Synopsis

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has a gift for finding the uncanny in any situation. His latest film, Cloud, sees the Japanese genre master returning to the techno-paranoia of his 2001 classic Pulse, but with a twist: Here, Kurosawa is exploring the horror of buying something online, only to find out that it’s a useless piece of plastic junk. Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) makes his living peddling these knockoffs under the username “Ratel,” and is doing quite well for himself — that is, until an online community of embittered, unhappy customers uncover “Ratel’s” true identity and track him down IRL.

Cloud is an intriguingly bizarre entry into Kuroswa’s filmography, combining cosmic horror with an EC Comics-style morality tale and just a hint of Reservoir Dogs. An anti-capitalist action movie with a dark sense of humor and loads of bloody gunplay, it’s a warning to anyone who’s ever hidden behind the anonymity of the internet.

Synopsis

On a whim, single father Lucky decides to take his 11-year-old son Mason to experience an American rite of passage: his first baseball game. It seems simple enough. But Lucky, bereft after a recent personal tragedy and navigating his son’s Down syndrome on his own, encounters a series of obstacles that will test his patience and his confidence as the two set out across Atlanta.

Photographed in vivid black-and-white with echoes of neorealist landmarks like Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep and Vittorio de Sica’s The Bicycle Thief, David Fortune’s subtle and elegantly conceived feature debut is brimming with authenticity and heart. With A Thousand and One co-star Will Catlett delivering another magnetic and sympathetic portrayal of a strong, nurturing Black man, Color Book is an intimate and resonant portrait of the unique, tender relationship between father and son.

Synopsis

This bold, original Chicago drama, newly restored for its 25th anniversary, follows two love stories set in the city’s Black community. Although they’re set nearly a century apart, they also echo each other in salient ways. Both star deaf actress Michelle A. Banks and Exhibiting Forgiveness star John Earl Jelks, and each tracks a unique couple as they confront the specter of parallel pandemics—tuberculosis in the first story; AIDS in the second—and a complex set of intersecting challenges involving issues of race, gender, class, education, and ability.

Innovatively crafted and shot in luminous black-and-white, the film blends archival footage of early 20th century Black Chicago with silent movie techniques like ornate title cards and a ragtime score. Inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem of the same title, Zeinabu irene Davis’s debut feature is a time capsule of two eras and a graceful and universal tale of love, tragedy, and Black American life.

Synopsis

Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events – selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.

Synopsis

2021. A wooden statue depicting King Gezo, who ruled the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin) in the mid-1800s, is carefully packed into a box. He is among the 26 stolen artifacts selected to make a long-overdue return journey from Paris to Benin. As he’s stowed away, his internal monologue booms on the soundtrack. How does he feel about his imminent homecoming? Master filmmaker Mati Diop (Atlantics) ponders this question and many more in this imaginative meditation on post-imperial Benin and its continuing, complex colonial legacy. Inflected with fantastical flourishes, Diop carefully documents the painstaking work of transporting these priceless objects and observes a debate among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi. How should these treasures, stolen from their ancestors, be received by a nation that has reinvented itself in their absence?