The 21st annual RiverRun International Film Festival takes place from April 4-14, 2019. Check this page regularly for updates on screenings that are selling fast, additional films that may be added to the lineup, and any other updates throughout the run of the event. We look forward to seeing you during the Festival!
The following preview has been approved for
Appropriate Audiences
By The RiverRun Film Festival of Winston-Salem, NC
April 16, 2019
RiverRun is a juried film festival, and our juries in five competition categories convened on Sunday morning for their deliberations and awards were announced on Sunday afternoon. RiverRun is an Academy Award-qualifying festival in the categories of Documentary Short Film and Animated Short Film. In addition, RiverRun audiences again voted for their favorite films during the 11-day Festival. See below for a complete list of all of the award-winning films from this year’s festival!
View MoreApril 11, 2019
Check this page for updates on films that are selling fast–and don’t forget that you can try the wait list when advance tickets are gone!
View MoreMarch 29, 2019
We’ve added a trio of great films to our schedule since launch and our first publications, so take a look at these new additions–The Tomorrow Man, C’est la Vie, and Olympic Dreams!
View MoreLupe is the complex story of Rafael, a Cuban immigrant and boxer struggling with their transgender identity while searching for their missing sister, Isabelle, in New York City’s underground sex industry. The unexpected appearance of a childhood confidant helps with the search, and a newfound friend provides much-needed emotional support in helping Rafael find their footing as a trans person in unfamiliar and unforgiving new environs. In an effort to present an authentic portrayal of the transgender community, the directors worked closely with supporting performer Celia Harrison and associate producer Kerry Michelle O’Brien, who both identify as transgender.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
While I Breathe, I Hope is a feature documentary film that explores what it means to be young, Black, and Democrat in the American South through the experiences of South Carolina politician Bakari Sellers. With an incredible intimacy, Harrold is able to capture a realistic picture of what it means to run a campaign and the toll it takes, especially when it seems the deck is stacked against you.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
On a cold winter night, estranged siblings Sarah and Aaron arrive in Poland with a singular mission: to fulfill their dying grandmother’s wish to bring home the bones of her childhood dog. They must face the challenges of an unfamiliar country and their own past turmoil to solve the mystery and give their grandmother what she most desires before it’s too late.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Virgílio lives a controlled and organized routine until one day he arrives home and listens to a disturbing message on his answering machine. It’s Clara, breaking up with him. The problem is not the break-up message but the fact he doesn’t have a clue who Clara is. His friends start to call to cheer him up. It seems everybody knew about his happy relationship–everyone except for him. Now Virgilio has only one choice: to find this mysterious woman. This nimble postmodern Brazilian rom-com, a co-production with Warner Brothers Studios, also features a cameo appearance from Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City fame.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Set in Kosovo during the early 1990s, Cold November trains its lens on Fadil, an archivist forced to make difficult choices for his family as the reality of Civil War looms ever larger in their daily life. With pressure coming from all sides, he must choose his allegiances carefully or risk losing everything in a political powder keg we've come to understand all too well in hindsight.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
China’s booming economy has increasingly allowed more of its young students to seek higher education in the West. Sensing this opportunity, an evangelical church in North Carolina tries to convert these “parachute students” to Christianity.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
McKenzie Chinn stars as a struggling artist navigating work and romance in the Windy City. When her boyfriend asks her to drop everything--including a hospital-bound mother--to move cross-country for a new job opportunity, she soon discovers that her biggest obstacle may be herself. Featuring quirky animation and a revelatory central performance, Olympia is a heartfelt story for anyone who’s ever felt adrift on the rough seas of adulthood. The film premiered in competition at the long-lived Los Angeles Film Festival last fall, and follows a young woman's experience at a critical point on the journey towards her own version of being a grown-up.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
With reality rapidly fraying at the edges, Aubrey finds herself following a string of clues left by her friend--in the form of an elaborate series of mixtapes. The clues promise to unlock the secrets of The Signal and could end up either saving the world or condemning it in this fantastical, musical journey into the unknown.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
The River and the Wall follows five friends on an immersive adventure as they set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment. As the wilderness gives way to the more populated and heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they come face to face with the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Sofia, 20, lives with her parents in Casablanca. Suffering from pregnancy denial, she finds herself breaking the law by giving birth to a baby out of wedlock. The hospital gives her 24 hours to provide them with the identification of the father before informing the authorities, sending Sofia on a gripping emotional journey against the backdrop of modern-day Morocco, where pre-marital sex is a criminal offense.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In this surreal thriller layered with dark humor, 7-year-old Chloe grows up in an abandoned house, dreaming of the world outside and what it might be like to have a mother. Chloe’s disturbed father (Emile Hirsch) warns that if she ever goes outside, the "bad guys” will get them both. When threatened by strange intruders, Chloe escapes and teams up with the mysterious Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern) on a journey of family, freedom, and revenge.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
From his humble beginnings at the Comedy Store, Jesus Trejo is relentless in his pursuit of stand-up stardom. driving hours for a three-minute open mic stint while meeting the heavy demands of caring for his aging parents. Undeterred, Trejo funnels his experiences into disarmingly funny material for his stand-up routine. With tenderness and humor, this film sheds light on the increasingly common reality many adults face as their parents grow older.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
You may not know Rudy Love's name, but you will almost certainly know his voice. Mick Fleetwood, Sinbad, and George Clinton unveil an unsung hero of soul in this investigation of a singer who turned down fame to make music with his family. Just when it seems all his music is lost, it shows up on the other side of the world.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Life is Fare is a formally daring and musically rapturous collage film exploring three perspectives of the Eritrean diaspora. We are introduced to Haile, a homesick cab driver who recently moved to San Francisco, along with a series of other Eritrean immigrants struggling to reconcile their newly forged American personas against the identities each left behind in their homeland.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Premiering to rapturous reviews in this year’s Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and with shades of Clouzot's classic The Wages of Fear, Ognjen Glavonić’s debut feature The Load is a taut suspense thriller. Set during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, the story follows Vlada, a truck driver, who is hired to undertake a treacherous journey across a war-torn country to deliver a mysterious cargo.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In 2015, Hassan Fazili’s documentary Peace in Afghanistan aired on Afghan television and soon after he found out there was a price on his head. Fearing for his family’s safety, they fled. Documenting the entire process on their cell phones, Fazili has created an incredible portrait of the lengths people will go to save their family.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Set in a small riverside town in North Carolina, two sad vandals and an unemployed loner form an unlikely friendship as they await a fabled rocket launch. Directed by UNCSA alum Saad Qureshi and featuring several other alums in key roles, the experimental narrative recently had a successful premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Violet (Elle Fanning) is a shy teenager who dreams of escaping her small town and pursuing her passion to sing. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a local singing competition that will test her integrity, talent and ambition. Driven by a pop-fueled soundtrack, Teen Spirit is a visceral and stylish spin on the Cinderella story.
Year: 2018
Rating: PG-13
Local interpreters were key to the US war effort, but now many face danger in their countries because of their affiliation. This is the story of how they are rebuilding their lives, told through a chain-smoking Iraqi codenamed "Phillip Morris," an Afghan called Malik who is still working as an active interpreter at the US base in Kabul, and Mujtaba who fled with his family as refugees to Turkey.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In 1973, five men and six women drifted across the Atlantic on a raft as part of a scientific experiment studying the sociology of violence, aggression and sexual attraction in human behavior. Through extraordinary archival material and a reunion of the surviving members on a full scale replica of the raft, this film tells the hidden story behind what has been described as "one of the strangest group experiments of all time."
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
You may not know Rudy Love's name, but you will almost certainly know his voice. Mick Fleetwood, Sinbad, and George Clinton unveil an unsung hero of soul in this investigation of a singer who turned down fame to make music with his family. Just when it seems all his music is lost, it shows up on the other side of the world.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
On a cold winter night, estranged siblings Sarah and Aaron arrive in Poland with a singular mission: to fulfill their dying grandmother’s wish to bring home the bones of her childhood dog. They must face the challenges of an unfamiliar country and their own past turmoil to solve the mystery and give their grandmother what she most desires before it’s too late.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
During the summer of 1990 in Chile, a small group of families live in an isolated community right below the Andes, building a new world away from urban excesses following the recent end of the dictatorship. In this time of change and reckoning, teenagers Sofía and Lucas, along with 10-year-old Clara, struggle with parents, first loves, and fears, as they prepare for a big New Year’s Eve party. They may live far from the dangers of the city, but not from those of mother nature.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Life is Fare is a formally daring and musically rapturous collage film exploring three perspectives of the Eritrean diaspora. We are introduced to Haile, a homesick cab driver who recently moved to San Francisco, along with a series of other Eritrean immigrants struggling to reconcile their newly forged American personas against the identities each left behind in their homeland.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Set in Kosovo during the early 1990s, Cold November trains its lens on Fadil, an archivist forced to make difficult choices for his family as the reality of Civil War looms ever larger in their daily life. With pressure coming from all sides, he must choose his allegiances carefully or risk losing everything in a political powder keg we've come to understand all too well in hindsight.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
McKenzie Chinn stars as a struggling artist navigating work and romance in the Windy City. When her boyfriend asks her to drop everything–including a hospital-bound mother–to move cross-country for a new job opportunity, she soon discovers that her biggest obstacle may be herself. Featuring quirky animation and a revelatory central performance, Olympia is a heartfelt story for anyone who’s ever felt adrift on the rough seas of adulthood. The film premiered in competition at the long-lived Los Angeles Film Festival last fall, and follows a young woman’s experience at a critical point on the journey towards her own version of being a grown-up.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Each year RiverRun presents our own version of Saturday Morning Cartoons to our young audiences. We search high and low for the best new animated shorts that we think will appeal to both children and adults alike. This year we have a wide array of films encompassing many different interesting animation techniques and stories. Our Saturday Morning Cartoons truly have a little something for all ages!
Year: 2019
Rating: FM
FREE EVENT: We are partnering with our neighbors in Elkin to highlight the great preservation work that was done on the Reeves Theater. Once a vibrant 700-seat movie theater the venue fell into disrepair until a group of local citizens decided to renovate it. We will screen the documentary Reeves: A Home for Music, which follows the artists and community leaders as they transform the now abandoned 1940s movie theater into a vibrant new music venue and event space, and then have a panel discussion with the filmmaker Michael Lippert and those involved in the renovation process.
Year: 2019
Rating: FM
Virgílio lives a controlled and organized routine until one day he arrives home and listens to a disturbing message on his answering machine. It’s Clara, breaking up with him. The problem is not the break-up message but the fact he doesn’t have a clue who Clara is. His friends start to call to cheer him up. It seems everybody knew about his happy relationship–everyone except for him. Now Virgilio has only one choice: to find this mysterious woman. This nimble postmodern Brazilian rom-com, a co-production with Warner Brothers Studios, also features a cameo appearance from Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City fame.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
We are excited to unveil a live, original score to the modern day classic No Country For Old Men, composed and performed by 1970s Film Stock (Eddie Garcia) with only a guitar and a small army of effects pedals. When a Vietnam veteran discovers $2 million in the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry, he absconds with the cash and sets off a violent chain reaction in this philosophical Texas tale from the Coen brothers.
Year: 2007
Rating: R
Films in this program of short works include: Behind Closed Doors, Bronzed, Dig Your Own Grave, A Handful of Dust, Information Superhighway, Meat Eater, Other Side of the Box, Sophie's Quinceañera, Torn, and We Are Totally Fine
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
**This is a special sensory friendly screening** Each year RiverRun presents our own version of Saturday Morning Cartoons to our young audiences. We search high and low for the best new animated shorts that we think will appeal to both children and adults alike. This year we have a wide array of films encompassing many different interesting animation techniques and stories. Our Saturday Morning Cartoons truly have a little something for all ages!
Year: 2019
Rating: FM
In this documentary shorts program we learn more about the people and organizations making a tremendous difference in our local community. This program includes the films Blind Adventure Camp, Calm Before...the Rising Storm, and Extraordinary People.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
While I Breathe, I Hope is a feature documentary film that explores what it means to be young, Black, and Democrat in the American South through the experiences of South Carolina politician Bakari Sellers.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Films in this program of short animated works include: Bavure, The Bird and the Whale, Cat Days, The Christmas Rabbit, Expend, Inanimate, Light Work, My Moon, and Solar Walk
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Set in a small riverside town in North Carolina, two sad vandals and an unemployed loner form an unlikely friendship as they await a fabled rocket launch. Directed by UNCSA alum Saad Qureshi and featuring several other alums in key roles, the experimental narrative recently had a successful premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Dave Burke is looking to hire two men to assist him in a bank raid: Earle Slater (Robert Ryan), a white ex-convict, and Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte), a black gambler. Both are reluctant but they eventually accept. However, Slater loathes and despises blacks, and the tensions in the gang rapidly mount.
Year: 1959
Rating: MT
China’s booming economy has increasingly allowed more of its young students to seek higher education in the West. Sensing this opportunity, an evangelical church in North Carolina tries to convert these “parachute students” to Christianity.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Films in this program of short narrative works include: All My Guardian Angels, Best Game Ever, Evelyn x Evelyn, The Field, The Little Fish and the Crocodile, The Minors, Nursery Rhymes, and Rehearsal
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short documentary works include: The Derby, Edgecombe, Forced, A Jew Walks into a Bar, My Grandfather's Memory Book, On the Bit, and Sandoval's Bullet
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
The tenements are home to an international community, including the friends and family of a tough young ragamuffin named Annie Rooney (Mary Pickford), but their neighborhood may be threatened by a dangerous street gang.
Year: 1925
Rating: TN
Olavi, an elderly art dealer disconnected from his family, is about to retire when an old painting by an unidentified artist catches his attention at an auction. Suspecting it is worth much more than its price, he sees the chance to make one last deal before closing up shop. To fulfill his dream, Olavi enlists the help of his estranged grandson in this charming new film from RiverRun alum Klaus Härö (Letters to Father Jacob).
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets an insomniac client with a problem he can't solve. Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones star in this offbeat, high-concept comedy, a standout at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Sofia, 20, lives with her parents in Casablanca. Suffering from pregnancy denial, she finds herself breaking the law by giving birth to a baby out of wedlock. The hospital gives her 24 hours to provide them with the identification of the father before informing the authorities, sending Sofia on a gripping emotional journey against the backdrop of modern-day Morocco, where pre-marital sex is a criminal offense.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
On a cold winter night, estranged siblings Sarah and Aaron arrive in Poland with a singular mission: to fulfill their dying grandmother’s wish to bring home the bones of her childhood dog. They must face the challenges of an unfamiliar country and their own past turmoil to solve the mystery and give their grandmother what she most desires before it’s too late.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Local interpreters were key to the US war effort, but now many face danger in their countries because of their affiliation. This is the story of how they are rebuilding their lives, told through a chain-smoking Iraqi codenamed "Phillip Morris," an Afghan called Malik who is still working as an active interpreter at the US base in Kabul, and Mujtaba who fled with his family as refugees to Turkey.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
The family-fractured lives of a stubborn auto-mechanic, a retired widower, and a repressed college student meaningfully intertwine at Palace, a watering hole in the rural Indiana town of Upland. At the bar, both the distinct divide and the common ground between the locals and the more transient student residents of the college in town come into clear focus. The film’s artful narrative structure, divided into three discrete movements that gradually harmonize as the story unfolds, holds dear to the adage that “every stranger has a story.”
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Olavi, an elderly art dealer disconnected from his family, is about to retire when an old painting by an unidentified artist catches his attention at an auction. Suspecting it is worth much more than its price, he sees the chance to make one last deal before closing up shop. To fulfill his dream, Olavi enlists the help of his estranged grandson in this charming new film from RiverRun alum Klaus Härö (Letters to Father Jacob).
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Celeste was Australia’s most beloved opera singer, yet she threw it all away to follow the man she loved to a crumbling property deep in the rainforests of far north Queensland. Now, ten years after his tragic death, Celeste is ready to make one final return to the stage. But when she asks her estranged stepson Jack for an impossible favour, the secrets that drove them apart will explode back into rhapsodic life.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Valentine is a young New York actor whose grandfather had a datsche, or summer garden house, just outside of Berlin. Valentine decides to spend a summer there, not knowing anything about gardening or local custom. Upon arriving, he encounters an unexpected houseguest and a nosy neighbor, both of whom bring unexpected drama and unexpected joy to his summer abroad.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
With reality rapidly fraying at the edges, Aubrey finds herself following a string of clues left by her friend--in the form of an elaborate series of mixtapes. The clues promise to unlock the secrets of The Signal and could end up either saving the world or condemning it in this fantastical, musical journey into the unknown.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Lupe is the complex story of Rafael, a Cuban immigrant and boxer struggling with their transgender identity while searching for their missing sister, Isabelle, in New York City’s underground sex industry. The unexpected appearance of a childhood confidant helps with the search, and a newfound friend provides much-needed emotional support in helping Rafael find their footing as a trans person in unfamiliar and unforgiving new environs. In an effort to present an authentic portrayal of the transgender community, the directors worked closely with supporting performer Celia Harrison and associate producer Kerry Michelle O’Brien, who both identify as transgender.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short documentary works include: 32°, As In Death, No Sanctuary, Peripheral Visions, Santuario, and Walker's
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short documentary works include: All You Can Carry, Class of '08, Frontier, Moondogs, Nobody But Myself, Pierre Poulet, Tropical Gardens, and Voyager Pen-15
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
This poignant film explores the close bond between guide dogs and their humans. Dealing with many different issues, the owners include an 86-year-old blind woman, a young veteran suffering from PTSD, and an autistic boy who explains how his loyal friend can tell when he’s upset. The questions is, is it love, loyalty or simply a working relationship?
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
From his humble beginnings at the Comedy Store, Jesus Trejo is relentless in his pursuit of stand-up stardom. driving hours for a three-minute open mic stint while meeting the heavy demands of caring for his aging parents. Undeterred, Trejo funnels his experiences into disarmingly funny material for his stand-up routine. With tenderness and humor, this film sheds light on the increasingly common reality many adults face as their parents grow older.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short narrative works include: Boccamazzo Construction: We Build "Walls", The Christmas Gift, Damage, Holy Moses, Mahalia Melts in the Rain, This is Your Cuba, Weaning, and Welcome to the Ball
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short documentary works include: El Desierto, Forgotten, The Grey Zone, Hamama and Caluna, Landing on Airwaves, and Teeth
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
The River and the Wall follows five friends on an immersive adventure as they set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment. As the wilderness gives way to the more populated and heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they come face to face with the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Stuck as the last of six children at home with an overbearing Italian mother, 34 year old socially awkward Bronx butcher Marty (Ernest Borgnine) faces middle age with no prospects of marriage and permanent bachelorhood. But when he is goaded by his mother into going to the Stardust Ballroom one Saturday night, Marty unexpectedly meets Clara, a lonely teacher. Suddenly, Marty's future seems bright.
Year: 1955
Rating: MT
Premiering to rapturous reviews in this year’s Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and with shades of Clouzot's classic The Wages of Fear, Ognjen Glavonić’s debut feature The Load is a taut suspense thriller. Set during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, the story follows Vlada, a truck driver, who is hired to undertake a treacherous journey across a war-torn country to deliver a mysterious cargo.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In this companion piece to our Spotlight: United Artists Centennial, Fanchon (Mary Pickford) lives in a forest with her eccentric grandmother who is suspected of being a witch. One day she rescues a boy from drowning and they fall in love, but Fanchon won't agree to marry him unless his father asks her. A year later the boy falls ill and only the presence of the enchanting Fanchon will restore his health. This very special restored film features a new commissioned score by Julian Ducatenzeiler and Andy Gladbach and is a folk and rock-tinged piece, largely guitar based, a far cry from the typical silent film score.
Year: 1915
Rating: TN
Films in this program of short animated works include: Anna, Buzzer, Five Minutes, Homesick, Monsters Walking, The Ostrich Politic, The Phantom 52, Sonolumin, Take Rabbit, Widdershins and Your Mother is a Thief!
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
In this uproarious French class comedy from acclaimed directing team Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano (The Intouchables), one happy couple are preparing for the biggest moment of their lives--their designer wedding in a beautiful 18th century castle on the outskirts of Paris. But it’s just another night for Max, from the catering company, Guy the photographer, James the singer, and the rest of the support staff working the event. We follow the posh occasion from start to finish, but predominantly through the eyes of those toiling behind the scenes. And by the looks of it, this promises be a night full of surprises.
Year: 2017
Rating: MT
Life is Fare is a formally daring and musically rapturous collage film exploring three perspectives of the Eritrean diaspora. We are introduced to Haile, a homesick cab driver who recently moved to San Francisco, along with a series of other Eritrean immigrants struggling to reconcile their newly forged American personas against the identities each left behind in their homeland.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Local interpreters were key to the US war effort, but now many face danger in their countries because of their affiliation. This is the story of how they are rebuilding their lives, told through a chain-smoking Iraqi codenamed "Phillip Morris," an Afghan called Malik who is still working as an active interpreter at the US base in Kabul, and Mujtaba who fled with his family as refugees to Turkey.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In 1973, five men and six women drifted across the Atlantic on a raft as part of a scientific experiment studying the sociology of violence, aggression and sexual attraction in human behavior. Through extraordinary archival material and a reunion of the surviving members on a full scale replica of the raft, this film tells the hidden story behind what has been described as "one of the strangest group experiments of all time."
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Valentine is a young New York actor whose grandfather had a datsche, or summer garden house, just outside of Berlin. Valentine decides to spend a summer there, not knowing anything about gardening or local custom. Upon arriving, he encounters an unexpected houseguest and a nosy neighbor, both of whom bring unexpected drama and unexpected joy to his summer abroad.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Set in Kosovo during the early 1990s, Cold November trains its lens on Fadil, an archivist forced to make difficult choices for his family as the reality of Civil War looms ever larger in their daily life. With pressure coming from all sides, he must choose his allegiances carefully or risk losing everything in a political powder keg we've come to understand all too well in hindsight.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
During the summer of 1990 in Chile, a small group of families live in an isolated community right below the Andes, building a new world away from urban excesses following the recent end of the dictatorship. In this time of change and reckoning, teenagers Sofía and Lucas, along with 10-year-old Clara, struggle with parents, first loves, and fears, as they prepare for a big New Year’s Eve party. They may live far from the dangers of the city, but not from those of mother nature.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Often referred to as the "pitch you want to do BEFORE an industry pitch," Peer Pitch is an opportunity for eight film teams to give their documentary pitches and trailers a test run in a safe and supportive environment among other filmmakers and film professionals. Those in the audience can provide feedback and also gain valuable insights that can guide their own filmmaking. Films that have been presented at past Peer Pitch programs across the country have included Love, Gilda; Let the Fire Burn, 112 Weddings, Slingshot, Deej, Decade of Fire, Big Sonia, Out in the Silence, Indivisible, and Uranium Drive-In.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
In 2015, Hassan Fazili’s documentary Peace in Afghanistan aired on Afghan television and soon after he found out there was a price on his head. Fearing for his family’s safety, they fled. Documenting the entire process on their cell phones, Fazili has created an incredible portrait of the lengths people will go to save their family.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Pamela B. Green's energetic film about pioneering female filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché is both a tribute and a detective story, tracing the circumstances by which this extraordinary artist faded from memory and the path toward her reclamation.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Claire Darling (Catherine Deneuve), currently suffering from dementia, believes the first day of summer will be the last day she lives and decides to sell all her belongings. Her estranged daughter, Marie (Chiara Mastroianni), returns home to try and stop the sale. The reunion is difficult and through flashbacks from both mother and daughter, we learn the story of Claire’s tragic and flamboyant life.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In this gripping chamber piece set in a secluded mountaintop home, a young single mother who was recently widowed sees her crippling anxiety triggered when she suspects that a curious electronics repairman has plans to kill her and her son.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Premiering to rapturous reviews in this year’s Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and with shades of Clouzot's classic The Wages of Fear, Ognjen Glavonić’s debut feature The Load is a taut suspense thriller. Set during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, the story follows Vlada, a truck driver, who is hired to undertake a treacherous journey across a war-torn country to deliver a mysterious cargo.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In this surreal thriller layered with dark humor, 7-year-old Chloe grows up in an abandoned house, dreaming of the world outside and what it might be like to have a mother. Chloe’s disturbed father (Emile Hirsch) warns that if she ever goes outside, the "bad guys” will get them both. When threatened by strange intruders, Chloe escapes and teams up with the mysterious Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern) on a journey of family, freedom, and revenge.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
The family-fractured lives of a stubborn auto-mechanic, a retired widower, and a repressed college student meaningfully intertwine at Palace, a watering hole in the rural Indiana town of Upland. At the bar, both the distinct divide and the common ground between the locals and the more transient student residents of the college in town come into clear focus. The film’s artful narrative structure, divided into three discrete movements that gradually harmonize as the story unfolds, holds dear to the adage that “every stranger has a story.”
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In 1973, five men and six women drifted across the Atlantic on a raft as part of a scientific experiment studying the sociology of violence, aggression and sexual attraction in human behavior. Through extraordinary archival material and a reunion of the surviving members on a full scale replica of the raft, this film tells the hidden story behind what has been described as "one of the strangest group experiments of all time."
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Kifaru follows the lives of two young, Kenyan recruits that join Ol Pejeta Conservancy's rhino caretaker unit--a small group of rangers that care for and protect Sudan, the last male northern white rhino. Spanning the caretakers first four years on the job, this observational film allows viewers to experience the joys and pitfalls of conservation firsthand and view extinction in real-time.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Shot with incredible handheld intimacy this difficult film highlights a young woman's struggles with love, war and motherhood over the span of five years in Syria. Capturing everything around her, Waad illustrates the difficulty of trying to stay in the land they love for her newborn daughter. *Warning: Difficult images of violence, war and death*
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Celeste was Australia’s most beloved opera singer, yet she threw it all away to follow the man she loved to a crumbling property deep in the rainforests of far north Queensland. Now, ten years after his tragic death, Celeste is ready to make one final return to the stage. But when she asks her estranged stepson Jack for an impossible favour, the secrets that drove them apart will explode back into rhapsodic life.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
An amateur photographer who works as a skycap at Salt Lake City Airport documents the disappearing way of life of Cuba's Campesino farmers, forging friendships and capturing dignity and sacrifice through his surprisingly intimate pictures.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Pamela B. Green's energetic film about pioneering female filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché is both a tribute and a detective story, tracing the circumstances by which this extraordinary artist faded from memory and the path toward her reclamation.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Memory Games offers a thrilling insight into the lives of four athletes from around the world as they compete for the title of World Memory Champion. Their unique approaches to memorizing and recalling mind-boggling amounts of information and their life stories form the basis for a visually stunning and thought-provoking documentary that looks at how memory permeates every aspect of our lives.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
In the highly exclusive Athlete Village at the Olympic Winter Games, Penelope (real-life Olympic runner Alexi Pappas), a young cross-country skier, befriends Ezra (Nick Kroll), a volunteer dentist, after a disappointing finish in her competition. Penelope and Ezra share a special but limited time together exploring the strange, wonderful bubble created to house and entertain athletes from all corners of the globe. Olympic Dreams is the first scripted film ever shot in an Athlete Village during the Olympic Games. This unique indie romantic comedy was shot by a one-person crew during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
In this deeply personal film about a global addiction epidemic, we follow a woman trying to keep her dreams alive in the face of much opposition. In a country offering almost no treatment services despite a crisis of addiction, Laila Haidari took the highly unusual decision to found her own pioneering addiction treatment center and a restaurant where all of the waiters are recovering heroin addicts.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
This poignant film explores the close bond between guide dogs and their humans. Dealing with many different issues, the owners include an 86-year-old blind woman, a young veteran suffering from PTSD, and an autistic boy who explains how his loyal friend can tell when he’s upset. The questions is, is it love, loyalty or simply a working relationship?
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Alice, a perfect wife and mother in modern-day France, has her life turned upside down when she discovers her husband is living a secret life. She is left abandoned with a child and is ruined financially. Her fight back leads her into a world of discovery, not only about her husband but also about herself.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Memory Games offers a thrilling insight into the lives of four athletes from around the world as they compete for the title of World Memory Champion. Their unique approaches to memorizing and recalling mind-boggling amounts of information and their life stories form the basis for a visually stunning and thought-provoking documentary that looks at how memory permeates every aspect of our lives.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
In an empty world, a solitary female mechanically follows the protocols of a factory hog farm. Her labors are sporadically punctuated by musical rhapsodies as she moves toward the impending end. In this operatic vision of the near future by Durham-based filmmaker Joshua Gibson, is it the end of the world, a program malfunction, or the beginning of a film?
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Alice, a perfect wife and mother in modern-day France, has her life turned upside down when she discovers her husband is living a secret life. She is left abandoned with a child and is ruined financially. Her fight back leads her into a world of discovery, not only about her husband but also about herself.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Valentine is a young New York actor whose grandfather had a datsche, or summer garden house, just outside of Berlin. Valentine decides to spend a summer there, not knowing anything about gardening or local custom. Upon arriving, he encounters an unexpected houseguest and a nosy neighbor, both of whom bring unexpected drama and unexpected joy to his summer abroad.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
For nearly three years, director Dina Khreino interviewed world-class mountain climbing athletes, listening to what compels them to leave behind families, friends, and everyday comforts to risk everything for a fleeting glimpse into the unknown. What she found was a tribe, a diverse group of professional adventurers and amateur philosophers forged by the ultimate test of body, mind, and spirit.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In this gripping chamber piece set in a secluded mountaintop home, a young single mother who was recently widowed sees her crippling anxiety triggered when she suspects that a curious electronics repairman has plans to kill her and her son.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Roger Willoughby (Rock Hudson) is the author of a best-selling fishing guide and considered an expert in the field; however, he actually is not a fisherman at all! This could be problematic when his employer enters him into a fishing competition organized by a sporting lodge press agent (Paula Prentiss).
Year: 1964
Rating: TN
Al Lewis (George Burns) and Willy Clark (Walter Matthau) are two legendary comedians who reluctantly agree to reunite for a television special in Neil Simon’s comedy. However, they really can’t stand each other which causes mayhem for Willy’s nephew (Richard Benjamin), a talent agent trying to make the comeback successful.
Year: 1975
Rating: PG
This collection of varied short films shows how many great films we get for young audiences. Made up of six short films, this program takes audiences on a wonderfully fun trip around the world. This program is being screened for area elementary aged students during the Festival.
Year: 2019
Rating: FM
Don't Get Trouble In Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops Story documents the journey of three African-Americans from the hip-hop generation who found a mentor in an 87-year-old fiddler, embraced and revived a nearly lost Black string band tradition, and took it to new heights, winning a Grammy in 2010.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
The widow of a Navy helicopter pilot killed in a 2014 training exercise spurs an investigation that uncovers a long history of institutional failings that led to her husband’s death. This poignant picture of a family’s tragedy is also a revelatory inquiry into the murky inner workings of the American defense establishment.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
The central theme of Miles Davis' life was his restless determination to break boundaries and live life on his own terms. Stanley Nelson's latest film uses archival photos, home movies shot by Miles and his colleagues, his manuscripts and original paintings, to explore the man behind the music and why he continues to be a relevant voice in today's world.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Kifaru follows the lives of two young, Kenyan recruits that join Ol Pejeta Conservancy's rhino caretaker unit--a small group of rangers that care for and protect Sudan, the last male northern white rhino. Spanning the caretakers first four years on the job, this observational film allows viewers to experience the joys and pitfalls of conservation firsthand and view extinction in real-time.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
In an empty world, a solitary female mechanically follows the protocols of a factory hog farm. Her labors are sporadically punctuated by musical rhapsodies as she moves toward the impending end. In this operatic vision of the near future by Durham-based filmmaker Joshua Gibson, is it the end of the world, a program malfunction, or the beginning of a film?
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
In this deeply personal film about a global addiction epidemic, we follow a woman trying to keep her dreams alive in the face of much opposition. In a country offering almost no treatment services despite a crisis of addiction, Laila Haidari took the highly unusual decision to found her own pioneering addiction treatment center and a restaurant where all of the waiters are recovering heroin addicts.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Alice, a perfect wife and mother in modern-day France, has her life turned upside down when she discovers her husband is living a secret life. She is left abandoned with a child and is ruined financially. Her fight back leads her into a world of discovery, not only about her husband but also about herself.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Shot with incredible handheld intimacy this difficult film highlights a young woman's struggles with love, war and motherhood over the span of five years in Syria. Capturing everything around her, Waad illustrates the difficulty of trying to stay in the land they love for her newborn daughter. *Warning: Difficult images of violence, war and death*
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
For nearly three years, director Dina Khreino interviewed world-class mountain climbing athletes, listening to what compels them to leave behind families, friends, and everyday comforts to risk everything for a fleeting glimpse into the unknown. What she found was a tribe, a diverse group of professional adventurers and amateur philosophers forged by the ultimate test of body, mind, and spirit.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Jerusalem-born trauma expert Ofra Bloch forces herself to confront her demons in a journey that takes her to Germany, Israel and Palestine. Set against the current wave of fascism and anti-Semitism sweeping the globe, Afterward delves into the secret wounds carried by victims as well as victimizers, through testimonies ranging from the horrifying to the hopeful.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
The widow of a Navy helicopter pilot killed in a 2014 training exercise spurs an investigation that uncovers a long history of institutional failings that led to her husband’s death. This poignant picture of a family’s tragedy is also a revelatory inquiry into the murky inner workings of the American defense establishment.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
An amateur photographer who works as a skycap at Salt Lake City Airport documents the disappearing way of life of Cuba's Campesino farmers, forging friendships and capturing dignity and sacrifice through his surprisingly intimate pictures.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
A man searches the lake for the monster that murdered his husband, while that monster falls in love with an unsuspecting visitor. Based on an ancient Slavic legend, this new film from NC native and RiverRun alum Perry Blackshear (They Look Like People) is a story of myth, passion, and revenge.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Don't Get Trouble In Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops Story documents the journey of three African-Americans from the hip-hop generation who found a mentor in an 87-year-old fiddler, embraced and revived a nearly lost Black string band tradition, and took it to new heights, winning a Grammy in 2010.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
With reality rapidly fraying at the edges, Aubrey finds herself following a string of clues left by her friend--in the form of an elaborate series of mixtapes. The clues promise to unlock the secrets of The Signal and could end up either saving the world or condemning it in this fantastical, musical journey into the unknown.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Celeste was Australia’s most beloved opera singer, yet she threw it all away to follow the man she loved to a crumbling property deep in the rainforests of far north Queensland. Now, ten years after his tragic death, Celeste is ready to make one final return to the stage. But when she asks her estranged stepson Jack for an impossible favour, the secrets that drove them apart will explode back into rhapsodic life.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
A real pregnancy is explored over nine months in this hybrid of fiction and reality, co-directed by and starring UNCSA School of Drama alum Nitzan Mager. A scientist in the midst of groundbreaking research is thrown into free-fall when she becomes pregnant with her late husband’s child and is suddenly confronted by the unknowable--absorbed into a realm of mystical female consciousness both terrifying and transcendent.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Competitive creative dog grooming is the most colorful competition in America and this film captures the hearts, minds and imaginations of the artists involved. Follow four champion groomers and their gorgeous, vibrant dogs through a year in the life on the technicolor competition circuit.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Kifaru follows the lives of two young, Kenyan recruits that join Ol Pejeta Conservancy's rhino caretaker unit--a small group of rangers that care for and protect Sudan, the last male northern white rhino. Spanning the caretakers first four years on the job, this observational film allows viewers to experience the joys and pitfalls of conservation firsthand and view extinction in real-time.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
This high-stakes legal drama focuses on Bei Bei Shuai, a depressed, pregnant Chinese immigrant who is put on trial for the murder of her unborn child after attempting suicide. The case captivates the nation as it sets a disturbing legal precedent for women who terminate their pregnancies whether intentionally or not, shining a light on the ongoing encroachment of women’s rights and the confluence of religious belief and medical practice.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Far-reaching and compassionate in its scope, Harvest Season probes the lives of the temporary laborers, permanent residents, and multigenerational Latinos connected to the production of premium wines in the Napa and Sonoma regions of Northern California--in the midst of one of the most dramatic grape harvests in recent memory.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Jerusalem-born trauma expert Ofra Bloch forces herself to confront her demons in a journey that takes her to Germany, Israel and Palestine. Set against the current wave of fascism and anti-Semitism sweeping the globe, Afterward delves into the secret wounds carried by victims as well as victimizers, through testimonies ranging from the horrifying to the hopeful.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In an effort to further promote the development of new filmmaking talent, RiverRun is again joining forces with a consortium of universities around the south to present our annual Pitch Fest. Student filmmakers, who were preselected by each school, will pitch their ideas for new documentaries to our panel of expert judges in the hopes of being awarded a cash prize and recognition within the industry. Following the competition, our judges will participate in a discussion about current trends in documentary filmmaking and their careers.
Year: 2019
Rating: TN
Join Festival guest Rachel Raney - Executive Producer of PBS’ documentary series Reel South - as she discusses Reel South’s commitment to showcasing independent documentary films about the American South and its history, people, culture and landscape. Highlighting the Southern tradition of storytelling, the series emphasizes the region's diverse voices and points of view.
Year: 2019
Rating: TN
Films in this program of short documentary works include: 32°, As In Death, No Sanctuary, Peripheral Visions, Santuario, and Walker's
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short documentary works include: All You Can Carry, Class of '08, Frontier, Moondogs, Nobody But Myself, Pierre Poulet, Tropical Gardens, and Voyager Pen-15
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
At 86 years old, Pennsylvania fisherman and educator Joe Humphreys continues to pass on the sport of fly fishing to anyone who wants to learn. Live the Stream follows Joe’s busy schedule for one year both on and off the stream: at his home, in his teachings, and on his never-ending quest for fish.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Olympia Dukakis has always defied expectations, eluding the limits of her heritage and gender to challenge standards and shatter precedent. Moving between past and present, Olympia lovingly captures the actress as she travels back to Greece, shares self-deprecating stories and reflects on her extraordinary career.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short animated works include: Bavure, The Bird and the Whale, Cat Days, The Christmas Rabbit, Expend, Inanimate, Light Work, My Moon, and Solar Walk
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
A man searches the lake for the monster that murdered his husband, while that monster falls in love with an unsuspecting visitor. Based on an ancient Slavic legend, this new film from NC native and RiverRun alum Perry Blackshear (They Look Like People) is a story of myth, passion, and revenge.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
The Glover family invites an indigenous activist group to start a protest camp on their land in West Texas. They call the camp Two Rivers and fight the same company that built the pipeline at Standing Rock. As several industrial projects threaten the region, their struggle reveals much about the colonial legacy of Texas, and how what happens in Texas has reverberations around the world.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
During the summer of 1990 in Chile, a small group of families live in an isolated community right below the Andes, building a new world away from urban excesses following the recent end of the dictatorship. In this time of change and reckoning, teenagers Sofía and Lucas, along with 10-year-old Clara, struggle with parents, first loves, and fears, as they prepare for a big New Year’s Eve party. They may live far from the dangers of the city, but not from those of mother nature.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In this first film of the incredibly successful franchise James Bond (Sean Connery), 007, is Britain's top agent and is on an exciting mission to solve the mysterious murder of a fellow agent. The task sends him to Jamaica, where he joins forces with Quarrel and a loyal CIA agent, Felix Leiter. While dodging tarantulas, "fire breathing dragons" and a trio of assassins known as the three blind mice, Bond meets up with the beautiful Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) and goes face to face with the evil Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman).
Year: 1962
Rating: PG
The family-fractured lives of a stubborn auto-mechanic, a retired widower, and a repressed college student meaningfully intertwine at Palace, a watering hole in the rural Indiana town of Upland. At the bar, both the distinct divide and the common ground between the locals and the more transient student residents of the college in town come into clear focus. The film’s artful narrative structure, divided into three discrete movements that gradually harmonize as the story unfolds, holds dear to the adage that “every stranger has a story.”
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Olympia Dukakis has always defied expectations, eluding the limits of her heritage and gender to challenge standards and shatter precedent. Moving between past and present, Olympia lovingly captures the actress as she travels back to Greece, shares self-deprecating stories and reflects on her extraordinary career.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
A real pregnancy is explored over nine months in this hybrid of fiction and reality, co-directed by and starring UNCSA School of Drama alum Nitzan Mager. A scientist in the midst of groundbreaking research is thrown into free-fall when she becomes pregnant with her late husband’s child and is suddenly confronted by the unknowable--absorbed into a realm of mystical female consciousness both terrifying and transcendent.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Two halves form a harmonious whole in this ingenious documentary-narrative hybrid film. In part one, Abby, a 20-something Brooklynite, prepares to throw an intimate dinner party, a meticulously planned evening that takes an unexpected turn when the guest of honor shows up and raw emotions rise to the surface. Then suddenly, we are whisked away to an altogether different reality--one that both deepens and challenges our understanding of what came before.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Jerusalem-born trauma expert Ofra Bloch forces herself to confront her demons in a journey that takes her to Germany, Israel and Palestine. Set against the current wave of fascism and anti-Semitism sweeping the globe, Afterward delves into the secret wounds carried by victims as well as victimizers, through testimonies ranging from the horrifying to the hopeful.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Float follows a struggling newcomer seeking glory in the world of competitive model aviation. Introverted pilots are passionately devoted to this elite, century-old sport, fighting to keep it alive. Ethereal airships hang weightlessly in cavernous halls above the pilot’s heads, holding their hopes and dreams on gossamer wings.
Year: 2019
Rating: TN
A freewheeling comedian determined to save her family business invites an uptight app developer on a road trip to sell a van with a complicated history. Romance ignites on their three day trip south, but is tested as they discover each other's secrets. When the van sale deteriorates, they must decide if their very new connection is worth more than a very old van.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Each year RiverRun presents our own version of Saturday Morning Cartoons to our young audiences. We search high and low for the best new animated shorts that we think will appeal to both children and adults alike. This year we have a wide array of films encompassing many different interesting animation techniques and stories. Our Saturday Morning Cartoons truly have a little something for all ages!
Year: 2019
Rating: FM
As part of RiverRun's lineup of FREE events for Family Day, Peppercorn Theatre at Kaleideum will present the short stage play The Navigators before the screening of Charlie Chaplin's The Rink.
Year: 2019
Rating: FM
Far-reaching and compassionate in its scope, Harvest Season probes the lives of the temporary laborers, permanent residents, and multigenerational Latinos connected to the production of premium wines in the Napa and Sonoma regions of Northern California--in the midst of one of the most dramatic grape harvests in recent memory.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Competitive creative dog grooming is the most colorful competition in America and this film captures the hearts, minds and imaginations of the artists involved. Follow four champion groomers and their gorgeous, vibrant dogs through a year in the life on the technicolor competition circuit.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short works include: Behind Closed Doors, Bronzed, Dig Your Own Grave, A Handful of Dust, Information Superhighway, Meat Eater, Other Side of the Box, Sophie's Quinceañera, Torn, and We Are Totally Fine
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Photographer Burk Uzzle’s singular vision and dedication led him from a small, homebuilt darkroom on his father’s porch in North Carolina into the company and guidance of the 20th Century's most important photographers. Though his contributions over a 60-plus year career are innumerable, this film finds its center in his contemporary portraiture work in Eastern North Carolina.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
The central theme of Miles Davis' life was his restless determination to break boundaries and live life on his own terms. Stanley Nelson's latest film uses archival photos, home movies shot by Miles and his colleagues, his manuscripts and original paintings, to explore the man behind the music and why he continues to be a relevant voice in today's world.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
The Glover family invites an indigenous activist group to start a protest camp on their land in West Texas. They call the camp Two Rivers and fight the same company that built the pipeline at Standing Rock. As several industrial projects threaten the region, their struggle reveals much about the colonial legacy of Texas, and how what happens in Texas has reverberations around the world.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short narrative works include: All My Guardian Angels, Best Game Ever, Evelyn x Evelyn, The Field, The Little Fish and the Crocodile, The Minors, Nursery Rhymes, and Rehearsal
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short documentary works include: El Desierto, Forgotten, The Grey Zone, Hamama and Caluna, Landing on Airwaves, and Teeth
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short documentary works include: The Derby, Edgecombe, Forced, A Jew Walks into a Bar, My Grandfather's Memory Book, On the Bit, and Sandoval's Bullet
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short animated works include: Anna, Buzzer, Five Minutes, Homesick, Monsters Walking, The Ostrich Politic, The Phantom 52, Sonolumin, Take Rabbit, Widdershins and Your Mother is a Thief!
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Films in this program of short narrative works include: Boccamazzo Construction: We Build "Walls", The Christmas Gift, Damage, Holy Moses, Mahalia Melts in the Rain, This is Your Cuba, Weaning, and Welcome to the Ball
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
In Saturn’s Rings is the first ever long form multiplane animation film in history. Made with over 7.5 million images from various explorations and narrated by LeVar Burton, the film takes you from the earliest images after the Big Bang to the final photographs Cassini took before plunging into Saturn’s clouds, moving audiences with amazing space images, some never before seen. This screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the director and others involved in the making of this one-of-a-kind film.
Year: 2019
Rating: TN
Detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is caught up in the racial tension of the South when he is arrested after the murder of a prominent businessman. The confusion is soon resolved but when local police chief Gillespie (Rod Steiger) learns that Tibbs is the Philadelphia PD's number one homicide expert, he reluctantly asks for his assistance. Though Tibbs' life is in danger he perseveres in a highly charged and racially explosive environment until the killer is found.
Year: 1967
Rating: MT
Under small town scrutiny, a withdrawn farmer's daughter forges an intimate friendship with a worldly but reckless new girl in 1960s Oklahoma. UNCSA School of Filmmaking alum Martha Stephens (Land Ho!, Pilgrim Song) returns to RiverRun with her quietly moving new feature, which recently premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
Join us at Bailey Park in the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter for a free outdoor screening of the United Artist classic children’s film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The event starts at 6:30 and the film begins at dark. Make sure to come early to take fun photos in Mobile Photo’s free photo booth, play interactive games and crafts with Kaplan Early Learning Company, and enjoy food and beverages for sale from Twin City Hive, Hoots Beer Company and our food truck partners. Swingset will provide live music – so come, hang out, socialize, eat and join us for a very special evening! Rain location: Inside Biotech Place
Year: 1968
Rating: G
In an empty world, a solitary female mechanically follows the protocols of a factory hog farm. Her labors are sporadically punctuated by musical rhapsodies as she moves toward the impending end. In this operatic vision of the near future by Durham-based filmmaker Joshua Gibson, is it the end of the world, a program malfunction, or the beginning of a film?
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Two halves form a harmonious whole in this ingenious documentary-narrative hybrid film. In part one, Abby, a 20-something Brooklynite, prepares to throw an intimate dinner party, a meticulously planned evening that takes an unexpected turn when the guest of honor shows up and raw emotions rise to the surface. Then suddenly, we are whisked away to an altogether different reality--one that both deepens and challenges our understanding of what came before.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
A freewheeling comedian determined to save her family business invites an uptight app developer on a road trip to sell a van with a complicated history. Romance ignites on their three day trip south, but is tested as they discover each other's secrets. When the van sale deteriorates, they must decide if their very new connection is worth more than a very old van.
Year: 2019
Rating: MT
This high-stakes legal drama focuses on Bei Bei Shuai, a depressed, pregnant Chinese immigrant who is put on trial for the murder of her unborn child after attempting suicide. The case captivates the nation as it sets a disturbing legal precedent for women who terminate their pregnancies whether intentionally or not, shining a light on the ongoing encroachment of women’s rights and the confluence of religious belief and medical practice.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
At 86 years old, Pennsylvania fisherman and educator Joe Humphreys continues to pass on the sport of fly fishing to anyone who wants to learn. Live the Stream follows Joe’s busy schedule for one year both on and off the stream: at his home, in his teachings, and on his never-ending quest for fish.
Year: 2018
Rating: TN
Photographer Burk Uzzle’s singular vision and dedication led him from a small, homebuilt darkroom on his father’s porch in North Carolina into the company and guidance of the 20th Century's most important photographers. Though his contributions over a 60-plus year career are innumerable, this film finds its center in his contemporary portraiture work in Eastern North Carolina.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
A real pregnancy is explored over nine months in this hybrid of fiction and reality, co-directed by and starring UNCSA School of Drama alum Nitzan Mager. A scientist in the midst of groundbreaking research is thrown into free-fall when she becomes pregnant with her late husband’s child and is suddenly confronted by the unknowable--absorbed into a realm of mystical female consciousness both terrifying and transcendent.
Year: 2018
Rating: MT
Float follows a struggling newcomer seeking glory in the world of competitive model aviation. Introverted pilots are passionately devoted to this elite, century-old sport, fighting to keep it alive. Ethereal airships hang weightlessly in cavernous halls above the pilot’s heads, holding their hopes and dreams on gossamer wings.
Year: 2019
Rating: TN
When Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro) steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he's a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he's a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his family's love, something always seems to come between them. Perhaps it's his violent bouts of paranoia and jealousy. This kind of rage helped make him a champ, but in real life, he winds up in the ring alone.
Year: 1980
Rating: R
Ed Hemsler spends his life preparing for a disaster that may never come. Ronnie Meisner spends her life shopping for things she may never use. In a small town somewhere in America, these two people will try to find love in their twilight years while trying not to get lost in each other's stuff. This touching romantic comedy, full of unexpected twists and turns, stars perennial standouts John Lithgow and Blythe Danner and is the debut feature from filmmaker Noble Jones, an accomplished music video director.
Year: 2019
Rating: PG-13
Steve Young, a Late Night comedy writer, stumbled upon some vintage records that opened the door to a hilarious, hidden world of entertainment. Bizarre cast recordings--marked "internal use only"--revealed full-throated, Broadway-style musical shows about some of the most recognizable corporations in America: General Electric, McDonald's, Ford, DuPont, and many more. The film includes insights from David Letterman, Chita Rivera, and Martin Short, among others.
Year: 2018
Rating: PG-13
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, RiverRun relies enormously on the generosity of the Winston-Salem and Piedmont Triad communities to present one of the premier international film festivals in the southeastern United States.
