Programs
Film 2018
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
Leadership support for BAM Film programs provided by The Thompson Family Foundation
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.
RaMell Ross’ richly sensorial vision of life, landscape, and community in Alabama’s Black Belt.
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.
Witty, inventive immigrant tales celebrating the richness of Chinese-American identity.
A showcase of new work by student filmmakers.
Personal, political, funny, and fervent dispatches from an ever-evolving region.
Urgent portraits of life on the margins from the trailblazing Palestinian director.
A rapturous, dreamlike celebration of queer sexuality and sisterhood in early 2000s LA.
A revelatory, globe-spanning vision of pan-African identity.
A hilarious, perceptive, all-too-real lost gem of black independent cinema.
Haroun’s latest is a moving migrant’s tale drawn from the director’s own experiences.
Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell star in this heartbreaking true story of addiction.
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or winner is a richly human portrait of an unconventional family.
Natalie Portman is a diva on the edge in this audacious art pop spectacle.
Willem Dafoe goes inside the world and mind of Vincent van Gogh in Julian Schnabel’s new film.
The latest from Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong (Poetry) starring Steven Yeun.
Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga star in this tale of two artistic souls coming together.
Jonah Hill’s directorial debut about a 13-year-old boy in 90s Los Angeles.
Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton star in Luca Guadagnino’s remake of the horror classic.
Fantastical, wildly imaginative tales of rampaging beasts and supernatural terror.
A spotlight on the historically erased and undervalued domestic labor of women.
Clement Virgo’s searing, poetic portrait of black life in a Toronto housing project.
BAM welcomes the return Black List Live! with a staged reading of More Than a Friend.
A deep dive into the singular imagination of Random Acts of Flyness creator Terence Nance.
Artists and cultural figures present the films that inspired their passion for cinema.
Chantal Akerman’s tour-de-force exploration of restless alienation and sexual longing.
Barbara Loden’s bracing, bolt-from-the-blue milestone of American independent cinema.
This monthly series challenges the white, male bias of the traditional auteurist canon.
This annual showcase spotlights an extraordinary new wave of Romanian women directors.
Eddie Murphy is an African prince seeking his own version of the American dream…in Queens.
The jazz visionary and inventor in a documentary as thrillingly free form as he is.
World cinema icons Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow in a stirring epic of human endurance.