Pandemic Rewind
Time
Tuesday, Nov 23: 7:30 pm
Part of our “Pandemic Rewind” series of films that were robbed of the theatrical experience.
Fox Rich is a fighter. The entrepreneur, abolitionist and mother of six boys has spent the last two decades campaigning for the release of her husband, Rob G. Rich, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a robbery they both committed in the early 90s in a moment of desperation. Combining the video diaries Fox has recorded for Rob over the years with intimate glimpses of her present-day life, director Garrett Bradley paints a mesmerizing portrait of the resilience and radical love necessary to prevail over the endless separations of the country’s prison-industrial complex.
Nominee, Best Documentary Feature, 2021 Oscars
Winner, Best Director, 2020 Sundance Film Festival
“A masterpiece.” Filmmaker Magazine
“A fiercely engaging film.” Wendy Ide, Screen International
“Substantive and stunning, the documentary Time delivers on the title’s promise of the monumental as well as the personal.” Lisa Kennedy, The New York Times
“one of the most essential films of the year…” K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone
“A poetic rumination on atonement and endurance, one that chops up and reorders time itself to give us a powerful portrait of a woman who refuses to take no for an answer. Ty Burr, The Boston Globe
Judas and the Black Messiah
Wednesday, Nov 24: 7:30 pm
Part of our “Pandemic Rewind” series of films that were robbed of the theatrical experience.
FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on their charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). A career thief, O’Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). Hampton’s political prowess grows just as he’s falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback). Meanwhile, a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul. Will he align with the forces of good? Or subdue Hampton and The Panthers by any means, as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) commands? Inspired by true events, Judas and the Black Messiah is directed by Shaka King, marking his studio feature film directorial debut.
2021 Oscar Winner: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Daniel Kaluuya
2021 Oscar Nominee: Best Picture, Cinematography, Original Screenplay, Actor in a Supporting Role, Original Song
“This is a scalding account of oppression and revolution, coercion and betrayal, rendered more shocking by the undiminished currency of its themes.” David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
“Between its genre know-how and furious anger, King’s biopic makes damn sure you feel the weight of Hampton’s loss – and the need for his legacy to be honoured.” Kevin Harley, Total Film
“As Hampton, Kaluuya gives the best performance of his career. He embodies what it meant to be a Panther, the simultaneous sacrifice and gratitude of carrying such militant devotion to liberation everywhere from the podium to the bedroom.” Selome Hailu, Austin Chronicle
Gunda
Thursday, Dec 2: 7:30 pm
Part of our “Pandemic Rewind” series of films that were robbed of the theatrical experience.
Experiential cinema in its purest form, Gunda chronicles the unfiltered lives of a mother pig, a flock of chickens, and a herd of cows with masterful intimacy. Using stark, transcendent black and white cinematography and the farm’s ambient soundtrack, director Victor Kossakowsky invites the audience to slow down and experience life as his subjects do, taking in their world with a magical patience and an other worldly perspective. Gunda asks us to meditate on the mystery of animal consciousness, and reckon with the role humanity plays in it. Executive Produced by Joaquin Phoenix.
Amazing plant-based bakers Lazy Cow Bakery will be at the Sunday screening to talk about the opening of their brick-and-mortar location in Fremont.
“Gunda is pure cinema… It’s jaw dropping images and sound put together with the best ensemble cast and you have something more like a potion than a movie.” Paul Thomas Anderson
“You don’t have to be an animal lover to appreciate the craft and the genuine poetic vision of a film which, though strictly unsentimental, is intensely moving, transfixing and quite genuinely unique.” Jonathan Romney, Screen International
“CRITIC’S PICK! Sublimely beautiful and profoundly moving, it offers you the opportunity to look – at animals, yes, but also at qualities that are often subordinated in narratively driven movies, at textures, shapes and light.” Manohla Dargis, New York Times
First Cow
Wednesday, Dec 1: 7:30 pm
Part of our “Pandemic Rewind” series of films that were robbed of the theatrical experience.
A taciturn loner and skilled cook (John Magaro) has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon Territory, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) also seeking his fortune; soon the two collaborate on a successful business, although its longevity is reliant upon the clandestine participation of a nearby wealthy landowner’s prized milking cow. From this simple premise Kelly Reichardt constructs an interrogation of foundational Americana that recalls her earlier triumph Old Joy in its sensitive depiction of male friendship, yet is driven by a mounting suspense all its own. Reichardt again shows her distinct talent for depicting the peculiar rhythms of daily living and ability to capture the immense, unsettling quietude of rural America.
“Kelly Reichardt gives us a terrifically tough and sinewy tale of the old west, shaped by the brutally implacable market forces of capitalism.” Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
“CRITIC’S PICK! …deceptively simple and wondrously subtle… like many great westerns it critiques some of the genre’s foundational myths with bracing, beautiful rigor, including the myth of heroic individualism.” A.O. Scott, New York Times
“A picture that’s both tranquil and dazzling, two qualities that should be at odds with one another yet somehow bloom in tandem under Reichardt’s gentle touch.” Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine