The preeminent dramatist of China’s rapid 21st-century growth and social transformation, Jia Zhangke has taken his boldest approach to narrative yet with his marvelous Caught by the Tides. Assembled from footage shot over a span of 23 years—a beguiling mix of fiction and documentary, featuring a cascade of images taken from previous movies, unused scenes, and newly shot dramatic sequences—Caught by the Tides is a free-flowing work of unspoken longing, carried along more by music than dialogue as it looms around the edges of a poignant love story. The film mostly adheres to the perspective of Qiaoqiao (Jia’s immortal muse Zhao Tao) as she wanders an increasingly unrecognizable country in search of long-lost lover Bin (Li Zhubin), who left their home city of Datong seeking new financial prospects. The always captivating Zhao carries the film with her delicate expressiveness, while Jia constantly evokes cinema’s ability to capture the passage of time and the persistence of change: of people, landscapes, cities, politics, ideas.

To paraphrase William Butler Yeats and Marge Simpson: a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met. Hence the slight spring in the step of Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) as he heads out on a winter day to hand-deliver a misaddressed package to a neighbor. For a sedentary family man who doesn’t get out much, Craig needs all the exercise he can get, as well as any pretense for potential connection. Trudging parka-clad over the icy sidewalk leading to the home of one Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), a recent arrival to their quiet residential street, he cuts a forlorn but hopeful figure. Craig’s journey will be repeated several times in Andrew DeYoung’s debut feature Friendship. The film’s subject is nothing less than the male-bonding ritual, visualized as an uphill trek over slippery terrain. Austin is the new local weatherman. He’s not only fitter, happier and more productive than Craig, but cooler; he smokes hand-rolled cigarettes, plays in a pick-up punk band, and talks shit about the mayor. Craig, whose mind is like a sponge, gloms onto Austin as a confidant and role model. But in trying to reinvent himself overnight in his new friend’s image, he comes on too strong. Imagine if Brad Pitt told Edward Norton he didn’t want to hang out with him any more in the first act of Fight Club, and you’re within punching range of Friendship’s particular sweet spot of surreal bromance and slyly submerged critique of modern life.

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE follows Agathe (Rutherford) a hopelessly clumsy yet charming young woman who works in the legendary Shakespeare & Co. bookshop in Paris. While she dreams of being a successful writer, and of experiencing love akin to a Jane Austen novel, she finds herself desperately single and plagued by writer’s block. When Agathe’s best friend (Pauly) gets her invited to the Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England, she finally has her Jane Austen moment…and is caught in a very unexpected romantic triangle. Agathe must let go of her insecurities to decide what she really wants for herself, and to achieve her romantic and professional dreams.

In SISTER MIDNIGHT, the audacious debut feature from London based Indian artist and filmmaker Karan Kandhari, rebellious small-town misfit Uma (acclaimed Indian actress Radhika Apte) arrives in Mumbai to find herself totally unsuited to life as a housewife. At odds with her prying neighbors and under the constant oppressive noise and heat of the city, she decides to break free from the shackles of domesticity and follow her own path in this bold, unpredictable, and darkly funny debut. Featuring an eclectic soundtrack (Interpol frontman Paul Banks makes his debut as composer) and singular visual aesthetic, the film world-premiered in Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and won the award for Best Film in the Next Wave section at Fantastic Fest.

RADICAL SOUL: BLACK POWER MUSIC & MOVEMENT Get yourself in the mood and in the moment to explore L.A. Rebellion films during Chelsea Classics this Summer! SPIRITS OF REBELLION: BLACK INDEPENDENT CINEMA FROM LOS ANGELES documents the lives and work of a small critically acclaimed group of black filmmakers and media artists known as the Los Angeles Rebellion, a group brought together through shared experiences as students in the UCLA film production MFA program between 1967 and 1992. Although relatively unknown, the Los Angeles Rebellion was the first collective of minority filmmakers in the US that aimed to reimagine the production process to represent, reflect on, and enrich the day to day lives of people in their own communities. It is now recognized as an important part of the Black Arts movement on the West Coast. SPIRITS OF REBELLION offers the story of the movement in an accessible style through over 30 interviews with the filmmakers today as well as archival footage, clips from rarely seen films of the group, and reflections from leading scholars on film history and African-American cinema. The L.A. Rebellion filmmakers were headlined by: Charles Burnett (To Sleep With Anger) Carroll Parrott Blue (Dawn at My Back) Ben Caldwell (I & I: An African Allegory) Larry Clark (Passing Through) Julie Dash, (Daughters of the Dust) Jamaa Fanaka (Penitentiary) Haile Gerima (Sankofa) Alile Sharon Larkin (Dreadlocks and the Three Bears) Barbara McCullough (Water Ritual) Billy Woodberry (Bless Their Little Hearts)

THE DARJEELING LIMITED follows three estranged brothers—Francis, Peter, and Jack Whitman—who embark on a train journey across India in an attempt to reconnect with each other and heal after their father's death. Our Chelsea Classics exploration of the films of Satyajit Ray, Ismail Merchant, and James Ivory culminates here in their influence on Wes Anderson's films. One of the great soundtracks in film, Wes Anderson uses scores composed by Satyajit Ray, the father of Indian Art Cinema, in THE DARJEELING LIMITED, to connect his story, character, and place to these great filmmakers.

The story of a family and a family business. Starring: Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe; Mia Threapleton as Liesl, his daughter/a nun; Michael Cera as Bjorn, their tutor. With: Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis.