September 8, 2022    

Notorious

Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. Notorious is considered by critics and scholars to mark a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and to represent a heightened thematic maturity. Notorious was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

October 13, 2022

Roma

Roma Cleo is one of two domestic workers who help Antonio and Sofia take care of their four children in 1970’s Mexico City.  Complications soon arise when Antonio suddenly runs away with his mistress and Cleo finds out that she’s pregnant.  When Sofia decides to take the kids on vacation, she invites Cleo for a much-needed getaway to clear her mind and bond with the family.  ‘Won many awards including 2020 Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography and Best Director.

November 10, 2022

13^th

Director Ava DuVerne explores the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the US.  She shows how the war on drugs weighs more heavily on minority communities and how mass incarceration affects communities of color.  She examines the prison-industrial complex and the emerging detention-industrial complex showing how much money iss being made by corporations from incarceration.  Nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards: won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary.

December 8, 2022

Lady Bird

A nurse works tirelessly to keep her family float after husband loses his job.  She also maintains a turbulent bond with a teenage daughter who is just like her – loving, strong-willed and deeply opinionated.  Numerous awards including Golden Globe Best Movie and Actor in a supporting role in a musical or comedy.

January, 2023

American Factory

In poor industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans.  Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.  This documentary uses a fly-on-the-wall approach in which no dialogue external to the subjects of the film is included, and the sounds of the factory and dialogue of the workers is prioritized.  On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 96%.  The film won Best Documentary Feature at the 2020 Academy Awards, as well as the Independent Spirit Award in the same category.

February, 2023

Jai Bhim

A pregnant woman from a primitive tribal community searches desperately for her husband who is missing from police custody.  So as to find her husband and seek justice for them, as their voice, a High Court Advocate rises in support.  Will their battle for justice succeed?  The film deals with the subject of police bias and state violence against a marginalized community.  The film received universal acclaim from critics, and several publications listed it as “one of the best Tamil and Indian films of 2021.”

March, 2023

Shoplifters

A Japanese couple stuck with part-time jobs and hence inadequate income avail themselves of the fruits of shoplifting to make ends meet.  They are not alone in this behavior.  The younger and older of the household are in on the art.  This usual routine is about to change from care-free and matter-of-fact to something more dramatic, however, as the couple open their doors to a beleaguered young girl.

April, 2023

Mimi

Mimi is a small-town girl from Rajasthan who gets offered money to act as a surrogate for an American couple.  The charismatic middleman manages to convince both parties.  The only hindrance is how Mimi will hide her pregnant belly from her parents and society at large.  The film touches on the challenges of surrogacy and how society looks at it.

May, 2023

Power of the Dog

A revisionist Western psychological drama.  A domineering rancher reacts with mocking cruelty hen his brother brings home a new wife and her son, until the unexpected comes to pass.  Oscar for Best Director.

June, 2023

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

This drama is based on a memoir, telling the story of William Kamkwambe, a farm boy in Malawi, who has a talent for fixing radios for his friends and neighbors and spends his free time looking through the junkyard for salvageable electronic components.  When William must leave school because his family can’t afford tuition, he blackmails his science teacher to have access to the school library.  When crops fail in the mid-2000’s owing to drought, and famine devastates the village, William attempts to use his knowledge to save the village.  Critics say the excellent script and performances set this film apart from other inspirational films.

July, 2023

The Hero

Filmed in Iran, Rahine is in prison because of a debt he was unable to copay.  During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment, but things don’t go as planned.  The director takes a seemingly straightforward situation and then effortlessly turns it into a complex, challenging and nerve-wracking moral conundrum.

August, 2023

Struggle: Life and Lost Art of Szukalski

Archival footage and interviews offer insight into the life and career of Polish painter and sculptor, Stanislaw Szukalski.  It tells the story of his troubled life and complicated body of work.  He created his own language and was a self-taught sculptor who once lost all his work in a Nazi bombing raid.  It also focuses on his nationalism and anti-semitic tendencies in the lead-up to WWII, and his subsequent repentance during the second half of his life.