Paul Vecchiali, 1986, France, 92 min. New 2K Restoration!

Barely screened in North America outside of a small number of ‘80s festival appearances, Paul Vecchiali’s effortless ROSA LA ROSE has a kinetic flow that’s something to behold. On the streets of Paris, Rosa (Marianne Basler, VA SAVOIR) is the belle of Les Halles. With no shortage of clients, she’s beloved by her fellow working girls and spoiled by her pimp Gilbert (Jean Sorel, BELLE DE JOUR). For her, this is a charmed life – until her 20th birthday arrives. Across the floor, she locks eyes with a blue-collar worker who sees something deeper beyond her fun-loving façade. Shakespearean in its execution, Vecchiali’s vastly underseen drama explores class consciousness and female sexuality with startling precision.

Paul Vecchiali, 1986, France, 92 min. New 2K Restoration!

Barely screened in North America outside of a small number of ‘80s festival appearances, Paul Vecchiali’s effortless ROSA LA ROSE has a kinetic flow that’s something to behold. On the streets of Paris, Rosa (Marianne Basler, VA SAVOIR) is the belle of Les Halles. With no shortage of clients, she’s beloved by her fellow working girls and spoiled by her pimp Gilbert (Jean Sorel, BELLE DE JOUR). For her, this is a charmed life – until her 20th birthday arrives. Across the floor, she locks eyes with a blue-collar worker who sees something deeper beyond her fun-loving façade. Shakespearean in its execution, Vecchiali’s vastly underseen drama explores class consciousness and female sexuality with startling precision.

John Carney, 2006, Ireland, 86 min

A modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week in Dublin, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story. Starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

FREE SCREENING!

Jia Zhangke, 2002, China, 112 min

One of the first great films of the twenty-first century, Jia Zhangke’s third feature (and his first shot on digital) sets an arresting tale of disaffected youth against the backdrop of a changing China. Evoking the existential malaise of China’s so-called “birth control” generation—who came of age following the country’s one-child policy—UNKNOWN PLEASURES unfolds in a series of stunning, slow-burn long takes as it traces the relationship between an aimless teenage couple searching for meaning amid the detritus of Western pop culture.

FREE SCREENING!

Jia Zhangke, 1997, China, 108 min

One of cinema’s great debuts, this film by the generation-defining Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke is a searing first expression of his signature theme: the disillusionment of people left behind by a society modernizing at whiplash speed. Shot on 16 mm with nonprofessional actors and without state approval, Xiao Wu enfolds its critique within a subtly ironic study of a cocky, aimless pickpocket (Wang Hongwei) who, as those around him advance thanks to the opportunities of the new market economy, finds himself increasingly alienated. A budding relationship with a brothel worker (Hao Hongjian) seems to offer him a sense of meaning—but is it as illusory as the promises of capitalism? Already a master of the slow-burn long takes, minimalist framing, and meaningful silences that would become his trademarks, Jia fashions a quietly shattering portrait of humanitycaught in the jaws of globalization.

Plays August 29th to 31st! Director Timothy Stevens in attendance for post-screening Q&As all weekend!

Timothy Stevens, 2025, USA, 86 mins

The shocking story of one of the longest running goth clubs in the US and transgressive community of artists and misfits who call the Dallas TX club, The Church, their sanctuary.

Plays August 29th to 31st! Director Timothy Stevens in attendance for post-screening Q&As all weekend!

Timothy Stevens, 2025, USA, 86 mins

The shocking story of one of the longest running goth clubs in the US and transgressive community of artists and misfits who call the Dallas TX club, The Church, their sanctuary.

Plays August 29th to 31st! Director Timothy Stevens in attendance for post-screening Q&As all weekend!

Timothy Stevens, 2025, USA, 86 mins

The shocking story of one of the longest running goth clubs in the US and transgressive community of artists and misfits who call the Dallas TX club, The Church, their sanctuary.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1971, India, 122 min

Dr. Bhaskar Bannerjee (Amitabh Bachchan) struggles with his patients' suffering and the darkness and poverty he confronts daily in his native India. He treats a cancer patient, Anand Saigal (Rajesh Khanna), who upon learning of his impending death determines to use the time he has left to the absolute fullest. Bannarjee's experience with the patient leaves a profound impression on him, and so he writes a heartrending bestseller based on recorded interviews with Anand.

Tone Glow is excited to announce “Rotating Signals,” a program of 10 short films highlighting the contemporary landscape of Korean avant-garde film. The past few years have shown a renaissance in Korea’s local film scene, due in no small part to legendary filmmaker Lee Jangwook leading workshops at SPACE CELL in the early 2020s, which inspired younger filmmakers to create innovative works on 16mm. This would lead to the founding of different organizations, including Lothringen, who staged the ABBFF Festival in 2024, and Sorigrim, which has hosted numerous screenings since their founding last year.

Notably, the latter is a venue for this year’s EXiS, the annual Korean experimental film festival currently spearheaded by Inhan Cho. Some of the films in this program have been shown at (or will show at) EXiS, while others represent the different strains of Korean filmmaking as it has been shaped by the different institutions and communities where directors attended and/or currently live. This event does not intend to showcase the entire breadth of the Korean experimental film scene today, but instead provide a snapshot during a crucial time in its history. All films will be shown digitally.

Program 1
1. A Dark Room (Heehyun Choi, 2025, 10 mins)
2. Spoken Word (Hyoin Kwak, 2023, 4 mins)
3. Rotating Signals (Chae Yu, 2025, 10 mins)
4. Shadow-Forest (Go-Eun Im, 2025, 28 mins)
5. Long Sand and Water (Hyeisoo Kim & Luuk Schröder, 2023, 5 mins)
TRT = 57 mins

Intermission (5 minutes)

Program 2
1. Bye, Snark, Boo-Jum! (Jiyong In, 2024, 8 mins)
2. Geomeunyeo (Kyujae Park, 2025, 3 mins)
3. Pyohaerok (Il-hwan, 2025, 14 mins)
4. Buseok (Kyujae Park, 2024, 18 mins)
5. Lord (Chul-woong Jang, 2024, 14 mins)
TRT = 57 mins

Featuring a live virtual Q&A with director Patrick McGuinn!

Patrick McGuinn, 1996, USA, 74 min

If the B-52s collaborated with Negativland on an alt-Earth version of STAR TREK, it would feel a lot like SUROH: ALIEN HITCHHIKER—a mixed media hallucination from filmmaker Patrick McGuinn. The story follows Paul (Peter Gingerich), a skeptic who embarks on a spiritual, emotional, and sexual metamorphosis with an extraterrestrial named Suroh. Awash in LSD-tinged visuals and a pulsing acid-house soundtrack, this is a beautiful synthesis of experimental video art and queer exploration.

Júlio Bressane, 2015, Brazil, 77 mins

Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ The Disinterested Killer Bill Harrigan, Garoto follows a young couple who find themselves in an enchanted place where they experience an amorous and spiritual adventure.

FREE SCREENING!

Dariush Mehrjui, 1998, Iran, 95 min

Mahmoud (Homayoun Ershadi) is a successful writer and intellectual who retreats to his family's rural estate in order to overcome a severe case of writer's block. While there, he begins to contemplate his life, comparing it to a pear tree in the yard that has stopped producing fruit. From there, the film chronicles Mahmoud's memories of the past, including his love for his adolescent cousin and his fervent hopes for the future.

DFW premiere! With post-screening virtual Q&A featuring director Charles Roxburgh and actor Matt Farley!

Charles Roxburgh, 2025, USA, 95 min

Set in the town of Medialight in New England, local resident Reggie (Chris Peterson) discovers a magic rock that allows him to stop time. He uses this for mundane purposes like beating his friends at chess, but all goes awry when he accidentally learns water can turn evil when time is stopped. These magic powers were well known to the ancient Pilgrims but have been forgotten. As evil puddles spread through the town, William (Matt Farley), and expert in Pilgrimic Studies Dr. Jeff Tessin (Kevin McGee) have to work to save humanity from this menace.

FREE SCREENING!

Dariush Mehrjui, 1969, Iran, 105 min.

This milestone of the Iranian New Wave portrays, with heartbreaking intensity, the themes of solitude and obsession in the story of a poor villager (unforgettably played by Ezzatolah Entezami) whose only source of joy and livelihood is his cow. When the cow is mysteriously killed one night, the metamorphosis begins. Based on short stories by psychiatrist Gholam-Hossein Sa’edi, The Cow was smuggled to the Venice Film Festival in defiance of an export ban, where it was almost immediately and internationally recognized as a masterpiece.

Roy Power, Adam Weiner, 2023, USA, 80 min

'ART DEALERS' is a unique hybrid-genre concert film starring the musician and rock 'n' roll performance artist Low Cut Connie, depicting a stunning 3-show run in 2022 New York City. The concert is set against 5 years of documentary footage that explores the struggle, frustrations, and humor of living a working class "art life" in modern America.

Govindan Aravindan, 1979, India, 90 min

Govindan Aravindan’s fourth feature is one of the great achievements of the Parallel Cinema, of which Aravindan was a key member—a movement which also included such masters as Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. A poetic work informed by folklore and early cinema alike, Kummatty tells the tale of a trickster “bogeyman” who descends upon a village in Malabar year after year, drawing children whom he transforms into animals through sorcery.

Post-screening virtual Q&A with author Will Sloan whose new book Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood, USA is out now via OR Books.

Ed Wood, USA, 1953, 65 min

“A rich amalgam of film noir, the manipulative authority of the medical profession, and the power of sexuality.” — Bright Lights Film Journal

Thoughtful, surreal, and daring, GLEN OR GLENDA is the infamous directorial debut from Ed Wood (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). Glen (played by Ed himself) has a secret which could destroy a happily-ever-after with his lady, for how can she handle another woman in Glen’s life? And what will she do when she finds out Glen is the other woman? And what in the world is Bela Lugosi going on about when he says, “PULL THE STRINGS?!” As we re-examine our cinematic past, GLEN OR GLENDA emerges as the world’s first trans-centric movie—though as it predates contemporary terminology, its characters are not technically definied within the movie as “trans." GLEN OR GLENDA is not only rock-solid history—it’s deeply touching as well.

Lina Wertmüller, 1975, Italy, 115 mins // FREE SCREENING!

In 1930s Italy, Pasqualino (Giancarlo Giannini), a low-level Sicilian thug, kills a man who disgraced his sister. Pasqualino pleads insanity and manages to escape imprisonment by joining the military, but he decides to go AWOL when things get too heavy. Unfortunately, he soon finds himself stuck in a concentration camp. There, Pasqualino vows to do anything in order to survive -- even if that means seducing an obese, female German camp commandant (Shirley Stoler) or ratting out his own pals.

Alphonse Puthren, 2015, India, 156 min

While a man's first love turns out to be a disappointment, a college lecturer, rekindles his love interest; his romantic journey takes him through several stages, helping him find his purpose

Black Alliance for Peace is hosting this screening that will also include a post-screening discussion afterwards. FREE SCREENING!

Juel Taylor, 2023, USA, 122 mins

A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.

Lina Wertmüller, 1972, Italy, 121 min // FREE SCREENING!

Mimi (Giancarlo Giannini) is a Sicilian dockworker who inadvertently becomes embroiled in an increasingly complicated array of personal conflicts. When he loses his job after voting against a Mafia kingpin in an allegedly secret election, Mimi leaves his wife to find new work. He moves to Turin, where he engages in an affair with a Communist organizer. Soon Mimi finds himself juggling two demanding relationships while plotting to take revenge against the corrupt forces that ruined his life.

Haydn Keenan, 1983, Australia, 94 min

Middle-class Karli (Tracy Mann, Hard Knocks), alcoholic Jane (Vera Plevnik, Monkey Grip), unemployed Jackie (Julie Barry, Hell Hole), and square Ellen (Moira MacLaine-Cross, Tender Hooks) are four friends living together and barely scraping by in suburban Sydney. But when Karli’s father offers her a little money and a one-way ticket to New York, she finally sees a way out of her dead-end life—that is, until the money goes missing, kickstarting a final night out on the town that none of them will ever forget. 

With a screenplay written by and based on the lives of two of its stars, performances from local Sydney bands Pel Mel and the Dynamic Hepnotics, and supporting appearances by a handful of beloved Ozploitation regulars—including David Argue (BMX Bandits) and Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max)—Haydn Keenan’s debut feature Going Down is an underseen landmark of Australian cinema and a vivid portrait of Sydney in the early 80s. Existing somewhere between Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens and Juliet Berto and Jean-Henri Roger’s Neige in its depictions of the thrills and dangers of urban life, Going Down is a visceral testament to friendship and making it at any cost.

Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1958, 101 min

Ingmar Bergman's The Magician (Ansiktet) is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow stars as Dr. Vogler, a nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test in Stockholm by the cruel, eminently rational royal medical adviser Dr. Vergérus. The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.

Sacha Guitry, France, 1936, 81 min

Considered Sacha Guitry’s masterpiece, this fleet, witty picaresque about a gambler and petty thief is a whimsical delight. Guitry himself stars as the tricheur looking back fondly on a life of crime, which he narrates with an effervescence matched by that of the film's skillful editing and cinematography. With its rapid storytelling and novel use of voice-over, The Story of a Cheat has influenced filmmakers from Orson Welles to François Truffaut.

Robert Bresson, France, 1983, 84 min

In his ruthlessly clear-eyed final film, French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigor to a new level of astringency. Transposing a Tolstoy novella to contemporary Paris, L’argent follows a counterfeit bill as it originates as a prop in a schoolboy prank, then circulates like a virus among the corrupt and the virtuous alike before landing with a young truck driver and leading him to incarceration and violence. With brutal economy, Bresson constructs his unforgiving vision of original sin out of starkly perceived details, rooting his characters in a dehumanizing material world that withholds any hope of transcendence.

Mani Ratnam, India, 1995, 141 min

A Hindu man and a Muslim woman fall in love in a small village and move to Mumbai, where they have two children. However, growing religious tensions and erupting riots threaten to tear the family apart.

Kinji Fukasaku, 1968, Japan, 86 min

“A master criminal, the Black Lizard (played by drag and cabaret legend Akihiro Miwa), plots a masterful kidnapping scheme in order to obtain that magnificent Star of Egypt jewels. That’s class, and wait until you see her psychedelic crime layer!

BLACK LIZARD is a gender-annihilating Diabolik-esque with eye-popping costumes and sets, based on a screenplay by Yukio Mishima, who appears as a human statue in the film, from a story by Rampo Edogawa!” — Church of Film