Programs
BAMcinématek
BAMcinématek presents classic films, premieres, festivals, and retrospectives, with appearances by filmmakers, actors, and critics.
"The four screening rooms nestled into a stately palace on Lafayette Avenue provide a year-round menu of new independent releases and smartly programmed series." —A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Read more about the history of BAMcinématek.
Leadership support for BAM Cinema programs provided by The Thompson Family Foundation
The striking, sensorily-rich debut from director RaMell Ross is at once intimate and expansive, poignant and profound, a vision of African-American life in the heart of Alabama’s Black Belt.
Overflowing with wit and humanity, the wonderfully warm, inventive immigrant tales of Wayne Wang celebrate the richness of Chinese-American identity.
We welcome prominent artistic or cultural figures to present the films that inspired their passion for cinema.
A showcase of new work by student filmmakers from Brooklyn College, the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, Pratt University, Syracuse University, the New School, and NYU.
This monthly program challenges the cinema canon by presenting one iconic, highly regarded classic alongside a thematically or stylistically related—and equally brilliant—film traditionally excluded from that discussion.
The beauty, complexity, and diversity of Arab culture shines through in these vital new works from some of the Middle East and North Africa’s boldest and most innovative filmmakers.
The films of trailblazing Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir combine humor, righteous anger, and stirring lyricism into urgent looks at what it means to live on the margins of your own homeland.
Leilah Weinraub’s rapturous documentary is a dreamlike record of the black lesbian strip club in early 2000s LA where queer sexuality and sisterhood were celebrated with euphoric abandon.
Traversing Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jamaica, and the US, this revelatory cycle of five short films reveals the hidden resonances that connect black American identity to the greater African diaspora.
Five couples navigate the ins and outs of love and sex in this hilarious, perceptive, and all-too-real lost gem of black independent cinema.
Haroun’s latest is an urgent, deeply moving migrant’s tale in which an African fruit vendor living precariously in Paris navigates a new relationship and the challenges of life in a legal limbo.
Fantastical, otherworldly, and wildly unique, these tales of rampaging beasts and supernatural terror are triumphs of cinematic imagination.
Ai Weiwei’s powerful visual expression of the massive migration of 65 million people worldwide.
Filmmaker Susan Froemke surveys a remarkable period in the rich history of the Met Opera.
BAMcinématek presents an alternative cinematic history of black screen heroes.
Spike Lee’s portrait of an all-black college is an audacious mix of comedy and commentary.
A paleontologist, a socialite, and a domesticated cheetah collide in this screwball classic.
Nia Long stars in this dramatic love story set in Chicago’s sexy poetry and jazz scene.
BAMcinématek celebrates the tastemaking Brooklyn distributor's first decade.
The hidden histories of how courageous women shaped the labor movement.
A tribute to the Chadian auteur, one of Africa’s greatest contemporary filmmakers.
The best new films exploring the black experience in America and around the world.
This series offers a selection of films, all made by women of color, that cover a range of contemporary topics.
Discover the path-breaking Chicano filmmakers who gave voice to a vibrant community.
A career survey of Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay, one of the world’s foremost image-makers.
Robert Morgan’s rarely screened 1963 film captures the Golden Age of opera.
A comedy set in the Colombian Caribbean and a portrait of class conflict at a Jamaican resort.
BAM and Amazon Studios present a new series that puts film at the intersection of dialogue and action.
An electrifying journey through the public and private worlds of the pop culture mega-icon.
The celebrated opera is captured on screen + post-screening discussion with the directors and Joe Melillo.
A special 20th anniversary screening of Spike Lee’s modern American classic.
BAMcinématek pays tribute to a generation of trailblazing women filmmakers.
Two of the Phantom Thread star’s most indelible performances in masterworks by Mike Leigh.
Jerome Robbins’ now-famous ballet in sneakers is returned to the streets of New York.
The best new narrative, documentary, and short films from across Africa and the diaspora.
Agnés Varda’s enchanting ode to female friendship and empowerment.
An audacious blend of buddy comedy and neo-noir set in Haiti’s criminal underbelly.
Director Jim McKay’s affecting look at life in Brooklyn as an undocumented Mexican immigrant.
An exploration of how whiteness has been constructed, ignored, and challenged onscreen.
“New York’s premier festival for gems of American indie cinema” (MUBI) celebrates its tenth year.
Discover the daring, innovative work of the very first women filmmakers.
The East Coast’s premier animation showcase returns for its 15th annual edition.
Bobbito García chronicles his youth and influence on basketball, sneaker culture, and hip-hop.
Sex, religion, and vampirism collide in Bill Gunn’s visionary avant-horror masterpiece.
Bill Gunn’s watershed of American independent filmmaking in an essential new restoration.
A galvanizing exposé of racism, corruption, and intimidation within the NYPD.
A previously unseen draft of Bill Gunn’s “meta-soap opera” and a TV performance by Gunn.
A tribute to visionary women who have refused to be second-guessed or silenced.
Raw, revolutionary, powerfully relevant records of a struggle that continues to this day.
Melvin Van Peebles’ revolutionary landmark of black independent cinema.
A bold, darkly comic fable about witchcraft and womanism set in contemporary Zambia.
Ingmar Bergman’s lifelong fascination with theater fuels these late-career chamber works.
Two films form a fascinating dialogue on the history of black onscreen representation.
The best new works by Poland’s boundary-pushing women filmmakers.
The breathtakingly beautiful, Tony-winning musical is broadcast from London’s West End.