Hard Light Cinema

HELLO MOVIE FANS

New year, same us! For our first announcement of the new year, we are excited to announce EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY, our second series in partnership with Richmond Public Library. This collection of films builds off the aesthetic and political sensibilities of our Slow Sundays series, with more explicit focus on the poetic possibilities of filmmaking as a form of protest.

All of these screenings are FREE to the public! There is ample free street parking surrounding RPL that is unlimited on weekends. Free refreshments will also be available inside. As always, we are very appreciative of our hosts at the Richmond Public Library Main Branch for making this partnership possible.

1. High School (2020) dir. Frederick Wiseman
2. A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021) dir. Payal Kapadia
3. The Act of Killing (2012) dir. Joshua Oppenheimer

High School (2020) dir. Frederick Wiseman

Titan documentarian and cinéma vérité trailblazer Frederick Wiseman takes us to North East Philadelphia Public High School in his sophomore feature. His only collaboration with freewheeling cinematographer Richard Leiterman concerns itself with everyday indoctrinations of discipline, authority, and conformity against the tumultuous backdrop of the late 60s.

— Syd, Hard Light Cinema

A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021) dir. Payal Kapadia

Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, director of 2024’s Grand Prix-winning All We Imagine as Light, is one of the freshest and most exciting voices in experimental cinema today. Fusing protest documentary with romantic fiction, her debut film A Night of Knowing Nothing is a moving record of left-wing student activism at the Film and Television Institute of India. Fictional letters between an anonymous student named L. and her lover reveal the heartbreaking consequences of struggle against the right-wing, anti-Muslim Modi regime. Kapadia catalogues and dramatizes the anguish and heroic bravery of these young activists with the gentle, haunting poetic style and dreamlike textures she would later find wide acclaim for in All We Imagine as Light.

— Syd, Hard Light Cinema

The Act of Killing (2012) dir. Joshua Oppenheimer

Joshua Oppenheimer asks Indonesian death squad leaders to stage and recreate the executions they committed against suspected communists in the 60s. As the distance between memory and media deteriorates, they confront the reality of the blood on their hands.

— Syd, Hard Light Cinema