Film Screening Types Archives: In-Person

< Back to main Festival page

A man and a woman in vintage dress sit together. She holds up her hand, the letters 'F-L-O-W-' on screen above them.

Compensation (1999)

  Zeinabu irene Davis

  United States     95 minutes

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.

 English with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Zeinabu irene Davis, Marc Arthur Chéry
  •   Marc Arthur Chéry
  •   Zeinabu irene Davis
  •   Pierre Désir
  •   John Earl Jelks, Michelle A. Banks, Nirvana Cobb, Kevin L. Davis, Christopher Smith
  •   Wimmin with a Mission Productions

Sponsors

Black Perspectives Program Sponsor

Logo: AllState

< Back to main Festival page

A preist in a red cap and robe stands profile, looking down.

Conclave

  Edward Berger

  United States, United Kingdom     120 minutes

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.

  

 English, Italian with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Michael A. Jackman, Robert Harris, Alice Dawson
  •   Peter Straughan
  •   Nick Emerson
  •   Stéphane Fontaine
  •   Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Carlos Diehz, Lucian Msamati, Brían F. O’Byrne, Merab Ninidze, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini
  •   Volker Bertelmann
  •   Steven Rales, Glen Basner, Alison Cohen, Milan Popelka, Ben Browning, Len Blavatnik, Danny Cohen, Zoe Edwards, Harry Dixon, Paul Randle, Tomas Alfredson, Edward Berger, Ralph Fiennes, Peter Straughan, Robyn Slovo, Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Gangarossa
  •   FilmNation Entertainment, House Productions, Indian Paintbrush
  •   https://www.focusfeatures.com/conclave

Sponsors

Film Patron

John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation

< Back to main Festival page

A man wearing all white looks at a large stone statue in front of him.

Dahomey

  Mati Diop

  France, Senegal, Benin     68 minutes

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?

 French, Fon, English with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Mati Diop, Judith Lou Lévy
  •   Arte France Cinéma, Fanta Sy, Les Films du Bal

Sponsors

Black Perspectives Program Sponsor

Logo: AllState

Documentary Program Partner

Logo: WTTW (2019)

Documentary Program Patron

Cynthia Stone Raskin

Film Patron

Lauren Robishaw

With Support From

logo: French Embassy in the United States 156x125Logo: Villa Albertine 203x60

< Back to main Festival page

Two masc folks face each other, blue and purple and red lighting illuminating them.

Desire Lines

  Jules Rosskam

  United States     83 minutes

Synopsis

Ahmad is an aging trans man who has long suppressed his desire for other men, fearing stigma and questioning if his gender identity and sexuality are at odds. He turns to an LGBTQ archive for answers, digging through oral histories and interviews from trans men past and present. He immerses himself so deeply in the archive that he begins to time travel through it, living among stories and activism that crack open binary notions around gender identity and sexual desire. Aided by these stories — and by a young trans archivist — Ahmad begins to unravel his own complicated identity. In Desire Lines, narrative and documentary intertwine to relate a dizzying quest towards personal and collective trans liberation.

 English 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Jules Rosskam, André Pérez, Amy E. Powell, Brittani Ward
  •   Jules Rosskam
  •   Marie Hinson
  •   Theo Germaine, Aden Hakimi
  •   Melissa Dyne
  •   Eugene Sun Park, Jason Matsumoto, Jennifer Reeder, AJ Escoffery, Jules Rosskam
  •   Full Spectrum Features, MamSir Productions

Sponsors

Documentary Program Partner

Logo: WTTW (2019)

Documentary Program Patron

Cynthia Stone Raskin

< Back to main Festival page

A rag-tag looking baseball team in red uniforms observes from their dugout.

Eephus

  Carson Lund

  United States, France     98 minutes

Synopsis

It’s late October at Soldiers Field, and two scruffy adult baseball teams in New England are ready to play one last game on their beloved turf before it’s demolished. But Eephus, like the unexpectedly slow curveball it’s named for, is far from straightforward. You might recognize the quaint setting, the “final big game” framework, or characters like Ed, an ornery old pitcher, and Graham, the forthright Riverdogs coach. But director Carson Lund is pitching something different here. The two teams remain neck and neck, daylight turns to dusk, team members have to leave to go home to their families, and yet the game goes on. Eephus is less about baseball and more of a leisurely look at suburban life, the foibles of middle-age masculinity, and the passing of time. Smartly written, occasionally very funny, and entirely unique, it’s a delightful and nostalgic portrait of a fading America.

  

 English 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Michael Basta, David Entin, Carson Lund, Tyler Taormina
  •   Michael Basta, Nate Fisher, Carson Lund
  •   Carson Lund
  •   Greg Tango
  •   Keith William Richards, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Wayne Diamond, Cliff Blake, Joe Castiglione, Theodore Bouloukos, Keith Poulson, Stephen Radochia, David Pridemore, Ray Hryb, David Torres Jr., John R. Smith Jr., Nate Fisher, Chris Goodwin, Pete Minkarah, Conner Marx, Russell J. Gannon, Brendan “Crash” Burt, Tim Taylor Ethan Ward, Jeff Saint Dic, Patrick Garrigan, Ari Brisbon, Johnny Tirado, Joe Penczak, Paul Kandarian, Lou Basta, Timber Holmes
  •   Erik Lund, Carson Lund
  •   Jim Christman, Brian Clark, Ashish Shetty, Michael Tonelli
  •   Omnes Films, Nord-Ouest Films
  •   https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/eephus/

Sponsors

Comedy Program Partner