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Join us Friday, May 9th at 7:00 p.m. for a special event screening featuring the work of student filmmakers from Hocking College’s 2nd-Year Film & Video Production program!

We’re proud to host this special event celebrating the work of student filmmakers — and we’re especially thrilled to welcome the talented members of Hocking College’s Film & Video Production Program! Join us in honoring the creativity, passion, and hard work of these rising storytellers. The event will feature a series of short films created by Hocking College 2nd-year Film & Video Production students.

Admission is free and open to the public – Tickets are required

About the films and filmmakers

Unknown – Directed by Liam Morgan. Runtime: 5 min

Synopsis: When a student is dared to explore the school’s video archives, he discovers a tape labeled “Unknown.” What he finds is far more disturbing than he ever expected. This film is an Award Winning Short for OU’s 48 Hour Shootout.

Sleep – Directed by Cameron Cornelious. Runtime: 2 min

Synopsis: A man glimpses eerie visions of a future he may be powerless to change.

Samurai Town – Directed by Mark A. Minter. Runtime: 7 min

Synopsis: Samurai Town is a short documentary on Okazaki City in Japan and the community life of the owners, host family, and students of the Global Studies Cafe.

Breathe – Directed by Skye Farkas. Runtime: 3 min 30 sec

Synopsis: What begins as a pleasant evening for Leigh quickly spirals into a waking nightmare. As unsettling events unfold around her, confusion, anxiety, and terror take hold, trapping her in a relentless cycle she cannot escape.

Reincarnated  – Directed by Luke Fisher. Runtime: 8 min

Synopsis: While visiting home for a family gathering, a young man is forced to have a long overdue conversation with his father.

CTRL – Directed by Ellijah Sherrill. Runtime: 10 min 30 sec

Synopsis: One ordinary day slips into a fractured reality. Jason can’t leave, but he knows he shouldn’t stay. Is it just a nightmare—or something much more real?

One Shot – Directed by Luke Duncan. Runtime: 11 min 45 sec

Synopsis: A man named Duncan wakes up to a phone call telling him he’s in deep debt. He decides the best way to solve this problem is to risk it all in an underground casino.

Fatal Fortune – Directed by Hunter Purcell. Runtime: 16 min

Synopsis: A Vault Dweller wandering the wasteland to fix a broken Pip-Boy comes across an uncanny heist, involving some dangerous individuals and a large reward.

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Join us on Monday, May 19th at 7:00 p.m. as we help kick off Berry Day Week with a special event premiere screening of the latest episode of “Black Wall Street Athens”, presented by the Mt. Zion Black Cultural Center!

This event will also include a screening of Episode 1 of the “Black Wall Street Athens” series

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required*

*Tickets will be available in-person in The Athena lobby during normal business hours up to and during the evening of the event

Special Themed Cocktail (available all week):

“Berry Hotel Bramble”

West End CiderHouse Eleven Square Vodka, delicious blackberry syrup, fresh lime juice, a splash of club soda, garnished with mint and fresh berries

About the films

Black Wall Street Athens: Episode 2 is the latest installment in a three-part documentary series from the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center. This episode explores the legacy of the Albany Enterprise Academy—Ohio’s first Black-owned and operated school—and the lives it shaped, including Milton Holland and Olivia Davidson. It continues with the story of Ed and Mattie Berry, Black entrepreneurs and owners of the Hotel Berry in Athens. Together, these narratives reveal a powerful lineage of Black achievement in the region, set against a backdrop of ongoing architectural and historical erasure in the Appalachian Ohio River Valley. Directed by: Kingsley Lims Nyarko.

For more information about the Mt. Zion Black Cultural Center, Berry Day Week, and Black wall Street Athens, visit the Mt. Zion website below:

MtZionAthens.org

Special thanks to the following organizations for sponsoring this event: African American Community Fund, Waymakers Collective, and Athens Sunrise Rotary Club

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29 MIN

Join us on Saturday, May 31st at 3:00 p.m. for a special event screening of a thoughtful and timely documentary that demonstrates the crucial role that public libraries serve in our communities!

Admission is FREE and open to the public – Tickets are required*

*Tickets can be claimed in-person at the Athena lobby during our normal business hours

This screening will also include a Q&A panel discussion with ACPL Librarians after the film

About the film

Free for All: The Public Library tells the story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea happen. From the pioneering women behind the “Free Library Movement” to today’s librarians who service the public despite working in a contentious age of closures and book bans, meet those who created a civic institution where everything is free and the doors are open to all.

Special thanks to WOUB/Independent Lens and the Friends of the Athens County Public Libraries for sponsoring this event

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85 MIN

Join us on Tuesday, June 3rd at 6:00 p.m. to help us celebrate 110 amazing years as your local, uptown movie house with a special public reception paired with a screening of Cinema Paradiso!

Admission is only 10-cents …just like in 1915!

Public Reception: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Cinema Paradiso Start Time: 7:00 p.m.

The Athena Cinema invites all of Southeast Ohio to this once-in-a-lifetime celebration on the evening of June 3. In honor of its first screening, and in celebration of the historic occasion, tickets for Cinema Paradiso will be available to the public for just ten cents and will be preceded by a small reception.

The reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday June 3^rd, and will feature light refreshments, a toast to the historic event, and a chance for guests to share their most cherished memories of The Athena. Afterwards, the movie screening will begin at 7:00 p.m. Come join The Athena Cinema as it honors 110 years as Southeast Ohio’s premier arthouse theater.

Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1988 classic film Cinema Paradiso was chosen as the film to kick off the celebration because it is all about the joys and pleasures of movie-going, moviemaking, and projection. It’s a nostalgic, international film that shows how local theaters shape our lives, communities, and connections. Ultimately, it’s about how our local theaters bring people together through film, and is emblematic of The Athena Cinema’s core goal as Southeast Ohio’s premier arthouse theater: to show high-quality films that bring our community together.

About the film

Salvatore Di Vita, a famous Italian film director, learns of the unfortunate death of a man who served a very important role in life. Alfredo was the projectionist of the Cinema Paradiso, the movie house in the small, war-torn village where Salvatore grew up during WWII. The old man’s death prompts Salvatore not only to return to his village for the first time in 30 years, it also causes him to flashback to his childhood – a time when he first met Alfredo, discovered the magic of cinema, and was set upon the path that would define his life.

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124 MIN