The Detroit Film Theatre will end its 50th Anniversay Season with a holiday gift for DIA visitors; a special matinee screening of Charlie Chaplin’s classic silent film The Circus, presented with a live score composed and performed by virtuoso silent film pianist David Drazin. 

Chaplin’s extraordinary blend of comedy and heart shines as his iconic Tramp stumbles into the ring of a traveling circus and soon becomes the star of the show and falling for a charming equestrian artist along the way. This perfect comedy ranks among Chaplin’s most iconic, with audacious set pieces, close brushes with a lion and a climactic tightrope walk with a company of monkeys. For all ages.

“There's an edge to The Circus that suggests a man gazing deep into the void, laughing at the darkness and urging us to do the same.” -Keith Uhlich, Time Out

Detroit Story Fest 2024 is coming to town, and we’re excited to announce Friends of Detroit Film Theatre is partnering with Back Pocket Media to bring the most unforgettable local stories to the DFT stage.

Story Fest brings to the stage everything you love about podcasts, film, and journalism: suspense, depth, humor, and unforgettable characters. It's a celebration of the city we love. The performance will feature stories from The Free Press, Michigan Public, BridgeDetroit, WDET, Chalkbeat Detroit, the Metro Times, Planet Detroit, Model D and more. Combined with live music and drinks, Detroit Story Fest will spin an unforgettable evening of curiosity and intrigue.

Detroit Story Fest is sponsored by the Knight Foundation and the Friends of the Detroit Film Theatre. Tickets are available online in advance through Story Fest.

The New York International Children’s Film Festival’s collection of Spanish-language shorts spans genres, styles, and geographic regions. A rich slice of Hispanic and Latinx storytelling that is perfect for celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. 

The program is full of fun and compelling short films, including Dulce, an exploration of the loving relationship between a mother and a daughter, and Audience Award-Winner Karol, The Vampire Queen.

For ages 8 and up. (60min.) This program is free with museum admission. Capacity is limited – seating begins 30 minutes prior to performance start.

A new addition to Detroit Dance City Festival for 2024, Dance on Screen provides a digital space for dance filmmakers to present their work. Presented in the Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall, dance on screen highlights local, national, and international dance films in diverse styles of dance.

Featured films include:

• Mila Komrakova and Balazs Baranyai
• Shirel Jones
• Mehdi & Nourddine Sli, Jasmin Sisti, and Léone Salinas Muñiz
• Audrey Baran
• Julia Yezbick and Erika "Red" Stowall
• Clark Barclay, Gwen Benitez & Rebekah JoAnn Guerra
• Katherine Helen Fisher and Danah Bella
• Andrea Cerniglia and Nadia Oussenko
• Kara Madden Brems
• Jon Chapdelaine

This program is free with museum admission. Limited capacity seating begins 30 minutes prior to performance in the DIA’s Marvin & Betty Danto Lecture Hall. Ticket reservations are required from detroitdancecityfestival.com

Detroit Dance City Festival (DDCF) is an annual community building event curated by ArtLab J that celebrates dance in its various forms and disciplines. DDCF brings the work of renowned local, national, and international performing artists, choreographers, and companies to the stage in a weekend full of performances, master classes and networking events. For full festival lineup, please check out detroitdancecityfestival.com

USA/2023–directed by Jeff Zimbalist | 102 min.

The first film project with full access to Mailer’s family and archive of never-before-seen footage, outtakes, audio recordings, and interviews. How to Come Alive explores the rollercoaster life of the writer, literary outlaw, and unrepentant social provocateur Norman Mailer, whose very public life included six marriages, nine children, 11 bestsellers, four feature films, three arrests, one mayoral candidacy, and two Pulitzer Prizes.

Mailer’s ideas and writings about love, anger, politics, fear, and courage cut to the core of human nature while grasping the joys and challenges of American life. Laying himself bare on film with legendary bluster, humor and occasional self-effacement, Mailer encourages us to think adventurously and speak fearlessly.

South Korea/2023—directed by Hong Sang-soo | 83 min.

In Our Day alternates two seemingly unrelated stories: in the first, a disillusioned former actress hopes to recharge herself at the apartment of her longtime friend. In the second, a poet, being visited by a student making a documentary about him, is also host to an annoyingly naïve young man who drills him with questions about the meaning of it all—which tempts the writer to reach for a daytime cocktail, even though his doctors have warned him to give up booze.

From these two sets of encounters, Hong Sang-soo charmingly evokes a world filled with possibility, in which a minute detail can have unexpected repercussions. Hong’s 30th feature film is a sly and humane inquiry into the search for meaning and artistic satisfaction in an uncertain world. Official selection, Cannes and New York Film Festivals. In Korean with English subtitles.

“Exultant and revelatory.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Italy/1946–directed by Vittorio De Sica | 93 min.

Prior to filming their Oscar®-winning 1948 classic Bicycle Thieves, the writing and directing team of Cesare Zavattini and Vittorio De Sica created the brilliant, groundbreaking Italian neo-realist masterwork Shoeshine (Sciuscia). A drama of two young street kids who become involved in Rome’s black market while scraping together a meager living polishing shoes in the chaotic aftermath of World War II.

Shoeshine has long had distribution problems in the US, but this stunning restoration—made possible by the Film Foundation, the George Lucas Family Foundation, and Cineteca di Bologna—marks a new era. Winner, Honorary Academy Award® for Quality of Production. In Italian with English subtitles.

“Radiant, compassionate, and above all, humane. If people cannot feel Shoeshine, what can they feel?” —Pauline Kael, I Lost it at the Movies

Sweden/Denmark/Georgia/Turkey/2024—directed by Levan Akin | 105 min.

Retired teacher Lia (brilliantly portrayed by Mzia Arabuli), who lives on the rocky Black Sea coast of Georgia, has made a promise to find out what happened to her long-lost niece, Tekla. A neighbor tells Lia that Tekla might be in Turkey, and they set off to find her.

In Istanbul they discover a beautiful city of connections, possibilities, and cats—but looking for someone who doesn't want to be found proves more difficult than expected.

The pair meet Evrim (Deniz Dumanli), a human rights lawyer and as the three weave their way through the city's labyrinthine backstreets, they discover Tekla may be closer than imagined. Jury Prize Winner, 2024 Berlin Film Festival. In English, Georgian and Turkish, with English subtitles.

“Elegant, stirring, emotionally affecting. A warmly humanistic new film.” —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

France/1968—directed by Melvin Van Peebles | 87 min.

Unable to break into a segregated Hollywood, Melvin Van Peebles decamped to France, taught himself the language, and wrote novels in French, one of which would be the basis for his stylistically innovative feature debut, The Story of a Three Day Pass.

Turner (Harry Baird), an African American soldier stationed in France, is granted a three-day leave and heads to Paris, where he finds whirlwind romance with a white woman (Nicole Berger)–but what happens when his furlough is over?

Channeling the brash exuberance of the French New Wave, Van Peebles explores the psychology of a relationship while examining France’s contradictory attitudes about race, all in a film that is playful and wryly subversive; it laid the foundation for the cinematic revolution he unleashed three years later with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Restoration supervised by Mario Van Peebles. In English and French with English subtitles.

“A New Wave classic and one of the great American films of the era.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Iran/2023—directed by Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami | 77 min.

Through a series of stirring vignettes, often humorous and always affecting, Iranian directors Asgari and Khatami follow people from all walks of life in contemporary Tehran.

As they navigate cultural, religious, and institutional constraints, this audacious film captures the spirit and determination of people facing daily adversity, while offering a nuanced portrait of a complex society.

The sole Iranian film selected by the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, it was also a London, Chicago and AFI Film Festival selection. In Persian with English subtitles.

“One of the most brilliant and provocative films to emerge from Iran in recent years.” —Godfrey Cheshire, rogerebert.com