France/Italy/Belgium/Poland/ 2023 – directed by Giacomo Abbruzzese | 91 min.

Aleksei (Franz Rogowski) is a young Belarusian on the run from a past he desperately wants to bury. He joins the French Foreign Legion, which promises him the possibility of French citizenship. At the same time, far away in the Niger Delta, Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) is a revolutionary activist, engaged in armed struggle to defend his community and his future.

Their destinies intertwine in the most unexpected of ways. Described by Sight & Sound as “bold, visceral and phantasmagorical,” this striking new psychological drama won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution, 2023 Berlin Film Festival. In French, Russian, Igbo, Polish, and Nigerian English.

“A visually thrilling, ambitious, and distinctly freaky adventure. A movie that dazzles you and carries you along with its storytelling.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

USA/2016—directed by Barry Jenkins

Jenkins’s narrative spans the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of a Black man who survives a drug-plagued Miami, finds love in unexpected places, and discovers the possibility of change within himself.

One of the great American films of this millennium, Moonlight offers a powerful sense of place, a wealth of richly conceived characters, and a feeling for the possibilities of cinematic storytelling that remind us how great movies can elevate the soul.

The brilliant ensemble cast includes André Holland, Trevante Rhodes, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali. Winner of Academy Awards® for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), and Best Picture of the Year. (111 min.)

“It just needs to be watched and embraced, as an entirely fresh example of the power that great movies can exert on our lives.” —Peter Howell, Toronto Star

USA/2021—directed by Questlove

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson fashioned a joyful and transporting documentary — part music film, part historical record — created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in New York.

Incredibly, most of the footage was largely forgotten–but no more. Summer of Soul shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being, and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of injustice, past and present. Including concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and many more. Academy Award® Winner, Best Documentary Feature; Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival. (118 min.)

“A music documentary like no other. What it’s really about is a key turning point in Black life in America.” –Owen Gleiberman, Variety

One of two musical entertainments featuring all-Black casts released by major Hollywood studios in 1943, Stormy Weather has a traditional movie romance plot — but what really matters in this incredible film is the cast and musical numbers.

The great Lena Horne, whose performance of the title song is one for the ages, is only one of the brilliant talents on screen; there's also Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Katherine Dunham and her dance company, Dooley Wilson (Casablanca’s piano player), and the astonishing Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, performing what may still be the greatest dance number in movie history (their tap shoes are on display in Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 – 1971, at the DIA through June 23). (78 min.)

“Remarkable… five minutes into Stormy Weather, you’re hooked.” — Donald Bolgle, Blacks in American Films and Television

Come at 7 p.m. to see local Detroiter and piano legend Sugar Chile Robinson perform a solo boogie-woogie overture before the screening.

Inspired by the themes of this year’s Mighty Real Queer Detroit biennial, I’ll Be Your Mirror: Reflections of the Contemporary Queer, is a program of LGBTQ+ documentary shorts curated by filmmaker Adam Baran. Drawn from films produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ll Be Your Mirror assembles an intergenerational portrait of queer lives in these increasingly perilous times.

You’ll visit the sites of early rights rebellions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, experience a punk rock fairytale in Florida, observe three elders grappling with their place in the world, and witness firsthand lives filled with beauty, joy, and hard-fought freedoms, balanced against backgrounds of isolation, climate catastrophe, racism, and transphobia.

Out of the Corner of Our Eye

• USA/2023 — directed by John Ira Palmer (11 min.)

Out of the Corner of Our Eye asks what queer space looks like—and might mean—today. This poetic documentary reflects on seven iconic, formerly queer spaces in Los Angeles that are no longer what they were, including a lesbian community haven, a research center funded by a pioneering trans man, and the custom-built home of America's first well-known drag performer.

How to Carry Water

• USA/2023 — directed by Sasha Wortzel (16 min.)

This punk rock fairytale doubles as a portrait of Shoog McDaniel—a fat, queer, and disabled photographer working in and around northern Florida’s freshwater springs. For over a decade, McDaniel's photographs have transformed how a fat-phobic society views fat bodies. The film immerses audiences in a world of fat beauty and liberation, in which marginalized bodies—including bodies of water—are sacred.

Compton’s ‘22

• USA/2022 — directed by Drew de Pinto (16 min.)

In August 1966, three years before the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, sex workers and drag queens in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood rioted against police violence at the all-night diner Compton's Cafeteria. There was no news coverage, and the arrest records no longer exist. Decades later, trans historian Susan Stryker interviewed the surviving Compton’s Queens, including professional drag performers and those who identified with terms like girls, queens and hair fairies.

Queenie

• USA/2020 — directed by cai thomas (20 min.)

Queenie is a 73-years-young Black lesbian who has lived in The Marcy Projects in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood since 1988; now, she’s ready to move to a building that meets her mobility, safety, and social needs as an aging elder. She applies to Stonewall Residences, New York's first affordable housing for LGBT elders, hopeful she’ll be able to live out her final days in a place she can call home.

The Girl That Got Away

• USA/2023 — directed by Lauren Veen & Ephi Stempler (14 min.)

After four decades playing tough guy roles, a Mexican American actor in San Francisco must choose whether to continue presenting as male or come out as female and risk losing job security and family acceptance.

Merman

• USA/2023 — directed by Sterling Hampton IV (10 min.)

A 58-year-old Black queer man speaks about his life as an emergency nurse, leather titleholder, and civil rights advocate.

Bigger on the Inside

• USA/2022 — directed by Angelo Madsen Minax (11 min.)

From an isolated wooded cabin, a trans man stargazes, Scruff-chats with guys, watches YouTube tutorials, takes drugs, and lies about taking drugs—feeling his way through a cosmology of embodiment. Bigger on the Inside probes the boundaries between interior and exterior, to consider bodily insides as passageway and portal to the immensity of longing.

Presented in partnership with Mighty Real/Queer Detroit.

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.