Filmgoers are going to be living well this week as both the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium and the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival start this week! Here is your #movienerdreport!
The fifth annual Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium starts Tuesday and will last through Sunday. The festival celebrates the remarkable diversity of silent film and each film features live music accompaniment! This year they will be presenting films at three different venues including the Cleveland Cinematheque, the Cleveland Museum of Art and Grays Armory Museum!
The schedule goes as follows:
Tuesday, Sept. 15 at the Cleveland Cinematheque at 7:30 p.m. (11610 Euclid Ave, Cleveland 44106) 1923’s “East and West” featuring Donald Sosin on piano and Alicia Svigals on violin.
Wednesday, Sept. 16 at the Cleveland Museum of Art at 7 p.m. (11150 East Blvd, Cleveland 44106) John Ford’s “3 Bad Men” from 1926 featuring Jackie Warren on piano and introduced by Grafton Nunes.
Thursday, Sept. 17 at Grays Armory at 7:30 p.m. (1234 Bolivar Rd, Cleveland 44115) Buster Keaton’s 1926 classic “The General” featuring Donnie Rankin, organ.
Friday, Sept. 18 at the Cleveland Museum of Art at 7:30 p.m. 1926’s “The Johnstown Flood” featuring Rodney Sauer on piano, leading member of the Cleveland Photoplayers.
Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Cleveland Museum of Art at 2:30 p.m. 1926’s “A Page Of Madness” featuring Noexit new music ensemble with an original score by James Praznik.
Sunday, Sept. 20 at the Cleveland Museum of Art at 2:30 p.m. “Beau Geste” featuring Rodney Sauer, music director and members of the Cleveland Photoplayers.
Ticket information is available here: https://www.clevelandsilentfilmfestival.org/2026-festival
The 15th annual Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival (GCUFF for short) starts on Thursday evening where it will kick off at Karamu House at 6 p.m. (2355 E.89th Street, Cleveland 44106) with the opening night film “Albert’s Flower” which will feature a Q&A with star James Pickens Jr. and Cleveland’s own Peter Lawson Jones. The festival will then move over to Atlas Cinemas Shaker Square (13116 Shaker Square, Cleveland 44120). Among some of the highlights include the documentary “A Few Nagging Questions” which looks at Glenville High Students investigating the 1968 Glenville shootout, and the Warren-shot horror film “Sweetest Day” which follows a young woman who faces an undead Confederate soldier.
Ticket and film information is available here: https://www.gcuff.org/festivalschedule
The big film opening this weekend is the latest from director Zach Cregger (“Weapons” and “Barbarian”) and it is his reboot/reimagining of “Resident Evil.” The plot follows a hapless courier tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital. He soon finds himself caught in the middle of an outbreak. Austin Abrams and Paul Walter Hauser star.
Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe star in “The Weight” which tells the story of a battle-scarred veteran who is hired to help smuggle a fortune in gold across 100 miles of impenetrable wilderness.
Also opening widely is the stop-motion animated feature “Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.” This is the third in the series and this one is set around Halloween!
Also playing at the Cleveland Cinematheque:
On Thursday at 6:45 p.m. they will present “On The Sea” which tells the story of a man who is married to a woman in a small fishing village in Wales and how meeting a new-to-town fisherman has made him realize he can no longer deny how he really feels.
Thursday at 9:05 p.m. the cult musical series will continue with Trey Parker’s “Cannibal: The Musical.” Created a few years before he co-created “South Park,” it tells the story of a sole survivor of an ill-fated mining exposition whose quest for gold has been replaced by a quest for human flesh.
Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 4:45 p.m. they will show “Late Fame,” an acclaimed new film from Kent Jones. It stars Willem Dafoe as a legendary poet whose forgotten works captivate an eccentric group of young creatives, reigniting his artistic passion.
Friday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. they will present 30th anniversary screenings of the highly influential anime “Ghost In The Shell.””It tells the story of a cybernetic agent, who races against time to stop a powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.
Saturday they will be celebrating the works of Cleveland native filmmaker Larry Clark. He is known as one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion (also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers) as well as being a film professor in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University.
The triple feature of his works will start off at 3 p.m. with his 1972 film “As Above, So Below.” At 4:45 p.m. his 2002 feature “Cutting Horse” from a 35mm print and at 7 p.m. his 1977 film “Passing Through” which will be followed by a Q&A with Clark! The 7 p.m. screening is free courtesy of Ohio Goes To The Movies!
Sunday at 7 p.m. will be the new documentary about the making of one of the most infamous sequels in Hollywood history in “The Exorcist II: The Heretic” titled “Boorman and the Devil.” Director John Boorman tells the tale of how his career was nearly ended by this film!
More film information and tickets are available here: https://cinematheque.cia.edu/
Over at The Nightlight Cinema (30 N High Street, Akron 44308):
Saoirse Ronan stars in the dark comedy “Bad Apples.” It tells the story of a struggling primary school teacher that makes some questionable decisions after one of her students is injured.
They also will be opening a film that made a splash earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival in “If I Go Will They Miss Me.” It tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who is attempting to connect with his distant father following his incarceration while sensing mysterious visions, from airplanes and Greek gods, that seem to follow him through his everyday world.
Lastly, they will be showing Tim Burton’s 1996 all-star homage to 1950’s and 60’s B-movies in “Mars Attacks,” which was recently given a 4K restoration. The cast includes Jack Nicholson, Annette Benning, Glenn Close, Michael J. Fox, Pierce Brosnan and more!
More film information and tickets are available here: https://nightlightcinema.com/
Over at CWRU Film Society (Located at Strosacker Auditorium on the Case Western Campus):
On Friday evening at 7, 9, and 11 p.m. they will be showing the animated film “Persepolis” which was co-directed and written by Marjane Satrapi, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. The Oscar nominated film tells the story of a precocious and outspoken Iranian girl who grows up during the Islamic Revolution.
On Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. they will show the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson collaboration “The Adventures of Tintin.” Based on the popular comics by Hergè, this film follows intrepid reporter Tintin, his dog and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock’s ancestor.
More film information is available here: https://films.cwru.edu/
Over at the Capitol Theatre (1390 W.65th Street, Cleveland 44102):
They will continue their series honoring Northeast Ohio native Jim Jarmusch by showing his 1995 film “Dead Man” which stars Johnny Depp. Set in the 19th Century, it follows a meek accountant on the run after killing a man.
More information and tickets are available here: https://capitoltheatrecleveland.com/
Lastly on Saturday, the folks from Akron’s Killer Video will be hosting a screening of the 1981 horror film “The Prowler” at the West Theatre (1017 Wooster Rd, Barberton 44203) that will feature a live Q&A with actress Cindy Weintraub at 7 p.m.
More information is available here: https://www.thekvm.org/
So there you have it, another stacked week! Until next time, we’ll see you at the movies!
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