Among the most praised and sought-after titles in all contemporary film, this singular masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema, directed by Edward Yang is finally available for audiences. Set in the early sixties in Taiwan, A Brighter Summer Day is based on the true story of a crime that rocked the nation. A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual, inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chen Chang, in his first role) from innocence to juvenile delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

Art versus commerce, friendship versus status, independence versus conformity—values clash and collide in Edward Yang’s study of an increasingly Westernized country heading into the twenty-first century without moral guideposts. Moving from breakout hit A Brighter Summer Day’s investigation of the past to a critical survey of the present, A Confucian Confusion charts the tangled web of emotional and professional manipulations among a group of young urbanites. At its center is Molly (Ni Shu-chun), director of a floundering public-relations firm. Alienated by the childish fiancé (Bosen Wang) who bankrolls her enterprise—and frustrated by the demands of an assistant, Qiqi (Chen Shiang-chyi), and her own fiancé, Ming (Wang Wei-ming)—Molly lashes out at everyone in her path and threatens to dismantle the company altogether. Meanwhile (amid several other subplots), Molly’s talk-show-host sister (Chen Li-mei) attempts to dissuade her separated husband from continuing to write a dark novel about the return of Confucius to a jaded modern society. Injecting comedic elements into his patented brand of earnest soul-searching, Yang finds humor as well as pathos in the desperate behavior of a lost and lonely generation. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn. Bikini Drive-In is a semi-monthly screening series examining horror films curated and introduced by Cinematheque Film Programmer Olivia Norquay. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

A dazzling embroidery of ideas on Black history, identity, and aesthetics gives shape to artist Kahlil Joseph’s eagerly awaited debut feature, an expansion of his acclaimed 2019 Venice Biennale installation BLKNWS. Joseph, who rose to prominence directing music videos for, among others, Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, and Lemonade-era Beyoncé, assembles the film’s kaleidoscopic material as though sequencing an LP, moving fluidly between modes (archival, memoir, essay, pure fiction) and concepts while carrying key, structural motifs forward. One such throughline is Encyclopedia Africana, originally conceived by W.E.B. Du Bois (but unrealized in his lifetime), which serves as an index of Black consciousness in the film. Another is an Afro-futuristic reverie: aboard an enormous ocean liner bound for Africa, the art of a transatlantic biennale is en route to repatriation. “This is not a documentary,” the film declares; either way, truth bristles everywhere. “An immersion into Blackness … By fashioning a kinetic work that pulls together references and sources from Black literature, music, politics, and meme culture, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions stands as a seismic intellectual awakening.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com “Intimate and sweeping, intellectually exciting and formally audacious … [A] mind-expanding meditation on Black lives, identities, and experiences.” Manohla Dargis, “Best Movies of 2025” (#5), The New York Times

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice. Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.

Rei (Sawa Suzuki), a seasoned dominatrix and aspiring actor, spends her days rehearsing experimental theatre and her nights whipping straightlaced salarymen into ecstasy. Between appointments, she meets Ayumi (Reiko Kataoka), a call-girl bound to be the wife of a doctor or lawyer. The women bring us into their nocturnal orbit: a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure, camaraderie, and the joys of hanging out in the thriving, horny, districts of Shinjuku and Shibuya, at the terminus of the Japanese Bubble era. Marketed in some territories as a sequel to Ryu Murakami’s moody Tokyo Decadence (1992), Banmei Takahashi’s A New Love in Tokyo unfolds as its tonal opposite: less somber sexploitation than unexpectedly sex-positive workplace comedy. Based on a book of essays by Kei Shimamoto and Nobuyoshi Araki that brings the reader into an erotic underworld, the film is also notable for featuring the cult photographer’s work. A glimpse into a bygone era of Japanese eroticism, A New Love in Tokyo provided pink film, V-cinema and Director’s Company veteran Banmei Takahashi (Door, Door II) with a bridge towards a broader range of human experience. Content warning: This film contains scenes of sexual violence. Welcome to Cult-O-Rama, our monthly screening series exploring beloved sleaze, trash, and underground cinema! A celebration of bad taste curated and introduced by Cinematheque Film Programmer Olivia Norquay. Presented in partnership with Sookram’s Brewing Co. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

A paranoid young man launches a bizarre crime spree against the citizens of Toronto in this psycho-spiritual thriller comedy starring Rishi Rodriguez, Spencer Rice (Kenny vs. Spenny), and Paul Bellini (Kids in the Hall). Content warning: This film contains scenes of violence and crude content. Welcome to Cult-O-Rama, our monthly screening series exploring beloved sleaze, trash, and underground cinema! A celebration of bad taste curated and introduced by Cinematheque Film Programmer Olivia Norquay. Presented in partnership with Sookram’s Brewing Co. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba. "A new cult classic" - The Toronto Star "Delightfully unlike anything you’ve seen before" - The Chicago Reader

Sara Shahverdi — a divorced, motorcycle-riding former midwife — is an unlikely leader in her conservative northwestern Iranian village. As the first woman ever elected to the local council, she’s determined to break the cycle of empty promises and complacency passed down by the men who came before her. Fierce and unapologetic, Sara pushes for bold reforms, fighting her most difficult battles on behalf of the village’s girls and women. From teaching teenage girls to ride motorcycles to challenging child marriage to advocating for female land ownership, she openly defies patriarchal norms. But when her efforts spark backlash and accusations about her motives, Sara must confront not only her critics — but also her own sense of identity

Lisa, a sports photographer, vanishes off into the greener pastures of the Georgian countryside, traces of her passing embedded in the landscape like clues. Her father, Irakli (David Koberidze), picks up her scent in the ochre foliage and communal soccer fields she documented for her last assignment. His search-and-rescue trip defies her wishes not to be followed. With a disembodied voice in his passenger seat, he embarks on a winding pastoral picaresque, marked by the recurring gaggles of adolescents, wild dogs, and oral histories he encounters along the way. Undulating between impressionistic reverie and subversive detective story, Irakli’s near-fruitless search invites us to see—with renewed eyes—the quotidian elements which constitute both cinema and life. Shot with a pixelated W595 Sony Ericsson phone camera, Dry Leaf stands as a palpable salvo on cinematic degrowth. While director Alexandre Koberidze teeters on the edge of a formal gimmick to challenge technological tyranny, his characters swim against the false currents of modern life. Taking an audacious leap of faith after his breakthrough What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?, and harkening back to his low-res debut Let the Summer Never Come Again, Koberidze reignites the threadbare wonders of cinematic language in spectacular, big-screen fashion.

Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is revealed here as the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, Earth’s Greatest Enemy challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism. Join us on May 22 for a virtual post-screening conversation with filmmaker Abby Martin. Presented in partnership with Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition, and the Manitoba Eco Network.

Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy is reimagined in a bold, modern adaptation set within London’s elite South Asian community. When Hamlet (Riz Ahmed) returns for his father’s funeral, he is stunned to discover his uncle Claudius is marrying his newly widowed mother. Visited by his father’s ghost, Hamlet learns his brutal murder was at the hands of Claudius - and spirals into a quest for vengeance that exposes the rot at the heart of the family’s empire and threatens his own sanity.

Edward Yang’s penultimate film is an acerbic, sprawling tragicomedy, a poison love letter to Taipei as a rising cosmopolis of big money, big dreams, and big cons. Once more focusing on directionless youth, Yang depicts the four immature toughs who share the same apartment and, frequently, the same women. Led by the amoral Red Fish (Tang Tsung-sheng), the crew implements a slate of swindles and illicit business deals aimed at naive foreigners—including French teenager Marthe (Virginie Ledoyen), who is looking to reconnect with her older English lover (Nick Erickson)—and superstitious gold diggers (Carrie Ng). But when mobsters seek to collect on a debt owed by Red Fish’s ex-criminal father (Chang Kuo-chu), they accidentally abduct translator Luen-Luen (Lawrence Ko), the only crew member with scruples and, seemingly, an ounce of compassion. In several intertwined tales of greed, violence, and shattered principles, Mahjong examines how a city can grow in power and wealth while abandoning its heart and soul. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

A film editor breaks up with his girlfriend, unsure if he is in love. Join us for McDonald at The Movies, where comedian, star and co-founder of Kids in the Hall, Kevin McDonald presents a film handpicked from the archives of comic history. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

Amy Davis and James Duval play a pair of rival conceptual artists battling for fame and funding in the near-future dystopia of Shitville, Earth. As one ascends the heights of neoliberal capitalist success, the other seeks inspiration and solace in the euphoric waves of a new cyber drug called Skullfuck. Ingenious production design and savvy location shooting evoke the urban sprawl and rural industrial collapse against which the filmmakers frame this scathing satire of art world pretension. Ostensibly a riff on the absurdity of art, warfare of people, material control/secular terror, addictions of every genre, and self-actualization thru internal Jungian conflict, the movie - at its most base level - is a full-on and mega-entertaining cinematic odyssey tinged with ludicrous sci-fi, raw poignancy, and utter brutalism. A Punk Rock Blade Runner for Artists! Featuring a special pre-recorded introduction from director Jon Moritsugu! “Overflowing with eye-popping production design, eardrum-destroying rock ’n’ roll, gross-outs aplenty and deadpan one-liners you’ll be quoting for weeks.” – Wall Street Journal “One of the 25 Greatest Punk Rock Movies of All Times” (My Degeneration, Moritsugu’s first feature that Roger Ebert walked out of after seven minutes at its Sundance premiere) – Rolling Stone

Acclaimed Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (ZAMA, THE HEADLESS WOMAN) takes a sweeping approach to this tragic true story, triangulating the murder trial of three men, the lives of activist Chocobar and his fellow Chuchagasta people, and the centuries-old, colonialist legacy of land and property theft across Latin America.

Powwow People is a vérité-style documentary grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors, and community members to participate in the making of this film. Structured around the arc of a single day, the film follows four central figures: Gina Bluebird, who frames the powwow’s shape and guides its setup; Ruben Littlehead, the MC whose presence anchors the present moment; Jamie John, a non-binary dancer imagining the future of these traditions; and Freddie Cozad, a singer and drummer who considers the past. The film culminates in a 30-minute unbroken shot of a Northern Traditional dance special, drawing the viewer into the textures, movement, and collective presence of the powwow. It is both a reflection of a beloved and complicated community and a gesture toward the continuities of Native life.

Lost souls reach out for human connection amidst the glimmering night world of Hong Kong in Wong Kar Wai’s hallucinatory, neon-soaked nocturne. Originally conceived as a segment of Chungking Express only to spin off on its own woozy axis, this hyper-cool head rush plays like the dark, moody flip side to Wong’s breakout feature as it charts the subtly interlacing fates of a handful of urban loners, including a coolly detached hitman (Leon Lai) looking to go straight, his business partner (Michelle Reis) who secretly yearns for him, and a mute delinquent (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who wreaks mischief by night. Swinging between hardboiled noir and slapstick lunacy with giddy abandon, Fallen Angels is both a dizzying, dazzling city symphony and a poignant meditation on love, loss, and longing in a metropolis that never sleeps. Join us for our Staff Picks series, where our Winnipeg Film Group staff select and introduce new and old favourites. This month’s selection was chosen by Cinematheque projectionist Victoria K. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

Edward Yang’s second feature is a mournful anatomy of a city caught between the past and the present. Made in collaboration with Yang’s fellow New Taiwan Cinema master Hou Hsiao-hsien, who cowrote the screenplay and helped finance the project, Taipei Story chronicles the growing estrangement between a washed-up baseball player (Hou, in a rare on-screen performance) working in his family’s textile business and his girlfriend (pop star Tsai Chin), who clings to the upward mobility of her career in property development. As the couple’s dreams of marriage and emigration begin to unravel, Yang’s gaze illuminates the precariousness of domestic life and the desperation of Taiwan’s globalized modernity. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

The extraordinary, internationally embraced Yi Yi (A One and a Two . . .), directed by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Whether chronicling middle-age father NJ’s tentative flirtations with an old flame or precocious young son Yang-Yang’s attempts at capturing reality with his beloved camera, the filmmaker deftly imbues every gorgeous frame with a compassionate clarity. Warm, sprawling, and dazzling, this intimate epic is one of the undisputed masterworks of the new century. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival