Celebrate Black History Month with a 1925 masterpiece by pioneering Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and starring Paul Robeson, plus a contemporary punk Afrofuturist musical by Saul Williams. Then dip your toes in some Euro-cult classics from France, Italy, and the UK.
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Premiering on February 1
Body and Soul
Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1925
This bold and controversial film by pioneering Black independent filmmaker Oscar Micheaux follows the path of an escaped convict who poses as a pastor in a small southern town. Body And Soul marked the screen debut of musician and athlete Paul Robeson and features a recent score by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky).
Fascination
Jean Rollin, France, 1980
A masterpiece from cult French filmmaker Jean Rollin, Fascination follows a swaggering thief who hides out in a lavish chateau, holding the occupants at gunpoint. When night falls, he discovers that these two maids are in fact the gatekeepers to a ring of bloodthirsty women.
Premiering on February 8
The Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine
Sergio Grieco, Italy, 1974
By turns erotic, horrific, and shamelessly melodramatic, The Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine has well earned its reputation as a notorious nunsploitation classic. Pursued by soldiers, Esteban seeks refuge in a convent where his girlfriend Lucita has been banished. To be reunited, she must resist seduction by her lesbian cellmate. Meanwhile, Esteban contends with the advances of a sensual abbess.
Scarlet
Pietro Marcello, France, 2023
Pietro Marcello follows his breakthrough Martin Eden with this enchanting period fable about a WWI veteran raising his daughter in rural France. Brought up in Normandy, Juliette dreams of life outside her village and finds romance along the way with a pilot (Louis Garrel) who falls from the sky. Scarlet weaves together music and folklore in a timeless story of a young woman’s emancipation.
Premiering on February 15
Neptune Frost
Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman, USA/Rwanda, 2022
In an otherworldly e-waste dump camp, an anti-colonialist hacking collective attempts a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry.
Kamikaze Hearts
Juliet Bashore, USA, 1986
Juliet Bashore’s quasi-documentary plunges into the 1980s porn industry and takes an unsparing look at issues of misogyny, drug abuse, and exploitation via the story of two women – the naive newcomer Tigr and her partner, the magnetic, imperious porn veteran Sharon Mitchell – caught in a toxic romance.
Premiering on February 22
Marquis de Sade's Justine
Chris Boger, UK, 1977
Based on Marquis de Sade’s 1791 novel, Justine is a visually sumptuous tale of sexual depravity and Sadean excess. Royal plaything Koo Stark stars as an innocent young woman whose chosen path of virtue is thwarted at every turn by her cunning and amoral sister Juliette (Lydia Lisle), whose debauched lifestyle is her only happiness.
Premiering on February 29
The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future
Francisca Alegría, Chile, 2023
Singing cows, fish, and bees introduce a world of magical realism in this stunning Sundance hit. Long-dead Magdalena (Mia Maestro) surfaces in a polluted river, bringing with her a wave of family secrets that send her widowed husband and daughter (Leonor Varela) into turmoil. This lyrical film offers an ambitious proposal for healing, suggesting that the dead return when they are most needed.