Arthur Lubin (U.S., 1950) Family Fun! A WWII comedy about a talking Army mule named Francis, this film was the first of seven Francis films that appeared in the 1950s. Donald O'Connor stars as Peter Stirling, an inept second lieutenant who is rescued on the battlefield by the mule at the film's outset, only to be serially committed and released from the mental ward by unbelieving superiors whenever he explains Francis's role in his subsequent adventures. (91 mins)

Les Blank (U.S., 1974). Les Blank in person. A rare chance to see a film on a major rock star of the 1970s-we can't tell you who-described by the Washington Post as “the best film ever made on rock.” Preceded by Cigarette Blues, featuring Oakland bluesman Sonny Rhodes. (96 mins)

Dino Risi (Italy/France, 1957). Imported Print! Veteran character actress Tina Pica dominates Dino Risi's boisterous provincial comedy as Sabella, a grandmother as gravelly, ancient, and immovable as the hills around the little village whose populace she terrorizes. (95 mins)

Ardak Amirkulov (Kazakhstan, 1990). "A pageant of medieval delirium in which the great Khan extinguishes an entire civilization the way a CEO would downsize a corporation,” Amirkulov's epic (cowritten by Guerman), “is shot through with the strangest kind of melancholy, brought on by the knowledge that an entire way of life is going to disappear" (Film Comment). (165 mins)

Dino Risi (Italy, 1959) Imported Print! In Risi's rarely screened comedy of commerce, marriage, and murder, Alberto Sordi exercises his talent for emphatic incompetence as Alberto Nardi, a cash-strapped Italian industrialist whose elegant wife, Elvira (Franca Valeri), holds him in well-justified contempt. (100 mins)

Noel Black (U.S., 1968). Plus surprise shorts! Spread out a blanket on the sculpture garden lawn for our annual free outdoor screening, featuring Tony Perkins and Tuesday Weld in Pretty Poison. Loner Perkins thinks the Commies are dumping waste into a nearby stream and convinces high-school drum majorette Weld that he is a CIA agent and needs her help to stop the polluters. Once she starts to “help,” he can't stop her. (89 mins)

Noel Black (U.S., 1968). Spread out a blanket on the sculpture garden lawn for our annual free outdoor screening, featuring Tony Perkins and Tuesday Weld in Pretty Poison. Loner Perkins thinks the Commies are dumping waste into a nearby stream and convinces high-school drum majorette Weld that he is a CIA agent and needs her help to stop the polluters. Once she starts to “help,” he can't stop her. (89 mins)

In this special lecture, Les Blank traces the evolution of his documentary filming style from his early works to the present, while screening two films from the late 1960s, God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance and Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins. Followed by Hot Pepper, a thrilling musical portrait of Zydeco King Clifton Chenier. (c. 150 mins)

Spike Lee (U.S., 1989). Writer-director-actor Lee's third feature, a lively, frequently hilarious but hard-hitting drama, charts mounting racial tensions on the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. “The funniest, most stylized, most visceral New York street scene this side of Scorseseland” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). (120 mins)