The Farewell

Writer-director Lulu Wang mined her own life experience for the premise behind the family drama THE FAREWELL, which has emerged as one of this summer’s breakout indie critical and commercial hits. Rapper-turned-actress Awkwafina – who proved her comedic chops in both Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s 8 –, and has now earned a Golden Globe nod … Read more

The Queen

Decades before Paris Is Burning and Rupaul’s Drag Race, this ground-breaking documentary about the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant introduced competitive drag to the world, along with LGBT icon and activist Flawless Sabrina. Watch for Andy Warhol, one of the pageant’s judges. “The gender identity and racial undercurrents of “The Queen” have a prescient … Read more

Koyaanisqatsi

“Koyaanisqatsi” is a Hopi word meaning “Life Out of Balance,” which is both the subtitle and the theme of this intriguing and renowned documentary. Godfrey Reggio has woven a hypnotic tapestry of time-lapse photography and Philip Glass’ trademark minimalist soundtrack, which drones the title every chance it gets. The viewer needs no voiceover to get … Read more

ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas

The story of how three oddball teenage bluesmen – Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard – became one of the biggest, most beloved bands on the planet, all while maintaining a surrealist mystique that continues to intrigue fans and entice onlookers 50 years after the band’s inception. “Though it’s far from the last word … Read more

Freaks (Advance Screening!)

Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein‘s FREAKS portrays the story of 7-year-old Chloe, (Lexy Kolker), who lives in both fear under her father’s (Emile Hirsch) protective and paranoid control, and fascination of the outside world, where Abnormals” create a constant threat – or so she believes. When a mysterious stranger (Bruce Dern) offers her a glimpse of … Read more

Vancouver Latin American Film Festival Presents: El Angel

Loosely based on the true story of one of Argentina’s most infamous criminals, El Ángel re-imagines the origins of Carlos Robledo Puch, the baby-faced teenager nicknamed the “Angel of Death” whose murder spree dominated national headlines in Argentina during the early 1970s. What begins as a series of petty thefts when Carlitos is a boy … Read more

Honeyland

In this riveting documentary (now the first film ever to receive consecutive Oscar nominations for both Best Foreign Feature and Best Documentary!), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and return the natural balance in HONEYLAND, when a family of nomadic beekeepers invade her land and threaten her livelihood. Nestled in an … Read more

Maiden

MAIDEN is the story of how Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook in charter boats, became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World in 1989. Tracy’s inspirational dream was opposed on all sides: her male competitors thought an all-women crew would never make it, the chauvinistic yachting press … Read more

Vancouver Latin American Film Festival Presents: Buy Me a Gun

A retelling of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ that plays both with gender and the notion of adventure tales, BUY ME A GUN is set in the near-future of Mexico where all the women are disappearing and children are being abducted with frightening impunity. A young girl named Huck wears a mask to hide her … Read more

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (Final Screening!)

Join us at the Rio Theatre as we raise a glass and toast the late, great, Toni Morrison, with a screening of the 2019 documentary TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM for a final, encore screening on Saturday, September 7. TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM offers an artful and intimate meditation on the life … Read more