Synopsis

Ivan Dixon’s The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a radical adaptation of Sam Greenlee’s 1969 novel and a seminal work of American political cinema. The film stars Lawrence Cook as Dan Freeman, the first Black CIA agent, who secretly utilizes his training to build a guerrilla army on the south side of Chicago aimed at toppling the U.S. government. Freeman’s covert operations highlight the militant struggle for Black liberation that intensified in the wake of the civil rights movement.

Blending satire with serious political commentary, Dixon’s explosive narrative remains a powerful critique of systemic racism and oppression. Restored to its original glory, the film’s urgency and revolutionary spirit continue to resonate today, showcasing its timeless relevance and incisive portrayal of Black resistance.

Restored by The Library of Congress and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Synopsis

Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a “mistress dispeller” — a growing profession in China’s larger cities — to break up her husband’s affair. The expert, Wang Zhenxi, or “Teacher Wang”, conspires with the woman and her adult children to insinuate herself into their family. She surreptitiously becomes a close confidante of the cheating spouse and his mistress, all part of her intricate master plan to restore the relationship between husband and wife.

With Mistress Dispeller, award-winning filmmaker Elizabeth Lo (Stray) has crafted an enormously fascinating and multi-faceted psychological portrait. From its carefully observed perspective, the film captures both the love triangle’s most private and intimate moments as well as Wang’s skill in slowly drawing out the characters and subtly manipulating their feelings. Mixing extreme closeups with images of China’s urban landscapes, Mistress Dispeller is an absorbing docudrama that lifts the curtain on a rarely seen segment of Chinese bourgeois society.

Synopsis

Academy Award nominee Amy Adams stars as a woman who has left the city and her career to be a stay-at-home mom. Through the challenges of parenting a young toddler, her mighty maternal instincts begin to manifest in newly empowered canine form. In this penetrating, funny, and outrageous look at the realities of being an American mom, Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me) has crafted a wildly entertaining and satirical tale of female struggle and strength. Propelled by Adams’s primal, captivating, and truly transformational performance, Nightbitch is a bold and sardonic story of motherhood like no other.

Synopsis

Louie Mulgrin is the one who got out of his rural Illinois town, becoming a bestselling novelist and writing searing literary tell-alls about his rustic Midwestern enclave. When Louie, newly engaged and successful, returns home to settle his late father’s affairs, he receives a welcome that’s equal parts admiration and resentment. Is Louie a local hero or an exploitive opportunist, getting rich off the stories of those he was once closest to?

In her accomplished feature debut, Chicago native Kate Cobb crafts a skillful tale that’s tinged with suspense, as Louie revisits relationships from his youth: a resentful best friend, an ex-girlfriend, a bully turned local cop. As he gets sucked deeper into the past, he must come to grips with what he’s done to get ahead in the present — and his loosening grip on reality. Shot in and around Dekalb, IL, Okie is an absorbing and complex dramatic thriller about the delicate balance between ambition and loyalty.

Synopsis

Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones star in this densely plotted, Chicago-set thriller about an army veteran who becomes a pawn in a sprawling conspiracy.