Gary's Corner

Films this week 7/28 – 7/30/2023

by admin | 29th July 2023 | Gary's Corner

The Miracle Club, our surprise hit with a trio of poignant performers — Maggie Smith, Laura Linney, and Kathy Bates — continues its run with additional screenings this weekend. And the raucous “downtown art scene” documentary Make Me Famous will, on Saturday afternoon, be screening for a sixth weekend, accompanied as always by a Q&A with its inexhaustible creators — director Brian Vincent and producer Heather Spore.

Four new films will be joining our program:

• Umberto Eco: A Library of the World — This portrait of the late bestselling author, now also enjoying a lengthy downtown engagement, reveals him as both a world class literary collector and pungent wit on the vicissitudes of modern life.
• The League — Sam Pollard, a Spike Lee collaborator in the early years of both mens’ careers, has more recently built a remarkable body of work as a documentarian, including MLK/FBI and Sammy Davis Jr: I’ve Gotta Be Me. Here he tells the tragic/heroic story of the Negro baseball leagues of the first half of the 20th century, which left a still-underappreciated social, political, and athletic legacy.
• The Five Demands — A famous student strike at City College in spring 1969 that led to watershed changes in higher education across NYC campuses is recounted in this new documentary, which takes on added timeliness in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision rejecting affirmative action. It’s been crafted by longtime CUNY filmmaker-professors Andrea Weiss and Greta Schiller, the latter of whom will join us for Q&A after both weekend screenings.
• Tiger Within — Edward Asner’s final film appearance chronicles an unlikely friendship between a homeless teen and a Holocaust survivor, sparking larger questions of fear, forgiveness and healing. Talent from the film will be joining us post-screening via speaker phone from LA.