Pioneers of Queer Cinema

For Pride month: Restorations of three three German classics from the 1920s and 30s that were landmarks in the early history of queer cinema…

Victor and Victoria: Produced in the final days of the Weimar Republic, this dazzling, gender-bending musical romance about a female singer posing as a man in drag received limited exposure in the United States, and is today best known by Blake Edwards’s 1982 remake and the 1995 Broadway production. Viewers will be delighted to discover that the original is every bit as charming and outrageous, reminiscent of the sly sex comedies of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder.

Madchen in Uniform: As a new student at an all-girls boarding school, Manuela falls in love with the compassionate teacher Fräulein von Bernburg, and her feelings are requited. Experiencing her first love, lonely Manuela also discovers the complexities that come with an illicit romance. This artfully composed landmark of lesbian cinema – and an important anti-fascist film – was the first of just three films directed by Leontine Sagan.

Michael: Danish film master Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Michael is a mature and visually elegant period romance decades ahead of its time. Michael takes its place alongside Dreyer’s better known masterpieces as an unusually sensitive and decorous work of art and is one of the earliest and most compassionate overtly gay-themed films in movie history.

Also Playing:

Race in America: We are screening three films that explore and bring a fresh and radical perspective to the current racial narrative in America. Two of these were shown in our series when they were originally released – I Am Not Your Negro and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. They are both well worth a second look. The third, Whose Streets? , is one that we overlooked when it was released in 2017. We are donating our portion of the ticket sales (just under 50%) to causes and organizations addressing longstanding injustices: police reform initiatives, The Bail Project, The Movement for Black Lives and Black Lives Matter.

Hong Sangsoo X 3 Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo has made 18 films and is a regular at Cannes. Some of you saw The Day After when we screened it in 2018. Now we are hosting a micro-festival of three of his films, including his just released Yourself and Yours.

Capital in the 21st Century: a film that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, and shines a new light on today’s growing inequalities

Joan of Arc: Lise Leplat Prudhomme stars as the child-warrior. French filmmaker Bruno Dumont injects this heroine’s timeless cause and ideology with a modernity that highlights the fervor, strength and freedom women show when shackled by patriarchal societies and archaic virile customs.

Mysteries of Lisbon: Portuguese filmmaker Raul Ruiz’s six-part mini-series evokes the complex intertwined narratives of Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens. It is One of the first cinematic masterpieces of this century – Film Comment

Santiago, Italia Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti tells a story that many viewers may not know about: the efforts of the Italian Embassy to save the citizens of Chile targeted by the fascist regime of Augusto Pinochet.

The Wolf House an animated feature that tells the story of a young girl who escapes a cult colony of religious fanatics during Chile’s darkest years under rule of military dictator, Augusto Pinochet.

A White, White Day Iceland’s submission to the Academy for Best International Feature Film … a police officer on bereavement leave after the sudden loss of his wife in an apparent accident searches for someone to blame. He zeroes in on a neighbor whom he suspects may have had an affair with his wife. As past memories take on new meaning, his suspicion turns obsessive and imperils those around him.