Cinematheque Schedule

United States | 2019 | Ric Burns

This new documentary explores the life and work of the legendary British neurologist who wrote and published popular case studies like Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Though an internationally beloved figure by the end of his life (he died in 2015), Sacks battled drug addiction, homophobia, and a resistant medical establishment earlier in his storied career. “Deeply affecting.” –Hollywood Reporter. 114 min. Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, a...

|

Argentina | 1951 | Pierre Chenal

Richard Wright himself plays Bigger Thomas in this long-forgotten first film version of his literary landmark, which has been restored to its original length by the Library of Congress and released uncut for the first time in America. (An “adults only” movie in 1951, it was heavily cut by assorted state and local censor boards.) The film tells of a Black man, Bigger Thomas, who takes a job as chauffeur to a wealthy white family...

United States | 2020 | Alan Govenar

Conventional wisdom holds that a lack of racism is what prompted so many Blacks—including prominent African-American artists like Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, and Richard Wright, among others—to emigrate to Paris during the 20th century. But was France really as colorblind as its reputation? This nonfiction film employs historical footage and new interviews to delve into how people of color have really fared under the Tricolour, both then and now. Some subtitles. 86 min. Myth of...

United States | 2020 | Sarah Colt, Josh Gleason

A laid-off factory worker from Lorain is one of the three subjects of this new nonfiction film by two documentarians whose previous credits include American Experience, This American Life, and All Things Considered. (The other two main characters are a Kansas farmer trying to hold on to his multi-generation farm and a female Uber driver in Florida.) Shot prior to the coronavirus pandemic (when the economy was robust), the movie finds that these middle-class individuals...

United States | 2019 | Tom Dolby

Lena Olin and Bruce Dern star in this new drama co-written and directed by the executive producer of Call Me by Your Name. It focuses on a celebrated painter (Dern) married to an artist (Olin) who had suspended her own career to support his. But when he begins to suffer from dementia, she must suddenly deal with both his unfinished work and his estranged daughter from an earlier marriage. Cleveland premiere. 95 min. The...