Commune (20th Anniversary Restoration)
Jul
24
7:00 PM19:00

Commune (20th Anniversary Restoration)

In 1968, a group of American dissidents move to the remote woods of Northern California to create a new, utopian society. They struggle with surviving the winter, an invading cult, and their wildly varying ideas of what utopia might really be.

2025 Directors Note:

 With the very real modern struggles of Trump’s America, people are seeking solutions of every kind to an increasing authoritarianism. As feminist activist Carol Hanisch wrote in 1969, “the personal is political,” and nothing is more personal than how we live and the who, what, and where of the place we call home.

We present a new, up-resed version of the first modern documentary to deal with communal living and cults, subjects which have skyrocketed in popularity over the past years. In our modern high-tech world, where an Amazon delivery is moments away and there’s less need to leave our dwellings, we face a plague of loneliness. Is coming together the cure? Or perhaps, as Sartre wrote “hell is—other people!”

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In the Mood for Love (25th Anniversary Screening)
Jul
31
7:00 PM19:00

In the Mood for Love (25th Anniversary Screening)

Includes rarely seen Wong Kar Wai short film!

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bing, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past twenty-five years of cinema.

WITH IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE 2001 Initially conceived as one third of a triptych about food, In the Mood for Love was expanded into a stand-alone feature that won immediate recognition as a contemporary classic. Another third—intended as the “dessert,” as Wong Kar Wai has put it—was, until now, only screened during his masterclass at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Now available in wide release for the first time, In the Mood for Love 2001 demonstrates the director’s elegant ability to generate palpable atmosphere and striking characterizations on a miniature canvas—with In the Mood for Love stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk once again providing the sizzling chemistry—evoking the mystery of transient, unexpected connections in the modern city through his inimitable romantic touch.

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CatVideoFest 2025
Aug
2
1:00 PM13:00

CatVideoFest 2025

The world's #1 cat video festival is back with screenings in theaters across the USA and around the world starting August 2025!

Oscilloscope Laboratories presents CatVideoFest 2025, a compilation of the latest and best cat videos culled from countless hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and classic internet powerhouses. 

Each year, across the country, local theaters partner with nearby cat-focused charities, animal welfare associations and shelters alike — a portion of ticket proceeds from every show goes directly to local cats in need at the Worcester Animal Rescue League.  


“Watching silly cat videos is good for you.”

— The Wall Street Journal

1 HR 14 Min

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Folktales
Aug
7
7:00 PM19:00

Folktales

“Emotionally impactful and gorgeously shot” - IndieWire

In Oscar®-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's life-affirming documentary, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway where they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions.

In Norse mythology, the three "Norns" are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate and shape humans' futures. Today, Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway aims to produce a similar life-changing effect on its students. FOLKTALES tells the timely and heartwarming story of teenagers who choose to spend an unconventional "gap year" learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection and meaning in the modern world. Guided by patient teachers and a yard full of heroic Alaskan huskies, they discover their own potential and develop deep relationships with the land, animals and humans around them. Through intimate verité storytelling and exhilarating cinematography, Ewing and Grady examine humans on the cusp of adulthood, finding themselves at the edge of the world.

1 HR 46 Min

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Weeknights (with Director Alfred Giancarli)
Aug
14
7:00 PM19:00

Weeknights (with Director Alfred Giancarli)

Director Alfred Giancarli will join us to screen his film WEEKNIGHTS. A fascinating example of “slow cinema”, Alfred will provide an introduction as well as a Q&A after the show. The film has played at the Brooklyn Film Festival, the Sidewalk Film Festival, where it won the Programmer's Award for Best Feature, and SCUFF, where it won Best Feature.

Lonely dudes in liminal spaces…

 Three guys working the graveyard shift around a deserted urban college campus try to make it through a long and lonely night on the job

 1 HR 8 Min

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Sorry Baby
Aug
15
7:00 PM19:00

Sorry Baby

“Carrying off difficult subject matter with a light touch and wry sense of humor, Sorry, Baby triumphantly announces writer-director and star Eva Victor as a formidable talent. Certified Fresh.”  – RottenTomatoes.com

“Tough, tender and observational, “Sorry, Baby” suggests that Victor’s promising career has been suitably launched. The best, with luck, is yet to come.” – The Washington Post

Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on... for everyone around her, at least.

R (Sexual Content and Language)

1 HR 43 Min

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Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
Aug
21
7:00 PM19:00

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

“The movie is sometimes funny, sometimes heartrending, but always invitingly candid and relatable. In its specificity it winds up being universal: As children, we really were odd little beasts, weren’t we” – Wall Street Journal

"Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" thrusts us into the tumultuous world of 8-year-old Bobo, whose childhood unfolds on her family's Rhodesian farm, now Zimbabwe, as the Bush War rages to its bitter end. Set against this violent backdrop, and seen through her eyes, we witness the family's desperate attachment to Africa's soil and the deep, festering scars of a war that reshapes both land and soul.

R (Violent/Bloody Images|Language|Some Underage Smoking/Drinking|Sexual Assault)

1 HR 38 Min

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Eddington
Aug
28
7:00 PM19:00

Eddington

“The Perfect Conspiracy Thriller for a Broken, Brainwashed Nation” – Rolling Stone

An Ari Aster film, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pablo Pascal.

In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

R

2 HR 28 Min

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Bad Shabbos
Jul
17
7:00 PM19:00

Bad Shabbos

Kyra Sedgwick and Cliff “Method Man” Smith lead an incredible ensemble cast in the uproarious new comedy BAD SHABBOS, winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative at the Tribeca Film Festival!

David and his fiancée Meg are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner on New York’s Upper West Side when an accidental death (or murder?) gets in the way. With Meg’s Catholic parents due any moment, this family dinner soon spirals into a hilarious disaster.

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76 Days Adrift
Jul
10
7:00 PM19:00

76 Days Adrift

From Executive Producer Ang Lee comes 76 Days Adrift—a profoundly immersive documentary that plunges you into the heart of one man's extraordinary survival story.

Steven Callahan, the author of the New York Times bestseller Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea, recounts the night of February 4, 1982, when a catastrophic collision with a whale left his boat sinking in the dead of night. With the Atlantic Ocean surging into his vessel, Steven had only moments to grab what he could before launching himself into the dark, unforgiving sea in a life raft, clutching a basic emergency kit.

For an astonishing 76 days, that fragile inflatable raft became Steven's entire world as he drifted helplessly across the vast expanse of the Atlantic. Forced to confront his deepest fears, limitations, and the raw power of nature, he discovered an inner strength he never knew he possessed.

Directed by Joe Wein and set to a haunting score by Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, 76 Days Adrift is more than just a survival story—it's a powerful meditation on human endurance, resilience, and the profound connection between man and nature.

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We Are Guardians
Jun
26
7:00 PM19:00

We Are Guardians

We Are Guardians follows Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and activist Puyr Tembé as they fight to protect their territories from deforestation, an illegal logger who has no choice but to cut the forest down, and a large landowner at the mercy of thousands of invaders and extractive industry. Through intimate, character focused storytelling, the film brings the issues to the forefront -- from the science of the Amazon Rainforest and its pivotal role in our global climate stability to the economic drivers of deforestation.

The film weaves together politics, history, economics, science, and consciousness, providing an in-depth exploration of this incredibly complex and critical situation -- the origins and the impact of which ripple out far beyond the boundaries of the Amazon itself.

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Caught by the Tides
Jun
21
1:00 PM13:00

Caught by the Tides

Assembled from footage shot over a span of 23 years—a beguiling mix of fiction and documentary, featuring a cascade of images taken from previous movies, unused scenes, and newly shot dramatic sequences—Caught by the Tides is a free-flowing work of unspoken longing, carried along more by music than dialogue as it looms around the edges of a poignant love story. The film mostly adheres to the perspective of Qiaoqiao (Jia’s immortal muse Zhao Tao) as she wanders an increasingly unrecognizable country in search of long-lost lover Bin (Li Zhubin), who left their home city of Datong seeking new financial prospects. The always captivating Zhao carries the film with her delicate expressiveness, while Jia constantly evokes cinema’s ability to capture the passage of time and the persistence of change: of people, landscapes, cities, politics, ideas.

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Friendship
Jun
13
7:00 PM19:00

Friendship

“The star of I Think You Should Leave [Tim Robinson] brings a similar brand of comedy to this strange and genuinely funny film about a friendship breakup” – The Guardian

Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor, as Craig's attempts to make an adult male friend threaten to ruin both of their lives.

R (Language|Some Drug Content)

1 HR 40 Min

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Paris is Burning
Jun
12
7:00 PM19:00

Paris is Burning

Special PRIDE month screening!

This documentary focuses on drag queens living in New York City and their "house" culture, which provides a sense of community and support for the flamboyant and often socially shunned performers. Groups from each house compete in elaborate balls that take cues from the world of fashion. Also touching on issues of racism and poverty, the film features interviews with a number of renowned drag queens, including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey.

1 HR 20 Min

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Jane Austin Wrecked My Life
Jun
5
7:00 PM19:00

Jane Austin Wrecked My Life

“By the end, romance in the abstract becomes something much more real — and we can’t help but fall for all these characters ourselves.” – New York Magazine

Agathe, hopelessly clumsy yet charming and full of contradictions, finds herself in desperate singlehood. Her dream is to experience love akin to a Jane Austen novel and her ultimate aspiration is to become a writer. Instead, she spends her days selling books in the legendary British Bookshop, Shakespeare & Co, in Paris. Invited to the Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England, she must confront her insecurities to finally fulfill her ambition of becoming a novelist and put an end to wasting her sentimental life.

French/English

R (Some Sexual Content|Nudity|Language)

1 HR 34 Min

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Drop Dead City
May
31
1:00 PM13:00

Drop Dead City

NYC, 1975: the greatest, grittiest city on Earth is minutes away from bankruptcy when an unlikely alliance of rookies, rivals, fixers and flexers finds common ground -- and a way out.

The New Yorker: The delight of “Drop Dead City” is that it’s a symphony of voices, past and present. The film’s interviews mesh, even rhyme, with archival clips documenting events as they unfolded, participants discussing their activities in the moment, and news reports that aired at the time.

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On Swift Horses
May
24
1:00 PM13:00

On Swift Horses

Muriel and her husband Lee are beginning a bright new lifein California when he returns from the Korean War. But their newfound stabilityis upended by the arrival of Lee's charismatic brother, Julius, a waywardgambler with a secret past. A dangerous love triangle quickly forms. WhenJulius takes off in search of the young card cheat he's fallen for, Muriel’slonging for something more propels her into a secret life of her own, gambling on racehorses andexploring a love she never dreamed possible.

R (Nudity| Some Language| Sexual Content)

1 HR 57 Min

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Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
May
22
7:00 PM19:00

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted

SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED is a wildly entertaining and fittingly unconventional documentary about convention-defying singer, songwriter and record producer Jerry Williams, aka Swamp Dogg, one of the great cult figures of 20th-centuryAmerican music whose singular voice and ideas have shaped the history not merely of soul music, but of country, hip-hop and a dozen other genres.

In SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED, the titular artist and his “bachelor pad of aging musicians”, including the charming Guitar Shorty and lovably quirky Moogstar, navigate the tumultuous music industry, transform their home into an artistic playground and invite fellow musicians like Jenny Lewis and John Prine and superfans Mike Judge, Johnny Knoxville and Tom Kenny to play in their unique musical sandbox...and paint Swamp Dogg’s pool. Bursting with infectious personality and stoner energy, SWAMPDOGG GETSHIS POOL PAINTED is a music documentary unlike any other.

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No Other Land
May
17
1:00 PM13:00

No Other Land

An elegantly assembled diary of the Palestinian experience, No Other Land is a harrowing document that leaves traces of hope for a better future.

For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with a journalist from the other side who joins his fight.

1 HR 36 Min

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