New England Premiere 20,000 SPECIES OF BEES

Spain 2023 - DCP - 125 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Estebeliz Urresola Solaguren

Producers: Valérie Delpierre, Lara Izagirre

Cast: Sofía Otero, Patricia López Arnaiz, Ane Gabarain, Itziar Lazkano, Sara Cozar, Martxelo Rubio

Print Courtesy: Kino Lorber

In Spain’s Basque region, 8-year-old Aitor, nicknamed Cocó, lives with mother Ane and two older siblings, but feels more comfortable amidst the beekeeping farm of an aunt. Cocó, assigned male at birth, likewise begins to feel more comfortable identifying as a young girl. This could be the stuff of sensationalism, but, in fact, first time feature writer/director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren has made the opposite sort of film: a quiet, closely observed, underplayed yet deeply sympathetic film as much about the older women in this extended family as it is about its young protagonist. Quietly emotional, deeply moving, 20,000 Species of Bees has its own quiet buzz, in some ways recalling an earlier Spanish cinematic masterpiece with an obvious connection, Victor Erice’s Spirit of the Beehive. —KE

Sponsored by Deirdre Finney-Boylan and her wife, Jennifer Finney-Boylan, who, along with her friend, Jodi Picoult, is the co-author of the novel Mad Honey

Colombia, Romania, Chile 2022 - DCP - 84 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles

Director: Clare Weiskopf, Nicolás van Hemelryck

Screenplay: Tatiana Andrade, Anne Fabini, Gustavo Vasco, Clare Weiskopf, Nicolás van Hemelryck

Producers: Alexandra Galvis, Radu Stancu

Print Courtesy: Latino Films

In a shelter for teenage girls in Bogotá, Colombia, a group of young women are invited to close their eyes and imagine the life story of a fictional classmate named Alis. The exercise begins as an apparently innocent game: Alis is a blank canvas on which they can project their own experiences and hopes. But as the fiction takes shape, grows, and blends with reality, it opens up the possibility for them to step outside of themselves and see their own experiences through a different perspective. Creating this fictional companion confronts them with the cycle of violence in which they have been immersed, and gives them a unique opportunity of dreaming a brighter future. Alis is ultimately as engaging and hopeful as the young women themselves are. —KE Sponsored by Alisa Johnson, Loan Officer, Movement Mortgage | mortgageswithlisa.com

Thursday, July 13 1PM | WOH

Sunday, July 16 12PM | MFC 1