Zeitgeist CALENDAR
[BUY TICKETS]
The Following events will be in our new theater & lounge @ 6621 St. Claude Ave (in Arabi):
Opens July 3rd
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & currently available in our Virtual Arthouse Cinema
4:45 pm daily
AND THE BIRDS RAINED DOWN/ IL PLEUVAIT DES OISEAUX
Director: Louise Archambault
2019 | 127 minutes | French with English subtitles
Trailer Link
In this meditative drama about time and friendship, award-winning director Louise Archambault (Familia, Gabrielle) weaves together the stories of three aging hermits who have left their former lives and gone ‘off the grid’ into the Quebec landscape. Living in a remote forest near a lake, Tom, Charlie, and Ted pass the time by tending to their neighbor’s cannabis crop, swimming, singing, and reminiscing. Their peaceful pastoral existence is soon shattered by a sudden death of one in their group, and by the arrival of two women: a young photographer who wants to know more about the troubled pasts of these hermits, and an elderly woman who spent most of her life institutionalized and is now looking for solace in nature. Meanwhile, wildfires are threatening the region and encroaching on what was their idyllic life away from the modern world. Within its quiet, intimate personal dramas, And The Birds Rained Down delivers a poetic, elegiac study of intertwined lives and destinies, where love can happen at any age. It also features a star-studded ensemble cast of legendary Quebec actors, including Remy Girard, Gilbert Sicotte, Louise Portal, and Andrée Lachapelle.
Selected as one of Canada’s Top Ten of 2019 Official Selections:
Toronto, San Sebastian, Vancouver, FNC Montreal, Palm Springs
"A deceptively gentle rural drama with an ecological slant and a tone that darkens as it advances, And the Birds Rained Down ends up delivering far more than it initially promises."
- Jonathan Holland, The Hollywood Reporter
"A quiet, gentle film about emotional and geographic exile, this melancholic charmer is a choral character study whose slow pacing matches the unhurried lifestyle of its protagonists and the diurnal and seasonal rhythms of the nature they inhabit."
- Lee Marshall, ScreenDaily
Opens July3rd
in the Zeitgeist Theatre only
7:00 pm nightly
THE OUTPOST
Based on the true story as told in CNN correspondent Jake Tapper's bestselling book and brought to the screen by acclaimed director (and vet) Rod Lurie (The Contender, The Last Castle), The Outpost follows a team of U.S. soldiers stationed at what would be known as the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan. It's a mission to win the hearts and minds of the locals, but the mission takes place at a vulnerable base set up at the bottom of a valley. After months of skirmishes, an overwhelming force of 400 Taliban insurgents attacks the 53 soldiers, who must bravely defend their outpost in an action-packed finale. Starring Orlando Bloom, Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Jack Kesy, Alexander Arnold, Bobby Lockwood, Will Attenborough, etc.
_____________
Opening July 3rd
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & our Virtual Arthouse Cinema
9:15 pm nightly
REGGAE BOYZ
Plagued with one of the highest murder rates in the world, Jamaica tries to inspire its populace by qualifying their national soccer team – the “Reggae Boyz” – for the World Cup. When their efforts start to fall short, a colorful German coach enters the scene and forms an unlikely alliance with legendary reggae musicians and a Rastafarian factory worker to unite Jamaica beyond the soccer pitch. Featuring Jamaican national Football Team a.k.a. “The Reggae Boyz;” Sheldon Shepherd (YARDIE); Bunny Wailer, Coach Winfried “Winnie" Schäfer; and the Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller. [TRAILER]
_______
COMING SOON:
Opens July 10th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & Virtual Arthouse Cinema
THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
Director: Yung Chang
2019 | 106 minutes | English
This fascinating, intimate portrait of British journalist Robert Fisk may be about a single journalist, but it’s also an intelligent and valuable documentary about how -- now more than ever -- credible, reliable journalism in general is crucial to understanding our tumultuous world. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Yung Chang (Up The Yangtze) follows Fisk’s storied and often dangerous career, from his early coverage of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland to the various, ongoing, and intense Middle East conflicts from the Israeli-Palestinian tensions to recent events in Syria. Despite what could be described as decades of disillusioning world events, many of which he has covered up close, Robert Fisk remains passionate and committed to journalism, and is an articulate commentator on how knowledge and awareness is produced in what can often be very and sometimes dangerously biased media. [CANADA NOW]
MARONA'S FANTASTIC TALE
The poetic and touching animated film from director Anca Damian follows an optimistic stray dog named Marona as she looks back on the human companions she has loved throughout her life. Delivered alongside dazzlingly colorful, sweeping designs produced in part by acclaimed artist Brecht Evens, MARONA’S FANTASTIC TALE is a life-affirming tale told with the patient, boundless love of a dog, and reminds us that happiness is a small thing.
THE TOBACCONIST
A tender, heart-breaking story about one young man and his friendship with Sigmund Freud during the Nazi occupation of Vienna. Seventeen-year-old Franz journeys to Vienna to apprentice at a tobacco shop. There he meets Sigmund Freud (Bruno Ganz), a regular customer. Over time the two very different men form a singular friendship. When Franz falls desperately in love with the music-hall dancer Anezka, he seeks advice from the renowned psychoanalyst, who admits that women are as big a mystery to him as they are to Franz. As political and social conditions in Austria dramatically worsen with the Nazis' arrival in Vienna, Franz, Freud, and Anezka are swept into the maelstrom of events. Each has a big decision to make: to stay or to flee?
__________
Opens July 17th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & Virtual Arthouse Cinema
WHITE LIE
Director: Calvin Thomas, Yonah Lewis
2019 | 96 minutes | English
Twenty something university student Katie Arneson (played with arrestingly intensity by Kacey Rohl) is struggling to balance life and school. Estranged from her father and damaged by the death of her mother, Katie is trying to cope with not only financial stresses in her life, but also a recent cancer diagnosis. To deal with both, she starts an online funding campaign to pay her way through school and for the ongoing cancer treatments. Trouble is, Katie’s cancer story is fake; she’s made it up as a personal fundraising scheme. While initially convincing, cracks soon begin to appear in her story. Pressure mounts when her girlfriend, her father, university officials, as well as nurses and doctors, start asking Katie for proof of her condition. Her increasingly desperate strategies to maintain the fiction will lead her into dangerous territory. A fascinating, tautly constructed psychological drama, White Lie is a searching examination of millennial identity and morality in the age of social media. [CANADA NOW]
_______________
Opening July 17th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & our Virtual Arthouse cinema
MONEY MACHINE
On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of over 20,000 concertgoers from his hotel room at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. In a matter of minutes, Paddock killed 58 people and wounded more than 400. It was the largest mass shooting in the history of the United States. Yet, just a couple of years later, Vegas seems to have forgotten about it completely. Needless to say, mass shootings are not good for business, and it didn’t take long for the Vegas money machine to get to work making this one disappear. In the aftermath of re-marketing Las Vegas as a safe destination for tourists, many questionable practices were put into place—one of the most shocking being filing a lawsuit against the victims of this devastating tragedy. On top of that, despite the popular #VegasStrong movement and nationwide fundraising, there’s still a huge question of where all that money went. An enthralling documentary about the dark side of the Las Vegas economy, MONEY MACHINE exposes Sin City’s darkest secrets… including its culpability in this United States’s deadliest shooting. A Ram Denison film.
_______________
Opening July 17
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & our Virtual Arthouse cinema
THE CUBAN
When a naive pre-med student named Mina gets her first job in a nursing home, an unexpected friendship with Luis, an elderly Cuban musician, reignites her love of music and changes her life forever. Starring Louis Gossett Jr, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ana Golja, Lauren Holly, Giacomo Gianniotti, Shiva Negar, Layla Alizada, etc.
________
Opening July 17th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre
ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (40th Anniversary)
Teen punkette Riff Randall (P.J. Soles of CARRIE and HALLOWEEN) has one abiding fantasy: to meet the dreamy Ramones, and get them to perform one of her songs. Standing in her way is Principal Togar (Warhol star Mary Woronov), who runs Vince Lombardi High like a despot — until the boys from Forest Hills lead a student body putsch and rock the school down to its foundations. A tribute to the after-school bedroom sexual awakening, when one daydreams of Joey Ramone joining you in the shower. In reality, The Ramones fandom was a small, specific, eccentric niche. But in Rock ’N’ Roll High School, the Ramones are as big as The Beatles. Also Starring Clint Howard, Vincent Van Patten, Day Young and The Ramones.
___________
Opening July 31
in the Zeitgeist Theatre
A SPECIAL "SURPRISE" TEST RUN OF A NEW LOCAL FEATURE
Have you ever wanted to be part of a test audience for a brand new feature film that no one has seen yet? Well, now's your chance! This locally produced Horror, Sci Fi, Surrealist, Dark Comedy was shot in and around New Orleans and South Mississippi and is now ready to get YOUR feedback! Do you like weird, arthouse films with a dark sense of humor? Do you love New Orleans and want to support the local art film community? If you do then this is the movie for you! Catch it now before it becomes a festival darling and indie smash hit…
___________
_____________
in the ZEITGEIST VIRTUAL ARTHOUSE CINEMA:
LUCKY GRANDMA
The movie, starring Tsai Chin, is the feature directorial debut of Sasie Sealy. “Lucky Grandma” held its world premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival as the second recipient of the AT&T Presents: Untold Stories $1 million grant initiative and went on to an international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Set in New York’s Chinatown, Chin portrays an ornery, newly-widowed 80-year-old eager to live life as an independent woman, despite her family’s concerns. When a local fortune teller (Wai Ching Ho) predicts a most auspicious day in her future, she decides to head to the casino, only to land herself on the wrong side of luck by suddenly attracting the attention of local gangsters. She then employs the services of a bodyguard from a rival gang, played by Corey Ha. “Lucky Grandma is a dynamic comedy with a stand-out performance by Tsai Chin. A new song by Akwafina is also featured.
LIBERTE by Albert Serra
Just before the French Revolution, in a forest outside Berlin, a band of libertines expelled from the court of Louis XVI rendezvous with the legendary German seducer and freethinker, the Duc de Walchen (Helmut Berger), to convince him to join in their mission: the rejection of authority and all moral boundaries. What begins as an evening of strategizing on the proliferation of libertinage, descends into a Sadean night of pansexual one-upmanship and debauchery. Liberté is a singular cinematic experience only Albert Serra could deliver, a film in which increasingly dramatic acts of sado-masochistic pain and pleasure unfold in counterpoint to cinematographer Artur Tort’s luminous images of moonlit sylvan spaces. As Serra and his committed team of regular performers and newcomers "open the gates of Hell" and explore the limits of the erotic imagination, you won’t be able to look away. Winner - Special Jury Prize - Cannes Film Festival
[VIRTUAL SCREENING]
END OF THE CENTURY by Lucio Castro
In his alluring debut feature, Lucio Castro offers both a sun-soaked European travelogue and an epic, decades-spanning romance. When Ocho (Juan Barberini), a 30-something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi (Ramón Pujol), a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random hookup. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other’s histories—and maybe even their destinies? Castro deliberately parses out mystery after mystery, leading the audience on a journey of discovery as the two leading men discover themselves and each other. With sumptuous lensing of a Barcelona summertime and tangible chemistry between the actors, END OF THE CENTURY is a gay love story that echoes across time. Winner - Best Film - Buenos Aires Film Festival & Best First Film - Frameline: San Francisco LGBTQ Film Festival
[VIRTUAL SCREENING]
THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS by Peter Medak
The Telluride lauded film from Dir. Peter Medak (The Changeling, The Ruling Class, Breaking Bad, Hannibal, The Krays, House, The Wire) is a classic take on a "movie within a movie", Medak documenting his own failed 1973 comedy, The Ghost of the Noonday Sun starring (and sabotaged by) Peter Sellers. Years later, Medak's still haunted by the experience, reflecting on a disastrous production, his ever-lasting love for Sellers, Spike Milligan (Monty Python) and film at larg
Vitalina Verla
Pedro Costa's latest, a film of deeply concentrated beauty, stars nonprofessional actor Vitalina Varela in a truly remarkable performance. A Cape Verdean woman who has come to Fontainhas for her husband’s funeral after being separated from him for decades due to economic circumstance, and despite her alienation begins to establish a new life there. The grief of the present and the ghosts of the past commingle in Costa’s ravishing chiaroscuro compositions, a film of shadow and whisper that might be the director’s most visually extraordinary work.
The Hottest August
is a curious map of a city’s fraught consciousness. With an anthropological conceit, the film offers a survey of humanity on the brink of extinction. The threats of climate change, late capitalism, and newly emboldened hatred and racism loom large over director Brett Story’s interviews with New Yorkers from all five boroughs in August 2017. Exquisite compositions set off the urban habitat in surprising ways, and Story frequently finds visual interest in large-scale scenes: expansive cityscapes, endless rows of windows and rooftops; skies cloudy with foreboding, yet filled with painterly beauty. This global scope reflects the film’s structural methods, which abandon a singular narrative thread for a collage of experience and emotion. It’s a time capsule that’s observations, cynical and tender alike, will reverberate well into the future.
CRESCENDO by Dror Zahavi
When world-famous conductor Eduard Sporck accepts the job to create an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra, he is quickly drawn into a tempest of sheer unsolvable problems. Having grown up in a state of war, suppression or constant risk of terrorist attacks, the young musicians from both sides are far from able to form a team. Lined up behind the two best violinists – the emancipated Palestinian Layla and the handsome Israeli Ron – they form two parties who deeply mistrust each other, on and off-stage alike. Will Sporck succeed and make the young people forget their hatred, at least for the three weeks until the concert? With the first glimmer of hope, however, the political opponents of the orchestra show them how strong they are…Loosely inspired by Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Academy-Award nominated director Dror Zahavi (“Alexander Penn”, “Everything for my Father”) directs this gripping drama as a constantly growing ‘crescendo’, rising the tension and conflicts until the last frame. Lead actor Peter Simonischek (“Toni Erdmann”) stars next to a highly convincing selection of up-and-coming actors like Daniel Donskoy (“Victoria”) and Sabrina Amali (“4 Blocks”). A remarkable work of cinema and a critical contribution to the world-wide efforts towards understanding, humanity and peace.
OPENING IN OUR VIRTUAL ARTHOUSE CINEMA ON JUNE 12th
MARONA'S FANTASTIC TALE
The poetic and touching animated film from director Anca Damian follows an optimistic stray dog named Marona as she looks back on the human companions she has loved throughout her life. Delivered alongside dazzlingly colorful, sweeping designs produced in part by acclaimed artist Brecht Evens, MARONA’S FANTASTIC TALE is a life-affirming tale told with the patient, boundless love of a dog, and reminds us that happiness is a small thing. [TRAILER]
__________________________________________________________________________________________
6621 St. Claude Ave. Arabi, LA 70032 www.zeitgeistnola.org (504) 352-1150
Schedule is subject to change as films are held over – please check the website for updates nightly.
Zeitgeist is a non-profit, artist run media arts center that celebrated its 31st anniversary this November.
Come join us!
The Following events will be in our new theater & lounge @ 6621 St. Claude Ave (in Arabi):
Opens July 3rd
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & currently available in our Virtual Arthouse Cinema
4:45 pm daily
AND THE BIRDS RAINED DOWN/ IL PLEUVAIT DES OISEAUX
Director: Louise Archambault
2019 | 127 minutes | French with English subtitles
Trailer Link
In this meditative drama about time and friendship, award-winning director Louise Archambault (Familia, Gabrielle) weaves together the stories of three aging hermits who have left their former lives and gone ‘off the grid’ into the Quebec landscape. Living in a remote forest near a lake, Tom, Charlie, and Ted pass the time by tending to their neighbor’s cannabis crop, swimming, singing, and reminiscing. Their peaceful pastoral existence is soon shattered by a sudden death of one in their group, and by the arrival of two women: a young photographer who wants to know more about the troubled pasts of these hermits, and an elderly woman who spent most of her life institutionalized and is now looking for solace in nature. Meanwhile, wildfires are threatening the region and encroaching on what was their idyllic life away from the modern world. Within its quiet, intimate personal dramas, And The Birds Rained Down delivers a poetic, elegiac study of intertwined lives and destinies, where love can happen at any age. It also features a star-studded ensemble cast of legendary Quebec actors, including Remy Girard, Gilbert Sicotte, Louise Portal, and Andrée Lachapelle.
Selected as one of Canada’s Top Ten of 2019 Official Selections:
Toronto, San Sebastian, Vancouver, FNC Montreal, Palm Springs
"A deceptively gentle rural drama with an ecological slant and a tone that darkens as it advances, And the Birds Rained Down ends up delivering far more than it initially promises."
- Jonathan Holland, The Hollywood Reporter
"A quiet, gentle film about emotional and geographic exile, this melancholic charmer is a choral character study whose slow pacing matches the unhurried lifestyle of its protagonists and the diurnal and seasonal rhythms of the nature they inhabit."
- Lee Marshall, ScreenDaily
Opens July3rd
in the Zeitgeist Theatre only
7:00 pm nightly
THE OUTPOST
Based on the true story as told in CNN correspondent Jake Tapper's bestselling book and brought to the screen by acclaimed director (and vet) Rod Lurie (The Contender, The Last Castle), The Outpost follows a team of U.S. soldiers stationed at what would be known as the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan. It's a mission to win the hearts and minds of the locals, but the mission takes place at a vulnerable base set up at the bottom of a valley. After months of skirmishes, an overwhelming force of 400 Taliban insurgents attacks the 53 soldiers, who must bravely defend their outpost in an action-packed finale. Starring Orlando Bloom, Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Jack Kesy, Alexander Arnold, Bobby Lockwood, Will Attenborough, etc.
_____________
Opening July 3rd
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & our Virtual Arthouse Cinema
9:15 pm nightly
REGGAE BOYZ
Plagued with one of the highest murder rates in the world, Jamaica tries to inspire its populace by qualifying their national soccer team – the “Reggae Boyz” – for the World Cup. When their efforts start to fall short, a colorful German coach enters the scene and forms an unlikely alliance with legendary reggae musicians and a Rastafarian factory worker to unite Jamaica beyond the soccer pitch. Featuring Jamaican national Football Team a.k.a. “The Reggae Boyz;” Sheldon Shepherd (YARDIE); Bunny Wailer, Coach Winfried “Winnie" Schäfer; and the Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller. [TRAILER]
_______
COMING SOON:
Opens July 10th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & Virtual Arthouse Cinema
THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
Director: Yung Chang
2019 | 106 minutes | English
This fascinating, intimate portrait of British journalist Robert Fisk may be about a single journalist, but it’s also an intelligent and valuable documentary about how -- now more than ever -- credible, reliable journalism in general is crucial to understanding our tumultuous world. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Yung Chang (Up The Yangtze) follows Fisk’s storied and often dangerous career, from his early coverage of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland to the various, ongoing, and intense Middle East conflicts from the Israeli-Palestinian tensions to recent events in Syria. Despite what could be described as decades of disillusioning world events, many of which he has covered up close, Robert Fisk remains passionate and committed to journalism, and is an articulate commentator on how knowledge and awareness is produced in what can often be very and sometimes dangerously biased media. [CANADA NOW]
MARONA'S FANTASTIC TALE
The poetic and touching animated film from director Anca Damian follows an optimistic stray dog named Marona as she looks back on the human companions she has loved throughout her life. Delivered alongside dazzlingly colorful, sweeping designs produced in part by acclaimed artist Brecht Evens, MARONA’S FANTASTIC TALE is a life-affirming tale told with the patient, boundless love of a dog, and reminds us that happiness is a small thing.
THE TOBACCONIST
A tender, heart-breaking story about one young man and his friendship with Sigmund Freud during the Nazi occupation of Vienna. Seventeen-year-old Franz journeys to Vienna to apprentice at a tobacco shop. There he meets Sigmund Freud (Bruno Ganz), a regular customer. Over time the two very different men form a singular friendship. When Franz falls desperately in love with the music-hall dancer Anezka, he seeks advice from the renowned psychoanalyst, who admits that women are as big a mystery to him as they are to Franz. As political and social conditions in Austria dramatically worsen with the Nazis' arrival in Vienna, Franz, Freud, and Anezka are swept into the maelstrom of events. Each has a big decision to make: to stay or to flee?
__________
Opens July 17th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & Virtual Arthouse Cinema
WHITE LIE
Director: Calvin Thomas, Yonah Lewis
2019 | 96 minutes | English
Twenty something university student Katie Arneson (played with arrestingly intensity by Kacey Rohl) is struggling to balance life and school. Estranged from her father and damaged by the death of her mother, Katie is trying to cope with not only financial stresses in her life, but also a recent cancer diagnosis. To deal with both, she starts an online funding campaign to pay her way through school and for the ongoing cancer treatments. Trouble is, Katie’s cancer story is fake; she’s made it up as a personal fundraising scheme. While initially convincing, cracks soon begin to appear in her story. Pressure mounts when her girlfriend, her father, university officials, as well as nurses and doctors, start asking Katie for proof of her condition. Her increasingly desperate strategies to maintain the fiction will lead her into dangerous territory. A fascinating, tautly constructed psychological drama, White Lie is a searching examination of millennial identity and morality in the age of social media. [CANADA NOW]
_______________
Opening July 17th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & our Virtual Arthouse cinema
MONEY MACHINE
On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of over 20,000 concertgoers from his hotel room at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. In a matter of minutes, Paddock killed 58 people and wounded more than 400. It was the largest mass shooting in the history of the United States. Yet, just a couple of years later, Vegas seems to have forgotten about it completely. Needless to say, mass shootings are not good for business, and it didn’t take long for the Vegas money machine to get to work making this one disappear. In the aftermath of re-marketing Las Vegas as a safe destination for tourists, many questionable practices were put into place—one of the most shocking being filing a lawsuit against the victims of this devastating tragedy. On top of that, despite the popular #VegasStrong movement and nationwide fundraising, there’s still a huge question of where all that money went. An enthralling documentary about the dark side of the Las Vegas economy, MONEY MACHINE exposes Sin City’s darkest secrets… including its culpability in this United States’s deadliest shooting. A Ram Denison film.
_______________
Opening July 17
in the Zeitgeist Theatre & our Virtual Arthouse cinema
THE CUBAN
When a naive pre-med student named Mina gets her first job in a nursing home, an unexpected friendship with Luis, an elderly Cuban musician, reignites her love of music and changes her life forever. Starring Louis Gossett Jr, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ana Golja, Lauren Holly, Giacomo Gianniotti, Shiva Negar, Layla Alizada, etc.
________
Opening July 17th
in the Zeitgeist Theatre
ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (40th Anniversary)
Teen punkette Riff Randall (P.J. Soles of CARRIE and HALLOWEEN) has one abiding fantasy: to meet the dreamy Ramones, and get them to perform one of her songs. Standing in her way is Principal Togar (Warhol star Mary Woronov), who runs Vince Lombardi High like a despot — until the boys from Forest Hills lead a student body putsch and rock the school down to its foundations. A tribute to the after-school bedroom sexual awakening, when one daydreams of Joey Ramone joining you in the shower. In reality, The Ramones fandom was a small, specific, eccentric niche. But in Rock ’N’ Roll High School, the Ramones are as big as The Beatles. Also Starring Clint Howard, Vincent Van Patten, Day Young and The Ramones.
___________
Opening July 31
in the Zeitgeist Theatre
A SPECIAL "SURPRISE" TEST RUN OF A NEW LOCAL FEATURE
Have you ever wanted to be part of a test audience for a brand new feature film that no one has seen yet? Well, now's your chance! This locally produced Horror, Sci Fi, Surrealist, Dark Comedy was shot in and around New Orleans and South Mississippi and is now ready to get YOUR feedback! Do you like weird, arthouse films with a dark sense of humor? Do you love New Orleans and want to support the local art film community? If you do then this is the movie for you! Catch it now before it becomes a festival darling and indie smash hit…
___________
_____________
in the ZEITGEIST VIRTUAL ARTHOUSE CINEMA:
LUCKY GRANDMA
The movie, starring Tsai Chin, is the feature directorial debut of Sasie Sealy. “Lucky Grandma” held its world premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival as the second recipient of the AT&T Presents: Untold Stories $1 million grant initiative and went on to an international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Set in New York’s Chinatown, Chin portrays an ornery, newly-widowed 80-year-old eager to live life as an independent woman, despite her family’s concerns. When a local fortune teller (Wai Ching Ho) predicts a most auspicious day in her future, she decides to head to the casino, only to land herself on the wrong side of luck by suddenly attracting the attention of local gangsters. She then employs the services of a bodyguard from a rival gang, played by Corey Ha. “Lucky Grandma is a dynamic comedy with a stand-out performance by Tsai Chin. A new song by Akwafina is also featured.
LIBERTE by Albert Serra
Just before the French Revolution, in a forest outside Berlin, a band of libertines expelled from the court of Louis XVI rendezvous with the legendary German seducer and freethinker, the Duc de Walchen (Helmut Berger), to convince him to join in their mission: the rejection of authority and all moral boundaries. What begins as an evening of strategizing on the proliferation of libertinage, descends into a Sadean night of pansexual one-upmanship and debauchery. Liberté is a singular cinematic experience only Albert Serra could deliver, a film in which increasingly dramatic acts of sado-masochistic pain and pleasure unfold in counterpoint to cinematographer Artur Tort’s luminous images of moonlit sylvan spaces. As Serra and his committed team of regular performers and newcomers "open the gates of Hell" and explore the limits of the erotic imagination, you won’t be able to look away. Winner - Special Jury Prize - Cannes Film Festival
[VIRTUAL SCREENING]
END OF THE CENTURY by Lucio Castro
In his alluring debut feature, Lucio Castro offers both a sun-soaked European travelogue and an epic, decades-spanning romance. When Ocho (Juan Barberini), a 30-something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi (Ramón Pujol), a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random hookup. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other’s histories—and maybe even their destinies? Castro deliberately parses out mystery after mystery, leading the audience on a journey of discovery as the two leading men discover themselves and each other. With sumptuous lensing of a Barcelona summertime and tangible chemistry between the actors, END OF THE CENTURY is a gay love story that echoes across time. Winner - Best Film - Buenos Aires Film Festival & Best First Film - Frameline: San Francisco LGBTQ Film Festival
[VIRTUAL SCREENING]
THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS by Peter Medak
The Telluride lauded film from Dir. Peter Medak (The Changeling, The Ruling Class, Breaking Bad, Hannibal, The Krays, House, The Wire) is a classic take on a "movie within a movie", Medak documenting his own failed 1973 comedy, The Ghost of the Noonday Sun starring (and sabotaged by) Peter Sellers. Years later, Medak's still haunted by the experience, reflecting on a disastrous production, his ever-lasting love for Sellers, Spike Milligan (Monty Python) and film at larg
Vitalina Verla
Pedro Costa's latest, a film of deeply concentrated beauty, stars nonprofessional actor Vitalina Varela in a truly remarkable performance. A Cape Verdean woman who has come to Fontainhas for her husband’s funeral after being separated from him for decades due to economic circumstance, and despite her alienation begins to establish a new life there. The grief of the present and the ghosts of the past commingle in Costa’s ravishing chiaroscuro compositions, a film of shadow and whisper that might be the director’s most visually extraordinary work.
The Hottest August
is a curious map of a city’s fraught consciousness. With an anthropological conceit, the film offers a survey of humanity on the brink of extinction. The threats of climate change, late capitalism, and newly emboldened hatred and racism loom large over director Brett Story’s interviews with New Yorkers from all five boroughs in August 2017. Exquisite compositions set off the urban habitat in surprising ways, and Story frequently finds visual interest in large-scale scenes: expansive cityscapes, endless rows of windows and rooftops; skies cloudy with foreboding, yet filled with painterly beauty. This global scope reflects the film’s structural methods, which abandon a singular narrative thread for a collage of experience and emotion. It’s a time capsule that’s observations, cynical and tender alike, will reverberate well into the future.
CRESCENDO by Dror Zahavi
When world-famous conductor Eduard Sporck accepts the job to create an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra, he is quickly drawn into a tempest of sheer unsolvable problems. Having grown up in a state of war, suppression or constant risk of terrorist attacks, the young musicians from both sides are far from able to form a team. Lined up behind the two best violinists – the emancipated Palestinian Layla and the handsome Israeli Ron – they form two parties who deeply mistrust each other, on and off-stage alike. Will Sporck succeed and make the young people forget their hatred, at least for the three weeks until the concert? With the first glimmer of hope, however, the political opponents of the orchestra show them how strong they are…Loosely inspired by Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Academy-Award nominated director Dror Zahavi (“Alexander Penn”, “Everything for my Father”) directs this gripping drama as a constantly growing ‘crescendo’, rising the tension and conflicts until the last frame. Lead actor Peter Simonischek (“Toni Erdmann”) stars next to a highly convincing selection of up-and-coming actors like Daniel Donskoy (“Victoria”) and Sabrina Amali (“4 Blocks”). A remarkable work of cinema and a critical contribution to the world-wide efforts towards understanding, humanity and peace.
OPENING IN OUR VIRTUAL ARTHOUSE CINEMA ON JUNE 12th
MARONA'S FANTASTIC TALE
The poetic and touching animated film from director Anca Damian follows an optimistic stray dog named Marona as she looks back on the human companions she has loved throughout her life. Delivered alongside dazzlingly colorful, sweeping designs produced in part by acclaimed artist Brecht Evens, MARONA’S FANTASTIC TALE is a life-affirming tale told with the patient, boundless love of a dog, and reminds us that happiness is a small thing. [TRAILER]
__________________________________________________________________________________________
6621 St. Claude Ave. Arabi, LA 70032 www.zeitgeistnola.org (504) 352-1150
Schedule is subject to change as films are held over – please check the website for updates nightly.
Zeitgeist is a non-profit, artist run media arts center that celebrated its 31st anniversary this November.
Come join us!