NEW FEATURES

Sunday, July 11 3:30 p.m. | RR2

Thursday, July 15 7:00 p.m. | WOH

USA 2021 - DCP - 82 minutes, in English

Director: Jamila Wignot

Producers: Lauren DeFilippo, Judith Wignot

With: Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, Bill T. Jones, Carmen de Lavallade

Print Courtesy: Neon Pictures

You could say that Alvin Ailey embodied a mass of contradictions. Proudly Black, he founded, in the ‘50s, a company trailblazingly based on African and African-American history and tradition in the eurocentric world of modern dance at the time. Gay, he remained closeted until after his death of AIDS in the late ‘80s. But in the end, there’s his stunning work and legacy, and a dance company that still flourishes with his name today. AILEY is a dynamic profile of the iconic dancer and choreographer. Framed around a remastered voiceover of Ailey himself recounting his own life story, the film takes us from his humble childhood in segregated Texas through his stints on Broadway and in Hollywood, before finding his niche as a choreographer and founding his eponymous dance troupe. Interwoven with awe-inspiring dance footage of Ailey and his company over the decades is the current company, rehearsing choreographer Rennie Harris’s hauntingly beautiful tribute piece to Ailey. Colleagues and fellow dance greats Judith Jamison, Bill T. Jones, Carmen de Lavallade also appear to help us realize the legacy and story of this pioneer who interpreted the Black American experience with grace, strength, and unparalleled beauty through a great art form. Sponsored by Nancy A. Sanford

Canada 2020 - DCP - 92 minutes

In French and Mohawk with English subtitles, and in English

Director: Tracy Deer

Producer: Anne-Marie Gélinas

Screenplay: Tracey Deer, Meredith Vuchnich

Cast: Kiawentiio Tarbell, Rainbow Dickerson, Violah Beauvais, Paulina Alexis, D’Pharaoh Mckay Woon-a-Tai

Print Courtesy: FilmRise

Friday, July 16 7:00 p.m. |

Saturday, July 17 3:00 p.m. | RR1

Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and delinquent adolescence; and between Native and Settler culture—strongly FrenchCanadian, as she is just outside Montreal. She must grow up fast to become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Indigenous uprising known as The Oka Crisis, which tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990, observing and then participating as her people defend the little they have. Director Tracey Deer’s first feature, like Beans, is smart, energetic, surprising, engaging, and important. Sponsored by Barbara and Ted Alfond

USA 2020 - DCP - 85 minutes

In English

Director: Yael Bridge

Producers: Yael Bridge, Morgan Spector, Eden Wurmfeld

With: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Naomi Klein, Cornell West, Eric Foner

Print Courtesy: Greenwich Entertainment

Tuesday, July 13 3:30 p.m. | RR2

Friday, July 16 7:30 p.m. | RR2

“That’s SOCIALISM!” yell some about programs designed to help the disadvantaged members of our society have something like economic and other equal rights. “What’s wrong with THAT?!” asks THE BIG SCARY “S” WORD, a truly illuminating and entertaining history and exploration of a word and a concept that was perceived in a very positive light as a beacon of hope and progress in the early decades of the U.S. 20th century, but has been turned into a political dirty word since. In Yael Bridge’s positive, intelligent documentary, footage from past and present combine with voices very much from the now, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Bernie Sanders, from Naomi Klein to Cornell West, to leave you galvanized and ready for something different than the way things have been. Sponsored by Bill Jefferson