Runs & Limited Engagements

Rubén Blades is a key figure in the evolution of Salsa music and the raising of Latinx consciousness throughout the hemisphere. Contemplating mortality after the sudden death of Prince, the eight-time Grammy-winner enlisted leading Panamanian director Benaim (INVASION, CHANCE) to make a documentary portrait that would serve as a fitting legacy. The usually private Blades (Gabriel García Márquez called him "the most popular unknown person I've ever known") opens up for a highly personal overview of his multifaceted life and career, including his Panama City boyhood, his rise from the mailroom of legendary Fania Records, his early collaborations with such giants as Ray Barretto and Willie Colón, his groundbreaking injection of political content into Salsa music, his distinguished acting career (CROSSOVER DREAMS, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, "Fear the Walking Dead"), his 2015 acknowledgement of a previously unknown son, and his deep involvement in Panamanian politics (including a 1994 presidential bid). Talking heads such as Sting, Paul Simon, and Junot Díaz testify to Blade's cultural significance, and there are electrifying performances of such classic songs as "Plastic Girl," "Pedro Navaja," "Tiburón," and "Patria." The film was Panama's official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. In Spanish and English with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)

Ranked high in the pantheon of contemporary filmmakers, Ceylan follows up his 2014 Cannes Palme D'Or-winner WINTER SLEEP with a work of breathtaking visual beauty, subtle political resonance, and a comic/bitter/lyrical range of tone unmatched in his previous work. Sinan (Demirkol), a recent college graduate and aspiring writer, reluctantly returns to his hometown. While attempting to raise money to self-publish his first novel, he encounters people who reawaken his deep ambivalence about his small- town roots--most acutely, his father (Cemcir), a once-respected schoolteacher whose gambling addiction has dragged the family into debt. Stunning widescreen compositions trace Sinan's wanderings between the pastoral countryside and the breezy port city of Çanakkale--the latter linked to legendary battlefields (Troy, Gallipoli) that mirror the generational warfare at the heart of this deeply personal and richly metaphorical film. In Turkish with English subtitles. DCP digital widescreen. (MR)

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and Oscar nominated, CAPERNAUM opens with the startling image of a small boy being led into court in handcuffs. Zain (El Rafeea, a non-professional actor with the charisma of a movie star) is suing his parents for giving him life. Horror and piquant humor mix freely in the extended flashback in which director Labaki colorfully tells the tale of the boy’s roguishly heart-rending odyssey on the streets of Beirut, as a thief, drug-runner, and swaggering, smoking, pint-size jack-of-all-cons. Rahil (Shiferaw), an Ethiopian immigrant living in a squatter’s shack, takes pity on the child, who becomes a surrogate big brother to her toddler Yonas. When Rahil fails to come home one day and the children are ejected from this pitiful home, only Zain’s unflagging adult smarts and ingenuity keep them alive against all odds. In Lebanese with English subtitles. DCP digital widescreen. (BS)