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Heroes In Color: BLACK DYNAMITE

Viewing: February 07,2025

Watch Trailer Director: Scott Sanders
Cast: Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, Salli Richardson

Join us Friday, February 7th at 7:00 p.m. as we kick off our Heroes In Color series with the explosively funny Black Dynamite!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

Screening will include pre-show trivia, a special cocktail, and more!

Seating and pre-show activities start at 7:00 p.m. and the film will start around 7:30 p.m.

About the film

When his brother is killed by a shadowy drug-dealing organization, Vietnam vet/CIA asset “Black Dynamite” hits the streets to avenge his brother’s murder and kung fu the city clean of the scourge of drugs. As he gets ever closer to the heart of the shadowy organization, BD soon realizes that the hands holding the puppet strings might just be connected to The Man…The Man in the Oval Office, that is!

Starring Michael Jai White (with a whole host of fantastic cameos from celebrities like Arsenio Hall), Black Dynamite is, well, pure dynamite. The film was made using Super 16 Kodak Color Reversal film stock to give it a grainy, high-contrast/saturated-color, low budget vibe that is beloved by any fan of the blaxploitation genre. Plus, director Scott Sanders used a “one take only” approach and permitted lots of fun imperfections to be left in the final film as a tip-of-the-hat to classic blaxploitation films of the past like Dolemite.

 

Click here to see the rest of our exciting Heroes In Color Film Series line-up

 

 

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Running Time: 84 MIN84 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Friday 02/077:00
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Let’s Do Lynch: WILD AT HEART

Viewing: February 11,2025

Watch Trailer Cast: Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Crispin Glover, Diane Ladd
Awards: Palm d'Or - Cannes Film Festival, Best Supporting Actress (nom) - Academy Awards

Join us Tuesday, February 11th at 7:00 p.m. as Let’s Do Lynch: A David Lynch Retrospective gets wild  with a steamy, edgy, and award-winning thrill-ride!

Admission $8

About the film

Outlaw “Sailor” Ripley has just been released from jail for killing a man with a knife. He is picked up by his lover, Lula, and the two embark on a whirlwind escapade when they decide on a whim to move to California. Little do they know that the man Sailor killed was actually hired to kill Sailor by Lula’s strange mother sought to end their relationship. As the passionate pair make their way to the coast, they are pursued both by law enforcement and underworld gangsters — each looking to put an end to Sailor.

Based on the novel by Barry Gifford, Wild at Heart is a sexy, violent thrill ride that Lynch once described as “finding love in Hell.” Like all of Lynch’s films, this movie features an exceptional ensemble cast, many of whom were nominated or won top awards for their performances.

Check out the rest of our exciting line-up of Let’s Do Lynch films

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Running Time: 125 MIN125 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Tuesday 02/117:00
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Heroes In Color: CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON

Viewing: February 14,2025

Watch Trailer Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen

On Friday, February 14th at 7:00 p.m., our Heroes In Color Series continues with one of the most-lauded non-English language films of all time – Ang Lee’s classic martial arts masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

Screening will include pre-show trivia, a special cocktail, and more!

Seating and pre-show activities start at 7:00 p.m. and the film will start around 7:30 p.m.

About the film

Set during the imperial Qing Dynasty of 19th century China, two lovers – sword-masters Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien – have kept secret their amorous feelings for one another out of loyalty to a mutual friend. Mu Bai gives his famed, centuries-old sword – “Green Desitny” – over to Shu Lien for safe-keeping as he has chosen to step down from the mantle of swordsman and live a quiet life. Mu Bai instructs Shu Lien to take the sword to Beijing and turn it over to his benefactor. The sword, however, is stolen and Shu Lien is tasked with investigating the theft and recovering the beloved weapon. As the hunt for the thief tightens, it becomes clear that the suspect is no common adversary — they appear to have been trained in Wudang, a special, ancient form of combat. Shu Lien and Mu Bai will have to use every ounce of skill they can muster in order to re-take the fabled blade.

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of those rare films where all the cinematic components are blended together seamlessly and harmoniously to give viewers an unforgettable experience.

 

Click here to see the rest of our exciting Heroes In Color Film Series line-up

 

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Running Time: 120 MIN120 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Friday 02/147:00
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Friends of India Present: THE LUNCHBOX

Viewing: February 15,2025

Watch Trailer Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur
Awards: Grand Rail d'Or - Cannes Film Festival

The Lunchbox…nicely captures the almost overwhelming crush and noise of contemporary India, and it plays cleverly and delicately with the tension of whether its two correspondents might eventually meet.” — Bob Mondello, NPR

About the film

The city of Mumbai’s lunchbox delivery system – a complexly-orchestrated system whereby hundreds of thousands hot lunches are delivered to workers all throughout the city every day – is well-known for its efficiency. However, in a rare mix-up, a lunchbox is accidentally delivered to the wrong person with the consequence of connecting two lonely people together in friendship.

Ila (played magnificently by Nimrat Kaur) is a housewife who seeks to rekindle the romance of a failing message by cooking delicious meals for her husband, including lovely notes in the meal tins, and having the food delivered to him at work. However, one of the meals is mistakenly delivered to Saajan (played by the late-great award-winning actor Irrfan Khan), a middle-aged widower who is unhappy in his work and his life. When Ila realizes the error, she reaches out to Saajan, thus initiating a back-and-forth correspondence between the two through which they discuss the details of their less-than-satisfied lives and wonder if they might be happier together instead. When a planned face-to-face meeting between them falls through, the fantasy is threatened. However, they may just end up together in the end.

 

All members of the Athens community are welcome – Admission is FREE but tickets are required.

Claim tickets in person at The Athena or by clicking the showtime link below.

“Friends of India” will provide Indian snacks and Chai during intermission.

To learn more about the Ohio University’s Friends of India Endowment visit their website here

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Running Time: 104 MIN104 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Saturday 02/151:00
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Let’s Do Lynch: TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME

Viewing: February 18,2025

Watch Trailer Cast: Sheryl Lee, David Bowie, Chris Isaak, Kiefer Sutherland, Harry Dean Stanton

Join us Tuesday, February 18th at 7:00 p.m. as Let’s Do Lynch: A David Lynch Retrospective pays a visit to the weirdest place in the Pacific Northwest!

Admission $8

About the film

When the series Twin Peaks premiered in 1990, it was without a doubt the strangest show to grace a television screen probably since Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, the series was an immediate hit, spawning a demand among fans for a deeper look into the strange world contained in the weird little town in the Pacific Northwest.

In Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Lynch reunites with most of the show’s original cast (and a few very special cameos) to give fans a look inside the events leading up to the tragic murder of troubled prom queen Laura Palmer, in addition to a in-depth account of the last seven days of Laura’s life.

By the time of the film’s release, fans has already learned the answer to the burning question “Who killed Laura Palmer..?“, but Lynch felt compelled to stay in the world of the series long enough to give Laura’s character a chance to live on screen for one last horrifying hurrah since she was already dead in the narrative of the TV show. The result is a much darker journey through the town of Twin Peaks and its inhabitants.

Check out the rest of our exciting line-up of Let’s Do Lynch films

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Running Time: 134 MIN134 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Tuesday 02/187:00
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Heroes In Color: BLADE II

Viewing: February 21,2025

Watch Trailer Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Ron Perlman, Kris Kristofferson, Norman Reedus

Join us Friday, February 21st at 7:00 p.m. for the frightfully good continuation of our Heroes In Color Series…Blade II!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

Screening will include pre-show trivia, a special cocktail, and more!

Seating and pre-show activities start at 7:00 p.m. and the film will start around 7:30 p.m.

About the film

Blade is back! The blood-drinking anti-hero from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still out there keeping the world safe from vampires. As he searches for his mentor who has been kidnapped and held prisoner by a gang of vampires, Blade discovers that a pandemic is spreading whereby the virus turns both humans and vampires into “Reapers”, a new menace with a higher degree of blood-thirstiness, a nastier bite, and an immunity to the usual weapons against vampirism. So, in order to combat this new threat, Blade has to team up with The Bloodpack – a group of elite vampire soldiers – who were once hired to assassinate him. When the virus infiltrates the newly-formed team, it’s anybody’s guess how Blade will handle himself when the threat of destruction is coming equally from without and within!

Directed by visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, Blade II is a thrilling (and sometimes stomach-turning) follow-up to the film that started it all.

 

Click here to see the rest of our exciting Heroes In Color Film Series line-up

 

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Running Time: 117 MIN117 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Friday 02/217:00
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Let’s Do Lynch: LOST HIGHWAY

Viewing: February 25,2025

Watch Trailer Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Loggia, Robert Blake

Join us Tuesday, February 25th at 7:00 p.m. for Let’s Do Lynch: A David Lynch Retrospective — we’ll be heading out on a road-trip into surrealist neo-noir!

Admission $8

About the film

“Dick Laurent is dead…” This mysterious message is transmitted over the house intercom of Fred Madison, an avant-garde saxophonist living in Los Angeles. The next day, his wife, Renee, finds a manilla envelope on the stoop that contains a VHS tape. The two sit and watch it only to discover that the video footage is of their house. Another tape arrives soon thereafter, this time showing a more intrusive view of the couple in bed asleep — a POV that could only be obtained by someone standing in their bedroom. To make matters worse, Fred has been having a dream wherein his wife is attacked by creepy assailant. When Fred later actually encounters the strange man at a party, he is revealed to be a friend of Dick Laurent. When a third tape arrives showing Renee dead and dismembered, Fred is falsely accused of the murder and thrown in jail. As if all of this wasn’t weird enough, Fred’s incarceration kicks off a chain of events that plumb the depths of David Lynch’s hallmark style of surreal story-telling!

Returning to themes similar to those explored in Blue Velvet, David Lynch once again deals with the “femme fatale” and the hero who inhabits a bleak landscape of distrust, violence, lust, and greed. What sets this film apart, however, is that the “hero” is not embodied by two characters who seem to share a connection not defined by normal reality.

Check out the rest of our exciting line-up of Let’s Do Lynch films

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Running Time: 134 MIN134 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Tuesday 02/257:00
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Heroes In Color: THE LAST DRAGON

Viewing: February 28,2025

Director: Michael Schultz
Cast: Taimak, Vanity, Julius Carry

Join us on Friday, February 28th at 7:00 p.m. as we present the final installment of our Heroes In Color Series – the kick-ass classic The Last Dragon!

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

Screening will include pre-show trivia, a special cocktail, and more!

Seating and pre-show activities start at 7:00 p.m. and the film will start around 7:30 p.m.

About the film

Leroy “Bruce Leeroy” Green embarks on a quest through the gritty streets of New York to complete his training and gain the level of martial arts mastery that will make him a true black belt like his hero Bruce Lee. When Sho’nuff, the self-proclaimed “Shogun of Harlem”, catches wind of Leroy’s abilities, he challenges the youth to a fight to see who will glow brightest as the baddest butt-kicker in town.

Released in 1985, this film broke with tradition by featuring a mostly-black cast in a kung-fu action movie. Additionally, it was produced by Motown’s head-honcho Barry Gordy and, as a result, boasts a soundtrack that includes the smooth sounds of artists like Debarge, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Rockwell, and Stevie Wonder. As much an action-packed martial arts extravaganza as it is a love letter to all things ’80s, The Last Dragon is a cult classic that you surely won’t want to miss!

 

Click here to see the rest of our exciting Heroes In Color Film Series line-up

 

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Running Time: 107 MIN107 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Friday 02/287:00
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Let’s Do Lynch: MULHOLLAND DRIVE

Viewing: March 04,2025

Watch Trailer Cast: Naomi Watts, Justin Theroux, Laura Harring, Robert Forster
Awards: Best Director (nom) - Academy Awards

Join us Tuesday, March 4th at 7:00 p.m. for another fantastic installment of Let’s Do Lynch: A David Lynch Retrospective — a brilliant film that peers into the shadows cast by the spotlights in Hollywood!

Admission $8

About the film

An attempted murder on Hollywood’s famed Mulholland Drive goes awry when a car crash kills the assailant and leaves the victim, a beautiful dark-haired woman, with amnesia. She wanders the streets of Los Angeles, unable to remember her own identity. She eventually finds her way into an apartment occupied by aspiring actress Betty Wells. The woman, after being discovered by Betty, claims falsely that her name is “Rita” – taking the name from a movie poster for the film Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth – and explains to Betty that she has amnesia and is in danger. From there, the two women embark on a journey to try and learn Rita’s true identity. As it turns out, Rita is actually an actress named Camilla Rhodes whose career trajectory has some very dark forces guiding it.

Considered one of David Lynch’s best films, Mulholland Drive earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director, as well as a win for the Best Director award at Cannes the year of the film’s release.

 

Check out the rest of our exciting line-up of Let’s Do Lynch films

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Running Time: 147 MIN147 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Tuesday 03/047:00
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From the Hills and Hollers: HEROIN(E) with Rebecca Robison-Miller

Viewing: March 06,2025

Watch Trailer Director: Elaine McMillion Sheldon

Appalachia has been hit incredibly hard by the terrible opioid epidemic that has ravaged America from coast to coast and from the urban heart of cities to the smallest of rural communities. Some even go so far as to say that an entire generation (maybe two) have been lost to death, incarceration, and traumas of various kinds.

In 2016 and 2017, filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon spent time in and around Huntington, West Virginia – where the effects of the opioid crisis are 10-times more impactful than the national average – and followed a host of community people who are engaged in the fight against the destructive power of heroin, prescription pills, and fentanyl; particularly, Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader who walks the frontlines with first-responders dealing with an unprecedented number of daily overdose crises.

Like Heroin(e), McMillion-Sheldon’s films (Recovery Boys, King Coal) are critically-acclaimed for their unflinching, yet compassionate, portraits of the real issues that define the Appalachia as told directly by the people at the heart of it all. As a native of the region, she is specially adept at telling the stories that need to be told, and proving that, no matter how dire things get, there is always hope for a better future.

About the Speaker

Rebecca Robison-Miller serves as the Senior Director of Community Relations for the Ohio University College of Health Sciences & Professions where she is also an instructor in the Department of Social & Public Health. Rebecca currently leads several initiatives around substance abuse disorder and health disparity for the college in partnership with a wide variety of community partners. Before coming to the university, Rebecca worked in social services and as the director of two local child advocacy non-profit organizations. She is a two-time graduate of Ohio University and involved with a number of local and statewide initiatives, boards and commissions. Rebecca is proud to have grown up in Athens and lives in the community with her husband and daughters.

Check out the rest of our films for the Appalachian Stories series

This series is sponsored by the Ohio Honors Program, University Libraries, College of Health Sciences and Professions, The Department of Social and Public Health, GO Local, University College, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Multicultural Center and The Black Student Cultural Programming Board, Center for Campus and Community Engagement, and The Women’s Center.

 

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Running Time: 39 MIN39 MIN
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible
Thursday 03/067:00
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