In celebration of Baraka’s 30th Anniversary, this alternative addition to Hartford’s holiday season returns to Cinestudio! And more than ever, this amazing film speaks not only to our planet’s diversity, but to its fragile vulnerability. Director and cinematographer Ron Fricke traveled six continents and 24 countries to capture mesmerizing images of life on Earth. Cinestudio’s superb sound and images captures the multiplicity of spiritual expression: chanting Buddhist monks, Jews praying at the Wailing Wall, African tribal dancers, and hypnotic Dervishes. Bring your friends and family to a cinematic experience that needs no words. (Fine for most children over 10)

The hallmark of a great movie is its ability to continually provide new meaning within its cherished familiarity. Every year, we appreciate a new facet of Frank Capra’s classic holiday film, finding messages of sacrifice, love, community and hope. And in spite of what we read in the news, it is the movie’s awareness of the need to come together that shines through. James Stewart plays a small-town guy who sacrifices his dreams to help others, only to see his optimism crushed by greed. It takes an angel-in-training named Clarence to reveal what Bedford Falls would have become without his caring and commitment.

Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd) and John Heffernan (Dracula) lead the cast in Shakespeare’s romcom of sun, sea and mistaken identity. The legendary family-run Hotel Messina on the Italian Riveria has been visited by artists, celebrities and royalty. But when the owner’s daughter weds a dashing young soldier, not all guests are in the mood for love. A string of scandalous deceptions soon surround not only the young couple, but also the adamantly single Beatrice and Benedick. Following his award-winning productions of Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night and Antony and Cleopatra, director Simon Godwin returns with this irresistible comedy, broadcast live from the National Theatre stage.

Mary Cassatt made a career painting the lives of the women around her. Her radical images showed them as intellectual, feminine and real, which was a major shift in the way women appeared in art.

Presenting her astonishing prints, pastels and paintings, this film introduces us to the often-overlooked Impressionist whose own career was as full of contradiction as the women she painted.

She printed, sketched, and painted dozens of images of mothers and children yet she never married or had children herself. She was a classically trained artist but chose to join a group of Parisian radicals – the Impressionists – a movement that transformed the language of art.

The world’s most eminent Cassatt curators and scholars help tell this riveting tale of great social and cultural change; a time when women were fighting for their rights and the language of art was completely re-written. Mary Cassatt and her modern women were at the heart of it all.

A witch hunt is beginning in Arthur Miller’s captivating parable of power with Erin Doherty (The Crown) and Brendan Cowell (Yerma). Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women in Salem suddenly find their words have an almighty power. As a climate of fear, vendetta and accusation spreads through the community, no one is safe from trial. Lyndsey Turner (Hamlet) directs this contemporary new staging, designed by Tony Award-winner Es Devlin (The Lehman Trilogy). Captured live from the Olivier stage at the National Theatre.

An extraordinary new production of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy, directed by Clint Dyer with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Hamilton), Rosy McEwen (The Alienist) and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance). She’s a bright, headstrong daughter of a senator; elevated by her status but stifled by its expectations. He’s refugee of slavery; having risen to the top of a white world, he finds love across racial lines has a cost. Wed in secret, Desdemona and Othello crave a new life together. But as unseen forces conspire against them, they find their future is not theirs to decide. Othello is filmed live on the Lyttleton stage of the National Theatre.