This stunning short documentary, a front-runner for an Oscar, follows Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark across the United States to memorialize the bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. Hartman and cinematographer Matt Porwoll will be in attendance. Free! (dir. Joshua Seftel, U.S., 2025, 35 min.) “Succinct, devastating, and necessary.” –Common Sense Media

With “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” James Cameron takes audiences back to Pandora in an immersive new adventure with Marine turned Na’vi leader Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Na’vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the Sully family.

Industrial animations, forgotten children’s TV shows, declassified military training films, weird science and more — these ephemeral fragments form an unintentional time capsule. Some hilarious, some disturbing, all unexpectedly beautiful and rescued from government archives, flea markets and basements. Join us for The Human Machine, the first installment of a new film series presented by Cinema Ephemera. Rich Remsberg and Shawn Rosenheim have curated an evening of ephemeral films. “These are films that were not necessarily meant to last beyond their original showings,” said Remsberg. “They weren’t even necessarily meant to be considered films.” “This is an accidental chronicle of 20th century America,” adds Rosenheim, speaking of their collection. “This is a world both very familiar and very strange.” Travel with us through the old, weird America. From 1920s personal hygiene guides to NASA’s zero-gravity experiments to amateur disco exhibitions, this is a celebration of the ordinary and the forgotten. Some of it is funny. Some is disturbing. Much of it is unbelievably beautiful – a revelation of our world in all its poverty and extravagance. “Breaking open the original context of these films allow us to see the gems among the pot shards,” said Remsberg. “You’ll never look at the 20th Century in the same way again.”

Sally (Jane Fonda) says goodbye to her husband (Bruce Dern), who’s fighting in Vietnam, and then strikes up a meaningful relationship with an injured soldier (John Voight). (dir. Hal Ashby, U.S., 1978, 127 min.) “It confronts the relationship between Fonda and Voight with unusual frankness — and with emotional tenderness and subtlety that is, if anything, even harder to portray.” —Roger Ebert Penelope Milford (1948-2025) was an Oscar-nominated actress whose performance as Vi Munson in “Coming Home” earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Beloved by her Hudson Valley community, Upstate Films is screening this film in memory of her.

From Academy Award® winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, HAMNET tells the powerful love story that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.

Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she's too sensitive to kill. When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha's life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul, a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfill Paul's last wishes before day breaks.

As their marriage quietly unravels, Alex (Will Arnett) faces middle age and an impending divorce, seeking new purpose in the New York comedy scene while Tess (Laura Dern) confronts the sacrifices she made for their family—forcing them to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether love can take a new form.

Live From Upstate The most lauded of Anger's Magick Lantern Cycle, Lucifer Rising is perhaps the most groundbreaking of his films, which go back to the late 1930’s and are cited as major influences for John Waters, David Lynch and others. This film, preceded by "Scorpio Rising," will be paired with a live soundtrack by Constant Smiles. (dir. Kenneth Anger, U.S./U.K./West Germany, 1972, 30 min.) Constant Smiles is a dynamic, ever-evolving musical collective led by songwriter Ben Jones, known for shifting sounds from ambient pop to indie folk, blending hazy textures with profound lyrics about humanity, intimacy, and growth, evolving from its 2009 Martha's Vineyard beginnings into a respected underground scene staple, especially after releasing acclaimed albums like Paragons and Moonflowers on Sacred Bones and Felte labels.

Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.

A full show from November 29, 1978, this film is taken directly from a West German television show — hence Musikladen (The Music Store). A look at The Cars in their New Wave prime, they play their expected, tight set. (dir. Michael Leckebusch, U.S., 1979, 46 min.).

Alystyre Julian's OUTRIDER is a cinekinetic portal into fast-speaking poet Anne Waldman transcendent role as a visionary word-worker, from the downtown New York scene and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, to the ‘Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics,’ to Big Sur, Mexico City, Morocco, and onward. Guided by ancestors of the Beat generation and poetic kinships with radical female musicians, Outrider channels the ancient, bardic tradition—celebrating the thunderous power of poetry.

Queen Kelly opens in the imaginary European country of Cobourg-Nassau, sometime before the first World War, where the vain and cruel Queen Regina V (Seena Owen) obsesses over her feckless fiancé (Walter Byron), Prince “Wild” Wolfram. When the dissolute prince encounters an innocent but flirtatious convent girl, Patricia Kelly (Gloria Swanson), he falls in love. Desperate to see her before his upcoming wedding to the Queen, he kidnaps Kelly and brings her to his rooms in the palace. When the Queen discovers the lovers, she whips the nightgowned girl and throws her out into the night. After an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Kelly returns to the convent, where she receives a telegram, summoning her to the bedside of her dying aunt (Florence Gibson) in Dar-es-Salaam, German East Africa. There, the innocent young girl is shocked to find herself in a seedy bordello. On her deathbed, Kelly’s aunt begs her niece to wed the syphilitic brothel owner, Jan (Tully Marshall).

There comes a day in every man's life when he has to get off the couch…and kill some zombies. When flesh-eating zombies are on the hunt for a bite to eat, it's up to slacker Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his best pal (Nick Frost) to save their friends and family from becoming the next entree.

Stephanie, a restless and vibrant actress, meets Gerard, an NYPD counter-terrorism specialist who’s an aficionado of experimental theater (and maybe out of his mind). Flirtation ensues, ends disastrously, and forces Stephanie to the ramshackle upstate home of musician Eleanor Friedberger, yet this supposed escape is infected by violent memories of her past life. A miniature epic of paranoia, espionage, subterfuge, music, and performance captured on lush and invigorating 16mm, Slow Machine heralds major new talent.

Close Up w/ dir. Robert Stone In this meditative, intergalactic biopic, we follow Gentry Lee on his journey to space and on Earth. From the Viking and Voyager missions to co-authoring the actual future with Arthur C. Clarke, Lee’s life has been spent with his head in the stars and his feet on the ground. In this visually stunning documentary, the octogenarian Starman reflects on decades of space exploration alongside friends like Carl Sagan. (dir. Robert Stone, U.S., 2025, 85 min.) “An Outer Space Documentary That’s Out of This World.” —Variety

This fan-favorite cult classic follows the legendary band on what at the time was believed to be their final performances, a five-night run at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom in October of 1974, the final night billed as “The Last One.” Featuring stellar live performances, mind-bending animation, interviews with band members and crew, the film has a rare focus on the band’s fans and their deep commitment to the Dead Head lifestyle.

Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are finding that modern life has them struggling with the mundane - like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.

A philosophical romance between mortality and immortality, this film follows Damiel, an angel in Berlin, who sees the world in black-and-white vs. the color that humans see. The angel can hear the inner dialogue of people, their deepest anxieties and simple joys, which leads him to yearn for the early life instead of the celestial existentialism. 1980’s Berlin plays a unique role in this movie, as does the soundtrack, featuring Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. “The film evokes a mood of reverie, elegy and meditation. It doesn’t rush headlong into plot, but has the patience of its angels.” — Roger Ebert