USA/2022—directed by Laura Poitras | 113 minutes

In her essential, urgent, involving new documentary, Oscar®–winning filmmaker Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) intertwines two narratives: the fabled life and career of era-defining artist Nan Goldin, and the backlash against the Sackler family, owners of the pharmaceutical dynasty that Goldin stood up to by fighting to hold accountable the drug manufacturers behind the opioid crisis.

Following her own struggle with opioid addiction, Goldin, now 68, who rose from the New York “No Wave” underground of the ‘80s to become one of the great photographers of the late 20th century, became an unyielding activist at art institutions around the world that had accepted millions from the Sackler family.

Illustrated with a rich trove of photographs by Goldin, who engagingly narrates her own story, including her suburban upbringing, the loss of her teenage sister, and her fight against AIDS in the 1980s, Laura Poitras’s latest film is a remarkable, empowering work that stirringly connects tragedy with personal responsibility and artistic expression. Winner, Golden Lion for Best Film, 2022 Venice Film Festival.

“Overwhelming. A towering work of shocking intelligence and still greater emotional power.” –Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire 

France/1952—directed by René Clément | 87 min.

In occupied France in 1940, a 5-year-old Parisian girl, Paulette (Brigitte Fossey, in an indelible performance), finds herself orphaned and alone after fleeing the city, until a rural family takes her in.

Confused by the mysteries of war and desperate to make sense of the world, Paulette forms a friendship with the family’s 11-year-old son, Michel (Georges Poujouly). Together, they create a secret game in hopes of bringing order to the chaos around them.

The children cling tightly to their make-believe rituals until the moment the adult world inevitably intrudes. In French with English subtitles.

“Clément’s masterpiece is the exemplar of expressive narrative filmmaking.” –Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice

USA/2010 — produced by John Whitehead | 57 min.

As recently as World War II, Ojibwemowin was the everyday language of the Anishinaabe people. Today, with fewer than one thousand fluent speakers left in the United States, Ojibwe elders and educators are racing against time to preserve it.

Narrated by author and poet Louise Erdrich, First Speakers explores language revitalization efforts in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where more than half of the remaining fluent Ojibwemowin speakers live.

USA/1925 — directed by Buster Keaton | 88 min.

Filmed on location in the Arizona desert, Go West stars Keaton as a young Midwestern man named Friendless, who takes the advice of newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and hops a freight train bound for the West.

There he befriends a dairy cow named Brown Eyes, and together they look out for one another while evading wolves, train robbers, and a one-way trip to the stockyards.

The film’s iconic climax is a full-scale cattle stampede through the streets and upscale shops of Los Angeles—led by Keaton in a red devil suit. Released a century ago, Go West remains one of the most strikingly modern works of cinematic art you’ll see this year.

“Keaton's face ranked almost with Lincoln's as an American archetype: it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful, yet it was irreducibly funny.” — James Agee, Agee on Film

USA/1926 — directed by William Beaudine | 109 min.

By 1926, Canadian-born film actress Mary Pickford (1892–1979) had become the most powerful woman in Hollywood—celebrated onscreen for her “luminous tenderness and gutter ferocity” (Photoplay, 1916), and behind the camera as a shrewd businesswoman and co-founder of United Artists Studio.

Sparrows was her last great silent film, equal parts expressionistic thriller and epic melodrama. Set in an alligator-infested swamp on a “baby farm” where children are kept in rags and the keepers have a habit of “losing” babies, the film highlights Pickford’s flair for both suspense and heart. 

She personally oversaw every aspect of production, including the construction of a four-acre swamp set built from hundreds of trees, two boxcars of Spanish moss, and live alligators—all in service of her mission to deliver the orphans to safety.

“Sparrows is Pickford’s timeless work of art, anchored by her performance imbued with pathos, humor, and charm.” — Pordenone Silent Film Festival

Italy/2025 — directed by Paolo Sorrentino | 131 min.

The World Premiere of the extraordinary new love story from Oscar® winner Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) will take place as the Opening Night selection of the 2025 Venice Film Festival on August 27.

Audiences will see the film for the very first time that night, and because that date falls after this brochure’s press deadline, we must keep full details of La Grazia (Grace) under wraps until then. Visit dia.org in September to learn more about one of the year’s most anticipated films and to secure advance tickets for the Detroit premiere.

In Italian with English subtitles.

102 min.

This program of three documentaries explores the work of artists Rabbett Before Horses Strickland, Delina White, and Jonathan Thunder.

Rabbett Before Horses is a portrait of painter, musician, and theoretical mathematician Strickland (Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe) and the experiences that have shaped his work. 

Common Ground follows fashion designer Delina White (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) as she prepares for a Two-Spirit runway show at the Walker Art Center.

Good Mythology examines the work of Jonathan Thunder (Red Lake Nation), whose surrealist paintings and animations draw from both pop culture and Anishinaabe mythology. 

Chaplin starred in and directed A Night in the Show in 1915 at Majestic Studio in Los Angeles. The film was based on a turn-of-the-century English music hall play called Mumming Birds, which Chaplin often performed during his touring days with Fred Karno’s pantomime troupe.

In the film, Chaplin plays dual roles as Mr. Pest and Mr. Rowdy, audience members who demolish all theater etiquette and create a climax of chaos before the curtain drops.

Chaplin directed The Rink in 1916, drawing on another talent he developed during his stage career. A flamboyant and comic roller-skater, he could pirouette gracefully or perform spectacular pratfalls. 70 min.

Hong Kong/2000 — directed by Wong Kar Wai | 99 min.

In 1962 Hong Kong, Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate, life-changing bond. Delicately mannered and visually astonishing, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments.

With its brilliantly evocative soundtrack and exquisite color cinematography, it was named one of the ten best films of the 21st century by The New York Times.

This 4K presentation was supervised by the director and will be shown alongside his rarely seen short film In the Mood for Love 2001. In Cantonese and Shanghainese with English subtitles.

“Shockingly beautiful. An ecstatic vision and an evanescent masterwork.” – Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly

In a quiet corner of Massachusetts in the turbulent early 1970s, JB Mooney (Josh O’Connor), an unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief, plans his first heist at a local museum. 

Not surprisingly, things go haywire quickly and comically—yet it soon becomes clear that this acclaimed new film from director Kelly Reichardt is less about the mechanics of a bungled burglary than about the desperate delusions of its orchestrator and their inevitable effect on his wife and children.

Funny, touching, and deeply humane, The Mastermind recalls the spirit of a modern-day Chaplin. (110 min.)

“Kelly Reichardt steals the spirit of the ’70s with a gorgeously rumpled art-house art heist.” –Jessica Kiang, Variety