Film

Friday-Night First Runs

Directed by John W. Walter, with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Tony Kushner, and George C. Wolfe. This documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at The Public Theatre’s 2006 Central Park production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, including a rare glimpse at lead actor Meryl Streep’s working methods. Cleveland premiere. (USA, 2008, color, Beta SP, 95 min.)

Directed by Koji Masutani. This new piece of speculative history employs films clips and analyses of the crises faced by President John F. Kennedy to ponder how the Vietnam War might have unfolded had Kennedy not been assassinated. Cleveland premiere. (USA, 2008, color, Beta SP, 80 min.)

Explicit Ills
Friday, July 3, 7:00

Directed by Mark Webber, with Rosario Dawson, Paul Dano, and Lou Taylor Pucci. In this all-star indie drama executive-produced by Jim Jarmusch, a starving artist, a struggling actor, and a single mother all living in the same Philadelphia neighborhood come together to fight urban poverty. "A tender ensemble slice of inner-city Philly life." –The Village Voice. Cleveland premiere.

Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America
Friday, July 10, 7:00

Directed by Tony Stone, with Stone. This ambitious (and frequently graphic) independent film is set a thousand years ago on the North American mainland, where two stranded Vikings stumble through the wilderness and struggle to survive until they can reunite with their tribe. "Independent to the nth degree, the movie is (a) mad creation…Part art-cinema oddity, part home-movie extravaganza… American independent cinema could use more young filmmakers who go off the story grid." –The New York Times. Adults only! Cleveland premiere.

Perestroika
Friday, July 17, 7:00

Directed by Slava Tsukerman, with F. Murray Abraham, Sam Robards, and Ally Sheedy. The singular new film from the director of the cult hit Liquid Sky is a heady mix of documentary and fiction, politics and science, flashbacks and present-tense. The movie focuses on the musings of a Russian astrophysicist who, after living in the U.S. for 17 years, returns to Moscow in 1992, during the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Touchingly funny, visually arresting and a consistent joy to watch." –Variety. Cleveland premiere.

Burma VJ
Friday, July 24, 7:00

Directed by Anders Østergaard. The 2007 uprising in Myanmar, in which 100,000 people (including thousands of Buddhist monks) took to the streets to protest the country’s repressive regime, is seen via video footage shot surreptitiously by Democratic Voice of Burma, a collective of 30 independent, underground, anonymous video journalists (VJs). Cleveland premiere.

The Country Teacher
Wednesday, July 29, 6:45
Friday, July 31, 6:45

Directed by Bohdan Sláma. In this sweet, life-affirming drama, a bookish young Czech man who has left Prague to teach natural science at a rural school tries to hide his homosexuality from the locals. A New York Times Critics’ Pick. Cleveland premiere.

Hausu (House)
Friday, August 7, 7:00

Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. This unique, crazy, and stylish horror comedy (a mostly unknown-in-America underground hit that is just now surfacing) tells of seven Japanese high-school girls who vacation at a creepy, secluded old house belonging to the aunt of one of them, where lurk some very unpleasant surprises. Adults only!

Empty Nest
Wednesday, August 12, 7:00
Friday, August 14, 7:00

Directed by Daniel Burman. When the last of their three children moves away, a long-married husband and wife confront "empty nest syndrome" in different ways—she through hyper-activity, he through vivid fantasies. "[A] tender, goofily circular portrait of how we fill up the cavernous space once occupied by children." –The Village Voice. Cleveland premiere.

Kabei: Our Mother
Friday, August 21, 6:30
Sunday, August 23, 1:30

Directed by Yôji Yamada, with Tadanobu Asano. The 80^th film by the veteran director of the beloved Tora-san series is a moving drama about a Tokyo wife who spends WWII struggling to raise her two daughters after her dissident husband is arrested and taken away. A touching tribute to motherhood.

Laila’s Birthday
Friday, August 28, 7:00
Sunday, August 30, 1:30

Directed by Rashid Masharawi, with Mohamed Bakri. This affecting comedy follows a cab driver during the course of one day in contemporary Ramallah. Charged with buying a present and a cake for his daughter’s seventh birthday, he finds this simple task complicated by the chaos and indignities of living in the occupied West Bank. "A brilliant fusion of road movie, family drama, cinema of the absurd, and sociological exposé." –Screen International. Cleveland premiere.

Michael Ruhlman introduces
Food Fight
Wednesday, June 3, 6:45

Directed by Christopher Taylor, with Alice Waters. Celebrated food writer Michael Ruhlman will appear in person with this new documentary that traces the origins of the local-sustainable-organic food movement that arose in Berkeley in the 1960s and 1970s and took on big agribusiness. “Serves up the history and politics of how America eats in a breezy, amusing way.” –L.A. Weekly. Cleveland premiere. (USA, 2008, color, Beta SP, 83 min.)

Directed by Craig Baldwin. The latest crazy-quilt collage film from "culture jammer" Craig Baldwin cobbles together new material and bizarre found footage to tell an outlandish story, set in 2019 on the moon, involving scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, a female spy, rocket scientist Jack Parsons, and a defense contractor named Lockheed Martin "Dense yet delightful." –Variety. Cleveland premiere. (USA, 2008, color/b&w, Beta SP, 110 min.)

Guest of Cindy Sherman
Wednesday, July 1, 7:00

Directed by Paul H-O (Hasegawa-Overacker) and Tom Donahue, with Cindy Sherman, John Waters, Eric Fischl, et al. This nonfiction film chronicles how the host of a New York City cable access show became the boyfriend of famed photographer Cindy Sherman—for a while. "A highly entertaining evisceration and celebration of the [art-world] milieu." –The Village Voice.

Carmen & Geoffrey
Wednesday, July 8, 7:00

Directed by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob. This film pays loving tribute to the five-decade marriage and creative partnership of renowned modern dancers/choreographers/actors Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder. Includes stunning archival performance footage. Cleveland premiere.

Nursery University
Wednesday, July 15, 5:15 and 7:15, recital hall

Directed by Marc H. Simon and Matthew Makar. Upper-crust Manhattanites frantically try to enroll their kids in New York’s most elite private preschools in this wry new documentary. "A Spellbound in training pants." –Daily Variety. Cleveland premiere.

The Lost Son of Havana
Wednesday, July 15, 7:00

Directed by Jonathan Hock. Forty-six years after leaving Havana to play for the Cleveland Indians, legendary pitcher Luis Tiant returns to his native Cuba. This moving new documentary captures his bittersweet homecoming. "Quietly powerful, genuinely heartfelt." –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere.

Carry It On
Wednesday, August 5, 7:00

Directed by James Coyne, with Joan Baez. Long out of theatrical release, this music-filled, late-1960s time capsule focuses on singer Joan Baez and her then-husband, peace activist David Harris, at the time of his arrest for dodging the draft.