The Twentieth Century

November 20th – December 17th

“Grade: A.  Rankin’s treatment, combining Super-8 and 16-mm film, tinting, animation, puppets, cross-dressing performances, and theatrical sets, is a pyrotechnical tribute to a famously charisma-free bachelor politician.” – Original Sin

“5/5. This rapturously surreal romp through fascism, propaganda, and the perils of love delights in its arch embrace of retro-futuristic artifice and vintage melodrama.” – Killer Movie Reviews

A 2019 Toronto International Film Festival premiere, writer-director Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century is an uproariously hilarious, dizzyingly stylish, and wholly original fictionalized telling of the rise of Mackenzie King, the longest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history.

Toronto, 1899. Aspiring young politician Mackenzie King (Dan Beirne) dreams of becoming the Prime Minister of Canada. But his romantic vacillation between a British soldier and a French nurse, exacerbated by a fetishistic obsession, may well bring about his downfall. In his quest for power, King must gratify the expectations of his imperious Mother, the hawkish fantasies of a war-mongering Governor-General, and the utopian idealism of a Québécois mystic before facing one, final test of leadership. Culminating in an epic battle between good and evil, King learns that disappointment may be the defining characteristic of the twentieth
Read More / Trailer

The Changin’ Times of Ike White

December 4 – December 20

Coming from Kino Lorber, The Changin’ Times of Ike White from Dan Vernon explores the musical talent of a man who could’ve been huge been instead remained an enigma. 

Serving a life sentence for murder in the early 1970s, music prodigy Ike White had plenty of time to perfect his musical talent, but no hope of putting it to use in the outside world. Ike’s skills were exceptional enough, though, that his story captured the media’s attention. From this notoriety, he was able to record an album inside the prison with big-time producer Jerry Goldstein (War, Sly and the Family Stone). Superstar Stevie Wonder lobbied successfully for Ike’s early release from prison. With an acclaimed album under his belt and the support of Wonder and others in the industry, Ike was poised for stardom. But, instead, he went off the grid for over 40 years. Daniel Vernon’s mesmerizing new documentary is unpredictable and moving, echoing the strange journey of Ike White.

76 Days

December 4th – December 24th

Premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, MTV Documentary films presents 76 Days!

On January 23rd, 2020, China locked down Wuhan, a city of11 million, to combat the emerging COVID-19 outbreak. Set deep inside the frontlines of the crisis in four hospitals,76 DAYS tells indelible human stories at the center of this pandemic—from a woman begging in vain to bid a final farewell to her father, a grandfather with dementia searching for his way home, a couple anxious to meet their newborn, to a nurse determined to return personal items to families of the deceased. These raw and intimate stories bear witness to the death and rebirth of a city under a 76-day lockdown, and to the human resilience that persists in times of profound tragedy.

Smooth Talk

December 4th – December 31st

Janus Films presents a brand new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s debut narrative feature, Smooth Talk!

Suspended between carefree youth and the harsh realities of the adult world, a teenage girl experiences an unsettling awakening in this haunting vision of innocence lost. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ celebrated short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and produced for PBS’ American Playhouse, the narrative debut from director Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance from Laura Dern as Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family whose summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations is shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger (a memorably menacing Treat Williams). Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Smooth Talk captures the thrill and terror of adolescent sexual exploration as it transforms the ingredients of a standard coming of age portrait into something altogether more troubling and profound. Restored in 4K by the Criterion Collection.

MANUAL CINEMA’S CHRISTMAS CAROL: Live Stream Event!

Flowers of Shanghai

November 27th – December 24th

Janus Films presents a brand new 4K Restoration of Hou Hsiaou-hsien’s 1998 Flowers of Shanghai!

An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s gorgeous period reverie traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around a late 19th century Shanghai brothel, where the courtesans live confined to a gilded cage, ensconced in opulent splendor yet forced to work to buy back their freedom. Among the regular clients is the taciturn Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), whose relationship with his longtime mistress (Michiko Hada) is roiled by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a procession of entrancing long takes, Flowers evokes a vanished world of decadence and cruelty, an insular universe where much of the dramatic action remains tantalizingly offscreen—even as its emotional fallout registers with quiet devastation.

Restored in 4K from the 35mm original negative in 2019 by Shochiku in collaboration with Shanghai International Film Festival with funding provided by Jaeger-LeCoultreat L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.

Minor Premise

December 4th – December 24th

Attempting to surpass his father’s legacy, a reclusive Indian American neuroscientist becomes entangled in his own experiment, pitting ten fragments of his consciousness against each other. 

Ethan Kochar is a young neuroscientist, whose brilliance is overshadowed by the legacy of his father, Dr. Paul Kochar. Following his father’s death, Ethan recedes into his basement laboratory to complete his R10 machine, an invention designed to go beyond recording memories, as his father’s machine did, and push the limits of brain capture to their zenith – true consciousness control. 

Facing funding pressure from Department Chair, Dr. Malcolm Blume, Ethan utilizes an apparent missing link – an equation in a mysterious notebook, seemingly from his late father – and turns the experiment on himself. The experiment doesn’t go as intended.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

December 4th – December 31st

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a re-imagining of the most classic of all childhood fantasies, and is a darkly comic gem soon to be required perennial holiday viewing.

It’s the eve of Christmas in northern Finland, and an ‘archeological’ dig has just unearthed the real Santa Claus. But this particular Santa isn’t the one you want coming to town. When the local children begin mysteriously disappearing, young Pietari and his father Rauno, a reindeer hunter by trade, capture the mythological being and attempt to sell Santa to the misguided leader of the multinational corporation sponsoring the dig. Santa’s elves, however, will stop at nothing to free their fearless leader from captivity. What ensues is a wildly humorous nightmare – a fantastically bizarre polemic on modern day morality.

JINGLE BELL ROCKS!

December 4th – December 31st

In JINGLE BELL ROCKS!, director Mitchell Kezin delves into the minds of some of the world’s most legendary Christmas music fanatics and hits the road to hang with his holiday heroes – including hip hop legend Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons of RUN-D.M.C., The Flaming Lips’ frontman Wayne Coyne, filmmaker John Waters, bebopper Bob Dorough, L.A. DJ and musicologist Dr. Demento, and Calypso legend The Mighty Sparrow.

Coded Bias

November 18th – December 11th

Coded Bias is a documentary that explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.

Modern society sits at the intersection of two crucial questions: What does it mean when artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly governs our liberties? And what are the consequences for the people AI is based against? When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that most facial-recognition software does not accurately identify darker-skinned faces and the faces of women, she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms. As it turns out, artificial intelligence is not neutral, and women are leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected.

The Pit

November 20th – December 24th

It Came from the ’80s! – Rawhead Rex, Link, The Pit, and Parasite. Purchase a Series Pass to gain access to all 4 films for $20, or individually for $8 a film!

Twelve-year old Jamie is an outcast in his small town—he is bullied, he shows signs of being a sexual deviant, and he has no friends aside from his demonic teddy bear, Teddy.

Influenced by commands he hears from Teddy, Jamie lures his unsuspecting tormentors one by one to a forest pit that he has discovered on the outskirts of town, so that they can be devoured by the man-eating troglodytes that dwell at the bottom of THE PIT!

Rawhead Rex

November 20th – December 24th

It Came from the ’80s! – Rawhead Rex, Link, The Pit, and Parasite. Purchase a Series Pass to gain access to all 4 films for $20, or individually for $8 a film!

Ireland will never be the same after Rawhead Rex, a particularly nasty demon, is released from his underground prison by an unwitting farmer. The film follows Rex’s cross country rampage, while a man struggles to stop it.

Link

November 20th – December 24th

It Came from the ’80s! – Rawhead Rex, Link, The Pit, and Parasite. Purchase a Series Pass to gain access to all 4 films for $20, or individually for $8 a film!

BRAND NEW 4K RESTORATION! An Experiment in Terror! Elisabeth Shue (The Saint, Leaving Las Vegas) and Terence Stamp (The Limey, The Real McCoy) co-star in this suspenseful horror film directed by Richard Franklin (Road Games, F/X2) and featuring a chilling score by legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen, The Satan Bug, 100 Rifles).

Young graduate student Jane Chase (Shue) becomes the new assistant to an eccentric zoology professor (Stamp) at the remote home he shares with two brilliant chimpanzees and an elderly orangutan butler named Link. But when one of the chimps is found dead and the professor mysteriously disappears, Link becomes dangerously aggressive towards Jane. Now, the time for “monkey business” is over and the true terror is about to begin.

Parasite

November 20th – December 24th

It Came from the ’80s! – Rawhead Rex, Link, The Pit, and Parasite. Purchase a Series Pass to gain access to all 4 films for $20, or individually for $8 a film!

Paul Dean, a scientist, discovers a deadly parasite which can be used for the good of mankind. But some unscrupulous people have other uses in mind.

To prevent his discovery from being put to ill use, Dean destroys his lab and flees, taking two parasites with him, one he keeps in a tin but the other he keeps on his stomach – with potentially fatal consequences. Dean not only has to escape from his pursuers, but he also has to find an antidote to save his life. Featuring Demi Moore.

Lowdown Dirty Criminals

November 20th – December 10th

A uniquely and distinctly kiwi take on the buddy comedy film, Lowdown Dirty Criminals features rising NZ star James Rolleston in a solidifying performance and as many laugh-out-loud moments as your typical crime caper-turned-thrilling-heist-turned-heartwarming-tale-of-friendship film.

When Freddy loses his job delivering pizza, he and his best buddy Marvin find work with a small time crook, Spiggs. After they botch a straightforward job, Spiggs sends them on a fool’s errand – to kill gangster Donny Kong, who’s been sleeping with Spiggs’ wife. When the wrong guy ends up dead, Freddy and Marvin find themselves crossing paths with someone even scarier than their boss – über gangster The Upholsterer and her hapless henchmen Semo and Roy. The ensuing chaos escalates into a world of hilarity and violence that’ll threaten their lives and force them to re-evaluate their career choices.

It Cuts Deep

November 20th – December 10th

Dark Sky Films and MPI Media present It Cuts Deep, the feature directorial debut of writer/director Nicholas Payne Santos (Holiday Fear, Mother F**ker).

While on Christmas vacation, a young couple contemplates their future together. Ashley is interested in getting married and having kids which terrifies Sam. When the more attractive and paternal Nolan enters the picture, Sam’s life spirals out of control as Ashley questions their relationship. Chaos reigns as Sam desperately clings to Ashley while fending off the threatening Nolan.

World Of Wong Kar Wai: New 4K Restorations!

December 11th – January 7th

With his lush and sensual visuals, pitch-perfect soundtracks, and soulful romanticism, Wong Kar Wai has established himself as one of the defining auteurs of contemporary cinema. Joined by key collaborators such as cinematographer Christopher Doyle, editor and production and costume designer William Chang, and actors Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, Wong (or WKW, as he is often known) has enraptured audiences and critics worldwide and inspired countless other filmmakers with his movies’ poetic moods, narrative and stylistic daring, and potent themes of alienation and memory. Whether tragically romantic, soaked in blood, or quirkily comedic, the films in this retrospective are an invitation into the unique and wistful world of a deeply influential artist.

Janus Films is proud to present the following Wong Kar Wai classics in brand-new 4K restorations, in addition to a new director’s cut of The Hand: As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, and In the Mood for Love.

Finding Yingying

December 11th – December 31st

Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese student, comes to the U.S. to study. In her detailed and beautiful diaries, the aspiring young scientist and teacher is full of optimism, hoping to also be married and a mother someday. Within weeks of her arrival, Yingying disappears from the campus.

Through exclusive access to Yingying’s family and boyfriend, Finding Yingying closely follows their journey as they search to unravel the mystery of her disappearance and seek justice for their daughter while navigating a strange, foreign country. But most of all, Finding Yingying is the story of who Yingying was: a talented young woman loved by her family and friends.