Programs
Film
Presenting classic films, premieres, festivals, and retrospectives, with appearances by filmmakers, actors, and critics.
“[A] vital arts center…dedicated to forgotten and overlooked…directors." —Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut is a coming of age comedy about two high school overachievers (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein) who decide to cram four years of missed fun into one night.
Go to the movies just once a month and a BAM membership pays for itself.
Jimmie Fails plays a version of himself in this funny and poignant odyssey about a rapidly changing San Francisco. Presented with The Racial Imaginary Institue
An artful and intimate meditation on the extraordinary life and career of legendary storyteller Toni Morrison by acclaimed filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.
Ari Aster (Hereditary) directs this dread-soaked cinematic fairy tale about a group of friends who head to an insular Swedish village for a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival.
A wedding celebration takes on a special poignancy in Lulu Wang’s wonderfully warm, bittersweet look at the intricacies of family dynamics featuring a bravura breakout performance from Awkwafina.
These monumental masterpieces may be sprawling in ambition, but they are deeply personal in their richly observed details and profound human insight.
This genre-spanning survey explores how a complex, extraordinarily diverse, and much misunderstood generation has been represented on screen and how, more recently, it has come to represent itself.
Screening on 35mm
Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie star in Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood’s golden age.
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.
From Hollywood to the indie underground, from New York No Wave to the LA Rebellion, these brilliant women directors defied the Reagan-era status quo to bring their stories to the screen.
This uniquely unflinching, rawly revealing documentary sheds complex light on Whitney Houston, the cultural icon and the troubled soul.
Legendary roots musician Jimmy Cliff is an aspiring singer who becomes an anti-establishment outlaw in this vivid time capsule of 1970s Jamaica which introduced reggae to the world.
Perry Henzell’s rarely seen, long-lost follow-up to The Harder They Come is a politically conscious, reggae-infused journey through rural Jamaica.
Some of cinema’s most visionary artists evoke the emotional experience of past and present colliding in these poetic, surreal, and intensely personal reflections on childhood, history, and human relationships.
Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz star in Yorgos Lanthimos’ darkly funny period drama.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) adapts James Baldwin’s fifth novel.
Christian Bale stars as Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s subversively comedic new film.
A sumptuous, jazz-cool romance from the Oscar-winning director of Ida.
A powerful new film about one of the most important, yet least known, activists in US history.
A secret history of African-Americans in horror cinema plus a landmark cult classic.
A complete retrospective of this fearless artist who gave cinematic voice to gay black men.
A showcase of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short Film.
A showcase of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Live Action Short Film.
A wide-ranging look at this most fundamental yet complex of emotions in all its forms.
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) directs this suspense-packed drama.
All-American nightmares from the father of politically charged horror.
Bruce Goldstein presents rare footage of this dynamic performing duo.
Franco Rosso’s incendiary 1980 film about a young dancehall DJ in South London.
A German refugee steals the identity of a dead writer and falls in love with his wife.
A cinematic event that takes us straight to the heart of NASA’s most celebrated mission.
Celebrating the richness, uniqueness, and viability of Caribbean cinema.
Julianne Moore is a free-spirited divorcée in Sebastián Lelio’s new romantic comedy.
A program of short films by a diverse network of emerging NYC-based filmmakers.
A cinematic exploration of the complex role that resentment plays in society and art.
Jordan Peele's much-anticipated follow-up to Get Out, starring Lupita Nyong’o.
The largest ever US retrospective of the singular cinematic mood-maker.
Mary Kay Place is a woman in search of redemption in Kent Jones’ narrative debut.
Claire Denis launches Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche into the depths of the cosmos.
A career-spanning tribute to the Czechoslovak New Wave legend whose films are calls to rebellion.
Claire Denis launches Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche into the depths of the cosmos.
The legendary, long-unseen concert film companion to Aretha Franklin’s iconic album.
An iconic work by legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham is reborn.
Young love flowers in the face of prejudice in this empowering Kenyan coming-of-age saga.
A chronicle of the extraordinary rise of the Satanic Temple.
Nina Menkes’ lost underground classic is a hallucinatory study of female alienation.
A stunning documentary about a secret operation to surveil an Arab-American community.
Revisit a transformative decade in black-authored cinema.
An advance screening of Mike Mills’ and The National’s short film collaboration.
Nicholas Hoult stars in this chronicle of the Lord of the Rings author’s formative years.
The latest film from acclaimed director Olivier Assayas.
Laura Dern and Jack O'Connell star in the true-life story of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Willem Dafoe stars as Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in Abel Ferrara’s latest.
The best new narrative, documentary, and short films from across Africa and the diaspora.
Honor Swinton Byrne gives a breakout performance in this story of young adulthood and first love.
This series offers a selection of films, all made by women of color, that cover a range of contemporary topics.
A soccer star’s fall from grace sends him on a delirious odyssey.
A Spike Lee-produced time travel adventure.
A wistful odyssey about a rapidly changing San Francisco.
“The city’s best independent film showcase” (The New Yorker) celebrates its 11th year.
Jim Jarmusch’s latest features Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, and more.
A rousing underdog tale from one of the leading lights of contemporary Jamaican cinema.
Spike Lee’s Brooklyn classic remains an essential touchstone for a changing borough.
Ron Howard directs this intimate portrait of the iconic tenor who brought opera to the people.
Patrick Wang’s offbeat micro-epic about a small community arts center fighting to stay afloat.
Artists and cultural figures present the films that inspired their passion for cinema.