Mutiny Radio Comedy Festival presents /toggledownfall, the first short film by Oakland comic Timothy Renato Pizza. Seth Goodtime, a comic in Austin, Texas was stabbed five times on his way to buy coffee in the morning in April of 2018. Timothy produced a documentary about this tragic event because he was worried that Seth might become something other than the positive happy-go-lucky comic that everyone knows. So Timothy took his camera to Texas to see if could cheer Seth up.

The annual popular program provides both the delight of discovery and renewed wonder at the ways in which the documentary cinema can explore the world through fresh points of view and unbridled curiosity. If past years are any measure, advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended!

Total Estimated Run Time: 137 mins, not including a 10 minute intermission.

For over a decade, ShortsHD has proudly brought the Oscar Nominated Short Films to audiences across the globe.This exclusive release features the year's most spectacular short films across Live Action, Animation and Documentary, and for a limited time is available to watch on the big screen.The 2019 Oscar Nominated Short Films will be released in theaters on February 8th, giving you the opportunity to see the nominated short films before the Oscar Awards ceremony on February 24th.

The Roxie and Spoke Art bring you Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark cyberpunk classic, accompanied by a new screen print in Spoke Art's ongoing Roxie poster series.

It’s 1988 and, at the height of the Iran-Iraq War, Tehran is bombed relentlessly. The days that pass are full of foreboding, and yet, love, affection, hope and life itself manage to sweep away the fear of death from those surrounded by it. Love may often be difficult to comprehend, but death is a horrible certitude. ‘Bomb, A Love Story’ shows how, even when faced with the darkness of death, love and hope will find a way.

CAST

* Leila Hatami……………….Mitra

* Payman Maadi……………Iraj

* Siamak Ansari…………….Mr. Daneshpasand

* Habib Rezaei………………Teacher

CREW

Director : Payman Maadi

Screenplay : Payman Maadi

Director of Photography : Mahmoud Kalari

Music : Eléni Karaïndrou

Make-Up : Mehrdad Mirkiani

Presented by SHEED FILM.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Nadine Labaki's CAPERNAUM ("Chaos") tells the story of Zain (Zain al Rafeea), a Lebanese boy who sues his parents for the "crime" of giving him life. CAPERNAUM follows Zain, a gutsy streetwise child as he flees his negligent parents, survives through his wits on the streets, takes care of Ethiopian refugee Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw) and her baby son, Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole), being jailed for a crime, and finally, seeks justice in a courtroom. CAPERNAUM was made with a cast of non-professionals playing characters whose lives closely parallel their own. Following her script, Labaki placed her performers in scenes and asked them to react spontaneously with their own words and gestures. When the non-actors's instincts diverged from the written script, Labaki adapted the screenplay to follow them. While steeped in the quiet routines of ordinary people, CAPERNAUM is a film with an expansive palette: without warning it can ignite with emotional intensity, surprise with unexpected tenderness, and inspire with flashes of poetic imagery. Although it is set in the depths of a society's systematic inhumanity, CAPERNAUM is ultimately a hopeful film that stirs the heart as deeply as it cries out for action.

What do Filoli, the Chrysler Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the film “Destination Moon” and America’s Space Program all have in common? They were each touched by the creative vision of a forgotten artist named Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986). A native San Franciscan, his mesmerizing depiction of “Saturn As Seen From Titan” became known as “the painting that launched a thousand careers.” The film features over 20 people who were influenced by or knew Chesley personally, including Ray Bradbury, David Aguilar and Douglas Trumbull. Bay Area participants include, Irene Edwards, Ben Burtt, James Dalessandro, Lynette Cook, Robert E. David, Christina Dikas, Jeffrey Norris and Wyn Wachhorst. Punctuated with rare interviews with Chesley himself, this documentary chronicles the extraordinary, nine-decade life of a quiet, artistic visionary, whose beautiful paintings continue to inspire us to reach for the stars.

Audience Award winner at the Newport Beach Film Festival and named

Best Documentary at Comic-Con San Diego.

A Film by Douglass M. Stewart Jr. 2018. USA. DCP. 96 minutes.

Set in South India, EVENING SHADOWS is a tender, heartwarming story about a mother-son bond that has to withstand the ravages of time, distance and truths. On a road trip that the mother and son take, those truths spill out, ripping ties apart.

“Movies like EVENING SHADOWS are a channel to make sure that our voices are heard through the arts’ medium. Multitudes of drops make the ocean. My association is one such drop in the long-lasting struggles of the LGBTQ community. Together, we will make it a better world for the future of queer children and pave the way for their peaceful world.”—producer Mohammed Shaik Hussain Ali.

The story of the only family in Nahariya, a small traditional town in Israel, whose lives change completely after their father finally decides to tell his family that he's a transgender woman. Their mother chooses to stay with her spouse through the whole process but just as it seems that life is back to normal, she takes a sharp turn and shakes everything up again.

This is a story about a family that does not follow dictates; a family that breaks social conventions; a family that changes what we thought we knew about gender, parity, parenthood and being transgender. But most of all, it is a story about a family that redefines the limits of recognition, acceptance and love of those closest to us.

Part of FERLINGHETTI at 100. Part of FERLINGHETTI at 100. In this definitive documentary film, director Christopher Felver crafts an incisive, sharply wrought portrait of Ferlinghetti that reveals his true role as catalyst to so many literary careers and the Beat movement itself.

Film School Drop Outs proudly presents everyone's favorite Gregg Araki's Teen Apocalypse Trilogy film, NOWHERE. The 1997 film follows a group of teenagers who try to sort out their lives and emotions while bizarre experiences happen to each one, including alien abductions, bad acid trips, bisexual experiences, and bizarre deaths. All of this happens before "the greatest party of the year."

Told entirely with found footage, HAVE YOU SEEN MY MOVIE? is a love letter to the magic and power of cinematic experiences as shared by strangers in the dark. From the audience members’ rush to get seats to the cool command of the projectionist in the booth, director/editor Paul Anton Smith (assistant editor on Christian Marclay’s THE CLOCK) tells the story of movie-going by turning the camera back on the audience. Smith uses iconic and obscure scenes from over a thousand movies of every genre, spanning 80 years of cinema, to hold up a mirror to all of the romance, mystery, and mayhem of our collective imaginations. 2016. DCP. UK/Canada. 136 mins.

A love triangle featuring the trophy girlfriend of a petty drug lord, caught up in a web of luxury and violence in a modern dark gangster tale set in the beautiful port city of Bodrum on the Turkish Riviera.

The Roxie Theater would like to provide a brief content warning for Isabella Eklöf’s HOLIDAY. While we don’t condone the depiction of violence against women (or anyone really) as a form of entertainment, we recognize that these narratives do shape the lives of many people. Despite HOLIDAY’s message being an important one, its graphic material may not be a good fit for all viewers.

Steve struggles with the tragic memories of his past while trying to make sense of his present, but soon realizes that time isn’t the enemy he thinks it is. Having cut himself off from the world, Steve can no longer run away from the demons of his past. With his world coming apart, Steve hopes he can twist his reality and change his fate. Through the perspective of Steve, a morally complex man, the film is about the choices that we make and how, for many, this path can be out of fear disguised as practicality.

Electric Church presents the legendary guitarist in full flight at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival before the largest US audience of his career. This critically acclaimed film combines color, 16mm multi-camera footage of Hendrix unforgettable July 4, 1970 concert in its original performance sequence together with a new documentary that traces his journey to the festival amidst the dark shadow of civil rights unrest, the relenting toll of the Vietnam War and a burgeoning festival culture that drew together young people across the country who were inspired by the Woodstock festival.

The film details Hendrix integral role in drawing nearly 500,000 people to his Electric Church – a dusty scorching hot pecan orchard in Byron, Georgia some 100 miles south of Atlanta. Together with Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and drummer Billy Cox, Jimi skillfully blended favorites such as “Purple Haze,” “All Along The Watchtower,” and “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” with confident renditions of new songs such as “Freedom” and “Straight Ahead” that had not yet been released on album. As a colorful fireworks display stretched overhead across the night sky, Jimi performed the “Star Spangled Banner” to the wild delight of the massive audience.

The performance footage of the Experience has been carefully restored from the original negative in high definition. The audio soundtrack includes stereo and 5.1 surround mixes by Eddie Kramer directly from the original master tapes.

Join us for an evening of early 90's Spanish cinema with an Almodóvar touch!

Come for Almodóvar's 10th film, the outrageous KIKA, and stay for cult director Alex de la Iglesia's debut feature Acción Mutante. These two black comedies were made in the same year, financed by the same production company, the Almodóvar brothers' El Deseo, and shared the presence of Almodóvar regulars Bibi Andersen and Rossy de Palma. See either as single feature for $13 or both as double for $16!

An ambitious anthology of three thrilling tales created by some of the greatest talents working in Japanese animation today, to cinemas this December.

Together, the stories (Kanini & Kanino, Life Ain’t Gonna Lose, Invisible) explore ideas of heroism in everyday life, and the infinite potential of the short film format allows the directors and Studio Ponoc to experiment with breathtaking, action-packed visuals, concise human drama, and gorgeous fantasy worlds in this unforgettable showcase that is further demonstration of the studio’s exciting future.

Subtitled.

Young artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) has fled to West-Germany, but he continues to be tormented by the experiences he made in his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the GDR-regime. When he meets the student Ellie (Paula Beer), he is convinced that he has met the love of his life and begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.

A celebration through film of the love between dogs, their people and the animal welfare groups that bring them together.

Program 2: Love Makes the World Go ‘Round

Unexpected – James Lee’s delightful animated story with an unexpected ending.

I Rescue Senior Dogs – Elizabeth Howe’s biographical documentary about Sherri Franklin, the founder of Muttville, the rescue for senior dogs in San Francisco

Elvis: The Lonely Hunter of Circle Beach – Matt Hulse’s hilarious story about a remote Long Island beach, where a tough little dog named Elvis searches for the elusive buried bagel.

You Don’t Know Jack – Tom Corwin’s documentary about a beagle named Jack, rescued from a meat farm in South Korea,who found his way to a loving Bay Area home thanks to the Marin Humane Society.

Dog Power – Kale Caey’s dynamic documentary follows the glorious canine athletes who compete with their humans in international competitions for canicross, bike and scooterjoring, skijoring, and cart, sprint and middle distance dog sled racing.

About a Dog – Mollie Fitzgerald’s charming story about an antisocial book editor, who unexpectedly and reluctantly has to foster a dog, an experience that brings her out of shell and introduces her to love.

Esther – Saving Castaways – Andrew Wright’s documentary chronicles a rehabilitation program for unwanted dogs being trained by prison inmates and how an unlikely union brings out a change in character for both.

Shit Happens – Joan Caspi’s comedic use of a mime to show what happens when you don’t “Pick It Up.”

Well Groomed – Rebecca Stern takes us on a psychedelically-hued journey into the colorful and passionate world of competitive creative dog grooming.

Dame Mit Hund – Sonja Rohleder’s beautiful little work of animated art.

A celebration through film of the love between dogs, their people and the animal welfare groups that bring them together.

Program 1: Every Dog Has His Day

A Dog’s Life – Pieter Vandenabeele’s animated interpretation of a dog’s view of an ordinary day in his life.

Killing Me Softly – Deirdre Mendoza’s funny narrative imagines a dog park in Los Angeles, where a man-bun-sporting shaman creates social havoc.

Riders of the Arctic – Hilse De Groote’s documentary looks at the Arctic dog sledding race that is the largest in Europe, with contestants from all over the world – focussing on.the bond between the dogs and their mushers.

Fospice Dog Sid – Maggie Amiano’s documentary about the last-chance-at-happiness adoption of Sid, a little old sick dog, who got a very happy last chapter in his life.

Imperfect Adventure – Mallory Paige’s documentary chronicles her decision to overcome doubts and fears to become the adventurer she’d always envisioned – riding across North America in a motorcycle, with her dog in the sidecar.

It’s a Potcake Life – Evelyn Osorio Vaccaro’s heart-warming documentary follows the indigenous stray dogs of the Bahamas – called Potcakes – and the happy endings facilitated by an island of dedicated rescuers.

Ooh la la – Erika Fischerkeller’s witty animation explores the relationship between males, females and dogs. Inspired by the French Poodle.

For over a decade, ShortsHD has proudly brought the Oscar Nominated Short Films to audiences across the globe.

This exclusive release features the year's most spectacular short films across Live Action, Animation and Documentary, and for a limited time is available to watch on the big screen.

The 2019 Oscar Nominated Short Films will be screened at the Nightlight starting February 15th, giving you the opportunity to see the nominated short films before the Oscar Awards ceremony on February 24th.

SCHEDULE (108 MINUTES) :

Madre – Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Maria del Puy Alvarado, Spain, 19 minutes

Fauve – Jeremy Comte and Maria Gracia Turgeon, Canada, 17 minutes

Marguerite – Marianne Farley and Marie-Helene Panisset, Canada, 19 minutes

Detainment – Vincent Lambe and Darren Mahon, Ireland, 30 minutes

Skin – Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman, USA, 20 minutes

As we approach the 35th Anniversary of Dario Argento's insect horror fantasy, come celebrate the unrated director's cut that inspired Jim Henson's LABRYiNTH! Hosted by Jesse Hawthorne-Ficks.

A film by Dario Argento. Starring Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasence, Daria Nicolodi.

This is a private rental. There are no ticket for sale. The TRT is the entirety of rental hours not necessarily when the film will start.

ROOTS OF ROCK N’ ROLL traces part of the history of rock from Rhythm and Blues of the ‘40’s to early Rock ‘N Roll pioneers of the 50’s thru the British Invasion of the 60’s.

Musical artists include Louie Jordan, The Flamingos, Bill Haley and his Comets, Little Richard, The Treniers, Elvis Presley (plus a parade of Elvis wannabes trying to out-perform the King on a TV show from 1956 called “Country Music Caravan”), Johnny Burnette, The Beach Boys, James Brown, The Dave Clark Five, Rolling Stones, and the Beatles performing live in London in 1964. Included is a rare newsreel of a Beatles record burning in 1966 after John Lennon commented that they were more popular than Jesus. (He later stressed that he was only remarking on how other people viewed and popularized the band.)

A psychotherapist suffers violent nightmares inspired by legendary works of art. Four of his patients, expert thieves, offer to steal the works, since he believes that once he owns them, the nightmares will disappear. He becomes a wanted criminal know as "The Collector". Who will dare to catch him and his gang?

PRIVILEGE, Yvonne Rainer's sixth feature is a genuinely subversive movie about menopause. Out of a subject that has been virtually invisible on film, Rainer has fashioned a witty, risky work about sexual identity and the unequal economies of race, gender and class.

Adrianne's Staff Pick! A cult classic from Walt Disney Studios - Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, is mysteriously called back to Oz when a vain witch named Mombi and the Nome King turn all of Oz's citizens to stone.

STYX depicts the transformation of a strong woman torn from her contented world during a sailing trip. When she becomes the only person to come to the aid of a group of refugees shipwrecked on the high seas, she is shown the limits of her importance and of the empathy of her cultural milieu. She is left slipping impotently from one nightmare to the next, and by the end she is forced to recognize that there is no way to counter the cruelties of real life. Only chance can save her.

The wealthy elite feed off the lower classes in a deliciously twisted Brazilian social satire that’s definitely not for the squeamish.

The film and Q&A component of this event is 60 minutes altogether and will take place from 4-5pm.

Farima Malekmadani and her team traveled to provincial cities across Iran to channel the imagination of young girls, and ask them to focus on their dreams and aspirations. The goal of the project was to broaden the horizons for young girls in Iran, and enable them to expand their imagination to reach their expectation in life.

Love, faith, and civil rights collide in the south as evangelical Christians and drag queens step into the spotlight to explore the meaning of belief. Gospel drag shows and passion plays set the stage for one hell of a show.

Chela and Chiquita are both descended from wealthy families in Asunción and have been together for over 30 years. But recently, their financial situation has worsened and they begin selling off their inherited possessions. But when their debts lead to Chiquita being imprisoned on fraud charges, Chela is forced to face a new reality. Driving for the first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies. As Chela settles into her new life, she encounters the much younger Angy, forging a fresh and invigorating new connection. Chela finally begins to break out of her shell and engage with the world, embarking on her own personal, intimate revolution.

The legendary Jean-Luc Godard adds to his influential, iconoclastic legacy with this provocative collage film essay, a vast ontological inquiry into the history of the moving image and a commentary on the contemporary world. Winner of the first Special Palme d'Or to be awarded in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, The Image Book is another extraordinary addition to the French master's vast filmography.

Displaying an encyclopedic grasp of cinema and its history, Godard pieces together fragments and clips them from some of the greatest films of the past, then digitally alters, bleaches, and washes them, all in the service of reflecting on what he sees in front of him and what he makes of the dissonance that surrounds him. He uses his own voice, reminiscent of those of Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan in the twilights of their careers, to guide us through the fascinating labyrinth of his mind. In some cases, it is to reflect on the metaphysical properties of the world — time, and space, and where meaning is found — but more importantly it is the image, the thing that has obsessed Godard for his entire career, that anchors this film. His ontological enquiry into the image continues to be one of the most moving in history.

But, as always with Godard, the key issues he raises have to do with the legacy of the last century and its horrors: the incomprehension of Hiroshima and Auschwitz, events that coincided with cinema but which have somehow eluded its gaze. And, movingly, The Image Book also reflects on orientalism and the Arab world, grounding the new film very much in the present.

With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her $10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.

Set in medieval Iceland, The Juniper Tree follows Margit and her older sister Katla as they flee for safety after their mother is burned to death for witchcraft. Finding shelter and protection with Johan, and his resentful young son, Jonas, the sisters help form an impromptu family unit that’s soon strained by Katla’s burgeoning sorcery. Photographed entirely on location in the stunning landscapes of Iceland in spectacular black-and-white by Randy Sellars, The Juniper Tree is a deeply atmospheric film, evocative of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Day of Wrath and Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, and filled with indelible waking dream sequences. A potent allegory for misogyny and its attendant tragedies, The Juniper Tree is a major rediscovery for art house audiences.

(1956) “To be able to understand a painter’s mind, one need only follow his hand.” A white screen. And then lines, points, shades almost magically appear, sometimes in real time, with the squeak of each brushstroke resonating; sometimes in seemingly continuous animation, or dramatically appearing whole in stages, to Georges Auric’s festively thunderous music. Pablo Picasso at work, drawing in inks and oils on semi-transparent materials, while Clouzot’s camera observes the results from behind. Twenty works resulted from the hand of the master (all reportedly consigned to the flames afterwards), allowing us to understand the mind of the most influential artist of the 20th century.

Enigmatic virtuoso Chris Marker’s intellectually agile, engaging & biting look at ancient Greece’s influence on Western culture & how many eras have reinterpreted Greek legacy to reflect their own needs.

Episodes 1 - 4

1. Symposium—or accepted ideas

“The wake of our dreams is Greek” --George Steiner

This episode sets the tone for the rest of the series, introducing the fundamental idea Marker and his participants explore: For centuries, we’ve used Greek civilization as a touchstone, but as John Winkler—classics scholar, queer historian, and one-time monk—says, looking at ancient Greece is like trying to determine what lies beneath a face covered in many layers of makeup.

The concept of the individual, calls to moderation, the value of knowing one’s self: classical Greek politics and culture have often been represented as models of rationality and order. But, as this episode makes clear, this is not because Greeks were particularly enlightened. On the contrary, order is the prize in a hard-fought battle against humanity’s dark, incestuous, and violent sides—as embodied in the story of Oedipus. Rather than embracing simple binaries, ancient Greece—like Oedipus standing at the spot where three roads meet, killing the man he will later learn is his father—embraced broader choices, including those that lead to the mysterious and unknown.

2. Olympics—or imaginary Greece

“Every European era has formed its own image of Greece made up from its own imagination. There is so much self-projection and misinterpretation.” -- Cornelius Castoriades

We begin with the personal. In interviews, classicists Manuela Smith and Oswyn Murray, singer Angélique Ionatos, and filmmaker Theo Angeolopoulos discuss the sometimes unconscious ways ancient Greek thought have permeated their lives and work. (And Ionatos notes that those who fetishize ancient Greece either idealize or ignore contemporary Greeks.)

From there, the episode looks at this phenomenon writ large—exploring the exploitation of ancient Greece to promote current ideology. As early as the 2ndcentury CE, the Church began recasting ancient Greeks as proto-Christians. But it was the German re-imagination that had the deepest—and most destructive—impact. The Nazis saw themselves as heirs to the Greeks. Against the backdrop of chilling footage from Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia, this episode shows how philosophy, neo-Paganism and Greek aesthetic ideals were used to promote Nazi visions of purity, culminating in the displays of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

3. Democracy—or the city of dreams

“Modern and ancient democracy have no genetic relationship” -- Mihalis Sakellariou

An in-depth—but not overly dense—exploration of how Athenian democracy worked, and the key ways it differs from modern states using the word. Ancient Greek democracy emphasized the polisnot as a city-state the way we understand it, but as a collection of individuals. Those able to participate (free men—a small minority of the total population) were passionate about politics and had access to numerous checks and balances. It was a world without parties, written policies, or an independent judiciary—one in which today’s decisions could constantly be revisited and refined tomorrow.

Book-ended by the 1968 pro-democracy protests in Athens against the ruling fascist junta, this episode paints a vivid picture of life in the first democracy. It also chronicles the unraveling of Athenian democracy during the three decades of the Peloponnesian War when, as Cornelius Castoriadis puts it, “The Athenian Demos degenerated. There was an oligarchic revolution... What the Demos lost was the art of making decisions. Even language was being corrupted.”

Athenian and contemporary Western democracies may be vastly different, but, as this episode clearly shows, they certainly do have parallels.

4. Nostalgia—or the impossible return

“It’s the most Greek word I know. In a sense, it defines Greece.” --Vassilis Vassilikos

Nostalgia is there right at the start of the Greek literary tradition. Odysseus, after a decade of fighting the Trojan War, must wander another decade before finally returning home to Ithaca. For millennia to follow, nostalgia—a word drawn from roots meaning “longing for home” and “pain”--continued to mark the Greek experience.

Greeks feel nostalgia on many levels and in many capacities. They are immigrants who idealize their homeland. Citizens of the contemporary world who feel a longing for and connection with the glories of the past (naming their children Electra, Diogenes, or Archimedes, for instance). And a people occupied by invaders for centuries, left wondering what remains of their culture. Modern Greeks take pride in the enormous influence the ancients have had on the Western world. But are they really, as George Steiner would notoriously have it, “a parody” of the past?

Enigmatic virtuoso Chris Marker’s intellectually agile, engaging & biting look at ancient Greece’s influence on Western culture & how many eras have reinterpreted Greek legacy to reflect their own needs.

Episodes 5 - 7

5. AMNESIA—or history on the march

Western history is said to begin with the Greeks—more specifically, with Herodotus, credited as the first historian. But the ancient Greek conception of history, based on the idea of self-examination, is very different from current conceptions. History in some ways is the interplay between remembering and forgetting—and it always being reconsidered and reimagined.

Located at the intersection of Asia, Europe, and Africa, Greece has long been a pawn in the games played by the great powers of the day, be they French, Russian, British, German, or American.

This episode, primarily featuring director Elia Kazan (with clips from his film America, America) and writer Vassilis Vassilikos, covers the “period of amnesia” in Greek history from the war of independence against the Ottomans to the overthrow of the junta and permanent exile of the king in the 1970s. It is a period filled with absurdities like a Bavarian child-king who spoke no Greek, alongside tragedies, including the Greek Civil War of 1947-1949, the massacre of the Greeks of Asia Minor, and the military coup of the Colonels.

6. MATHEMATICS—or The Empire Counts Back

“Historians say Utopia doesn’t exist. It does! It’s the geometric space where everything is proven.” --Michel Serres

There is a narrative about ancient Greece and math: That the Greeks invented mathematics as we know it, that men such as Pythagoras and Thales were its fathers, and that concepts including parallel lines and geometric shapes are universal and ahistorical.

After introducing us to this view, Marker sets about dismantling it—or at least questioning its universality and introducing much more uncertainty. Study of ancient Egyptian texts show mathematical concepts; algebra comes from the Arab world, and the nascent world of computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum mechanics are rooted in doubt and uncertainty.

Featuring fun math-themed animated segments, along with excerpts from a campy 1984 production in which a young woman in a dress that evokes ancient Greek style breathily explains mathematical concepts.

7. LOGOMACHY—or the dialect of the tribe

“The adventures of language may be the most meaningful thing in world history.” -- Nikos Svoronos

The word “logos” stands at the start of Greek philosophy. A word that defies simple translation, it lies at the root of terms including logic, dialogue, and dialectic. The Greek word for literature is “logotechnia” -- the technique of logos.

LOGOMACHY explores logos in its many forms, from Socratic dialogue and its implications when it comes to both education and power, to the five different forms the Greek language, to language as a battle in search for truth. The episode includes a discussion of Plato's Cratylus dialogue on the relationship between words and objects, and points to the next installment in the series, on a space beyond language: the realm of music.

Enigmatic virtuoso Chris Marker’s intellectually agile, engaging & biting look at ancient Greece’s influence on Western culture & how many eras have reinterpreted Greek legacy to reflect their own needs.

Episodes 8 - 10

8. MUSIC—or inner space

“The word was music before all else” -- Angelique Ionatos

What defines music? Soldiers marching in tandem create rhythms; Orthodox priests don’t simply speak when performing the liturgy, they chant and sometimes sing; the hammer banging on a board is not that different from the tug of a rope ringing a church bell.

In Greek mythology, Athena (whose symbol is the owl) invents music. This episode focuses primarily on composer Iannis Xenakis and singer Angelique Ionatos, as they delve into the multi-faceted natures of music, its intimate connection with the rhythms of the natural and human worlds, and the interface between technology, natural sound, and musical composition.

9. COSMOGONY—or the ways of the world

“Harmony can only be divine and it is Man... who makes it go berserk.” -- Iannis Xenakis

This episode is classic Chris Marker, tying together an abandoned Athenian power plant turned cultural center, ancient Greek statuary, a department store in Japan, young men destroyed by armored warfare during WWI, and a comparison between Plato’s parable of the cave and contemporary cinema.

From the beautiful enigmatic statues of Cycladic art to classic Greek statuary and on to the big bang theory, COSMOGONY explores the mysteries of creation—on the human, divine, and physical levels. It is no accident that in ancient Greek, the words for “poet” and “creator” are the same.

10. MYTHOLOGY—or lies like truth

“Myths fuel history.” --Mario Ploratis

A small number of Greek myths—Oedipus, Antigone, the Gorgon who turns people who gaze on her to stone—have fed our understandings of ourselves and each other through literature, religion, philosophy, and psychoanalysis.

In this episode, George Steiner discusses the origins of myth in the psyche, and speculates on the directions European history could have taken if a more Hellenic view of the world had dominated over the more Judaic approach of the apostle Paul. Meanwhile, in Japan, Atsushiko Yoshida points to strong affinities between Japanese religion and ancient Greek myths, and draws parallels between Shinto sites and Delphi.

Enigmatic virtuoso Chris Marker’s intellectually agile, engaging & biting look at ancient Greece’s influence on Western culture & how many eras have reinterpreted Greek legacy to reflect their own needs.

Episodes 11 - 13

11. MISOGYNY—or the snares of desire

“Greek love, Greek eroticism, is a paradigm for us. But it’s something about which we are very hypocritical.” --John Winkler

Classicist Giulia Sissa takes center stage in this episode, which explores desire in ancient Greece (primarily Athens), the social status of women, and the erasure of women by classics scholars.

Homosexual and heterosexual relationships co-existed, each within their own spheres. Any notions of romantic love resided with same-sex relationships, which were also seen as rites of passage for boys initiated into the ways of philosophy. Marriage was a different story—with the father as head of the household, and the mother akin to a child or subject. (Angelique Ionatos says she takes little comfort in the notion that a woman was queen within the household.) While the Greeks celebrated some forms of desire, they also recognized it as an omni-present and potentially powerful source of destruction.

12. TRAGEDY—or the illusion of death

“The institution of tragedy plays a fundamental role in a democracy.” --Cornelius Castoriadis

Greek tragedies were originally like TV shows before the age of streaming. They were performed once, and only once says scholar Oswyn Murray. But despite their transitory nature, they embraced themes that have spoken to humanity for centuries—and across cultures.

This episode looks at the particular cross-cultural pollination between Greek and Japanese theater. A Japanese woman remembers first engaging with Greece through Theo Angelopoulos’s film The Traveling Players, based on the myth of the House of Atreus. Angelopoulos and writer Vassilis Vassilikos find affinities between the rhythms of Noh, Kabuki, and classical Greek drama. Meanwhile, actor and theater director Alexis Minotis argues that in the modern world, only Greeks can truly understand the Greek tragedies—a position belied by the clips seen throughout the episode from a Japanese production of Medeaperformed in the ancient theater of Epidaurus, and lauded by Greek actor and Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri.

13. PHILOSOPHY—or the triumph of the owl

“The owl? What about it?” --Theo Angelopoulos

After a dozen episodes that begin and end with the image of an owl, PHILOSOPHY begins with the owl and its symbolism, and shows us how many of the participants in the series react to the birds or images of them.

What is philosophy? Does all philosophy draw on the Greeks? And are there any philosophers left? Kostas Axelos argues there have been no philosophers since Hegel; all we are left with now are thinkers. (Mind you, Axelos is considered by many to be a philosopher.) Cornelius Castoriades emphasizes that the Greeks had no fundamental sacred texts, while Guivi Margvelachvili emphatically argues precisely the opposite. And lest we find all this philosophical talk too abstract, much of this episode is filmed at a banquet in the Republic of Georgia, when that state was on the verge of declaring its independence from the Soviet Union—a time and place in which thought and action were closely linked.

A disturbing, real life BOY ERASED that goes inside the surreptitious world of conversion therapy by chronicling the identity crisis of a devout Catholic hoping to change his sexual orientation.

An intimate portrait of one man’s struggle to reconcile his religious conviction and sexual identity. The observational documentary chronicles the turbulent journey of Nathan as he attends conversion therapy in hope of changing his sexual orientation.

Conversion therapy is the controversial, non-scientifically based process which aims to convert an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Although it has been discredited by all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations, some therapists still offer the service for reasons almost exclusively rooted in a conservative religious belief system.

The filmmakers had unfettered access to these secretive and controversial therapy sessions and have crafted an emotional and psychological drama which chronicles two years of Nathan's struggle.

Directed & produced by Richard Yeagley. 2018. DCP. 89 mins.

A stop-motion film unlike any you've seen before, THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE! is a stunning surrealist vision and scathing critique of Belgian imperialism in the Congo—Barry Jenkins calls it a "44 minute masterpiece." Preceded by The Burden (14min) and Oh Willy (17 min)

Tongues United, a film intended to “shatter America’s brutalizing silence around…sexual and racial difference,” premiered on October 26, 1989, in Los Angeles at the American Film Institute’s Video Festival and has reached hundreds of thousands since. Initially intended for black gay men, it gained a wide viewership through its politically controversial screening on PBS. The film has proven itself to wield a transcendent power over audiences across race, cultures, and time, with a message whose honesty and poetry would presage the work of visual, performance, hip-hop, spoken word, and multidisciplinary artists to this day. It is now considered by many film historians to be the origin of “experimental documentary” and was recently featured on The New York Times list “28 Days, 28 Films for Black History Month.” Tongues Untied continues to provide inspiration and incite debate among artists, academics, and activists. The work’s continuing and critical relevancy is evidenced in the continuing HIV/AIDS crisis, the changing housing markets it anticipates, the shifting legacies and concerns of experimental art, and the largely queer leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The crowd-pleasing, bargain basement broadcast of Hollywood’s annual attempt to bark you back into multiplexes by giving shiny statues to prestige pictures. Beer. Snacks. Ballots. Video insanity and a lot of attitude.

Your $16 donation goes directly to the operations of our independent, nonprofit, historic theater. This event is not sponsored by or affiliated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Many thanks to ABC 7 for their support.

Doors open at 3:30, in time for the Red Carpet Preen Parade.

Coming at a moment of profound political and social crisis, What Is Democracy? reflects on a word we too often take for granted. Director Astra Taylor's idiosyncratic, philosophical journey spans millennia and continents: from ancient Athens' groundbreaking experiment in self-government to capitalism's roots in medieval Italy; from modern-day Greece grappling with financial collapse and a mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its racist past and the growing gap between rich and poor. Featuring a diverse cast—including celebrated theorists, trauma surgeons, activists, factory workers, asylum seekers, and former prime ministers—this urgent film connects the past and the present, the emotional and the intellectual, the personal and the political, in order to provoke and inspire. If we want to live in democracy, we must first ask what the word even means.