Films this week 9/25/2026 to 10/01/2026
by Gary Palmucci | 25th September 2026 | Gary's Corner
This weekend will be a final opportunity to catch many of the half dozen films on our program, before a new wave of ‘film festival’ releases and other special screenings take center stage.
These include the endearing Marching Band, from France; the pungently funny and on-target The Invite with its protean cast; the Japanese period saga The Samurai and the Prisoner, where each line of dialogue and every cited historical character ‘counts;’ and Wild Inside, the all-ages, inspiring saga of Flaco the
Eurasian owl, one of whose producers will join us for a Q&A after Sunday afternoon’s show.
Two other Q&As are on the schedule: writer- director-co-star Matthew Shear will encore his upper west side-centric rom-com Fantasy Life and discuss afterwards with my colleague Abbe Harris.
And the tough but more-necessary-than-ever Gaza front lines documentary American Doctor will be back , this time including an after-discussion with director Poh Si Teng and American playwright and author V.
And coming soon to New Plaza Cinema –
NAZA – a blistering new documentary from the Oscar-winning filmmakers of No Other Land, direct from its upcoming NY Film Festival premiere, opening October 9.
You Had to Be There – fresh off its socko downtown opening, this exuberant doc chronicles the 1972 Toronto stage production of Godspell, which ignited multiple generations of multi-media comedians.
Plus these special screenings, all featuring Q&A with their creators:
Oct 4 – The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka and The Art of Survival – an encore showing
Songs of Slow Burning Earth – another view of the Ukrainian tragedy
Oct 11 – Make Me Famous – NPC’s ‘Rocky Horror Show’ keeps drawing bigger crowds
The Art of Adventure – a spirited history, spanning over a half-century, fusing exploration and environmental activism.