USA/2024 — dir. Gary Hustwit 

Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno has produced albums for David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, and many more. He was a founding member of Roxy Music, pioneered the genre of ambient music, and has released more than 40 solo and collaborative albums. Eno has always been a fearless embracer of new technologies in the service of creative endeavors and this biopic is no different.

It uses a proprietary generative software system developed by Hustwit and digital artist Brendan Dawes to create a new film that is unique for each audience. Eno has millions of possible variations drawn from Hustwit’s original interviews and the artist's own archive of hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage and unreleased music.

The result is a film that resonates with Eno’s own artistic practice, his methods of using technology to compose music, and his endless deep dive into the mercurial essence of creativity. 

Tickets are available in advance and at the door exclusively on the Eno website.

USA/2024 — dir. Dawn Porter

The signer Luther Vandross started his career supporting David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and many more. He was nicknamed "the Velvet Voice," and despite having multiple platinum albums and top 10 hits, he struggled to break out of the R&B charts.

“Considering the stamp he put on the American music industry, it feels strange there hasn’t yet been a documentary about his legacy until Dawn Porter’s Luther: Never Too Much … after experiencing her loving portrait you can’t imagine Vandross’ story being told by anyone else.” — Tomris Laffley, Indiewire

Tickets for all Freep Film Festival screenings hosted at Detroit Film Theatre are available in advance at freepfilmfestival.com.

Produced by the Detroit Free Press, the Freep Film Festival focuses on documentaries, especially those with connections to Detroit and Michigan. Screenings include in-depth discussions with directors, film subjects, and community members. Freep Film Festival also presents live events at venues throughout metro Detroit, with activities centered in the downtown core. 

USA/2024 — dir. Mark Stryker | 78 min.

You can’t tell the history of Jazz without telling the story of Detroit. The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit explores the lives of the city’s innovative and influential musicians during Detroit’s dramatic rise as an industrial power.

Scores of world-class musicians have rolled off Detroit’s assembly line, nurtured by the profound legacy of mentors such as Barry Harris, Marcus Belgrave, and Rodney Whitaker. The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit reminds audiences how and why the city has become the once and future crossroads for American Jazz masters. 

Tickets for all Freep Film Festival screenings hosted at Detroit Film Theatre are available in advance at freepfilmfestival.com. 

Produced by the Detroit Free Press, the Freep Film Festival focuses on documentaries, especially those with connections to Detroit and Michigan. Screenings include in-depth discussions with directors, film subjects, and community members. Freep Film Festival also presents live events at venues throughout metro Detroit, with activities centered in the downtown core.
 

USA/2023 — dir. Mitch McCabe | 75 min.

Part verité essay, part political diary, 23 Mile is an experimental nonfiction film that follows Michigan citizens during the difficult, tumultuous year that was 2020, where political events included a plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the world went into COVID lockdown. McCabe's film shows the full scope of humanity, though, and makes viewers question their assumptions about race, class, social status, and geographical demographics.

Filmmaker Magazine called 23 Mile an "endlessly fascinating and elegantly crafted 78-minute video diary...which serves as a much-needed cinematic reminder that uncomplicated narratives that simply confirm our preconceived notions do a disservice to us all."

Tickets for all Freep Film Festival screenings hosted at Detroit Film Theatre are available in advance at freepfilmfestival.com.

Produced by the Detroit Free Press, the Freep Film Festival focuses on documentaries, especially those with connections to Detroit and Michigan. Screenings include in-depth discussions with directors, film subjects, and community members. Freep Film Festival also presents live events at venues throughout metro Detroit, with activities centered in the downtown core. 

USA/2024 — directed by Carla Gutierrez | 87 min.

An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo, told through her own words for the very first time. Brought to life through lyrical animation, this film uses Kahlo's illustrated diary, revealing letters, essays, and candid print interviews as source material. Frida is the feature film directorial debut of acclaimed editor Carla Gutiérrez (RBG, La Corona). 

Tickets for all Freep Film Festival screenings hosted at Detroit Film Theatre are available in advance at freepfilmfestival.com. 

Produced by the Detroit Free Press, the Freep Film Festival focuses on documentaries, especially those with connections to Detroit and Michigan. Screenings include in-depth discussions with directors, film subjects, and community members. Freep Film Festival also presents live events at venues throughout metro Detroit, with activities centered in the downtown core.
 

Come watch the best K–12 Michigan student films on the big screen. Held annually at the Detroit Film Theatre, the Michigan Student Film Festival has been the signature event of Digital Arts, Film & Television (DAFT) for 56 years.

This juried festival is a high honor for students and has served as a gateway for past participants to careers in the film industry. All types of genres will be shown, including narratives, animation, news broadcasts, experimental films, and documentaries. 

For families with children 10 and up. 

Program schedule:

• 10 a.m., Kindergarten–8th grade awards
• 12:30 p.m., 9–12th grade awards

(USA/2023—dir. Hamoody Jaafar)

In the 1950s, legendary high school basketball coach Lofton Greene led the recently racially integrated River Rouge High School Panthers to a record number of state championships in a league made up of segregated schools. Now, almost 70 years later, former Panther LaMonta Stone has returned to the struggling industrial town of River Rouge to help the Panthers chase the school's 15th State Championship. 

In this coming-of-age story, Stone and four student athletes strive to fulfill generations' worth of work, on and off the court. The film includes appearances by Michigan State Basketball's head coach Tom Izzo, Detroit Pistons announcer George Blaha, and longtime Free Press high school sportswriter Mick McCabe.

Produced by the Detroit Free Press, the Freep Film Festival focuses on documentaries, especially those with connections to Detroit and Michigan. Screenings include in-depth discussions with directors, film subjects, and community members. Freep Film Festival also presents live events at venues throughout metro Detroit, with activities centered in the downtown core. 

Tickets for all Freep Film Festival screenings hosted at Detroit Film Theatre are available in advance at freepfilmfestival.com.
 

(USA/1978 — dir. by Sidney Lumet) 

Adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name, The Wiz reimagines L. Frank Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz  with an all-Black cast. Diana Ross plays Dorothy, a Harlem schoolteacher who finds herself magically transported to the urban fantasy Land of Oz. As she travels to find the mysterious Wiz, Dorothy befriends a Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), the Tin Man (Nipsey Russell), and the Cowardly Lion (Ted Ross). 

This Motown Productions film has become a cult favorite, with many innovations that impacted popular Black cinema from the 1970s. While at the museum, be sure to check out the DIA's special exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 – 1971 on view through June 23, 2024.  
 

(USA/1932-directed by Oscar Micheaux)

Micheaux’s earliest surviving sound film is set in the Club Libya, a Harlem cabaret modeled on the iconic Cotton Club popular with Black artists in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lawrence Chenault plays a movie producer who becomes a fixture at the club as he scouts for talent to cast in his newest picture but finds he can't choose between two singers, both named Ida. The story then shifts to another patron (Willor Lee Guilford) who gets a note saying she will receive a second note, then be killed ten minutes afterwards.

Based on three unpublished short stories by Micheaux, Ten Minutes to Live cast real-life Cotton Club musicians as extras and preserves on its soundtrack Micheaux shouting “cut!” a beat before a scene ended. (68 min.) Presented with a live piano score by Ian Finkelstein. 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.   

(Japan/2023—directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi) 

Deep in the forest of the rural village Harasawa, single parent Takumi lives with his young daughter, Hana, and does odd jobs for locals. The serenity of this untouched land is disrupted by the arrival of a Tokyo company ready to start construction on a glamping site for tourists—a plan that could have dire results for the community.

This potent and foreboding new film from Oscar®-winning director Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) is a haunting, unexpected experience with its rapturous score that breaks from the usual country-vs.-city themes and walks the line between the earthly and the metaphysical. Grand Jury Prizes, Venice Film Festival and Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In Japanese with English subtitles. (105 min.)

“A complex drama, teetering on the edge of the uncanny. I found it rippling around in my mind long after the final shot.” –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian