Category: Features

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May 20, 21, 27, and 28 at 7:30 • Sunday May 22 and 29 at 4:30 & 7:30 • IU Radio & Television Theater • Purchase Tickets
Iconic, elegant, and populist all at once: the automat revolutionized American dining a century ago, long before there were fast food restaurants or hipster coffee shops. Patrons inserted nickels into slots, and slices of lemon meringue pie, mac & cheese, baked beans, and creamed spinach magically appeared from a grid of gleaming chrome windows. Then there was the eatery’s signature 5-cent coffee, cascading from ornate dolphin-headed spouts. To describe the clientele as eclectic would be an understatement. Everyone ate there–young and old, rich and poor, famous (Audrey Hepburn, pictured above) and infamous (Allen Ginsberg). Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell, Carl Reiner, and others pay effusive tribute to this communal Art Deco home away from home. Says Brooks: “You didn’t need a lot of money. You needed a lot of nickels.” Debut filmmaker Lisa Hurwitz combines rare artifacts, images, and memorabilia (including personal photos and deeply affectionate stories from former employees and the founding family) to create a love letter to pie and nickel coffee. (79 min)

CRITIC’S PICK! Sweet and shaggy. An engrossing tale of cultural harmony. Plunges us… into states of delight and visceral lament. Rapturous accounts of the women who changed dollars into nickels… Brooks goes gaga at the thought of the Automat’s coconut custard. FEELS LIKE THE KEY TO SOME LOCK ON THE AMERICAN SOUL. – Wesley Morris, The New York Times

I LOVED THE AUTOMAT. It is something special: a mixture of fragrant recollections and astute social history. What’s surprising in the extreme is how moving the film can be in evoking those places of welcome during an era of American optimism. – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

Pandemic Protocols: Filmgoers will no longer be asked to wear their masks once they are seated in the theater. However, filmgoers must be vaccinated and should be prepared to show proof of vaccination. Please continue to bring a photo of your vax card. Minors (under 18) have the option of presenting a dated, negative Covid test. Seating will be capped at 35% of capacity.

Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

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May 27, 28; June 3, 4 at 8pm • Sunday, May 29 and Sunday, June 5 at 4pm and 7pm • IU Fine Arts Theater • Purchase Tickets
The extraordinary adventure of the young members of the Piedmont Speleological Group who, having already explored all the caves of Northern Italy, changed course in August 1961 and went South to explore other caves unknown to man, 700 meters below the Earth, in the untouched Calabrian hinterland. The intruders’ venture goes unnoticed by the inhabitants of a small neighboring village, but not by the old shepherd of the Pollino plateau whose solitary life begins to interweave with the group’s journey. Another work of nearly wordless organic beauty that touches on the mystical by Michelangelo Frammartino, the visionary director of Le Quattro Volte; those of you who were lucky enough to see that film when we screened it in 2012 remember the loud, sustained ovation it received. Casting real speleologists, Frammartino meticulously details the exploration of this seemingly fathomless cave of startling wonder and beauty, himself spending hours inside, using cameras with extended fiber optic cables. ( 93 min)

Co-presented by Bloomington Indiana Grotto, a chapter of the National Speleological Society (caves.org).

Pandemic Protocols: Filmgoers will no longer be asked to wear their masks once they are seated in the theater. However, filmgoers must be vaccinated and should be prepared to show proof of vaccination. Please continue to bring a photo of your vax card. Minors (under 18) have the option of presenting a dated, negative Covid test. Seating will be capped at 35% of capacity.

Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

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June 3-12 Visit The Ryder.com for dates, times and locations
This buoyant French comedy from filmmaker Charline Bourgeoise-Tacquet follows a free-spirited, 30-something woman in her search for stability. Behind on her rent and her thesis, Anais searches for inspiration while hurtling through lovers with abandon. Things get especially crazy when she falls in love with the wife of a book publisher she had been seeing. This effervescent, cliche-shattering feature debut weaves a tale of self-discovery as literate as it is unexpected, keeping viewers and Anais off-balance until the final scene. (98 min)

Pandemic Protocols: Filmgoers will no longer be asked to wear their masks once they are seated in the theater. However, filmgoers must be vaccinated and should be prepared to show proof of vaccination. Please continue to bring a photo of your vax card. Minors (under 18) have the option of presenting a dated, negative Covid test. Seating will be capped at 35% of capacity.

Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

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May 6, 7, 13, and 14 at 7:30 • May 8 and 15 at 3pm • All screenings at the IU Radio & Television Theater Purchase Tickets

Everything is in its proper place, yet nothing is ever what or where it seems. The Girl and the Spider charts several days in the lives of two young women who have shared an apartment: one is in the process of moving out while the other is staying behind. Though its setup is simple, the film—and the ambiguous relationship between the women—is anything but. The architectural precision of the filmmaking belies the inchoate longings that appear to course through the two roommates. As a succession of friends, neighbors, family members, carpenters and movers come and go, the apartment itself becomes an all-seeing, silent presence.  The Girl and the Spider is written and directed by twin brothers Ramon and Silvan Zürcher. It won the Best Director prize at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival. (99 min / in German with subtitles)

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Generously supported by the Indiana University Department of Germanic Studies

Tickets: only $8

Pandemic Protocols: Filmgoers will no longer be asked to wear their masks once they are seated in the theater. However, filmgoers must be vaccinated and should be prepared to show proof of vaccination. Please continue to bring a photo of your vax card. Minors (under 18) have the option of presenting a dated, negative Covid test. Seating will be capped at 35% of capacity.

Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

• Features

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May 20 and 21 at 8pm • Sunday May 22 at 4pm and 7pm • All screenings at the IU Fine Arts Theater • Purchase Tickets
Artisanal horticulturalist Eve Vernet (Catherine Frot) honors her father’s legacy by continuing the family business, breeding and growing unique roses that compete in showcases all over France. But Eve’s approach struggles to compete with the mass market production from her corporate rivals. With the business facing imminent bankruptcy or liquidation, Eve’s trusted secretary, Vera, makes a last-ditch effort to turn things around by hiring three new employees from a prison rehabilitation program behind Eve’s back. Fred, Samir, and Nadège are misunderstood outcasts with fresh ideas, strong work ethics, and absolutely no gardening skills. In a desperate attempt to save the business, the new team comes up with a perilous plan, and Eve unexpectedly discovers new parts of life that are worth nurturing in this colorful and touching comedy about growing new creations in mature soil. Directed by Pierre Pinaud. (94 min)

The Rose Maker is generously supported by Mary M’s Flowers: 406 West 2nd St.  812.336.3222

Filmgoers will no longer be asked to wear their masks once they are seated in the theater. However, filmgoers must be vaccinated and should be prepared to show proof of vaccination. Please continue to bring a photo of your vax card. Minors (under 18) have the option of presenting a dated, negative Covid test. Seating will be capped at 35% of capacity.

Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

Festival Schedule    Locations     Free Parking     What else is Showing this Month? Contact Us      Subscribe to our Newsletter 

We are hosting a micro festival of films by filmmakers from Ukraine: six rarely seen features and one program of shorts. Admission is free. We are, however, requesting donations; all proceeds will be sent to Ukrainian humanitarian relief organizations. Where will your donation go? A list of aid organizations and descriptions of each film appears here.

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The festival is co-sponsored by the IU Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures and the Robert F. Byrnes Russian & East European Institute.

Schedule     Animation Program    Live Action     Documentary     Where Are Films Shown?      Purchase Tickets

The Oscar Shorts offer a vision of what the Academy Awards should and could be but very rarely are: eclectic, cosmopolitan, scrappy and surprising.
-A.O. Scott, The New York Times

One of the most entertaining categories at the Academy Awards — and one of the least heralded — is for the Best Short Subject. Beginning Feb 25th, for 4 consecutive weekends, we are screening the 15 Oscar nominees for Best Short Film. As usual, this year’s assortment of Animated, Live Action and Documentary short Oscar contenders is a celebration of intimate, personal storytelling. Every filmmaker leaves his or her fingerprints on the material, making it a rich collection of stories, all of which have something profound to say, whether big and bold or small and modest.

Tickets: Each individual program is $12 but for $25 you can bundle all three into an “Oscar Pass” admitting you to all three programs (on different nights, on different weekends).

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Meet the Nominees! Read short, snappy descriptions of the Animation films, the Live Action films and the Documentaries

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Your Vote Will Be Counted. At the screenings you can vote for your favorite film (or the film that you think will win the Oscar) – Pick all three winners and you will win two complimentary tickets to another Ryder film. That’s not all: 7 of you will also win Dinner at one of our fine local restaurants.

This year’s Animation program is darker in tone and subject matter than in past years and may not be appropriate for some children. All films are unrated but two of them would probably be rated R and one has images that could disturb, or at least confuse, young children. Some of you will see these films as learning opportunities that will spark interesting conversations around the dinner table. But some will feel uncomfortable with what their children are watching. We’ve offered similar warnings about individual films in the past and have been informed by parents afterwards that we’d overreacted. “My kids have seen far worse in the average superhero movie.” That said, you know your kids better than we do. Parents should feel free to email us (editor@theryder.com) with questions about the appropriateness of films for younger viewers.

The Oscar Shorts are funded in part by a generous contribution from Dr. Lisa Baker

Any other Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

Pandemic Protocols: Adult filmgoers must be vaccinated and must show proof of vaccination. Minors (under 18) have the option of presenting a dated, negative Covid test. Filmgoers must wear masks in the theater. Seating will be capped at 50% of capacity.

April 1, 2, 8, 9 at 7pm   Sunday Matinees April 3 and 10 at 3pm    All screenings at the IU Radio & Television Theater

Purchase Tickets

Prominent Indian journalists are regularly being arrested and jailed for “spreading disaffection against the Indian state.” Writing With Fire chronicles the challenges and triumphs of Khabar Lahariya, a newspaper staffed entirely by Dalit women (“Untouchables”).

A determined group of fearless young women, empowered by outrage and armed with a handful of smartphones (which they’re just learning to use), interview marginalized voices around the country, including rape victims whom the police ignore. This is investigative reporting at its most vital: bringing to account systemic sexist violence, corruption, and cynicism. Writing With Fire won the Audience Award at Sundance; it is nothing less than jawdropping.

Directed by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas • in Hindi w/subtitles • 93 min

CO-FEATURE: A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING

Generously supported by the Indiana University Dhar India Studies program and the IU Media School

“A rousing, inspirational tribute to the pride of grassroots Indian journalism.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety

“CRITIC’S PICK! At a time when the profession faces increasing dangers in India, the film’s faith in the powers of grassroots journalism is nothing short of galvanizing.” – The New York Times

Tickets: only $8

Pandemic Protocols: Filmgoers must be vaccinated and must show proof of vaccination.
Filmgoers must wear masks in the theater. Seating will be capped at 35% of capacity.

Where Are Films Shown?    

Where Can I Park for free on Campus?

What else is Showing this Month?

Any other Questions? Send an email to editor@TheRyder.com

Locations     Free Parking     What else is Showing this Month?     Contact Us      Subscribe to our Newsletter

April 15 and 16 at 7:30 at the IU Radio & Television Theater • Purchase Tickets

An essential portrait of contemporary Indian students engaged in university life, protests and the ongoing struggle for resistance. Filmmaker Payal Kapadia shows how artistic creativity goes hand in hand with the fight for political freedom. A Night of Knowing Nothing won the Golden Eye award for Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by Payal Kapadia • in Hindi w/subtitles • 96 min

“The best film of the year.” -Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune

“Foregrounds cinema itself as a site of resistance.” -Michael Sicinski, MUBI Notebook

Generously supported by the Indiana University Dhar India Studies program