As in years past, we’re honored to present a program of all of the Academy Award® nominated short documentary films (in addition to the short animation and live-action films, which are playing in a program of their own – see the DFT brochure or DIA website for details).

Feature-length documentaries have for several years enjoyed a higher profile than ever among moviegoers, but just as with the live-action and animated short film categories, short documentaries – which are often every bit as powerful as each year’s nominated feature-length docs – have enjoyed a rapidly growing base of enthusiasts who love to experience their expansive, enlightening exploration of the world on the big screen.

Advance ticket purchase is recommended, but remaining seats will be available at the door prior to each performance. The documentary program generally runs a bit over three hours, including one 25-minute intermission. 

In conjunction with the exhibition Van Gogh in America, the Detroit Institute of Arts is hosting two scholarly panel discussions on January 12, 2023.

The second session, which will take place in the DIA’s Lecture Hall and simultaneously livestreamed (on YouTube and Facebook), will discuss the myths surrounding Van Gogh’s persona and his body of work that pervade global popular culture.

This panel discussion featuring Nienke Bakker, Senior Curator, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, as well as Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorp, both Senior Researchers at the Van Gogh Museum, will discuss some of the many myths that surround Van Gogh and how studies of the posthumous reception of the artist worldwide can help to shed light on the creation and perpetuation of some of these myths.

This discussion will be moderated by DIA curators Jill Shaw (Head, The James Pearson Duffy Department of Modern and Contemporary Art and Rebecca A. Boylan and Thomas W. Sidlik Curator of European Art, 1850–1970) and Dorota Chudzicka (Assistant Curator of Modern European Art).

In conjunction with the exhibition Van Gogh in America, the Detroit Institute of Arts is hosting two scholarly panel discussions on January 12, 2023. The first session, which will be all virtual, will explore the reception of Van Gogh and his art and the history of Van Gogh’s legacy across various geographies: in Holland, Germany, France, Great Britain, United States, and Japan.

Speakers include:

• Chris Stolwijk, General Director RKD–Netherlands Institute for Art History / Professor of History of Dutch Art in an International Context, 1800–1940, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• Alexander Eiling, Head of Modern Art, Städel Museum, Frankfurt
• Bregje Gerritse, Researcher, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
• Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850–1915, Tate Britain, London
• Jill Shaw, Head, The James Pearson Duffy Department of Modern and Contemporary Art and Rebecca A. Boylan and Thomas W. Sidlik Curator of European Art, 1850–1970, Detroit Institute of Arts
• Tsukasa Kōdera, Professor of Western Art History, Osaka University

Moderator: Dorota Chudzicka, Assistant Curator of Modern European Art, Detroit Institute of Arts
 

France/2022—directed by Alice Diop | 122 minutes

Rama (Kayije Kagame), a successful Parisian journalist, has come to the small French town of Saint Omer to attend the trial of a young Senegalese woman charged with killing her baby daughter. Although she admits to the act, Laurence (Guslagie Malanda) cannot or will not describe her motivation, claiming it was out of her control and adding, “I don’t know. I hope this trial can help me understand.”

The complex mysteries at the heart of this absorbing, wholly original take on both the courtroom drama and the African immigrant experience unfold like a Russian nesting doll. Is the accused a liar, a victim, a sorceress, or all of the above?  

In her remarkable fiction feature debut, Senegalese-French documentarian Alice Diop constructs a captivating, sensitive, superbly acted drama of continuously revealing layers. At once a modern suspense classic, a work of psychological portraiture and a provocative examination of the limits of cross-cultural knowledge, Saint Omer is France’s official submission for Best International Feature to the 2023 Academy Awards®. Silver Lion Winner, Venice Film Festival.

“Extraordinary from beginning to end. Compelling and finely wrought, Saint Omer tears the heart and boggles the mind.” —Amy Taubin, Artforum
 

South Korea/2022—directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda | 129 minutes

Five years after winning the Cannes Film Festival’s highest award for Shoplifters (DFT 2017), the Oscar® nominated Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Broker, the tale of two men who – under the radar of the legal system – accept custody of unwanted infants which they then sell to affluent childless couples.

Circumventing the bureaucracy – and accountability – of legal adoption, these “brokers” try in their limited way to act morally by matching the children with responsible families. But after one infant’s mother surprises the duo by demanding to supervise her baby’s placement, the three unlikely partners embark on a search for the perfect couple, while unintentionally building an unlikely “family” of their own. Thoughtful, powerful, surprisingly witty, and deeply, generously humane, Broker is the gift of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

Parasite’s Song Kang Ho won the Best Actor Prize at Cannes for Broker, the first South Korean actor to receive the honor. In Korean with English subtitles.

“Five Stars! Big-hearted and directed with impeccable skill, delicacy and compassion as secret motives are revealed, sympathies shift, and dangers multiply.” – Nicholas Barber, BBC Culture 

Poland/Italy/2022—directed by Jerzy Skolimowski | 86 minutes

After leaving a traveling circus – the only life he’s ever known – EO, a grey donkey with melancholic and expressive eyes, begins a journey across the Polish and Italian countryside, encountering the unfathomable chasms between cruelty and kindness, captivity and freedom. Legendary 84-year-old master director Jerzy Skolimowski (The Shout) imagines EO’s mesmerizing journey as an ever-shifting interior landscape, marked by absurdity and warmth in equal measure, and always putting the viewer in the relatable perspective of the movie’s four-legged protagonist.

With EO, one of the most visually inventive films of his long career, Skolimowski the artist has constructed a bold, avant-garde vision of the follies and wonders of human nature as seen from the ultimate outsider’s perspective – not even for a moment does this wondrous character lose his innocence.

Recommended for audiences 16 and up. Jury Prize Winner, 2022 Cannes Film Festival; Poland’s official submission to the 2023 Academy Awards® for Best International Feature. In Polish, Italian, English and French with English subtitles.

“A flamboyant, visionary work. The wildest, youngest film in the Cannes lineup was made by an 84-year-old director up for anything.” – Jonathan Romney, Film Comment 

Join us for a dramatic reading of Van Gogh’s Letters presented in conjunction with the Van Gogh in America exhibition now on view at the DIA. The DIA has selected several of Van Gogh’s letters to friends and family that help paint a picture of the artist’s life through his own words.

To bring the letters to life the DIA has partnered with Shakespeare in Detroit, a nonprofit organization that enhances and supports the cultural growth of Detroit with professional theatre created through a conscious lens of equity, diversity and inclusion. The letters will be performed by actors of various backgrounds enhancing the appreciation and interpretation of the correspondences.

This evening of intimate performance will be presented in the DIA’s Lecture Hall. 

François Truffaut’s celebrated, autobiographical “Antoine Doinel” films span 20 years in the life of the late director and his great star, Jean-Pierre Léaud, not to mention the character that Léaud so brilliantly incarnates on screen. Rarely screened together, these five masterworks will be shown at the Detroit Film Theatre Auditorium on one weekend, in chronological order, and in newly restored versions.

The 400 Blows (1959) chronicles the development of the rebellious, delinquent, 14-year-old character of Antoine who then becomes the independent, determined adolescent in Antoine and Colette (1962), the romantic, would-be professional in Stolen Kissses (1968), and then ultimately the resilient but never-satisfied thirty-something in Bed and Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979). 

Tickets to each film are available separately, but for those who want the full experience, a pass to all five films to this once-only “Antoine-a-Thon” is available for just $20. 

Italy/2021-directed by Guiseppe Piccioni | 125 min.

Picture this: it's 1938, Ascoli Piceno. It’s an ordinary day in a provincial town like so many others in Italy. The tables are set and Luciano has just opened his restaurant. Behind the large windows overlooking the old town square, the small town life in those years happen. These are the years of consent, public works and new cities. Luciano is a fascist, like the majority of Italians at that time, but in his own way.  What he cares about are his restaurant and the daily tasks to which he diligently dedicates himself. Until one day outside the restaurant window, a young woman appears and timidly asks him if he is looking for staff.  But that young woman has a secret. 

The Italian Film Festival USA is the largest festival dedicated exclusively to Italian film in the USA, present in 14 cities from coast to coast. The 2022 edition brings you the best line-up of recent Italian cinema with films from award-winning directors, as well as debut films from exciting new talent. This is your chance to see the latest and best in Italian film. 

Presented in partnership with the Consulate of Italy in Detroit.

Experience the highlights of the DIA by taking a free guided tour of the museum. Tours depart from Great Hall at the following times:

• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - 1 p.m.
• Friday - 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
• Saturday, Sunday - 1 p.m.

Tours last 45-60 minutes.