a seminal work in hip-hop history. After 40 years, the induction of "Wild Style" into the National Hip Hop Museum marks a significant milestone. This event allows audiences to relive the beats, the rhymes, and the electric energy that defined a generation. The film not only captured a burgeoning subculture but also played a pivotal role in shaping the future of music, art, and expression across the globe. Featuring the director Charlie Ahern, as well as Fab 5 Freddy, and many of the original cast, this mini documentary provides an insightful exploration into how 'Wild Style' transcended its urban origins. It shares the remarkable story of how the film propelled hip-hop from the streets of New York onto the global stage, revolutionizing music and culture worldwide.

A man from a family of rich snobs becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family.