Opening Monday March 8th in celebration of Women’s History Month!

Doc Days Film Series presents: Women Composers
(2018, 53 min., English and German w/subtitles)

$4.99 for 72 hour viewing window
Buy tickets HERE

Winner Best Documentary, 2019 New York Movie Awards

“Masterful film craft and great storytelling, including highly interesting musical discoveries." - Concerti

When Leipzig pianist Kyra Steckeweh realised that her repertoire almost exclusively consisted of music composed by men, she began searching for pieces written by female composers. Her research in archives, libraries, and publishing houses quickly brought to light a variety of remarkable piano pieces that have been buried in history and rarely performed.. Steckeweh sees a lot of catching up to do, which is why the focus of her piano recitals and recordings has since shifted to the music of women composers, particularly Mel Bonis, Lili Boulanger and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. With these releases she has brought to our attention and delight three very different composers, all of whom left a diverse body of work. In addition to the in-depth examination of the music, Steckeweh, as a pianist and historian, seeks to look "behind the notes": How did these women live? What barriers did they have to overcome and how did they manage to cope with the obstacles of their time? The film "Women Composers" highlights the historical and personal circumstances under which these three remarkable women created their works in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Doc Days Film Series presents: Mary Lou Williams: the Lady Who Swings The Band
Directed by Carol Bash (U.S.A. / 2015 / ENGLISH / 60 MIN)

Tickets $12 for 2 day viewing window
BUY TICKETS HERE

Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band is a story of tragedy and triumph seen through the eyes of a prodigy. We journey the 20th century through the lens of one of its leading jazz musicians who is determined to create in a world that could not see past her race or gender.

Mary Lou Williams was ahead of her time, a genius. During an era when jazz was the nation’s popular music, she was one of its greatest innovators. As both a pianist and composer, she was a wellspring of daring and creativity who helped shape the sound of 20th century America. And like the dynamic, turbulent nation in which she lived, Williams seemed to re-define herself with every passing decade. From child prodigy to “Boogie-Woogie Queen” to groundbreaking composer to mentoring some of the greatest musicians of all time, Mary Lou Williams never ceased to astound those who heard her play. But away from the piano, Williams was a woman in a “man’s world,” a black person in a “whites only” society, an ambitious artist who dared to be different and struggled against the imperatives of being a “star.”

Working at a time when women were expected to stay at home and raise children, Mary Lou Williams forged her own path and created some of the most sophisticated big band hits for Andy Kirk, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and many other popular orchestras in the 1930s and ‘40s. She was truly a woman who swung the band. Above all, she did not fit the (still) prevailing notions of where genius comes from or what it looks like. Time and again, she pushed back against a world that said, “You can’t” and said, “I can.” It nearly cost her everything.

Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band features Academy Award-nominated actress Alfre Woodard as the narrated voice of Mary Lou Williams and contemporary musical performances by Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, Carmen Lundy, Esperanza Spalding, and a big band conducted by Wycliffe Gordon.

WATCH THE TRAILER BELOW

Fine Features Film Series presents: Test Pattern
(2020, 82 min., US/English)
Winner: Jury Award – New Orleans Film Festival

Screening virtually Friday, February 19th - Thursday, March 4th
Tickets $12 for 5-day viewing pass
BUY TICKETS HERE

Our friends at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline are hosting a live Q& A Monday, February 22nd at 8PM with Writer/Director Shatara Michelle Ford and stars Brittany S. Hall & Will Brill, moderated by Ira Madison III. You can watch it for free HERE

Or check out Director Shatara Michelle Ford in conversation with James Gray - watch HERE

“Everything is about sex, except sex, which is about power.”
- Oscar Wilde

Part psychological horror, part realist drama, this exhilarating debut feature from Shatara Michelle Ford is set against the backdrop of national discussions around inequitable health care and policing, the #metoo movement, and race in America. Test Pattern follows an interracial couple whose relationship is put to the test after a Black woman is sexually assaulted and her white boyfriend drives her from hospital to hospital in search of a rape kit. Their story reveals the systemic injustices and social conditioning women face when navigating sex and consent within the American patriarchy. Winner of top prizes at the BlackStar and New Orleans Film Festivals, this gripping social thriller offers a unique exploration of institutional racism and sexism from a Black female point of view.
Please note: This film includes a depiction of sexual assault.

What the critics are saying about this film…

Our Doc Days Film Series continues with the new film M.C. Escher: Journey To Infinity
Directed by Robin Lutz and narrated by Stephen Fry
(2019, Dutch/English/Italian/German, w/English subtitles, 81 Min.)

Tickets: $12 for 5 day viewing pass
BUY TICKETS HERE

M.C. Escher: Journey To Infinity is the story of world famous Dutch graphic artist M.C Escher (1898-1972). Equal parts history, psychology, and psychedelia, Robin Lutz’s entertaining, eye-opening portrait gives us the man through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, correspondence and more are voiced by British actor Stephen Fry, while Escher’s woodcuts, lithographs, and other print works appear in both original and playfully altered form.

Two of his sons, George (92) and Jan (80), reminisce about their parents while musician Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills & Nash) talks about Escher’s rediscovery in the 1970s. The film looks at Escher’s legacy: one can see tributes to his work in movies, in fiction, on posters, on tattoos, and elsewhere throughout our culture; indeed, few fine artists of the 20th century can lay claim to such popular appeal.

WATCH THE TRAILER BELOW!

ABOUT M.C. ESCHER:

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), better known as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch draftsman and printmaker born in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.

Escher created his first prints in 1916 while a secondary school student in Arnhem. From 1919 to 1922, he attended the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem, during which time his studies turned from architecture to drawing and printmaking. In 1921, Escher began to travel extensively in Italy, settling in Rome in 1923. Escher married in 1924 and lived in Rome with his growing family until moving to Switzerland in 1935, to Belgium in 1937, and back to The Netherlands in 1941 during the first years of World War II.

Escher’s frequent trips exploring the Italian countryside between 1921 and 1935 strongly influenced the subjects of his early prints, which included portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. During this period, he also created woodcut illustrations for three publications: the bookletFlor de Pascua (1921), an emblem bookXXIV Emblemata (1932), andDe vreeselijke avonturen van Scholastica (1933).

Traveling to Spain in 1936, Escher visited the Alhambra for the second time and visited the mosque in Córdoba. The renewed exposure to Arabic design occasioned an important change in his work--he became fascinated with geometry and symmetry and how those abstract design elements could be incorporated into his representations of the natural world. The images in his later prints are created from within his mind rather than representations of the physical world. He explored how to represent people, animals, and objects rising from the flat page and then returning, as well as how to represent the endlessness of infinity. As a result, Escher’s work has been recognized both in the art world and in the scientific community, including at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam during the International Mathematical Conference in 1954.

Escher worked in a number of printmaking techniques, including lithography, drypoint, and mezzotint. However his preferred print techniques were woodcut, wood engraving, and linoleum cut.

–Boston Public Library

Opening virtually Friday January 8th!
Doc Days Film Series: The Reason I Jump
(Dir. Jerry Rothwell/USA & UK / 82 min)

$12 for a 5-day viewing pass
BUY TICKETS HERE

Winner: Sundance Film Festival: Audience Award & World Cinema Documentary
Winner: Denver Film Festival: Maysles Brothers Award

Based on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida, THE REASON I JUMP is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people from around the world. The film blends Higashida's revelatory insights into autism, written when he was just 13, with intimate portraits of five remarkable young people. It opens a window for audiences into an intense and overwhelming, but often joyful, sensory universe.

Moments in the lives of each of the characters are linked by the journey of a young Japanese boy through an epic landscape; narrated passages from Naoki’s writing reflect on what his autism means to him and others, how his perception of the world differs, and why he acts in the way he does: the reason he jumps. The film distills these elements into a sensually rich tapestry that leads us to Naoki’s core message: not being able to speak does not mean there is nothing to say.

Watch a Q&A from Jan. 13th with director Jerry Rothwell, presented by Reel Abilities and moderated by Lawrence Carter-Long

Critical praise FOR THE REASON I JUMP

Our friend Jimmy Tingle is back (virtually!) for several evenings, presenting his film Humor For Humanity along with a comedy performance and Q &A.

Tickets are $20 or pay-what-you-can, and a portion of proceeds benefit year-round programming at Prez Hall. What a deal!

Showtimes:

Dec 26 @ 7pm

Dec 27 @ 5pm (reg. ends at 3:45p)

Dec 30 @ 7pm

Dec 31 @ 7pm

Jan 1 @ 7pm

Jan 2 @ 7pm

Jan 3 @ 5pm (reg. ends at 3:45p)

REGISTRATION ENDS at 5:45pm day of show
Zoom link sent by 6:00pm day of show

Tickets available here: https://tingle2020vision_thehall.eventbrite.com

Any questions should be directed to:
Email Brandon.Tingleproductions@gmail.com or text 734-679-6976 (no calls, please).

Jimmy Tingle’s 20/20 Vision is a funny, thought provoking and hopeful look at contemporary life and politics through the experience of comedian, commentator and 2018 candidate for LT Governor of Massachusetts, Jimmy Tingle.

The show will help answer the question “why would a comedian run for office” as it illuminates the 2018 campaign of Jimmy Tingle with passion, purpose and a sense of humor.

As the nation grapples with the results of the presidential election of 2020, Humor for Humanity will entertain, enlighten and challenge the audience to move beyond the current politics of divided government, Trumpian tweets and the nightly news cycle and into the realm of long-term thinking and life affirming possibility.

We are excited to present a winter virtual film series for your in-home enjoyment. “Fine Features” showcases our handpicked selections of the most compelling narrative stories, film festival winners, and independent films available to stream only through cinemas - you won’t find them on Netflix or Amazon.

Fine Features Film Series presents: Tazzeka
(Dir. Jean-Philippe Gaud/95 min/French/Moroccan Arabic w/English subtitles)

Buy tickets HERE
$10 for 2 day viewing pass

Growing up in the Moroccan village of Tazzeka, Elias learned the secrets of traditional Moroccan cuisine from his grandmother who raised him. Years later, meeting a top Paris chef and a young woman named Salma inspires him to leave home.

Opening virtually Friday Dec. 4th: THE CHANGIN’ TIMES OF IKE WHITE

BUY TICKETS HERE
$10 for a 5-day viewing pass

“The story of the greatest soul man you’ve never heard.” – HotPress

"An even more peculiar story than the Oscar-winning music documentary Searching for Sugar Man." – Sunday Times (London)

Serving a life sentence for murder in the early 1970s, music prodigy Ike White had plenty of time to perfect his musical talent, but no hope of putting it to use in the outside world. Ike's skills were exceptional enough, though, that his story captured the media's attention. From this notoriety, he was able to record an album inside the prison with big-time producer Jerry Goldstein (War, Sly and the Family Stone). Superstar Stevie Wonder lobbied successfully for Ike's early release from prison. With an acclaimed album under his belt and the support of Wonder and others in the industry, Ike was poised for stardom. But, instead, he went off the grid for over 40 years. Daniel Vernon's mesmerizing new documentary is unpredictable and moving, echoing the strange journey of Ike White.

Check out this fantastic review for the film in the Hollywood Reporter!

EXTENDED THRU 12/17 BY REQUEST!

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
$10 for a 3 day viewing pass

At 88 years-old, Audrey Flack holds a unique place in the history of contemporary art in America. Feminist, rebel, mother, painter, sculptor and teacher, Audrey’s often controversial 40-year career evolved from abstract expressionism in the 1950s to photorealism in the 1970s. One of the first women ever included in the famed Janson’s History of Art, Audrey continues to create, explore, and inspire with her unique style and indomitable spirit.

She has been an incredible photorealist, armed with a convincing spray brush. Now, the artist finally gets her due in this documentary about her life.” - Forbes

Queen of Hearts follows Flack as she takes her work in a brand new direction and reveals her long-term struggles as the mother of a child with autism. Flack has something deep and genuine to communicate to the world. She is a provocateur and a rebel, an example and an inspiration. Queen of Hearts is a moving portrait of an artist who is still testing, still experimenting, still searching.
Watch the trailer below!

We are excited to present a new fall/winter virtual film series for your in-home enjoyment. “Fine Features” showcases our handpicked selections of the most compelling narrative stories, film festival winners, and independent films available to stream only through cinemas - you won’t find them on Netflix or Amazon.

Citizens of the World (2019, Italian w/English subtitles, 90 min.)
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Tickets $10 for a 3-day viewing pass

An amiable, frisky comedy set in picturesque Rome, Citizens of the World is the latest feature from Italian writer/director Gianni di Gregorio, who brought us the acclaimed ensemble piece Mid-August Lunch.

The story: Three retirees decide to move away from Rome to find a better standard of living in a country where their meagre pensions will go that much further. Planning for the trip sees the trio trawl the pubs and restaurants of a sun saturated Rome and discover that even at an old age they can still learn one or two lessons about themselves and life.

Gianni Di Gregorio, Italy’s laconic answer to Larry David, returns to the humanist comic territory of art house hits Mid-August Lunch and The Salt of Life with Citizens of the World, a warm and delightful reflection on life with characters you’ll want to spend many more hours with long after the credits roll.