The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated by writer/director Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for her revelatory fiction feature debut. Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital—head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha)—plus their coworker, cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), Kapadia’s film alights on moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment. Prabha, her husband from an arranged marriage living in faraway Germany, is courted by a doctor at her hospital; Anu carries on a romance with a Muslim man, which she must keep a secret from her strict Hindu family; Parvaty finds herself dealing with a sudden eviction from her apartment. Kapadia captures the bustle of the metropolis and the open-air tranquility of a seaside village with equal radiance, articulated by her superb actresses and by the camera with a lyrical naturalism that occasionally drifts into dreamlike incandescence. All We Imagine as Light is a soulful study of the transformative power of friendship and sisterhood, in all its complexities and richness.

Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and ‘70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers – brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane – are today acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as America’s most innovative art form. FIRE MUSIC showcases the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries, and produced landmark albums like Coleman’s Free Jazz: A Collective Inspiration and Coltrane’s Ascension. A rich trove of archival footage conjures the 1960s jazz scene along with incisive reflections by critic Gary Giddins and a number of the movement’s key players.

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

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly series on arthouse classics and underseen cinema, Closer Looks. This month’s selection was made by CCA staff member, Matthew Cannella, who will offer a brief introduction before the screening. ONE NIGHT ONLY! With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism’s legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema. Total Runtime: 93 mins “A dazzling riff on Melville’s Billy Budd. You’ll never forget the final scene, when the amazing Denis Lavant starts to dance.” -Susan Sontag, Artforum “[Claire] Denis has crafted a psychological portrait as exquisite and harsh as the East African landscape so gorgeously captured by cinematographer Agnès Godard.” -CineWomen “Ardent and unflinching, Beau Travail looks beyond homoeroticism to the subtle, savage power games of an all-male world.” -Out Magazine “The movie is a mass of engorged muscles and entwined limbs; desire rerouted through conformity and cruelty in the rhythm of the night.” -WBUR’s Arts & Culture

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly Amplified series on music and film! ONE NIGHT ONLY! Cornetist / pianist / composer Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was jazz’s man who got away – the James Dean, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain of his day. Born in Davenport, Iowa into an upper middle-class family, Beiderbecke became a legend even in his short lifetime, bringing an amazing new energy and unprecedented maturity to the music and influencing generations of musicians. After a bout battling alcoholism, Bix died in Sunnyside, Queens on August 6, 1931. The cause of death was lobar pneumonia. He was 28 years old. Using archival photographs and rare footage (including the three sole momentary fragments capturing Bix on film) and interviews with friends and colleagues (including jazz greats Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham, Artie Shaw, et al.), Oscar® winner Brigitte Berman’s acclaimed documentary paints a vivid portrait of a vanished era and brings to life the only cornetist Louis Armstrong regarded as an equal (the quotation in the film’s title was once spoken by Armstrong). New restoration by Oren Edenson with fully remastered soundtrack by Daniel Pellerin. Total Runtime: 116 mins “EXTRAORDINARY” – The New York Times “An excellently filmed version of a musical legend, with the added impact of a tragedy… it is not a tale of self-destruction but of an innocent figure, fantastically gifted with everything but worldly wisdom.” – Variety “A masterful job of evoking the 1920s Zeitgeist with a superb soundtrack.” – Leonard Feather (jazz musician and historian) “Berman captures Bix fully… In the end, BIX is about the artist – any artist with a talent he can’t contain or fully express. There’s thus an audience far beyond those of us in the Bix brigade.” – Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly Cult Film series & programmed specifically for Valentine’s Day! ONE NIGHT ONLY! After serving five years in prison, Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) heads home to impress his parents (Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara) who believe he is a successful businessman about to be married. Billy kidnaps a teenage dance student named Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pose as his loving fiancée. To Billy’s dismay, Layla takes to her role enthusiastically. She breaks through to Billy’s obsessive Buffalo Bills football fan mother and hard-edged father, and falls for Billy while doing so. After a night of bowling and not touching each other, Billy comes to the realization that his arch-enemy is actually a pretty decent guy and that love is possible. TOTAL RUNTIME: 1 hr 50 mins “Gallo’s combination of crudeness and sophistication has a preternatural power.” -Slate “Though bleak and at times brutal, Buffalo ’66 manages to evoke a world of sensitivity that’s, dare I say, rather feminine.” -Erica Peplin, Vague Visages “The intimate, idiosyncratic and very funny Buffalo ’66 –directed by and starring Vincent Gallo, from a semi-autobiographical script co-authored with Alison Bagnall –feels like a projection of Gallo’s very psyche.” -Washington Post “Gallo’s directorial debut is one of a kind, an eccentric, provocative comedy which laces a poignant love story with both a sombre, washed-out naturalism and surreal musical vignettes.” -Time Out “Alternately satirical and romantic, full of pain and humor, Buffalo ’66 is a winner.” -LA Times “Gallo does a handsome job of creating a world and a set of characters that feel wholly authentic, and that in itself is a rare enough treat.” -Ray Green, Box Office Magazine

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly series on arthouse classics and underseen cinema, Closer Looks. This month’s selection was made by CCA Cinema Director, Justin Rhody, who will offer a brief introduction before the screening. ONE NIGHT ONLY! A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage captured over the twenty-five-year career of documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Through a series of episodic juxtapositions, Johnson explores the relationships between image makers and their subjects, the tension between the objectivity and intervention of the camera, and the complex interaction of unfiltered reality and crafted narrative. A work that combines documentary, autobiography, and ethical inquiry, Cameraperson is both a moving glimpse into one filmmaker’s personal journey and a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world. Total Runtime: 102 mins 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes! “A labor of love of the highest order.” -Film Comment “A thoughtful examination of the role of the documentary-maker.” -Time Out “Cameraperson draws our attention not just to what we’re seeing, but to how we’re seeing it. It encourages us to wonder how a camera operator negotiates personal space in tense, intimate, emotionally fraught situations.” -Village Voice “Cameraperson testifies to a world in which it would be clear to see that we’re all connected, if only we took the time to look at one another with reverence and simply listen. -Washington Post

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly series on arthouse classics and underseen cinema, Closer Looks. This month’s selection was made by CCA staff member, Grace Davis, who will offer a brief introduction before the screening. ONE NIGHT ONLY! Maybe the Czechoslovak New Wave’s most anarchic entry, Věra Chytilová’s absurdist farce follows the misadventures of two brash young women. Believing the world to be “spoiled,” they embark on a series of pranks in which nothing—food, clothes, men, war—is taken seriously. Daisies is an aesthetically and politically adventurous film that’s widely considered one of the great works of feminist cinema. Presented from a 4K Restoration! Total Runtime: 76 mins “With its recent 4k restoration, “Daisies” endures as a New Wave masterpiece and hyper-feminine smorgasbord of sensory pleasure.” -Hyperallergic “Madness follows austerity, arbitrariness follows discipline, an orgy of colors follows gray. The inconsistencies in the story, the strangeness of the setting feel effortlessly modern, as does the extremely original use of photography.” -Cahiers du Cinema “Brace yourself for some of the most exuberant and disjunctive Pop Art imagery ever put onscreen, including scenes in which the scissors-happy hedonists shred not only objects and each other but the movie itself.” -New York Magazine

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

ONE NIGHT ONLY! Film screening followed by an EXCLUSIVE pre-recorded Q&A featuring director Gary Hustwit. This version of the film will NEVER be screened again - EVER! For the past 50 years, Brian Eno has been at the forefront of musical creativity, technology, and artistic innovation. The hugely influential British musician, producer, activist, visual artist and self-described “sonic landscaper” began his career as an original member of the legendary Roxy Music in the early 1970s. He left the band to release a series of solo records and later pioneered the genre of ambient music with his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports. As a producer, Brian Eno has helped define and reinvent the sound of some of the most important artists in music, including David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, Coldplay, and dozens of others. He also composed what may be the most heard piece of music in the world: the startup sound for Microsoft Windows. Undeniably, Eno has changed the way modern music is made. Rich with access to hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage and unreleased music, Gary Hustwit’s documentary Eno employs groundbreaking technology to accomplish something that’s never been done before: a feature film that’s never the same twice. Hustwit and creative technologist Brendan Dawes have developed bespoke generative software designed to sequence scenes and create transitions out of Hustwit’s original interviews with Eno, and Eno’s rich archive of hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage, and unreleased music. Each screening of Eno is unique, presenting different scenes, order, music, and meant to be experienced live. The generative and infinitely iterative quality of Eno poetically resonates with the artist's own creative practice, his methods of using technology to compose music, and his endless deep dive into the mercurial essence of creativity. Hustwit’s collaboration with Eno first began in 2017, when Eno created an original score for Hustwit’s film Rams, about the German designer Dieter Rams. Says Hustwit, “Much of Brian’s career has been about enabling creativity in himself and others, through his role as a producer but also through his collaborations on projects like the Oblique Strategies cards or the music app Bloom. I think of Eno as an art film about creativity, with the output of Brian’s 50-year career as its raw material. What I’m trying to do is to create a cinematic experience that’s as innovative as Brian’s approach to music and art.” “Groundbreaking” -Rolling Stone “Revolutionary” -Screen Daily “A template for how cinema can be re-defined in the digital age” -The Quietus “Remarkable” -Forbes

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

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly Cult Film series! Glamour has never been more grotesque than in Female Trouble (1974), which injects the Hollywood melodrama with anarchic decadence. Divine, director John Waters’ larger-than-life muse, engulfs the screen with charisma as Dawn Davenport, the living embodiment of the film’s lurid mantra, “Crime is beauty,” who progresses from a teenage nightmare hell-bent on getting cha-cha heels for Christmas to a fame monster whose egomaniacal impulses land her in the electric chair. Shot in Waters’ native Baltimore on 16mm film, with a cast drawn from his beloved troupe of regulars, the Dreamlanders (including Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller), this film­—the director’s favorite of his work with Divine—comes to life through the tinsel-toned vision of production designer Vincent Peranio and costume designer/makeup artist Van Smith. An endlessly quotable fan favorite, Female Trouble offers up perverse pleasures that never fail to satisfy. Total Runtime: 89 mins

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly Cult Film series! Meet Big and Little Edie Beale: mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, and reclusive cousins of Jackie Onassis. The two manage to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton, New York, mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot. An impossibly intimate portrait, this 1976 documentary by Albert and David Maysles, codirected by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. Total Runtime: 94 mins

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

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

Presented ONE DAY ONLY, with matinee and evening screenings, for CCA Member’s only! Tickets available first-come, first served. Want to attend, and receive other membership benefits, but you’re not currently a member? No problem! CCA Memberships can be purchased at a variety of levels on both our website as well as in person at the cinema box office! Armageddon has never been so darkly funny as in The Atomic Cafe. This 1982 cult classic juxtaposes Cold War history, propaganda, music and culture, seamlessly crafted from government-produced educational and training films, newsreels and advertisements. Taken together, these sources cheerily instruct the public on how to live in the Atomic Age, how to survive a nuclear attack (!) … and how to fight and win a nuclear war. As a U.S. Army training film advises, “Viewed from a safe distance, the atomic bomb is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen by man.” Returning to theaters in a sparkling 4K digital restoration created by IndieCollect, The Atomic Cafe is an absurdist blast from the past that would be downright laughable if it weren’t so eerily relevant to our fake news present. “Bitterly funny… as vital as ever. A time capsule of a time capsule, the 1982 documentary compilation film The Atomic Cafe feels suddenly, enragingly relevant again… back to remind us how fucked we truly are, and perhaps have always been.” – Bilge Ebiri, Village Voice “One of the funniest documentaries ever made. Feels more sharply relevant than ever.” – Dan Schindel, Hyperallergic “A stunner, a movie that has one howling with laughter, horror and disbelief. Deserves national attention.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times Free to CCA Members

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

Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.

Leonard Fife, one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam, shares all his secrets to de-mythologize his mythologized life.

1950. William Lee, an American expat in Mexico City, spends his days almost entirely alone, except for a few contacts with other members of the small American community. His encounter with Eugene Allerton, an expat former soldier, new to the city, shows him, for the first time, that it might be finally possible to establish an intimate connection with somebody.

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

Celebrating the work of actress Gena Rowlands, who passed away in 2024. ONE NIGHT ONLY! “She’s tough… but she sides with the little guy. And she’s out to beat the mob at their own game.” When a young boy’s family is killed by the mob, their tough neighbor Gloria (Gena Rowlands) becomes his reluctant guardian. In possession of a book that the gangsters want, the pair go on the run in New York. Gloria must rely on all her street-savvy to prevent both herself and the boy from being the mobster’s next target. “It’s clear from the opening montage that we’re in the hands of a master.” -Time Out “John Cassavetes clearly set out to make a commercial film, but, intransigent personality that he was, he turned in a slice of pure avant-garde.” -Chicago Reader

Rude Boy is a semi-documentary, part character study, part 'rockumentary', featuring a British punk band, The Clash. The script includes the story of a fictional fan juxtposed with actual public events of the day, including political demonstrations and Clash concerts.

Presented as part of CCA’s monthly series on arthouse classics and underseen cinema, Closer Looks. This month’s selection was made by CCA Cinema Manager, Jayson Jacobsen, who will offer a brief introduction before the screening. ONE NIGHT ONLY! PRESENTED FROM A NEW 4K RESTORATION! In the psychedelic crucible of 1970s cinema, Alejandro Jodorowsky emerged as a revolutionary force with EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN - films that shattered conventional boundaries between avant-garde artistry and visceral entertainment. In 1989, this maverick auteur returned with SANTA SANGRE, a haunting masterwork that plumbs the depths of human consciousness. At its dark heart lies the tale of a traumatized circus performer, whose soul is fractured by an act of violent passion. His subsequent descent leads him through a phantasmagoric underworld, where he must confront his past - embodied by his armless mother and a deaf-mute tightrope walker who captured his heart. This hallucinatory journey blends religious ecstasy with carnal horror, divine revelation with sacrilege, and transcendent beauty with the grotesque. SANTA SANGRE stands as a singular achievement in cinema - a fever dream that defies categorization. Starring Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, and Guy Stockwell, this surrealist odyssey continues to hypnotize and disturb audiences with its radical vision, cementing Jodorowsky's legacy as one of film's most daring innovators. Total Runtime: 123 Minutes “A movie like none other I have seen before...a film in which the inner chambers of the soul are laid bare.” —Roger Ebert "Like a circus show glimpsed through shattered stained glass, Santa Sangre reconstructs reality according to its own delirious logic - an experience that's so rad it will brand itself into your brain and have your synapses hosting a three-ring circus of surrealist spectacle long after the credits roll, leaving you to wonder if movies have been holding out on us this whole time." —Jayson Jacobsen

The epic revenge story you know and love hits the big screen in a lavish, mega-budget blockbuster! A perfect post-holiday antidote to the more serious fare that dominates, this is a joyously fun story for the whole family. Arrested on his wedding day for a crime he didn’t commit, Edmond Dantes spends fourteen years in prison. After a daring escape, he becomes the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo and seeks his revenge on the three men who betrayed him. Directed by Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte. Starring Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon, and Anaïs Demoustier. Total Runtime: 178 mins 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes! “The pay-off is a fast-moving, good-looking gallop of Mission: Impossible-style mask play, languorous conniving in courtyards and occasional outbreaks of derring-do that chews up three hours without pausing for quail sandwiches.” -The Guardian “A stunning, emotionally satisfying adventure tale, built on rock-solid source material. Compared to earlier adaptations, this latest version is briskly paced and rousingly acted by an all-around stellar ensemble.” -Variety “Everything about this robust and very enjoyable retelling of the Alexandre Dumas classic is epic in scale: from the lavish sets and the orchestral score to the bold performances and the hefty running time. But it is an epic approach that is well-earned.” -Screen International

From Academy Award®-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) comes a poignant and deeply human musical about a family that survived the end of the world. An urgent and unforgettable cautionary tale, The End stars Academy Award® winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), Academy Award® nominee Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals, Revolutionary Road), George MacKay (1917) and Moses Ingram (Lady in the Lake, The Queen’s Gambit). The screenplay is by Oppenheimer and Rasmus Heisterberg (A Royal Affair), with songs by Joshua Schmidt (music) and Oppenheimer (lyrics).

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! 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