Kim Kahana: The Man Who Changed Hollywood (2023)

“Kim Kahana: The Man who Changed Hollywood an independent docudrama chronicling the life and career of legendary Hollywood stuntman Kim Kahana. The film, directed by Frank Sollecito offers an intimate and personal look at the extraordinary life of Kahana, who rose to fame as a stuntman and actor in the 1970s and 1980s. Known for his incredible athleticism and fearless approach to performing dangerous stunts, Kahana worked on over 300 movies and television shows throughout his career.. Kim Kahana: The Man who changed Hollywood combines archival footage, interviews with Kahana’s family, friends and student alumni from his famed stunt school. Starring James Duval and using reenactments of some of his most memorable stunts to create a compelling portrait of a man who pushed the boundaries of what was possible in Hollywood and the safety measures he implied in the industry.”

Sanctuary (2023)

“A wickedly dark comedy follows dominatrix, Rebecca (Emmy Award® nominee Margaret Qualley), and her wealthy client, Hal (Christopher Abbott), as they engage in a high stakes role playing game for power and control. In the wake of inheriting his father’s hotel chain, Hal attempts to end his long and secret relationship with Rebecca. A battle of wills ensues over the course of one incredibly fraught night, with both Rebecca and Hal struggling to keep the upper hand as the power dynamics swing wildly back and forth.”

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into The Future (2022)

“A choir of creatures introduces a world delicately constructed by fantasy, mystery, and magical realism in Francisca Alegría’s poignant and stunning debut feature. It begins in a river in the south of Chile where fish are dying due to pollution from a nearby factory. Amid their floating bodies, long-deceased Magdalena (Mia Maestro) bubbles up to the surface gasping for air, bringing with her old wounds and a wave of family secrets. This shocking return sends her widowed husband into turmoil and prompts their daughter Cecilia (Leonor Varela) to return home to the family’s dairy farm with her own children. Magdalena’s presence reverberates among her family, instigating fits of laughter and despair in equal measure with all but Cecilia’s eldest child, who finds much-needed comfort in their grandmother’s love and unconditional understanding during a time of transition. A lyrical rumination on family, nature, renewal, and resurrection, The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future is an ambitious proposal for acceptance and healing, suggesting that the dead return when they are most needed.”

Trenque Lauquen (Part 1 & Part 2, 2023)

Only on/
Sunday, June 11th at 2 p.m./

This program includes a 10 minute intermission/
Part 1: 128 minutes &
Part 2: 132 minutes/

“From El Pampero Cine, the collective behind La Flor, comes a labyrinthine tale of obsessive pursuit and the quest for personal freedom . . . The search for a missing woman unspools in two unexpectedly interconnected parts in Laura Citarella’s playful new feature. The missing woman is Laura (Laura Paredes), a biologist cataloging plant species in and around the Argentinean city of Trenque Lauquen. The men searching for her: Rafael, her boyfriend, and Ezequiel, a coworker who has come to mean more to her in recent days. But in order to uncover the truth of Laura’s disappearance, a profusion of mysteries must be explored. There’s the question of love letters hidden in books in the local library, the discovery of a new species of flower, and then there’s the mysterious being, rumored to be haunting the lake at the center of town.”

Devilreaux (2023)

“A series of murders in 1800s will be avenged by forbidden voodoo, woken up accidentally by a group of teenagers.”

De Humani Corporis Fabrica (2022)

“Five centuries ago, anatomist André Vésale opened up the human body to science for the first time in history. Today, De Humani Corporis Fabrica opens the human body to the cinema. It reveals that human flesh is an extraordinary landscape that exists only through the gaze and attention of others. As places of care, suffering and hope, hospitals are laboratories that connect every body in the world.”

Falcon Lake (2022)

“Bastien and Chloé spend their summer vacation with their families at a lake cabin in Quebec, haunted by a ghost legend. Despite the age gap between them, the two teenagers form a singular bond. Ready to overcome his worst fears to earn a place in Chloé’s heart, the holiday becomes a turbulent pivotal moment for the young boy.”

BlackBerry (2023)

“The “true story” of the meteoric rise & catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone, BLACKBERRY is a whirlwind ride through a ruthlessly competitive Silicon Valley at breakneck speeds.”

We Might As Well Be Dead (2021)

“A tower block on the edge of a forest, people hoping to join the building’s community as it is one of the last bastions of civilization in a world that has fallen apart.”

L’immensità (2022)

“Clara (Penélope Cruz) and her emotionally distant husband Felice (Vincenzo Amato) relocate to Rome to raise a family. Even though the paint is fresh, and the appliances are new, the crushing expectations around marriage, desire, and gender in the early 1970s remain as traditional as ever. Their children Andrew (played by newcomer Luana Giuliani), Gino, and Diana are likewise poised at a precipice, on the verge of adolescence, with nothing but their imaginations to defuse family tensions. The eldest child, Andrew (nicknamed Adri by his parents), yearns for another life – an outsized, vibrantly-realized vision of a world where he gets to live as the boy he knows himself to be. Without an accepted vocabulary for talking about his transgender identity, Andrew tells adults that he’s an alien from another galaxy and makes a habit of running away to pursue a local Roma girl who accepts his boyhood at face value. As an outsider ostracized for her own eccentricities, Clara instinctively strives to protect her son despite not fully understanding him. An effortlessly moving film about growing up, fitting in, and breaking the mold, L’immensita is as freewheeling and creative as its central characters, mixing genres and staging musical numbers out of thin air.”

Other People’s Children (2022)

“When dedicated high school teacher Rachel (Virginie Efira) falls in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem), it’s not long before she also falls for his 4-year-old daughter Leila. The adolescent giddiness of Rachel and Ali’s late night rendezvous and secret sleepovers evolves into the familiar warmth of family picnics and after-school pickups. Although she feels like a mother, Rachel is not allowed to forget that Lelia is another woman’s daughter. She begins to long for a child of her own, but as a forty-something woman, she is abundantly aware that she has limited time to begin a family. Rachel must decide whether to embrace the inherent entanglements of her current situation, including the looming presence of Ali’s ex-wife Alice (Chiara Mastroanni) or strike out again on her own. Other People’s Children becomes a soulful, sexy, and resolutely grown-up story of the elusive quest for agency and belonging.”

Moon Garden (2022)

“When a little girl has a terrible accident and slips into a coma, she finds herself thrust into a darkly surreal industrial dreamworld. Haunted by a nightmarish spectre that feeds off her tears, she must follow her mother’s radio-static voice to find her way back to consciousness. Shot on expired 35mm film stock with vintage rehoused lenses, MOON GARDEN is a fantastical odyssey and a visionary, handcrafted, and fully practical work of art that shows how a child can shine light even in the darkest places.”

Joyland (2022)

“The debut feature from writer-director Saim Sadiq, JOYLAND explores the many sides of love and desire in a patriarchal society. Gentle and timid, Haider (Ali Junejo) lives with his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), his father, and his elder brother’s family in Lahore, Pakistan. Following a long spell of unemployment, Haider finally lands a job at a Bollywood-style burlesque, telling his family he is a theater manager, when in actuality, he is a backup dancer. The unusual position shakes up the steadfast traditional dynamics of his household and enables Haider to break out of his shell. As he acclimates to the new job, Haider becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman Biba (Alina Khan) who runs the show—an unforeseen partnership that opens his eyes and ultimately his worldview, in ways both unexpected and intimate.”

Monica (2022)

“The intimate portrait of a woman who returns home to care for her dying mother. A delicate and nuanced story of a fractured family, the story explores universal themes of abandonment, aging, acceptance, and redemption.”

Plan 75 (2022)

“In a near dystopian future, Japan’s government launches PLAN 75, a program encouraging the elderly to terminate their own lives to relieve its rapidly aging population’s social and economic burdens. In Chie Hayakawa’s remarkable and sensitive feature film debut, the lives of three ordinary citizens intersect in this new reality as they confront the crushing callousness of a world ready to dispose of those no longer deemed valuable. Legendary Japanese actress Chieko Baishō stars as a 78-year-old Michi who considers signing up for the program after losing her meager but fulfilling hotel job and the means to live independently. A young Plan 75 salesman Himoru (Hayato Isomura) initially believes in the program’s benefits and serves as the human face of the program. And Maria (Stephanie Arianne), a Filipino care worker living overseas, reluctantly accepts a position with PLAN 75 to send money home to her ailing daughter. On the surface, the plan and its hawkers exude a kindness that serves as the film’s chilling vision of bureaucratic indifference and our increasing loss of interconnectedness. However, Hayakawa’s view is far from grim, as these characters soon learn to fully reckon with their own lives and what it truly means to live.”

Human Flowers of Flesh (2021)

“After a stirring encounter with the French Foreign Legion, Ida (Dogtooth’s Angeliki Papoulia), sets sail with her own corps of five men, none of whom speak the same language, to trace the route of this fabled troop. Their voyage will take them from Marseille to Corsica and finally to Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, the historical headquarters of the Legion. Along the way, boundaries blur. Life at sea produces a special kind of mutual understanding. A legionnaire of yore makes an about-face. In her spellbinding follow-up to the critically acclaimed Drift, Helena Wittmann invites us to relinquish control and join her on a Mediterranean voyage unlike any other.”

Showing Up (2022)

“A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt’s vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft.”

R.M.N. (2022)

“Award-winning director Cristian Mungiu’s (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) gripping portrait of ethnic and economic resentments tearing at the fabric of a small mountain town.”

Sick of Myself (2022)

“SICK OF MYSELF is a delightfully naughty, ‘unromantic’ Norwegian comedy from filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli and the producers of The Worst Person In The World. Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) and Thomas (Eirik Sæther) are in an unhealthy, competitive relationship that takes a vicious turn when Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist. In response, Signe makes a desperate attempt to regain her status by creating a new persona hell-bent on attracting attention and sympathy.”

The Eight Mountains (2022)

“An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains is a landmark cinematic experience as intimate as it is monumental, as deep as it is expansive. Adapting the award-winning novel by Paolo Cognetti, directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch (The Broken Circle Breakdown) portray through observant detail and stunning landscape photography the profound, complex relationship between Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), who first meet as children when Pietro’s Milan family vacations in an isolated village at the base of the Alpine slopes. As they mature, Pietro becomes estranged from his business-minded father (Filippo Timi) even as Bruno—emotionally abandoned by his own father—takes up the role of surrogate son. Pietro’s father’s death reunites the two in realizing his dream of constructing a cabin on the Alps, and the project and subsequent explorations of the awe-inspiring mountain range bond Pietro and Bruno in a shared purpose. Yet despite their connection, the purity of nature and the demands of society both threaten to drive the men to pursue different, possibly irrevocably divergent paths on the vertiginous terrain of life. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.”

Beau is Afraid (2023)

“Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.”

Little Richard: I Am Everything (2022)

“LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything. Directed by Lisa Cortés, LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING is produced by Robert Friedman, Cortés, Liz Yale Marsh and Caryn Capotosto and Executive Produced by Dee Rees.”

Return to Seoul (2022)

“After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.”

How to Blow Up A Pipeline (2022)

“A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline in this taut and timely thriller that is part high-stakes heist, part radical exploration of the climate crisis.”

Walk Up (2022)

“In his ninth film for Hong Sangsoo, Kwon Haehyo plays Byungsoo, a film director who goes with his daughter Jeongsu (Park Miso), an aspiring interior designer, to a building owned by an old friend (Lee Hyeyoung) already established in the design field. She gives them a tour of the property, which includes a restaurant and cooking studio on the first two floors, her office in the basement, a residence on the third floor and an artist’s studio at the top. The three of them amicably chat the day away. But when his daughter leaves to get more wine, Byungsoo is left to spend time with the landlord and the other residents of her building. With Walk Up, Hong Sangsoo returns to an interest in structure that has been a defining characteristic of his work from the beginning. And this time the structure is a literal one. As Byunsgoo makes his way up the floors of the building, Hong fills these spaces with a profusion of everyday details spanning art, love, career, religion, dietary decisions and home renovations.”

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)

Starts June 16th/

Tickets on sale soon/

“In THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER, Vicaria (DeLeon Hayes) plays a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life. Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the dramatic thriller thematically challenges our ideas of life and death following a family that, despite the terrors of systemic pressure, will survive and be reborn together again.”

The Wrath of Becky (2023)

Starts June 16th/

Tickets on sale soon/

“Two years after she escaped a violent attack on her family, Becky attempts to rebuild her life in the care of an older woman – a kindred spirit named Elena. But when a group known as the “Noble Men” break into their home, attack them, and take her beloved dog, Diego, Becky must return to her old ways to protect herself and her loved ones.”

“Shockagogo Film Fest is back! Thursday, June 22nd at the Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall from 6pm ’til Late! Special guests include William Crain (director of Blacula & Dr. Black & Mr. Hyde) & Brinke Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre) who will presenting “The Night Jane Went Insane” by Count the Clock Productions & Victor Bonacore’s Thrust! (with Victor & Linnea Quigley in Person) Tickets are only $15 presale! Get yours now, this will sell out. Please share & Invite people :)”

Special Guests:
Jim Wynorski (director of Chopping Mall)
William Crain (director of Blacula)
Linnea Quiqley (Return of the Living Dead)
Brinke Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre)
Victor Bonacore (director of Thrust)
and more!

Film Line Up:
6pm – Shock Shorts
7pm – Chopping Mall (dir. Jim Wynorski in Person)
8:15pm – Thrust! (director Victor Bonacore & star Linnea Quigley in Attendance)
10:15pm – Blacula (dir. William Crain in Person)

Short Films Include:
The Night Jane Went Insane (starring Brinke Stevens) Count the Clock Productions (9 mins.)
Miracle Baby – Meg Welch (9:55)
Spirits – Matthew Catazano (8:38)
Peanut Butter And Zombie – Matthew Close (5:22)
The Devoted – by Gabrielle Paciorek (3:11)
Present – by Gavin T. Briggs (5 mins.)
Blood Thirsty – Kevin Barile (10:30)

Friday, June 23rd, 7:30 p.m. /

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

“In the town of Twin Peaks, everyone has their secrets—but especially Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). In this prequel to his groundbreaking 1990s television series, David Lynch resurrects the teenager found wrapped in plastic at the beginning of the show, following her through the last week of her life and teasing out the enigmas that surround her murder. Homecoming queen by day and drug-addicted thrill seeker by night, Laura leads a double life that pulls her deeper and deeper into horror as she pieces together the identity of the assailant who has been terrorizing her for years. Nightmarish in its vision of an innocent torn apart by unfathomable forces, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is nevertheless one of Lynch’s most humane films, aching with compassion for its tortured heroine—a character as enthralling in life as she was in death.”

Saturday, June 24th, 7:30 p.m. /

Lost Highway (1997)

“For the 25th Anniversary Janus Films has commissed a 4K restoration supervised by David Lynch. The mysterious nature of identity is the subject of this surreal psychological thriller filled with desperate men, faithless women, expensive cars and cheap motels. Radical when it was originally released, even for a David Lynch film, Lost Highway is not only about the human psyche, it actually seems to take place inside the psyche. It is gripped right through the shattering, unforgettable ending. Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Robert Blake and Balthazar Getty star. From the director of Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart, Inland Empire, Eraserhead and Blue Velvet.”