Beat the Heat

During the summer the Athena Cinema presents BEAT THE HEAT. Every year, the summer series showcases children’s and family-friendly films on Saturday afternoons. Admission is a monetary donation to the chosen organization for that week. Get out of the heat and come enjoy the cool air conditioning, delicious concessions and the tradition of watching movies on the big screen! From international animations to nostalgic, classic family films, our series offers something for everyone.

Admission is a monetary donation to the chosen organization for that week.

The purpose of the series is to give back to the greater Athens community and area children’s organizations. The Athena also hopes to provide an affordable Uptown entertainment option and increase traffic to area businesses. Please come out and support our initiative, take advantage of local shopping and dining and enjoy a fun summer event with your friends and family.

These events have been moved to alternate locations due to the Athena’s closure for repairs. Please check each individual event page to find its location.

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Sponsored by Ohio University, Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, Athens County Children Services and Ohio University Credit Union. Additional partners include Athens County Public Libraries and Athens Community Arts, Parks & Recreation.

OU Family Weekend Movies

Bring your Mom, Dad, sister or brother to a movie at Athens’ historic theater. Established in 1915, the Athena Cinema is a great place to make memories with your family.

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Science on Screen®

Creative pairings of current, classic, cult, and documentary films with lively introductions by notable figures from the world of science, technology, and medicine.

Since 2012, the Athena Cinema has been proudly participating in Science on Screen. The series highlights unexpected connections between art and science and brings dynamic speakers to our stage. Our event pairing sci-fi favorite Soylent Green with Russ Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Gerri Botte, was even featured on Science Friday! You can listen to the episode here. Our events are fun and accessible to all audiences, no studying required!

Come see what the excitement is all about at the Athena Cinema’s next Science on Screen event. You can also check out our previous pairings in our listings below or on the official Science on Screen website here.

Science on Screen is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

 

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ELLE: Last Day Thursday, March 9th

Watch Trailer Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writer(s): Philippe Djian, David Birke
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny
Awards: 2017 GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER - Best Actress (Drama), Best Foreign Film

*This film is spoken in French with English subtitles.*

Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a leading video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes Michèle’s life forever. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game—a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.

“Rivetingly unpredictable, lurid, and black as pitch.” — Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, A.V. Club
“Audiences arriving for a lurid slab of arthouse exploitation will be taken off-guard by the complex, compassionate, often corrosively funny examination of unconventional desires that awaits them.” — Guy Lodge, Variety

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Running Time: 130 minutes130 MIN
R Rated

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Lois Weber Restoration: THE DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI

Director: Lois Weber
Writer(s): Germain Delavigne, Eugène Scribe, Lois Weber
Cast: Anna Pavlova, Rupert Julian, Wadsworth Harris

Introduction by Amy Heller & Dennis Doros, co-founders of Milestone Films. Amy and Dennis will discuss the restoration and amazing career of one of the earliest women filmmakers.

The Dumb Girl of Portici is a previously unseen film long overdue for recognition as one of Weber’s finest creations and a landmark in women’s cinema. The production was one of Universal’s most expensive to date and featured an enormous cast, many large-scale sets, and an ambitious story. It was the first blockbuster ever directed by a woman — and arguably the only epic shot by a woman in the 20th century. (2K DCP)

In the early 20th century, no woman had greater worldwide fame than ballet dancer and choreographer Anna Pavlova. Unlike movie actresses, whose celebrity spread with the international distribution of their films, Pavlova’s renown had to be earned theater by theater, performance by performance. Her legendary art was, by its nature, ephemeral. Still, no one traveled farther or worked harder than this slight daughter of a Russian laundress.

Acting as star, choreographer, producer, and boss of a large dance company constantly touring the globe, Pavlova was a consummate artist and a canny businesswoman. A generation marveled and cherished the memory of her scintillating brilliance on stage. The restoration of The Dumb Girl of Portici — with the dazzling new score by dance and silent film composer John Sweeney — will give today’s audiences a chance to experience the energy, the expressive face, and the grace of the great Pavlova.

About Milestone Film and Video:

“They care and they love movies.”— Martin Scorsese

“Milestone Film & Video is an art-film distributor that has released some of the most distinguished new movies (along with seldom -seen vintage movie classics) of the past decade.”

—Stephen Holden, New York Times

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Running Time: 115 minutes115 MIN

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I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO: Last Day Thursday, March 9th

Watch Trailer Director: Raoul Peck
Writer(s): James Baldwin, Raoul Peck

In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript.

Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.

Baldwin’s words, Jackson’s reading and Peck’s elegant and scorching composition will resonate for years to come. — Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

While Peck’s work brims over with anger and horror, it is also a work of sweeping poetry. This story still isn’t pretty, but it’s delivered in a captivating and gorgeous manner. — Alonso Duralde, TheWrap

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Running Time: 93 minutes93 MIN
PG-13 Rated
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THE HANDMAIDEN: Last Day Thursday, February 23rd

Watch Trailer Director: Chan-wook Park
Writer(s): Seo-Kyung Chung, Chan-wook Park, Sarah Waters
Cast: Min-hee Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jin-woong Jo
Language: Korean, Japanese

*This film is spoken in Korean & Japanese with English Subtitles.*

A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her.

“Go see it. If you love cinema at all, go see it.” -Tom Long, Detroit News

“Chan-wook Park’s The Handmaiden is deliciously perverse, delightfully twisty, and unapologetically erotic.” -James Berardinelli, ReelViews

“You have, I promise, never seen a movie quite like Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden.” -Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

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Running Time: 144 minutes144 MIN
Not Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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JACKIE: Last Day Wednesday, March 1st

Watch Trailer Director: Pablo Larraín
Writer(s): Noah Oppenheim
Cast: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig

*CaptiView® Closed Caption, Assistive Listening, & Audio Description devices are available for this film. All showings on Mondays will feature Open Captions.

Jackie is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman). Jackie places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well.

“Chilean director Larraín’s status as the most daring and prodigious political filmmaker of his generation remains undimmed.” — Guy Lodge, Variety

“There’s a mesmeric intensity to Jackie that’s unlike any biopic of its kind, marked by a deliberate effort to narrow the scscope to one woman’s actions and reactions over the course of a few fraught days.” — Scott Tobias, NPR

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Running Time: 100 minutes100 MIN
R Rated

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WILSON

Watch Trailer Director: Craig Johnson
Writer(s): Daniel Clowes
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Sandy Oian, Shaun Brown

Woody Harrelson stars as Wilson, a lonely, neurotic and hilariously honest middle-aged misanthrope who reunites with his estranged wife (Laura Dern) and gets a shot at happiness when he learns he has a teenage daughter (Isabella Amara) he has never met.  In his uniquely outrageous and slightly twisted way, he sets out to connect with her.

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Running Time: 94 minutes94 MIN
R Rated

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THE SALESMAN

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Writer(s): Asghar Farhadi
Cast: Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini, Babak Karimi
Awards: 2017 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Language: Persian

After their old flat becomes damaged, Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti), a young couple living in Tehran, are forced to move into a new apartment. Eventually, an incident linked to the previous tenant of their new home dramatically changes the couple’s life.

It is by any measure a great film, a quiet, yet overwhelmingly intense production that forces us to recalibrate our notion of what suspenseful cinema can mean and do. — Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Asghar Farhadi, the writer and director, builds a solid and suspenseful plot out of ordinary incidents, and packs it with rich and resonant ideas. 
— A.O. Scott, The NY Times

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Running Time: 125 minutes125 MIN
PG-13 Rated

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