Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! BALLET is a profile of the American Ballet Theatre, an important classical ballet company. The film presents the company in rehearsal in their New York studio and on tour in Athens and Copenhagen. Choreographers, ballet masters and mistresses are shown at work with principal dancers, soloists and the corps de ballet. Other sequences involve the administration and fundraising aspects of the company. "Ballet is an eloquent statement about the crucial role of art in bringing extra dimensions to our lives … As much as any seminarian, dancers have a special calling, an intense dedication. In classes and rehearsals, we see youngsters with ideal bodies looking for direction from those who have gone before. Outside the studios, they are just ordinary young people going to the beach… Then the lights go down, the curtain goes up and they are transformed into the vessels of incredible beauty." –John J. O'Connor, The New York Times "[Wiseman] follows American Ballet Theatre’s dancers, choreographers, and backstage personnel through the arduous construction of a dance. Whether he’s recording a ballet master’s interview with a young hopeful or observing Natalia Makarova giving instructions in the projection of glamour and allure, Wiseman remains transfixed by the rigorous and highly traditional notion of beauty that the workers are trying to honor." – The New Yorker "BALLET, in its characteristic unadorned, unsentimentalized manner, remains unique, and its portrait of ballet dancers at work has no parallel." –Alan M. Kriegsman, The Washington Post Total runtime: 129 mins

The long-awaited return to fiction filmmaking from Academy Award-winner Andrea Arnold (American Honey, Fish Tank), BIRD is a tender, striking and extraordinarily surprising coming-of-age fable about marginalised life in the fringes of contemporary society. 12-year-old Bailey (astounding newcomer Nykiya Adams) lives with her devoted but chaotic single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan, Saltburn) and wayward brother Hunter in a squat in Gravesend, north Kent. Approaching puberty and seeking attention and adventure, Bailey’s fractured home life is transformed when she encounters Bird (Franz Rogowski, Passages), a mysterious stranger on a journey of his own. A wondrous portrait of the transition from childhood to adolescence that remains grounded in her typically empathetic social realism, Arnold’s latest strides to the wildly poetic rhythm of her own drum.

Sir Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. George, defiant and determined to return home to his mom and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.

PRESENTED WITH CLOSED CAPTIONING FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! The School for the Deaf at the Alabama Institute is organized around a theory of total communication i.e. the use of signs and finger spelling in conjunction with speech, hearing aids, lip reading, gestures and the written word. The film shows sequences dealing with various aspects of this comprehensive training such as teaching students and parents to sign; speech therapy; psychological counseling; regular academic courses; vocational training; disciplinary problems; parents visits; sports and recreational activity; training in living and working independently; and developing skills in home and money management. Total runtime: 164 mins "Not only does Wiseman present an empathetic picture of the disabled students and loving staff, but he makes his way into organizational meetings, the parental decision making process — all the facets of the lives of the disabled, as they find an increasing role in today’s society." –Arthur Unger, The Christian Science Monitor "Some of the teachers are deaf themselves, and their earnest professional devotion obviously draws on reservoirs of personal experience." –Robert Coles, The New Republic "If a time capsule were prepared today for opening in a couple of hundred years, ‘DEAF’ and ‘BLIND’ would be an ideal choice for inclusion. There’s no doubt that a society is reflected in its institutions. The Alabama Institute catches us at our most caring and compassionate moments.: –John J. O'Connor, The New York Times "Never a word of narration, never a voice telling us what we are seeing, guiding our reactions, advising us how to feel. We are on our own… The reward is a new awareness not only of the blind and deaf, but of those who work with them." –Michael Keman, The Washington Post

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! Essene (1972) is about daily life in a Benedictine monastery and the resolution of conflict between personal needs and the institutional and organizational priorities of the community. In the Order, where the focus of life is the relationship of individual work and worship to the community as a whole, the brethren must cope with the same issues that arise in any community: rules, work, worship, values, love, and play. Total runtime: 86 mins "ESSENE is one of the best religious films ever made… Fred Wiseman’s cinema verite look at life inside a monastery also studies the essential meanings inherent in any institutional framework… It is fluid, extraordinarily honest and non theatrical experience… Wiseman conveys humility without resorting to humble expressions, an awareness of profound piety without mock spirituality… ESSENE raises the question of God urgently and eloquently." –Malcolm Boyd, The New York Times "Mr. Wiseman has given the viewer a superb human comedy — funny, pathetic, touching, absurd, moving." –John J. O'Connor, The New York Times

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! HIGH SCHOOL (1968) was filmed at a large urban high school in Philadelphia. The film documents how the school system exists not only to pass on "facts" but also transmits social values from one generation to another. HIGH SCHOOL presents a series of formal and informal encounters between teachers, students, parents, and administrators through which the ideology and values of the school emerge. Total runtime: 75 mins "HIGH SCHOOL, a wicked, brilliant documentary about life in a lower-middle-class secondary school." –Richard Schickel, Life "HIGH SCHOOL shows no stretching of minds. It does show the overwhelming dreariness of administrators and teachers who confuse teaching with discipline. The school somehow takes warm, breathing teen-agers and tries to turn them into 40-year old mental eunuchs… No wonder the kids turn off, stare out windows, become surly, try to escape… The most frightening thing about ‘HIGH SCHOOL’ is that it captures the battlefield so clearly; the film is too true." –Peter Janssen, Newsweek "The high school is the very heart of America, and Wiseman has captured its strength and rhythm perfectly." –Edgar Z. Friedenberg, The New York Review of Books

Presented in partnership with the Museum of International Folk Art, in conjunction the exhibition Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine (on display at MoIFA June 23, 2024 - April 20, 2025). ONE NIGHT ONLY! FREE TO ATTEND! Sound and image stare each other in the face as Intercepted contrasts quiet compositions of everyday life of Ukrainians since the full-scale invasion with intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families. Ukrainian intelligence services have intercepted thousands of phone calls Russian soldiers made from the battlefield in Ukraine to their families and friends in Russia, painting a stark picture of the cruelty of war in a dizzying emotional tension. Juxtaposed with images of the destruction caused by the invasion and the day-to-day life of the Ukrainian people who resist and rebuild, the voices of the Russian soldiers - ranging from being filled with heroic illusions to complete disappointment and loss of reason, from looting to committing more horrible war crimes, from propaganda to doubt and disillusionment - expose the whole scope of the dehumanizing power of war and imperialist nature of the Russian aggression. DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT: When the Russian full-scale invasion started, I was in Ukraine and happened to be working as a local producer with Al Jazeera English. This work allowed me to access many places in different Ukrainian regions where I witnessed Russian war crimes. At night after my work, I developed a habit of listening to the “intercepts”: intercepted phone calls of the Russian soldiers in Ukraine calling their families back home that were obtained and publicly released by the Ukraine’s security services. The discrepancy between the brutal reality that I was living during the day and the things I was hearing at night was shocking. In the intercepts, the Russians sounded human. That was the most painful thing to accept: Why do humans do such inhumane things? This question has brought me to the film, which is based on a simple juxtaposition of two realities trying to understand the full complexity of the “Russian order”, to comprehend what kind of thinking is behind the invasion. “Terrific… An austere and harrowing chronicle of life, death and indifference… One of the strongest movies in [New Directors/New Films].” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times “Formally audacious… The movie’s stylistic tension, between images of life being lived (or having been lived), and disembodied voices portending death, connects the dots between ideology and action, between propaganda and bloodshed… ” – Siddhant Adlakha, IndieWire “Intercepted offers a spare psychological portrait of soldiers at war. Gleaned directly from their conversations, this is an honest depiction of how empathy disappears and malice takes over.” – Murtada Elfadl, Variety “This daring collision of image and sound is haunting in its own way, presenting intimate conversations which often reveal trace glimpses of humanity in soldiers who otherwise have behaved monstrously.” -Tim Grierson, Screen Daily "Intercepted is essential viewing, a necessary confrontation with the worst that human beings are capable of.” – Nelson Kim, Filmmaker Magazine "A stark, uncompromising documentary that shows how life must go on in Ukraine." – Jordan Raup, The Film Stage

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! JUVENILE COURT shows the complex variety of cases before the Memphis Juvenile Court: foster home placement, drug abuse, armed robbery, child abuse, and sexual offenses. The sequences illustrate such issues as community protection vs. the desire for rehabilitation, the range and the limits of the choices available to the court, the psychology of the offender, and the constitutional and procedural questions involved in administering a juvenile court. "Literally and figuratively, Wiseman opens the doors of perception in the daily routine of a juvenile court… (A) master educator, (he) refuses to preach or even teach, but we learn — and are immeasurably enriched by the experience." –Jerrold Hickey, The Boston Globe "The film’s chief impact stems from its graphic, often grim glances at the unforgettable subjects who are brought before the court… JUVENILE COURT does not attack the institution it explores, nor does it suggest new or different solutions to age old human problems." –David Sterritt, The Christian Science Monitor

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! La Comédie-Française is the oldest continuous repertory company in the world, founded in Paris in the late 17th century. This is the first time a documentary film-maker has been allowed to look at all the aspects of the work of this great theatrical company. Sequences in the film include sections of plays, casting, set and costume design, administrative meetings and rehearsals and performances of four classic French plays, Don Juan by Molière, La Thebaide by Racine, La Double Inconstance by Marivaux and Occupe-toi d’Amelie by Feydeau. “LA COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE is a multifaceted exploration of the art and commerce of theater…What emerges from this epic work of nonfiction is a rare glimpse into what makes theater theater and what makes film, in the right hands, an art.” –Michael Blowen, Boston Globe “This film is about a culture that takes serious culture very seriously… Ever the master documentary maker, Wiseman, brings home his points without saying a word.” –Laurie Winters, L.A. Times “At various points the viewer might be standing in line to buy tickets, watching a seamstress working on costumes and wigs, viewing a set being erected — or listening to an erudite discussion by actors and their director about what Marivaux intended in his play ‘La Double Inconstance,’ one of four seen in rehearsal (Moliere, Racine and Feydeau are also represented.). During the easily flowing three hours, the viewer can also drop in on administrative meetings, listen to budget woes and hear an actress eloquently plead for financial aid for retirees. One of the fun highlights: a 100th birthday party for a retired actress who calls the Comédie-Française ‘a religion.’ I call it a wonderful, exciting, thoroughly enlightening place to visit for a few wonderful hours of television. This is indeed, a Wiseman winner!” -Kay Gardella, New York Daily News Total runtime: 223 mins

The Grammy-nominated documentary The Music of Strangers, follows members of the Ensemble as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution. Blending performance footage, personal interviews, and archival film, Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville and producer Caitrin Rogers focus on the personal journeys of a small group of Silkroad Ensemble mainstays — Kinan Azmeh (Syria), Kayhan Kalhor (Iran), Yo-Yo Ma (France/United States), Wu Man (China), and Cristina Pato (Spain) — to chronicle passion, talent, and sacrifice. Through these moving individual stories, the filmmakers paint a vivid portrait of a bold musical experiment and a global search for the ties that bind. BONUS: Kinan Azmeh and Colin Jacobsen, members of the Silk Road Ensemble that are featured in the film, will join us in person as special guests. Private wine reception prior to the film for ticket purchasers. Director: Morgan Neville Features: Yo-Yo Ma, Kinan Azmeh, Kayhan Kalhor Film Run time: 1 hr. 36 min.   Film: Documentary, Music Language: English Rating: PG-13

A century after Alfred Hitchcock’s first film, he remains one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. But how does his vast body of work and legacy hold up in today’s society? Mark Cousins, the award-winning filmmaker behind The Story of Film: An Odyssey, The Eyes of Orson Welles, and The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, tackles this question and looks at the auteur with a new and radical approach: through the use of his own voice. As Hitchcock rewatches his films, we are taken on an odyssey through his vast career – his vivid silent films, the legendary films of the 1950s and 60s and his later works – in playful and revealing ways. Total Runtime: 120 mins “Hitch feels brought to life again…there’s a feeling of surprise, invention, and spontaneity.” —Indiewire ★★★★ “In My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock there is so much to learn and enjoy. You come away from it with your senses fine-tuned.” —The Guardian

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! RACETRACK (1985) is about the Belmont Race Track, one of the world’s leading race tracks for thoroughbred racing. The film highlights the training, maintaining and racing of thoroughbred horses. Everyday occurrences are shown: in the backstretch — the grooming, feeding, shoeing, and caring for horses and the preparation for races; at the practice track the various aspects of training, exercising, and timing the horses; at the paddock — the pre-race presentation of the horses; and in the grandstand — betting and watching the races. The film also has sequences showing the variety of work done by trainers, jockeys, jockey agents, grooms, hot walkers, stable hands, and veterinarians. Total runtime: 114 mins “Beginning with the birth of a thoroughbred and running through to the conclusion of the 1981 Belmont Stakes in which Summing upset heavily-favored Pleasant Colony, RACETRACK makes all other movies about horse races, including the few cute ones look like a ride on a cute little merry-go-round.” -Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune “Wiseman wanders around Belmont finding ripe, illustrative material, most of which fits into the abiding themes of his films, the melancholia peculiar to industrial societies, the emotional wages of materialism. Horse racing is a small industry comparatively, but it serves as a rich microcosm… It’s a super super film, from a super super filmmaker” -Tom Shales, The Washington Post “The film is not about winning or losing; the show is about an institution, an industry, and its rituals. In RACETRACK, the industry Wiseman reveals is a peculiar one, pervaded by both a romantic respect for the magnificent animals at its center and an almost corporate atmosphere.” -Cathleen Schine, Vogue

Presented as part of CCA's monthly Cult Film Series on the film's 40th Anniversary! A quintessential cult film of the 1980s, Alex Cox’s singular sci-fi comedy REPO MAN stars the always captivating Harry Dean Stanton as a weathered repo man in a desolate Los Angeles, and Emilio Estevez as the nihilistic middle-class punk he takes under his wing. The job becomes more than either of them bargained for when they get involved in repossessing a mysterious —and otherworldly—Chevy Malibu with a hefty reward attached to it. Featuring the ultimate early-eighties LA punk soundtrack, this grungily hilarious odyssey is also a politically trenchant take on President Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies. Total runtime: 92 mins

Presented in partnership with May Center for Learning and the International Dyslexia Association-Southwest Branch (SWIDA). Panel discussion and reception to follow the film presentation. The Right to Read shares the stories of an NAACP activist, a teacher, and two American families who fight to provide our youngest generation with the most foundational indicator of lifelong success: the ability to read. "Illiteracy is one of the most solvable problems of our time. We made this film to show the importance of early literacy and how crucial it is for children's lifelong success. Reading is at the core of our democracy. Our future depends on ensuring all students are equipped with the skills to build an equitable society for us all." –Jenny Mackenzie, Director of A Right to Read

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! Filmed in the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas at the main Neiman-Marcus store and corporate headquarters in Dallas, TX, Wiseman’s revelatory look at the renowned department store discloses the many strategies and practices involved in the selling of luxury goods, from sable coats to lingerie. As he cuts between marketing meetings, personnel training, and fitting room sessions, Wiseman deftly shows how the store’s many departments operate in sync, enticing their customers into buying products on every floor. According to Wiseman, The Store was made as an outgrowth of his previous documentary Model (1981), in which he focused on “the aestheticization of the body to sell commercial products.” Here, his attention to how those products are sold alongside his depiction of everyone involved in manicuring their appearance to look desirable—from workers arranging light fixtures to salespeople pulling samples for customers—zeroes in on the sophisticated customs involved in selling and buying products in America, an everyday transaction that Wiseman is keen to present as an event rather than a banality. ”If you are going to have theories about American society, you’ve got to look at all aspects of it.” You’ve got to look at how the images are created that affect people’s lives and the choices of consumer goods they buy.” -FREDERICK WISEMAN Total runtime: 118 mins

TOPSY TURVY A grandly entertaining, immersive costume epic, half drama, half musical, that recreates the creation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s great operetta The Mikado. Director Mike Leigh — Secrets & Lies; Naked — showcases the performance of Jim Broadbent’s career as William Gilbert, the hilarious, neurotic and brilliant librettist. Pianist Allan Corduner portrays composer Arthur Sullivan and, like the rest of the cast, performs and sings live, with no overdubs or in-studio corrections. The story follows earlier Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, and presents musical numbers from several, some sung solo and some featuring the entire theatre company. These performances are rich, moving and always witty. Slowly, through Gilbert’s obsessions and frustrations, The Mikado emerges. And thus Topsy Turvy becomes a tale of inspiration and the madness that can accompany it. Leight seamlessly captures 1885 London, with its strict class-driven dress hierarchies, love of cocaine and effortless sophistication. The costumes, whether onstage in the theatre or offstage at home or in public, are gorgeous and the result of much historical research. The cast’s ease with this era and clothes bring another layer of realism. You’ll recognize many English stalwart actors — Timothy Spall and Shirly Henderson are particularly fine; each stars in their own musical numbers. This is sweet, intelligent fun — a Valentine for Christmas. If you know and love Gilbert & Sullivan, there is no better adaptation. And if you’re new to them, you’ll revel in the genius of the lyrics and staging, and understand why their work has so endured, 140 years after The Mikado’s stage premier. -David N. Meyer

A small but growing Texas town, filled with strange and musical characters, celebrates its sesquicentennial and converge on a local parade and talent show.

Since Thom and Henri met 35 years ago, their love for each other has never faltered. The seemingly perfect life they had built in Brussels started to go awry when Henri retired from being a police officer. Now, Henri’s days seem to stretch endlessly, each one as bland as the next while his feelings for Thom are fading fast. They drift away from each other a little more each day, to the point that their house has become a battleground. Thom’s love for Henri remains strong though and he is not ready to give up. He will do anything to save his relationship and rekindle their love, even if that means asking Henri for a divorce. Total Runtime: 83 mins “Belgian filmmaker David Lambert explores couples’ relationships and queer love through different styles and genres, but always casting the same bittersweet gaze on the difficulty of loving and being loved. Films about love, with a twist, in other words, and his fourth feature film Turtles is no exception to this rule.” -Cineuropa Directed by David Lambert 83 mins, 2024 // Belgium, Canada English, French, and German language (with English subtitles) Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+, Comedy

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! WELFARE (1975) shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life. Total runtime: 167 mins “I wish all the public, as well as all legislators and politicians, could see this film. It could have been made in any urban area in the United States…” –James R. Dumpson, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Welfare, in Better Times “WELFARE is an inside look at one of the key institutions around which society functions… and like his other films it is profoundly disturbing, especially for those with preconceptions … As Wiseman’s film shows, a welfare centre is a battleground with the poor fighting desperately against a complex web of Catch 22 regulations that can defeat even the strongest and cleverest… An amazing film.” –Ken Wlaschin, London Film Festival Program, 1975

Join us for the CCA’s year-long Frederick Wiseman Retrospective, where we will showcase twelve of Wiseman’s rarely seen masterworks. Enjoy a Sunday matinee each month from October 2024 through September 2025. Each unique film will be screened just once on our massive Cinema Theater screen. Each film in CCA’s Frederick Wiseman Retrospective has recently been meticulously restored using original 16mm film negatives and sound elements, and has previously never been available in digital format. This monumental five-year long restoration project, overseen and approved by Wiseman himself, is a collaboration between Zipporah Films, the Library of Congress, DuArt Labs and Goldcrest Post Production. Merchandise Alert: Grab your Limited Edition Wiseman Retrospective t-shirts in the cinema lobby, available while supplies last! ZOO is a film about the zoo in Miami, Florida, the care and maintenance of the animals by the keepers, the work of the veterinarians and their staff, and the visits to the zoo by people from all over the world. The film presents the wide diversity of interests and activities at the zoo and the interrelatedness of the animal, human, ethical, financial, technical, organizational and research aspects of operating the zoo. Total runtime: 130 mins "ZOO is a brooding, poignant, poetic consideration of nothing less than the human condition… The awe and wonder and the gratitude we all feel is up there on the screen, but it is humbling, because as Rabbi Wiseman shows us, we are not adequate to be keepers, no matter how hard we may try or how fervently we may pray for help and guidance." –David R. Slavitt, Chronicles "Zoo visitors busily photograph, videotape, and peer through various ocular apparatuses as if they couldn’t see without them; the dedicated, caring staff assiduously records every aspect of their animal charges’ lives, loves, and deaths." –Melissa Pierson, Vogue