The 2019 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is a 97-minute theatrical program of seven short films selected from this year’s Festival, widely considered the premier showcase for short films and the launchpad for many now-prominent independent filmmakers for more than 30 years. Including fiction, documentary, and animation from around the world, the 2019 program offers new audiences a taste of what the Festival offers, from sharply-written comedy and drama to edgy genre and an intimate family saga.

Fueled by artistic expression and limited only by their runtime, short films transcend traditional storytelling. They are a significant and popular way artists can connect with audiences. From documentary to animation, narrative to experimental, the abbreviated form is made for risk-taking. The Festival has always treated short films with the highest regard and gives a home to both established and new filmmakers with shorts for audiences to discover and celebrate.

The Festival's Short Film Program has long been established as a place to discover talented directors, such as past alums Damien Chazelle, Wes Anderson, Jill Soloway, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Dee Rees, Taika Waititi, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Lake Bell, Debra Granik, Jay and Mark Duplass, Todd Haynes, Lynne Ramsay, Andrea Arnold, and many others.

Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his baby daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to the outer reaches of the solar system.The crew death-row inmates led by a doctor (Juliette Binoche) with sinister motives has vanished. As the mystery of what happened onboard the ship is unraveled, father and daughter must rely on each other to survive as they hurtle toward the oblivion of a black hole. A staggering and primal film about love and intimacy, suffused with anguished memories of a lost Earth, High Life is a haunting, thrilling achievement from visionary director Claire Denis .

Rated R

110 Minutes

*Official MPAA Rating: Rated R for disturbing sexual and violent content including sexual assault, graphic nudity, and for language.

Join us for film & discussion for the final film in our French New Wave series. Jared Wagner will introduce the film and lead a discussion following. *Jared also writes a blog on the cinema-worcester website: https://www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames/

A cornerstone of the French New Wave, the first feature from Alain Resnais is one of the most influential films of all time. A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) engage in a brief, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima, their consuming mutual fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories of love and suffering. With an innovative flashback structure and an Academy Award–nominated screenplay by novelist Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima mon amour is a moody masterwork that delicately weaves past and present, personal pain and public anguish.

Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss) is a '90s punk rock superstar who once filled arenas with her grungy all-female trio Something She. Now she plays smaller venues while grappling with motherhood, exhausted bandmates, nervous record company executives, and a new generation of rising talent eager to usurp her stardom. When Becky's chaos and excesses derail a recording session and national tour, she finds herself shunned, isolated and alone. Forced to get sober, temper her demons, and reckon with the past, she retreats from the spotlight and tries to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.

In the mid-19th century, Emily Dickinson is writing prolifically, baking gingerbread, and enjoying a passionate, lifelong romantic relationship with another woman, her friend and sisterin-law Susan...yes this is the iconic American poet, popularly thought to have been a recluse. Beloved comic Molly Shannon leads in this humorous yet bold reappraisal of Dickinson, informed by her private letters. While seeking publication of some of the 1,775 poems written during her lifetime, Emily (Shannon) finds herself facing a troupe of male literary gatekeepers too confused by her genius to take her work seriously. Instead her work attracts the attention of an ambitious woman editor, who also sees Emily as a convenient cover for her own role in buttoned-up Amherst's most bizarre love triangle. A timely critique of how women's history is rewritten, Wild Nights With Emily remains vibrant, irreverent and tender--a perhaps closer depiction of Emily Dickinson's real life than anything seen before.

"A Devilishly Fun Documentary About Faith in America" - IndieWire

What is the Satanic Temple? Is it religion? A cult? Performance art? Acclaimed filmmaker Penny Lane gains unprecedented access to this enigmatic movement, which has grown to over 100,000 members around the world in just five years. HAIL SATAN? explores the Temple's fight for equality, its focus on community, and its devilish sense of humor. In an era when founding principles and institutions can't be trusted to work on behalf of all people, these progressive Satanic crusaders advocate to save the soul of a nation.

Runtime: 1hr 35min

Rated R

Bursting with the colorful street style & music of Nairobi’s vibrant youth culture, RAFIKI is a tender love story between two young women in a country that still criminalizes homosexuality. Kena and Ziki have long been told that “good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives” - but they yearn for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls encourage each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, Kena and Ziki must choose between happiness and safety.

Initially banned in Kenya for its positive portrayal of queer romance, RAFIKI won a landmark supreme court case chipping away at Kenyan anti-LGBT legislation. Featuring remarkable performances by newcomers Samantha Mugatsia and Sheila Munyiva, RAFIKI is a hip tale of first love “reminiscent of the early work of Spike Lee” (Screen Daily) that’s “impossible not to celebrate” (Variety)!

runtime: 1hr 23 min

Join us for film & discussion for part 3 of our 4 part French New Wave series. Jared Wagner will introduce each film and lead a discussion following the film. *Jared also writes a blog on the cinema-worcester website: https://www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames/

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Halla is a fifty-year-old independent woman. But behind the scenes of a quiet routine, she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist. Known to others only by her alias "The Woman of the Mountain," Halla secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminum industry. As Halla's actions grow bolder, from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage, she succeeds in pausing the negotiations between the Icelandic government and the corporation building a new aluminum smelter. But right as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that changes her perspective...

A beloved but rarely seen gem of pure cinéma vérité in which Sister Marie Arné and Sister Mary Campion tour Chicago during the Summer of Love, asking: “Are you happy?”

Inquiring Nuns captures the attitudes, fears, and dreams of everyday Chicagoans, giving audiences and researchers insight into the political and social climate of 1960’s Chicago. The film’s music is composed by Philip Glass in his first credited film score.

What is CINEMA-WORCESTER up to?!

At this informational session we will talk about what CINEMA-WORCESTER is, its current state of operations, a vision of what it could become and some initial practical steps to get there.

We invite all interested parties! We are also looking to identify energized individuals skilled in the following areas to help us on our journey: non-profit management, fund raising, cinema operations, film history and criticism, graphic arts, social media, and more. Anyone interested in getting on our volunteer list also more than welcome!

Join us, and consider helping CINEMA-WORCESTER reach its goal of becoming a full time, independent cinema in Worcester showing the best and most thought provoking films from all over the world. Popcorn will be served!
___

#MakeArtEverywhere, #WorcesterCulturalCoalition #TheWorcesterPopUp

Disclaimer:
“The Worcester PopUp is a creative co-working space of the Worcester Cultural Coalition in partnership with The Barr Foundation. This event is not sponsored by, nor does it necessarily reflect the views of the Worcester Cultural Coalition.”

Join us for film & discussion for part 2 of our 4 part French New Wave series. Jared Wagner will introduce each film and lead a discussion following the film. *Jared also writes a blog on the cinema-worcester website: https://www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames/

Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, Jules and Jim charts, over twenty-five years, the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession. The legendary François Truffaut directs, and Jeanne Moreau stars as the alluring and willful Catherine, whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating romantic triangles. An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty, and the fortitude of love, Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash in 1962 and remains every bit as audacious and entrancing today.

Composed of intimate and unencumbered moments of people in a community, this film is constructed in a form that allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South - trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming.

"You could call it a transcendental scrapbook, because it wipes away the muck of subjectivity that guides most movies. It turns the audience into direct receptors of experience." Variety

From acclaimed director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) and Japan’s Studio Chizu comes Mirai, a daringly original story of love passed down through generations. When four-year-old Kun meets his new baby sister, his world is turned upside down. Named Mirai (meaning “future”), the baby quickly wins the hearts of Kun’s entire family. As his mother returns to work, and his father struggles to run the household, Kun becomes increasingly jealous of baby Mirai... until one day he storms off into the garden, where he encounters strange guests from the past and future – including his sister Mirai, as a teenager. Together, Kun and teenage Mirai go on a journey through time and space, uncovering their family’s incredible story. But why did Mirai come from the future?

Oscar nominated for best animated film of 2018! An official selection at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and the epic capstone of director Mamoru Hosoda’s career, Mirai is a sumptuous, magical, and emotionally soaring adventure.

Dubbed in English

Rated PG

Join us for film & discussion for part 1 of our 4 part French New Wave series. Jared Wagner will introduce each film and lead a discussion following the film. *Jared also writes a blog on the cinema-worcester website: https://www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames/

Screenwriter Paul Javal's marriage to his wife Camille disintegrates during movie production as she spends time with the producer. Layered conflicts between art and business ensue.

"Possibly Godard's most melancholy film and probably his most beautiful ..." Variety

Runtime: 101 min

When eight-year-old Shula turns up alone and unannounced in a rural Zambian village, the locals are suspicious. A minor incident escalates to a full-blown witch trial, where she is found guilty and sentenced to life on a state-run witch camp. There, she is tethered to a long white ribbon and told that if she ever tries to run away, she will be transformed into a goat. As the days pass, Shula begins to settle into her new community, but a threat looms on the horizon. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision – whether to resign herself to life on the camp, or take a risk for freedom.

At times moving, often funny and occasionally surreal, I Am Not a Witch offers spellbinding storytelling with flashes of anarchic humor. Audacious and unforgettable, it showcases Rungano Nyoni as a fresh and fearless new voice in British film.

For over six years, and for reasons he can't explain, Matt Green, 37, has been walking every block of every street in New York City – a journey of more than 8,000 miles. From filmmaker Jeremy Workman and Executive Producer Jesse Eisenberg, THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET tells the story of one man’s unusual personal quest and the unexpected journey of discovery, humanity, and wonder that ensues.

Tickets: General Admission $10; Senior / Student with ID $8.50

Somewhere in Tokyo, Osamu Shibata and his wife Nobuyo live in poverty. While Osamu receives occasional employment and Nobuyo has a low-paying job, the family relies in large part on the grandmother's pension. As he is shoplifting for groceries with his son, Shota, they discover Yuri, a homeless girl. Osamu takes her home, where the family observes evidence of abuse. Despite their strained finances, they informally adopt her.

The film premiered on 13 May 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it went on to win the Palme d'Or. The film was released in Japan on 8 June 2018 and was a critical and commercial success.

Tickets: General Admission $10 / Seniors & Students with ID $8.50

The 4th and final of 4 great Bergman films in our monthly series "Communicating Bergman", with introduction and discussion with Jared Wagner! 

*Jared's writing is also featured at www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames, including information on the film screening each month.

Join us at 6:30 for informal discussion and grab a beverage from Acoustic Java's menu. Film introduction starts at 7 PM followed by screening. 

Scenes from a Marriage chronicles the many years of love and turmoil that bind Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) through matrimony, infidelity, divorce, and subsequent partners.

"In ‘Support the Girls,’ Sisterhood Is Funny, Essential and Sweet" - NY Times

"Top 10 of 2018!" - RogerEbert.com

Regina Hall (Girls Trip) stars as the hardworking manager of Double Whammies, a “sports bar with curves.” She runs the joint like a family, but over the course of one challenging day her incurable optimism is tested by sketchy employees, bad customers and an even worse boss. From director Andrew Bujalski (Results) featuring Haley Lu Richardson (Split), James Le Gros (Certain Women), Dylan Gelula (Her Smell), Brooklyn Decker (Battleship), Jana Kramer (“One Tree Hill”), Lea DeLaria (“Orange Is the New Black”) and more.

Rated R

1 hr 34 minutes

General Admission $10 / Senior & Student with ID $8.50

Under the guidance of acclaimed South African storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe, five orphaned children from Swaziland collaborate to craft an original fairy tale drawn from their darkest memories and brightest dreams. Their fictional character, Liyana, is brought to life in innovative animated artwork as she embarks on a dangerous quest to rescue her young twin brothers. The children's real and imagined worlds begin to converge, and they must choose what kind of story they will tell - in fiction and in their own lives. This inspiring tale of perseverance is a tribute to creativity, the strength of the human spirit, and the healing power storytelling.

Tickets: General Admission $10 / Seniors & Students with ID $8.50

The third of 4 great Bergman films in our monthly series "Communicating Bergman", with introduction and discussion with Jared Wagner! 

*Jared's writing is also featured at www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames, including information on the film screening each month.

Join us at 6:30 for informal discussion and grab a beverage from Acoustic Java's menu. Film introduction starts at 7 PM followed by screening. 

While vacationing on a remote Scandanavian island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.

With Director James Demo in person!

A NY Times Critics' Pick and multi-award winning film, THE PEACEMAKER is an intimate portrait of international peacemaker Padraig O'Malley - who helps make peace for others but struggles to find it for himself.  The film takes us from Padraig's isolated life in Cambridge, Massachusetts to some of the most dangerous crisis zones on Earth – from Northern Ireland to Kosovo, Nigeria to Iraq – as he works a peacemaking model based on his recovery from addiction.  We meet Padraig in the third act of his life in a race against time to find some kind of salvation for both the world and himself.

2 showings on Friday November 9, 6:30 PM and 8:45!

A dazzling collection of the year's best animated shorts from all over the world, not to be missed! 

What the critics said about last year's show: 

The "Show of Shows" offers a welcome reminder that an animated film can be as intimate and personal as a signature.- Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times

An exceptional program that starts off strong and only gets better as it goes, the 19th Annual Animation Show of Shows overflows with charm while containing more provocative observations about the nature of existence than most prestige feature films do.Animators both obscure and famous show their wares here, in a program paced beautifully by Ron Diamond. Anyone who attends this third event will hope it stays public for years to come. - John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

Appearing just in time to end the cinematic year on a high note is the wonderful collection of animated shorts THE ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS.Seriously these films are all kick ass which make this collection an absolute must if you love great filmmaking - never mind animation- most of these films transcend being labels just "cartoons". - Steve Kopian, Unseen Films"

The second of 4 great Bergman films in our monthly series "Communicating Bergman", with introduction and discussion with Jared Wagner! 

*Jared's writing is also featured at www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames, including information on the film screening each month.

Join us at 6:30 for informal discussion and grab a beverage from Acoustic Java's menu. Film introduction starts at 7 PM followed by screening. 

Autumn Sonata was the only collaboration between cinema’s two great Bergmans: Ingmar and Ingrid, the monumental star of Casablanca. The grande dame, playing an icy concert pianist, is matched beat for beat in ferocity by the filmmaker’s recurring lead Liv Ullmann, as her eldest daughter. Over the course of a day and a long, painful night that the two spend together after an extended separation, they finally confront the bitter discord of their relationship. 

Part 1 - 6 PM / Part 2 - 7:45 PM / Q&A with Greg after second show!

Asylum Coffeetorium will be there serving delicious pop-overs!

Jon Kortina (Greg Sestero) is a drifter who is taken in by a
peculiar mortician, Harvey Lewis (Tommy Wiseau), and the
two form a friendship while building an underground
enterprise in the dark seedy world of Los Angeles. Jealousy,
secrets, romance and betrayal try to tear the two apart.
Will all of their efforts unravel?

The first of 4 great Bergman films in our monthly series "Communicating Bergman", with introduction and discussion with Jared Wagner! 

*Jared's writing is also featured at www.cinema-worcester.com/truthat24frames, including information on the film screening each month.

Join us at 6:30 for informal discussion and grab a beverage from Acoustic Java's menu. Film introduction starts at 7 PM followed by screening. 

The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Denmark during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death (Bengt Ekerot), who has come to take his life.

Award winning documentary, with director in person! 

Popcorn!!

Hard headed Louisiana fisherman Thomas Gonzales doesn't know what will hit him next.  After decades of hurricanes and oil spills he faces a new threat - hordes of monstrous 20 pound swamp rats.  Known as “nutria”, these invasive South American rodents breed faster than the roving squads of hunters can control them.  And with their orange teeth and voracious appetite they are eating up the coastal wetlands that protects Thomas and his town of Delacroix Island from hurricanes.  But the people who have lived here for generations are not the type of folks who will give up without a fight.  Thomas and a pack of lively bounty hunters are hellbent on saving Louisiana before it dissolves beneath their feet.  It is man vs. rodent.  May the best mammal win.

Trailer here!! https://vimeo.com/237653627

Enjoy the wonderful stART festival and stop by to find out about CINEMA-WORCESTER and what's coming up next for screenings in Worcester!

The Passion of Joan of Arc screening with live score, string quartet and electronics

$20

Sprinkler Artist Factory and cinema-worcester is inviting all film and music lovers to a special night of silent film and live music. The Passion of Joan of Arc, directed by Carl Th. Dreyer in 1928, is considered one of the best silent films made. Rene Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances ever recorded on film, as the young maiden who died for God and France.