The Athena Cinema has been “home base” for the Film Festival since its founding in 1974; each spring the Athena hosts the Festival and over 250 films and videos that comprise a global mix of genres, styles and approaches to filmmaking. The 2015 film fest is underway, so be sure to join us April 3rd thru the 9th!
For more information, visit: www.athensfilmfest.org
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Director: Noah Boaumbach
Writer(s): Noah Boaumbach
Cast: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried
Noah Boaumbach’s comedy While We’re Young stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as Josh and Cornelia, a childless New York married couple in their mid-forties. As their other friends all start having children, the couple gravitates toward a young hipster couple named Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried). He’s an aspiring documentary filmmaker, a vocation Josh already has. Soon the older couple begins enjoying the energy they feel hanging out with the younger generation, but eventually Josh begins to suspect his new best friend might not be as straightforward and trustworthy as he thought.
“A sharply observed and witty dark comedy.” – Claudia Puig, USA Today
“Stiller’s scenes with the gifted Adam Driver escalate into generational comic warfare of a high order.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
97 MIN
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Director: Robert Greene
Cast: Brandy Burre, Michael Tomlinson
Brandy Burre had a recurring role on HBO’s The Wire when she gave up her career to start a family. When she decides to reclaim her life as an actor, the domestic world she’s carefully created crumbles around her. Actress is both a present tense portrait of a dying relationship and an exploration of a complicated woman, performing the role of herself as she faces the desires that exist outside of her home.
“Robert Greene’s extraordinary collaboration with actress Brandy Burre is a playful, provocative examination of self-performance.” -Guy Lodge, Variety
“Combining artifice with vérité documentary style, [Greene] underscores the inextricability of real life and make-believe, of genuine behavior and self-conscious performance.” -Peter Keough, Boston Globe
86 MIN
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Director: Mary Dore
Writer(s): Mary Dore
Cast: Rita Mae Brown, Susan Brownmiller, Kate Millet, Ellen Willis, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Alix Kates Shulman
SHE’S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE’S ANGRY resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women’s movement from 1966 to 1971. SHE’S BEAUTIFUL takes us from the founding of NOW, with ladies in hats and gloves, to the emergence of more radical factions of women’s liberation; from intellectuals like Kate Millett to the street theatrics of WITCH (Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell!). It does not shy away from controversies over race, sexual preference and leadership that arose in the women’s movement, and brilliantly captures the spirit of the time — thrilling, scandalous, and often hilarious.
92 MIN
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Director: Michele Josue
On October 7, 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die because he was gay. Years later, Michele Josue, a close friend of Matt’s, revisits the shocking case with never-before-seen photos, rare video footage, as Matt’s all-too-brief life is remembered through the vivid testimonies of those whose lives he touched, from the friends and family who knew him best to the bartender who saw him on the night of the attack. New revelations emerge in one of the most notorious hate crimes in US history, leading to a searing, poignant, and multi-layered biographical and sociological portrait. In the end, the notion of forgiveness–embodied in the moving and courageous final act of Matt’s parents–takes on truly heroic proportions.
“’Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine’ is a great documentary…This film doesn’t just revisit an atrocity, it moves through it, and finds meaning in it.” – RogerEbert.com
“A tender reconstruction of personal loss.” – The New York Times
“’Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine’ is a moving eulogy to a life lost but not forgotten.” – Indiewire
This is a FREE one night only screening sponsored by ReAct to Film.
89 MIN
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Director: David Cronenberg
Writer(s): Bruce Wagner
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson
Meet the Weiss family, who are making their way in Hollywood rife with money, fame, envy, and relentless hauntings. Stafford Weiss (John Cusack) is a famed TV self-help therapist with an A-list celebrity clientele. Meanwhile, Cristina Weiss (Olivia Williams) has her work cut out managing the career of their disaffected child-star son, Benjie (Evan Bird), a fresh graduate of rehab at age 13. Yet unbeknownst to them, another member of the Weiss family has arrived in town – mysteriously scarred and tormented Agatha (Mia Wasikowska), just released from a psych ward and ready to start again. She soon works her way into a friendship with a limo driver (Robert Pattinson) and becomes personal assistant to unraveling actress Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), who is beset by the ghost of her legendary mother, Clarice (Sarah Gadon). But Agatha is on a quest for redemption – and even in this realm of the artificial, and the unearthly, she’s determined to find it, no matter what it takes.
“So crisply directed, furiously paced and gleefully performed that you go along for the ride.” -Jon Frosch, The Atlantic
“Hollywood has been disemboweling itself since… Sunset Boulevard and The Bad and the Beautiful, but those movies seem like Cream of Wheat compared to Cronenberg’s wicked vision.” -J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
“Moore delivers something remarkable here: a completely ego-free portrait of a woman who knows only ego.” -Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
Closed Captioning devices available!
111 MIN
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Director: Judd Apatow
Writer(s): Amy Schumer
Cast: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson
Since she was a little girl, it’s been drilled into Amy’s (Schumer) head by her rascal of a dad (Colin Quinn) that monogamy isn’t realistic. Now a magazine writer, Amy lives by that credo-enjoying what she feels is an uninhibited life free from stifling, boring romantic commitment-but in actuality, she’s kind of in a rut. When she finds herself starting to fall for the subject of the new article she’s writing, a charming and successful sports doctor named Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), Amy starts to wonder if other grown-ups, including this guy who really seems to like her, might be on to something.
Free preview screening. Tickets are first come first serve.
Closed captioning devices available
122 MIN
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Director: Desiree Akhavan
Writer(s): Desiree Akhavan
Cast: Desiree Akhavan, Rebecca Henderson, Scott Adsit
For the first time ever, the Athena Cinema will be revealing exclusive SNEAK PEEKS of feature films programmed for the 42nd Athens International Film + Video Festival, which takes place during April 3rd-9th.
For Shirin (Desiree Akhavan), being part of a perfect Persian family isn’t easy. Acceptance eludes her from all sides: her family doesn’t know she’s bisexual, and her ex-girlfriend, Maxine, can’t understand why she doesn’t tell them. Even the six-year-old boys in her moviemaking class are too ADD to focus on her for more than a second. Following a family announcement of her brother’s betrothal to a parentally approved Iranian prize catch, Shirin embarks on a private rebellion involving a series of pansexual escapades, while trying to decipher what went wrong with Maxine.
“Akhavan’s most effective resource as a storyteller is her own face, a sometimes Chaplinesque blend of farce and pathos. She is a big talent to watch.” -Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
“Akhavan’s confidently off-kilter approach to basic human interaction makes for an authentically ironic, adorably wistful, smartly observed ride.” -Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
90 MIN
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Director: Rok Bicek
Writer(s): Nejc Gazvoda, Rok Bicek, Janez Lapajne
Cast: Igor Samobor, Natasa Barbara Gracner, Tjasa Zeleznik
Language: Italian, German
For the first time ever, the Athena Cinema will be revealing exclusive SNEAK PEEKS of feature films programmed for the 42nd Athens International Film + Video Festival, which takes place during April 3rd-9th.
Relations between the students and the new teacher of German are extremely tense. When one female student commits suicide, her schoolmates blame the teacher for her death. An awareness that things are not quite so black and white comes too late. Based on true events.
“Bicek capitalizes on the differences in energy among the teens (carefully cast and rehearsed non-pros) and the adults (portrayed by professional thesps), to persuasive effect.” -Alissa Simon, Variety
“A Venice Critics’ Week premiere, the solidly acted Class Enemy has what it takes to worm its way into not only new filmmaker showcases but also general festival slates and possibly a few foreign theaters.” -Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
112 MIN
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Director: Madeleine Olnek
Writer(s): Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Madeleine Olnek
Cast: Gian Maria Annovi, Frances Bodomo, Diane Ciesla
For the first time ever, the Athena Cinema will be revealing exclusive SNEAK PEEKS of feature films programmed for the 42nd Athens International Film + Video Festival, which takes place during April 3rd-9th.
Margaret (Lisa Haas) is a down-on-her-luck lesbian hooker in training. She meets Jo (Jackie Monahan), a beautiful, self-assured grifter from a wealthy family and an expert on picking up women, even as she considers herself a card-carrying heterosexual. The duo hit the streets where they encounter bargain-hunting housewives, double-dealing conservative women, husky-voiced seductresses, mumbling erotic accessory salesmen and shopaholic swingers. Navigating the bizarre fetishes and sexual needs of their “dates” brings into focus the hilarious and pathetic disparity between the two hookers, as fellow travelers who will share the road together but only for a while.
“Merkins sends up both male-hustler movies (Midnight Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho in particular) and the upscale, conservative daughters of Gomorrah with unerring goofiness.” -Melissa Anderson, Artforum
“This spritely low-budget sex comedy is essentially a parody of Midnight Cowboy, but the humor is cleverly absurd and self-aware.” -Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader
81 MIN
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