COMING SOON

The Return of Old Growth Forests
Free Screening at 7pm Mar 20
Today there is great interest in ancient, “old-growth” forests. New England, surprisingly, still has some small fragments of such old forests, although they represent less than 1% of its original forest. But a high percentage of central New England land is cloaked in second-growth forest that is recovering from the massive land clearing of former agricultural years. A significant amount of such second-growth could be set aside to eventually become old-growth once again, allowing it to regain greater biodiversity, an improved gene pool, and therefore enhanced resilience and adaptability (not to mention natural beauty). In this new one-hour film, we will learn how to recognize some of the characteristics of our remnant, northeastern old-growth forests, with scenes from several of our most beautiful. Environmental scientist Margery Winters explains “morticulture”, the role that dead, hollow, and fallen trees play in forest ecology. Ed Faison, Senior Ecologist at Highstead, discusses Nature-managed vs actively-managed forests. Atmospheric physicist Anastassia Makarieva introduces the Biotic Pump theory, which describes how forests bring fresh water to themselves; it also accounts for the little-known but vastly significant role that old forests play in the Earth's water cycle, which is far more important than CO2 in regard to our warming climate.
ABOUT DRY GRASSES
Opens Mar 21
Nestled away in wintry East Anatolia, public-school art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) yearns to leave the sleepy village for cosmopolitan Istanbul. Further disenchanted when he and Kenan (Musab Ekici), a colleague, come under public scrutiny, Samet fears circumstances will keep him in Anatolia and his dreams of a new life forever out of reach. A silver lining is a budding relationship with Nuray (Merve Dizdar), a fellow teacher and firebrand who forces Samet to confront what he can’t readily accept. Renowned for his nuanced, visually ravishing imagery, award-winning director Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Winter Sleep) capstones the film with one of his greatest sequences, a dazzling metacinematic climax featuring an unforgettable performance from Dizdar, who took home Best Actress at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. “Let the hypnotic, caustic beauty of About Dry Grasses consume you.” – Bilge Ebiri, New York magazine.
Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
One Night Only Mar 23
Two singers at the height of their powers—radiant soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor sensation Benjamin Bernheim—come together as the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores. Bartlett Sher’s towering staging also features baritone Will Liverman and tenor Frederick Ballentine as the archrivals Mercutio and Tybalt, mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as the mischievous pageboy Stéphano, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.

A La Scala Production, initially presented by the Salzburg Festival.

THE SETTLERS
Opens Mar 25
Chile, 1901. Scottish army captain MacLennan (Mark Stanley, GAME OF THRONES) is tasked by his wealthy employer (and real historical figure) José Menéndez (Alfredo Castro, THE CLUB, NO) to map a secure route to the coast through the remote Tierra del Fuego region. Taking with him quiet Mestizo tracker Segundo (Camilo Arancibia) and joined by crass Texas mercenary Bill (Benjamin Westfall, YOU WILL NEVER BE ALONE), the trio embarks on a brutal killing spree of the Indigenous Selk'nam people in their path. A haunting look at the viciousness of colonialism, Felipe Gálvez's assured directorial debut trains an unflinching eye on one of the most violent chapters of Chile's history. Subverting classic Western tropes and featuring stunning cinematography, the film won the FIPRESCI Critics Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
CLUB ZERO
Opens Mar 29
At an international boarding school, an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on “conscious eating.” Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak’s discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress, concerned parents and the failing health of her students lead everyone to question the inscrutable Miss Novak’s motivations for teaching the class. As a few devoted pupils fall deeper under her cult-like tutelage, they are given a new, even more sinister goal to aspire to – joining the ominous “Club Zero.”
EX MACHINA
Presented in partnership with The Connecticut Forum Apr 4
It seems like the blink of an eye between Alan Turning developing a proto-computer that could communicate with another machine (seen onscreen in The Imitation Game), to Ex Machina, where a young man tries to explore the consciousness of a computer in the form of a human. Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson (Never Let Me Go, Calvary) stars as the coder who wins a competition awarding him the chance to spend a week at the estate of his company’s brilliant CEO (Oscar Isaac of Inside Llewyn Davis). His challenge: to explore the mind and emotions of a new android (Alicia Vikander), whose intelligence is much more than “artificial.” “Alex Garland (who wrote 28 Days) makes an impressive debut as a director, spinning an unsettling futuristic thriller with expertise and exquisite taste…” Ann Hornaday, Washington Post.
THE WEDDING MARCH
One Day Only Apr 6
Released in 1928, The Wedding March, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim, is a magnificent culmination to von Stroheim's complex silent film career. Recreating the opulent splendor of Vienna, prior to the Great War, the film is a brilliant critique, of the sharp contrasts between the decaying aristocracy and the struggling lower classes. A radiant Fay Wray, in a memorable co-starring role, gives a powerful performance, vividly conveying the film's primary narrative theme of love and sorrow. Patrick Miller, Professor Emeritus, The Hartt School, University of Hartford will perform a new live piano accompaniment for the screening. The film will be presented, in a new DCP restoration, by Paramount Pictures Archives, in collaboration with the Library of Congress and Kevin Brownlow.
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA IN 70MM (1962)
Free Screening at 1pm pre-show "Coffee Talk" at 12pm Apr 7
Since 1970, Cinestudio has been an integral part of Trinity’s campus life. Part of the free and open 1823 Series, Cinestudio presents a curated series of iconic films that each represent a decade since its founding, as selected by alumni, students, faculty, and staff. The final film in the series is a Cinestudio classic! British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) and to serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. With the aid of native Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif), Lawrence rebels against the orders of his superior officer and strikes out on a daring camel journey across the harsh desert to attack a well-guarded Turkish port. 70mm showcases just what this amazing format can achieve. Lawrence of Arabia is a visual masterpiece as well as a thrilling epic, following the adventures of T.E. Lawrence during World War I on the Arabian peninsula. As the film opens, Lawrence is a rebellious British Lieutenant, who joins forces with Prince Faisal (Alec Guiness) and Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) to attack the Turks at Aqaba. As the stakes get higher, Lawrence gains friends – and dangerous enemies – on both sides. Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre), and Best Cinematography (Freddy Young). The film will be shown with one intermission. “Of all the cinematic epics captured on 70mm, few come as grand and successfully realised as Lawrence of Arabia. It’s almost impossible to highlight just a single moment from the countless miracles the film pulls off.” – The British Film Institute.
BLACK GIRL
One Night Only Apr 8
Ousmane Sembène, one of the greatest and most groundbreaking filmmakers who ever lived and the most internationally renowned African director of the twentieth century, made his feature debut in 1966 with the brilliant and stirring Black Girl (La noire de . . .). Sembène, who was also an acclaimed novelist in his native Senegal, transforms a deceptively simple plot—about a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to work for a wealthy white couple and finds that life in their small apartment becomes a figurative and literal prison—into a complex, layered critique on the lingering colonialist mindset of a supposedly postcolonial world. Featuring a moving central performance by Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Black Girl is a harrowing human drama as well as a radical political statement—and one of the essential films of the 1960s.
Colette et Justin
One Night Only Apr 9
Proving once again that the personal is political, French-Congolese documentary filmmaker Alain Kassanda set about to uncover a tumultuous time in his native Congo’s history. His method is both brilliant and unconventional: filming his grandparents as they look back on their lives under Belgian rule, rebellion, and the unavoidable complications of freedom. Kassanda mixes interviews with his family with exploitative Belgian propaganda materials, that were intent on convincing the world – and the Congolese – that the Belgians were the intrinsically superior. Perhaps the most fascinating part of this eye-opening film are the difficult stories of the early days of liberation, and where Kassanda’s grandfather stood on the rise to power of Congo’s first prime minister Patrick Lumumba, a progressive African nationalist who would face a military coup and execution. The result is a brave reckoning not only for the past, but for the present generation and how colonialism continues to shape their identities. “Informative and profound…it highlights the far-reaching wounds of colonization and offers a balm for its scars.”  - Concepción de León, New York Times.
Touki Bouki
Today, as thousands of young Africans are caught up in emigration to flee poverty and war, Djibril Diop Mabéty’s 1973 film is timely, magical, and fierce. To Mabéty, his homeland of Sénégal – and particularly the slums of Dakar – was still damaged by its years of French rule, plagued with a new ruling class and its own stultifying injustice. Mory (Magaye Niang) is a zebu herder, whose restless dreams sweep him and his moped (adorned with a zebu’s skull and antlers) to the capital city. There he meets a young student named Anta (Marème Niang) who shares his ambition for a stimulating new life in Paris, that “little piece of heaven,” as Josephine Baker sings on the soundtrack. Of course, tickets are expensive, and the couple’s schemes are unsuccessful, until Mory strikes gold by stealing money from an unsuspecting gay man. But even with the treasured tickets in hand, last-minute complications threaten to prevent either one – or both – of the dreamers’ chance of escape. Touki Bouki, now recognized as an inspiration to generations of African filmmakers has been lovingly restored by the World Cinema Project of Martin Scorsese, who calls it “a cinematic poem made with a raw, wild energy… it explodes one image at a time.”
Saint Omer
One Night Only Apr 11
Saint Omer court of law. Young novelist Rama attends the trial of Laurence Coly, a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
Ouvertures
One Night Only Apr 12
The first film from The Living and the Dead Ensemble—a collaboration among artists and performers from Haiti, France, and the United Kingdom spearheaded by artist Louis Henderson and curator Olivier Marboeuf—Ouvertures traces a reverse chronology of the life of revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture from his imprisonment and death in France at the hands of Napoleon’s forces, to Port-au-Prince, where, in the present, a group of young actors translate, rehearse, and debate their Creole production of Édouard Glissant’s play Monsieur Toussaint. The film becomes a meditation on the politics of collective authorship and translation, creating a space in which the ghosts of Haiti’s colonial past return to address its present. An NYFF58 Currents selection.
FREE TIME
Opens Apr 15
Drew is approaching the end of his twenties and, with it, his relative youth. Looking to make a sudden change, he decides to quit his cushy desk job and "embrace life." Cycling quickly through friends, hobbies, and goals, it's not long until Drew realizes he has no idea what to do with his newfound freedom. Led by Colin Burgess and featuring a wide ensemble of New York City's funniest performers, Ryan Martin Brown's debut feature is an uproarious comedy -- filmed on location in the midst of America's "Great Resignation" -- about the search for meaning in the modern world.
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS
One Night Only Apr 18
Written by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, this comedy caper follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way. Directed by Ethan Coen.
Puccini’s La Rondine
One Night Only Apr 20
Puccini’s bittersweet love story makes a rare Met appearance, with soprano Angel Blue starring as the French courtesan Magda, opposite tenor Jonathan Tetelman in his highly anticipated company debut as Ruggero, an idealistic young man who offers her an alternative to her life of excess. Maestro Speranza Scappucci conducts Nicolas Joël’s Art Deco–inspired staging, which transports audiences from the heart of Parisian nightlife to a dreamy vision of the French Riviera. In their Met debuts, soprano Emily Pogorelc and tenor Bekhzod Davronov complete the sterling cast as Lisette and Prunier.

A co-production of Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse; and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

An afternoon with Illeana Douglas and a screening.
One Night Only Apr 21
Nancy Savoca’s star-studded indie gem is a chronicle of a spirited Italian-American New York family that perfectly balances humor, tragedy, and pathos. Joseph Santangelo (Vincent D’Onofrio) is a butcher with a wicked sense of humor who “wins” his wife Catherine (a stellar Tracey Ullman) in a pinochle game. Over the protests of his mother (Judith Malina) who talks to ghosts and makes deals with saints, Joseph marries Catherine. When the old lady dies, her spirit is channeled into her granddaughter Teresa who overtakes the film with her yearning to serve God. Perfectly embodying a modern-day Bernadette, Lili Taylor imbues Teresa with a mix of dedicated innocence and naïveté. Executive produced by Jonathan Demme, with memorable performances from Michael Imperioli, Michael Rispoli and Victor Argo, Household Saints showcases a unique voice in 1990s independent filmmaking.
DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX
Happy Earth Day! All Tickets $5 Apr 22
Cinestudio and Trinity's Sustainability Committee invite you to celebrate Earth Day with a reduced admission ($5) screening of The Lorax, the story of a young boy trying to bring life to his barren, treeless world. This prescient children’s story is now a delightful film based on the book by Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel).  Zac Efron voices young Ted, who lives in the vegetation-free town of Sneedville, hoping one day to impress his elusive dream girl. (And yes, she is voiced by megastar Taylor Swift!) One day Ted’s curiosity leads him outside Sneedville’s walled town where he meets the even curiouser Once-ler, a creature who enlists Ted in the battle between the greedy mayor, and the Lorax, the elusive Guardian of the forest. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss.
National Theatre Live: Vanya
One Night Only Apr 28
Andrew Scott (Fleabag) brings multiple characters to life in Simon Stephens’ (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) radical new version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Hopes, dreams, and regrets are thrust into sharp focus in this one-man adaptation which explores the complexities of human emotions. Filmed live during its sold-out run in London’s West End, Vanya will be playing exclusively in cinemas in 2024. ★★★★★'Unquestionably theatre at its best'Broadway World
The Immortals: The Wonder of the Museo Egizio
One Night Only May 5
This documentary is a journey among the most beautiful archaeological finds Egypt has left us. Kha, architect and builder of tombs for the pharaohs, must undertake the journey to the Underworld. Telling us the story of his voyage is Jeremy Irons, in the guise of a narrator. His words take us inside the secret world of Egyptian mythology, religion and funerary culture, interweaving the story with the history of the oldest museum in the world, the Museo Egizio in Turin, founded in 1824 and will soon be celebrating its 200th anniversary. In fact, the Kha’s own Tomb is to be found in Turin along with the most complete and most valuable private collection of grave goods outside of Egypt. A journey along the Nile , among the most beautiful archaeological finds Egypt has left us, the magnificent monuments of Giza, Luxor, Karnak, to the Valley of the Kings and the workers’ village of Deir el-Medina, the story told by Irons follows the tracks of Italian explorers and archaeologists - their itineraries also leading to the exhibition halls of the Cairo Museum, the Ägyptischen Museum in Berlin, the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris. From Ramesses II in Turin, to the treasure of Tutankhamun in Cairo, the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin, the Red Scribe in the Louvre, and the Rosetta Stone in London.