September 26, 2023
THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER
DescriptionBiosDescription Animator Javier Mariscal and director Fernando Trueba (BELLE EPOQUE) reunite after CHICO & RITA (AFI FEST 2010) for this animated, Bossa Nova-inflected documentary about virtuoso Brazilian pianist Francisco Tenório Júnior, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances during the military dictatorship of Argentina in 1976. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, the film traces a New York music...
September 26, 2023
THE ECHO (EL ECO)
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Mexican-Salvadoran filmmaker Tatiana Huezo (PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN, AFI FEST 2021) makes a visually arresting return to nonfiction filmmaking with this immersive portrait of multi-generational family life in the remote Mexican highlands. Focusing on a tightknit trio of families, the film is named for the village where the families have farmed for generations, just...
September 26, 2023
MILISUTHANDO
DescriptionBiosDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Milisuthando Bongela. A poetic interweaving of archival material and in-depth interviews, Milisuthando Bongela’s incisive personal essay examines identity construction through a historical lens, investigating the impact of racism and colonialism on herself and her loved ones. Born in South Africa’s Transkei region, an unrecognized state purportedly protected from its apartheid system,...
September 26, 2023
STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING
DescriptionBiosDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with executive producer Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, producer Alisa Payne and executive producer Mara Brock Akil. Adapting the celebrated book by historian and National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi, director Roger Ross Williams (LIFE, ANIMATED; the Oscar®-winning short film MUSIC BY PRUDENCE) cinematically explicates Kendi’s groundbreaking...
September 26, 2023
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS
DescriptionBiosDescription In the years preceding his March 2023 passing, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto had not been able to hold live performances. This filmed solo concert, Sakamoto’s final performance, directed by his son Neo Sora (THE CHICKEN, AFI FEST 2020) – an extraordinary artist in his own right – leaves behind an intimate, heartrending and personal...
September 26, 2023
ANSELM 3D
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Artist and iconoclast Anselm Kiefer probes the past, holding up a mirror to post-war Germany through his photography, sculpture and massive architectural installations. Working again in 3D after his acclaimed documentary PINA, director Wim Wenders brings depth to this stereoscopic portrait, creating a collage of the artist’s past and present to fashion an immersive...
September 26, 2023
COPA ’71
DescriptionBiosDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with directors Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine. Executive produced by Venus and Serena Williams, COPA ‘71 centers on a long-forgotten 1971 tournament held in Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium two decades before the first FIFA-sanctioned Women’s World Cup. Six teams from Europe and Latin America compete for the title amidst a fervor usually reserved...
September 26, 2023
FOUR DAUGHTERS (LES FILLES D’OLFA)
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Tunisia’s Oscar® submission for Best International Feature Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Kaouther Ben Hania. In this hybrid docu-fiction from Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN), Tunisian mother of four, Olfa, recounts and re-enacts scenes from her life with her two younger daughters. Olfa’s two...
September 26, 2023
THE UNIVERSAL THEORY (DIE THEORIE VON ALLEM)
DescriptionBiosDescription In 1974, author Johannes Leinert (Jan Bülow) appears on a German talk show to promote his sci-fi novel “Die Theorie von Allem,” where shadowy Cold War intrigue melds with alternate realities of the multiverse. But instead, Leinert claims his book is fact, not fiction, based on his unpublished doctoral thesis and his own experiences....
September 26, 2023
GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI
DescriptionBiosDescription Screenings to be followed by a conversation with directors Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn. In this charming documentary set in the South Texas borderlands, a passionate group of student musicians of varying experience levels come together to form Edinburg North High School’s mariachi team, steered by the unflappable Coach Abel Acuña. As the award-winning...
