The marvelously creative “adverts” of British television are recognized each year with the prestigious British Arrows awards, and the winners are assembled into a compilation that has become a favorite in cinemas worldwide, including the DFT.  

The inventiveness, playfulness, and power of these British advertisements, designed to present a product, a service, or a public service message with sincerity and winningly off-center wit, come loaded with a satisfying, distinctly British kick. (approx. 80 min.)
 

USA/1981/2007 | Dir: Jon Else (Total running time 180 min.) 

A timely double-feature of two Jon Else films with the development of the atomic bomb at the center.
Jon Else’s Oscar®-nominated 1981 documentary The Day After Trinity tells the story of the Manhattan Project, and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s race to create the world’s first nuclear weapon, both to end WW2 and beat the Russians to the finish line. 

Through enthralling interviews with Manhattan Project scientists, as well as archival footage depicting Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, you’ll meet the real people being portrayed in this summer’s blockbuster.

Also on this special double-feature: Else’s 2007 Wonders are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic, a witty and revealing documentary on the creative process behind Doctor Atomic, composer John Adams’ opera about Oppenheimer, directed by Peter Sellars, with a world premiere in 2005 by the San Francisco Opera.

“Wonders are Many is a dazzling case of the right filmmaker attached to the right subject.” —Robert Koehler, Variety
 

Chen Kaige’s widely acclaimed and visually spectacular masterpiece chronicles the rise of two young stars of the Beijing Opera House, their turbulent relationship, and their fates. Starting in 1924 and spanning nearly half a century, Farewell My Concubine’s story plays out against the backdrop of turbulent Chinese history: Japan’s 1937 invasion, followed by the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath.

This stunning 30th anniversary restoration—including twenty minutes never seen on American screens—features incredible performances from Leslie Cheung and the legendary Gong Li. 

In Mandarin with English subtitles. (170 min.) 

“Spectacular, intelligent, enthralling, rhapsodic, and sumptuous in every respect.” —Geoff Andrew, TimeOut
 

The Theremin Noir trio composes and plays darkly evocative chamber music using the theremin, the early electronic tone synthesizer invented in 1920 and used most famously in Hitchcock film scores and by the Beach Boys in songs such as Good Vibrations.

The trio, including Rob Schwimmer on theremin, pianist Uri Caine, and violinist Sara Caswell, will perform a daring improvised score for a compilation of silent films by Parisian avant-garde artists of the era, including Man Ray, Fernand Leger, Rene Clair, and Marcel Duchamp. 

This live program complements the DIA exhibition After Cubism: Modern Art in Paris 1918-1948, on view through January 7, 2024.
 

photo: Le Tour (1928), directed by Rene Clair.

Australia/2023 | Dir. Ian White (86 min.)

Though they were only together for six years (1977–83), the Australian band The Birthday Party, led by Nick Cave, was one of the definitive post-punk groups and goth rock pioneers, creative and destructive in equal measure, with influence that reached far beyond their short lifespan.

Their incendiary live performances were the stuff of violent, anarchic legend. Mutiny in Heaven is the story of total chaos and artistic genius. Narrated by the original members, this new documentary provides an electrifying front-row seat to one of the world’s most legendary live acts.

"There’s perhaps few other bands with a reputation as mythic as The Birthday Party.” -NME
 

2022 | directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch

Adapted from an award-winning novel by Italian writer Paolo Cognetti, this breathtaking, grand, intimate film follows the decades-long relationship between boyhood friends Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), who meet when Pietro's well-off family vacations in Bruno's tiny Alpine village.

Over the years, their friendship waxes and wanes, but the two reconnect after the death of Pietro's father and decide to build, by hand, the remote Alpine cabin the father had dreamed of.

Winner of the Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival. In Italian, English, and Nepali with English subtitles. (147 minutes) 

“It climbs mountainous heights and rewards you with the opposite of vertigo: exaltation.” –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian 

Pakistan/2022—directed by Saim Sadiq | 127 min.

A film of groundbreaking firsts, including the first Pakistani film to play at the Cannes Film Festival and to be shortlisted for the Best International Feature Oscar®. Initially banned in its home country for its LGBTQ+ themes, Joyland is a family drama set in the bustling megacity of Lahore.

Haider, a soft-spoken husband, is pressured by his domineering father to find a job. He finds work as a dancer in an erotic theater and is drawn to the show’s dazzling star, a trans woman (played by Alina Khan). This striking feature debut upends traditional gender roles and identities through an engaging story of complex and imperfect expressions of love.

Official selection, Toronto, London, Sundance and AFI Film Festivals. Jury Prize Winner and Queer Palm Award, Cannes Film Festival. In Urdu and Punjabi with English subtitles.

“Funny, forward, and bracingly political… Pakistani director Saim Sadiq’s sensuous film mounts an indictment of misogyny and transphobia without ever lecturing us.” — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

1953 | Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot | 147 min.

We’re celebrating this weekend’s Concours with what is likely the greatest film about driving ever made. And it’s not about speed – in fact, just the opposite. Four desperate men stuck in a desolate town in Central America, agree to earn $2,000 each to carefully drive two trucks filled with nitroglycerine over 300 miles of rocky, decrepit mountain roads to help extinguish a raging oil well fire.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece is one of the great, existential movie thrillers – both darkly funny and utterly nerve-wracking. Clouzot (Diabolique) has staged sequences that are as agonizingly suspenseful as anything in movie history. That's no accident, since endurance, fate, and the human condition are what The Wages of Fear is about.

The restored original cut of this visionary work is thrilling in ways we always hope suspense films will be; we are reminded, almost perversely, to be careful what we wish for. Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival. In French with English subtitles.

"The film is about their responses to the grueling test of driving the trucks. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode." -Pauline Kael, The New Yorker 

2022 | directed by Marya Zarif and André Kadi  

This animated feature, based on the web series and graphic novel by artist and writer Marya Zarif (who co-directed this film), tells the story of Dounia, a joyful, spirited girl. She’s being raised by her grandparents in Aleppo.

Despite Dounia’s life circumstances (her mother died when she was young, her father is in jail, and the strife and violence of war are increasing), Dounia delights in her life: the marvelous Syrian dishes her grandmother cooks, the lively marketplace she visits, and her friendly neighbors.

When her family is forced to flee the war, Dounia takes only a handful of seeds and her unquenchable belief that she will connect with the magical spirit known as Princess of Aleppo to help guide them to safety.

For ages 6 and up. (72min.) 

USA/2021-directed by Megan Mylan | 97 mins

Megan Mylan’s new documentary feature takes a humble idea: telling intimate and humanizing stories of Syrian families affected by their home country’s civil war.

Filmed over five years in five separate countries, Simple as Water is anything but simple when it comes to its technical achievements, weaving together familiar immigrant narratives in ways that still manage to surprise and stun. 

“The level of access that Mylan and her team receive is remarkable on a personal front as well as a political one.” —Claire Shaffer, The New York Times

The Southeast Michigan Refugee Collaborative (SEMIRC) in partnership with the Detroit Film Theatre will present a free screening of Simple as Water as part of the inaugural year of Michigan's first Refugee Film Festival. SEMIRC is the state's largest refugee response collective with a broad range of members including refugee resettlement agencies, government partners and other organizations working to foster vibrant communities in the region.