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

USA/1938—directed by Oscar Micheaux | 73 min.

An idealistic Harvard graduate returns to the segregated South to establish a grade school, and encounters opposition from both the white and Black communities. Starring Ethel Moses and a bevy of moonlighting Cotton Club dancers, Birthright was an early, brutal critique of segregation and Jim Crow laws, and was criticized for its graphic depiction of institutionalized racism.

Micheaux responded to the criticism by publishing a declaration of his intentions as a filmmaker, reflecting the ideals of his lead character:

“I have always tried to make my photoplays present the truth, to lay before the race a cross section of its own life… It is only by presenting those portions of the race portrayed in my pictures, in light and background of their true state, that we can raise our people to greater heights.”
 

Senegal/Mali/France/2024—directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy | 87 min.

Set in northern Senegal, this extraordinary directorial feature debut tells the story of Banel and Adama, a young couple very much in love who want to live their own lives. But for the rest of their tight-knit village, duty dictates that Adama accept the role of chief. Nature intervenes: the rains do not come; the cattle succumb to illness; the men leave.

The film is a lush, lyrical fable that soars to heights of longing and descends into the realm of myth, sending its protagonists' love on a possible collision course with their community’s long-held customs.

Banel & Adama is one of the rare Senegalese films to have premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and was Senegal's official submission to the 2024 Academy Awards®. In Pulaar with English subtitles.

"A striking debut that puts Sy on the map as a purveyor of deceptively gorgeous visions, evoking our cinema’s philosophical high priest, Terence Malick.” –Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire

2024/France—directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach | 73 min.

Paulette feels guilty after punishing her daughter Linda, and would do anything to make it up to her. Linda demands her mother make chicken with peppers, which reminds her of the dish her father used to cook. But with a strike closing stores across town and people crowding the streets, Linda's request leads to an outrageous series of events that spiral comically out of control, as Paulette goes to all lengths to keep her promise.

Directors Malta and Laudenbach unleash a unique visual marvel of hand-painted animation and a story that blends slapstick comedy, music, and family drama, as Paulette and Linda ultimately confront the grief of a tragedy, and the meal that could bring them closer together.

In French with English subtitles. For all ages!

France/1923-28 - Directed by Man Ray | 76 min.

The wildly improvisational and fragmentary Return to Reason is Man Ray's first film, where the artist explodes and reconstructs the cinematic medium as a vehicle for accessing the essence of things by rhythmic accumulation of visual details.

What emerges from this program - which combines Return to Reason with three other newly restored Ray films is set to hypnotic new music by SQURL (Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan) - is the sense of Ray as a modern artist par excellence, an experimentalist committed to delving into the space between consciousness and unconsciousness, sense and nonsense, wakefulness and dreaming.

The meticulous restoration of all four films was led by Womanray and Cinenovo, in partnership with La Cinematheque francais, the Library of Congress, and Cineeteca di Bologna.

Japan/1954—directed by Akira Kurosawa | 207 minutes, with one intermission

In 16th century Japan, a small village is regularly plundered by bandits until a group of unemployed samurai agree to train the defenseless farmers into a dedicated army of resistance. Kurosawa’s masterpiece—newly restored in high-resolution 4K for its 70th anniversary celebration—is one of the most brilliant and immersive battle epics ever filmed, and a timeless fable about responsibility, bravery, and character.

Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura head the mammoth cast, and Kurosawa’s unfailing eye brings out the distinctive traits of each character. It’s an electrifying experience, restored at last to its original visual splendor.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

“Akira Kurosawa’s epic masterpiece has been widely imitated, but no one has come near it.” —Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

2022/France—directed by Julien Chheng and Jean-Christophe Roger | 80 min.

Ernest and Celestine return in this delightful and joyous follow-up to their first Academy Award®–nominated adventure, which introduced a bear and mouse as the unlikeliest of friends.

Ernest remains an ursine troubadour dedicated to a life of music and art, and his constant grouchiness is softened by the creative whims of his mouse friend Celestine. When she accidentally breaks his beloved violin, they must take a long voyage to Ernest’s country of Gibberitia, home to the only artist who can repair it.

But when they arrive, they are shocked to discover that all forms of music have been banned in Gibberitia for many years, and a land once known across the world for its incredible musicians has fallen silent. It is up to Ernest and Celestine and their new friends, including a mysterious masked outlaw, to bring music and happiness back to the land of bears.

In French with English subtitles. For families with children 7 and up.