We Are Guardians follows Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and activist Puyr Tembé as they fight to protect their territories from deforestation, an illegal logger who has no choice but to cut the forest down, and a large landowner at the mercy of thousands of invaders and extractive industry. Through intimate, character focused storytelling, the film brings the issues to the forefront -- from the science of the Amazon Rainforest and its pivotal role in our global climate stability to the economic drivers of deforestation.

The film weaves together politics, history, economics, science, and consciousness, providing an in-depth exploration of this incredibly complex and critical situation -- the origins and the impact of which ripple out far beyond the boundaries of the Amazon itself.

‘4 stars’ - RogerEbert.com

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.

Filmmaker Marlon Riggs gives a voice to communities of gay black men, presenting their cultures and perspectives on the world as they confront racism, homophobia and marginalization.

55 Min

“The star of I Think You Should Leave [Tim Robinson] brings a similar brand of comedy to this strange and genuinely funny film about a friendship breakup” – The Guardian

Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor, as Craig's attempts to make an adult male friend threaten to ruin both of their lives.

R (Language|Some Drug Content)

1 HR 40 Min

Special PRIDE month screening!

This documentary focuses on drag queens living in New York City and their "house" culture, which provides a sense of community and support for the flamboyant and often socially shunned performers. Groups from each house compete in elaborate balls that take cues from the world of fashion. Also touching on issues of racism and poverty, the film features interviews with a number of renowned drag queens, including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey.

1 HR 20 Min

“By the end, romance in the abstract becomes something much more real — and we can’t help but fall for all these characters ourselves.” – New York Magazine

Agathe, hopelessly clumsy yet charming and full of contradictions, finds herself in desperate singlehood. Her dream is to experience love akin to a Jane Austen novel and her ultimate aspiration is to become a writer. Instead, she spends her days selling books in the legendary British Bookshop, Shakespeare & Co, in Paris. Invited to the Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England, she must confront her insecurities to finally fulfill her ambition of becoming a novelist and put an end to wasting her sentimental life.

French/English

R (Some Sexual Content|Nudity|Language)

1 HR 34 Min

NYC, 1975: the greatest, grittiest city on Earth is minutes away from bankruptcy when an unlikely alliance of rookies, rivals, fixers and flexers finds common ground -- and a way out.

The New Yorker: The delight of “Drop Dead City” is that it’s a symphony of voices, past and present. The film’s interviews mesh, even rhyme, with archival clips documenting events as they unfolded, participants discussing their activities in the moment, and news reports that aired at the time.

Muriel and her husband Lee are beginning a bright new lifein California when he returns from the Korean War. But their newfound stabilityis upended by the arrival of Lee's charismatic brother, Julius, a waywardgambler with a secret past. A dangerous love triangle quickly forms. WhenJulius takes off in search of the young card cheat he's fallen for, Muriel’slonging for something more propels her into a secret life of her own, gambling on racehorses andexploring a love she never dreamed possible.

R (Nudity| Some Language| Sexual Content)

1 HR 57 Min

SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED is a wildly entertaining and fittingly unconventional documentary about convention-defying singer, songwriter and record producer Jerry Williams, aka Swamp Dogg, one of the great cult figures of 20th-centuryAmerican music whose singular voice and ideas have shaped the history not merely of soul music, but of country, hip-hop and a dozen other genres.

In SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED, the titular artist and his “bachelor pad of aging musicians”, including the charming Guitar Shorty and lovably quirky Moogstar, navigate the tumultuous music industry, transform their home into an artistic playground and invite fellow musicians like Jenny Lewis and John Prine and superfans Mike Judge, Johnny Knoxville and Tom Kenny to play in their unique musical sandbox...and paint Swamp Dogg’s pool. Bursting with infectious personality and stoner energy, SWAMPDOGG GETSHIS POOL PAINTED is a music documentary unlike any other.

Jared joins us once again to introduce and discuss 3 foundational surreal short films, from Bunuel/Dali, Germaine Dulac, and Jean Cocteau.

Jared’s film essays can be found here: https://www.cinema-worcester.com/surreal-cinema

An elegantly assembled diary of the Palestinian experience, No Other Land is a harrowing document that leaves traces of hope for a better future.

For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with a journalist from the other side who joins his fight.

1 HR 36 Min

Released in 1977, Lynch's “Eraserhead” is a steampunk cinematic chamber play, a hallucinatory tour through a private, interior world. – The New Yorker

Henry (John Nance) resides alone in a bleak apartment surrounded by industrial gloom. When he discovers that an earlier fling with Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) left her pregnant, he marries the expectant mother and has her move in with him. Things take a decidedly strange turn when the couple's baby turns out to be a bizarre lizard-like creature that won't stop wailing. Other characters, including a disfigured lady who lives inside a radiator, inhabit the building and add to Henry's troubles.

“The Shrouds,” about a widower who deals with his grief by creating a new kind of cemetery where the living can observe the decay of their loved ones’ bodies, is a Cronenbergian body horror of integrity and force. **** - RogerEbert.com

In an eerie, deceptively placid near-future, a techno-entrepreneur named Karsh (Vincent Cassel) has developed a new software that will allow the bereaved to bear witness to the gradual decay of loved ones dead and buried in the earth. While Karsh is still reeling from the loss of his wife (Diane Kruger) from cancer—and falling into a peculiar sexual relationship with his wife’s sister (also Kruger)—a spate of vandalized graves utilizing his “shroud” technology begins to put his enterprise at risk, leading him to uncover a potentially vast conspiracy. Written following the death of the director’s wife, the new film from David Cronenberg is both a profoundly personal reckoning with grief and a descent into noir-tinged dystopia, set in an ominous world of self-driving cars, data theft, and A.I. personal assistants. Offering Cronenberg’s customary balance of malevolence and wit, The Shrouds is a sly and thought-provoking consideration of the corporeal and the digital, the mortal and the infinite.

 2 Hrs

 R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language and some violent content

FREE EVENT! Come see the works of 4 local students and hear them discuss their films.

*films by

Alex Lucier

Delaney DeNorscia

Andrew Lucier

Julia Forest

An expansive and revelatory inside look at the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO delivers an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life electrifying, never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of Lennon's only full-length, post-Beatles concert. With mind-blowing remastered audio overseen by their son, Sean Ono Lennon, the film is a seismic revelation that will challenge pre-existing notions of the iconic couple.

“fun, fierce, full-blooded portrait of Lennon and Ono” – The Guardian

MEANWHILE is a docu-poem in six verses about artists breathing through chaos. In dynamic collaboration, Jacqueline Woodson (text), Meshell Ndegeocello (soundscape), Erika Dilday (support), M. Trevino (structure), and Catherine Gund (direction), combine artists' expressions with historical and observational footage to unveil a rare cinematic mediation about identity, race, racism and resistance as they shape our shared breath. Centering breath as a symbol of resilience, Meanwhile captures raw, unfinished moments--dancers in rehearsal, artists midway through their work--focusing on the act of creation. Rooted in the upheavals of 2020, the film uses breath as its through-line to symbolize collective survival. It invites viewers to witness the process of liberation and be present in the "meanwhile"--a moment of creation, struggle, and hope that transcends fixed identities.

“‘Meanwhile’...feels like both a provocation and a request to consider what flourishing looks like in this chaotic moment — for Black Americans, and for anyone who finds themselves drowning, struggling to breathe.”

“...the movie suggests freedom is something you can experience while also working toward freedom’s creation. Artists know that for sure — ‘Meanwhile’ aims to make it clear to everyone.” “...this is, indeed, poetry.” – New York Times

 1 Hr 28 Min