Streaming Spotlight: Three Films by István Szabó

Three award-winning, recently restored films by Hungarian master István Szabó: Confidence, Mephisto, and Colonel Redl, parables of life under political oppression and individual morality in the face of momentous events.

Streaming Spotlight: Patricio Guzmán’s Chile Trilogy

In Nostalgia for the Light, The Pearl Button, and The Cordillera of Dreams, Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán explores his country’s traumatic history through cinematic meditations on landscape, geography, and time.

Streaming Spotlight: Madeline Anderson

Three documentaries by boundary-breaking filmmaker Madeline Anderson—Integration Report 1, A Tribute to Malcolm X, and I Am Somebody—deliver on-the-ground reports from the front lines of the civil rights movement and the labor struggles of the sixties.

Streaming Spotlight: Romanian Cinema

A four-film sampler of twenty-first-century Romanian cinema: Cristi Puiu’s slacker thriller Stuff and Dough, Radu Muntean’s chronicle of revolutionary chaos The Paper Will Be Blue, Alexandru Solomon’s sardonic meta-movie The Great Communist Bank Robbery, and Lucian Pintilie’s family tragicomedy Niki and Flo.

Free Films for Members

We’re grateful to our members for standing with BAMPFA during our temporary closure. To show our appreciation, we’re offering a series of free streaming films just for members!

Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly

Cheryl Haines, Gina Leibrecht, 2019

Sparked by artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s 2014 project on Alcatraz Island, this “very absorbing and valuable documentary . . . movingly puts Ai’s work into personal context” (The Guardian).

The Audition

Ina Weisse, 2019

An uncompromising high school violin teacher (Nina Hoss) becomes obsessed with a talented student in this slow-burning psychological drama. “Hoss is absolutely magnificent” (Cinema Scope).

Band of Outsiders

Jean-Luc Godard, 1964
Closing July 19

Anna Karina gets involved with a pair of would-be burglars in one of Godard’s most accessible and affecting films. “Like a reverie of a gangster movie” (Pauline Kael).

Beanpole

Kantemir Balagov, 2019

For two women ex-soldiers in Leningrad in 1945, one trauma leads to another. “A brilliantly told, deeply moving story about love—in all its manifestations, perversity and obstinacy” (New York Times).

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint

Halina Dyrschka, 2019

This documentary illuminates the story of visionary painter Hilma af Klint, the unsung modernist of the early twentieth century. “Refreshes the eyes and the mind” (New York Times).

Carmine Street Guitars

Ron Mann, 2018

In the heart of Greenwich Village, one artisanal guitar shop remains resilient amidst encroaching gentrification. “A gentle, warm, immensely satisfying portrait” (Rolling Stone).

Chez Jolie Coiffure

Rosine Mbakam, 2018

A Brussels hair salon catering to West African immigrant women is at the center of this warmhearted documentary. “A must-see” (Indiewire).

Chulas fronteras & Del mero corazón

Les Blank
Available July 22

Swing along with Lydia Mendoza, Flaco Jiménez, and other greats of Mexican American music in Les Blank’s bouncy 1970s tributes to Chicano culture and pride, now digitally remastered in 4K.

Classe tous risques

Claude Sautet, 1960

Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo star in “a tough and touching exploration of honor and friendship among thieves” (New York Times).

Down and Out in America

Lee Grant, 1986

An unflinching look at a cross-section of Americans whose financial security evaporated under the Reagan administration’s “trickle-down economics.” “A powerful, bracing, mournful film” (New Yorker).

The End of the Ottoman Empire

Mathilde Damoisel, Sylvie Jézéquel, 2016

This fascinating documentary offers an overview of the Ottoman Empire and its decline, the essential backstory of our world today.

The Grey Fox

Phillip Borsos, 1982

After decades in prison, stagecoach robber Richard Farnsworth emerges in 1901 without a place in twentieth-century society—until he gets inspired by The Great Train Robbery.

The Hottest August

Brett Story, 2019

This snapshot of New York City and its inhabitants in the summer of 2017 is “a first-rate city symphony, and a rare look at Gotham from the ground up” (Rolling Stone).

Joan of Arc

Bruno Dumont, 2019

French cinema provocateur Bruno Dumont (Hadewijch, L’humanité) conjures up a mystical, austere, brilliantly eccentric vision of Joan of Arc, “equal parts Brecht, Bresson, and Busby Berkeley” (Screen).

John Lewis: Good Trouble

Dawn Porter, 2020

This essential documentary chronicles the life and career of civil rights activist and politician John Lewis from Alabama cotton fields to Congress.

Rififi

Jules Dassin, 1955
Closing July 19

A band of tough guys pulls off an ingenious robbery of a Parisian jewelry store in this definitive heist movie. “The best film noir I’ve ever seen” (François Truffaut).

Spaceship Earth

Matt Wolf, 2020
Closing July 16

Environmental activism, scientific study, and artistic creativity battle against business demands and media disdain in this absorbing look at the backstory of 1991’s Biosphere 2 experiment.

Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own

Daniel Traub, 2020

This new documentary takes viewers behind the scenes as artist Ursula von Rydingsvard works on her monumental sculptures, revealing the loving labor behind their mysterious, expressive forms.

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

Rob Garver, 2018
Closing July 19

This portrait of the brilliant, contentious Pauline Kael is “an exquisitely crafted documentary about the woman who was arguably the greatest movie critic who ever lived” (Variety).