Notes From The Program Director | Week of July 14th, 2023

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Notes From The Program Director

Week of July 14th, 2023

Melissa Tamminga

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Hello, friends!

Well, if you’ve been biding your time, waiting for the perfect moment to catch up with Asteroid Cityor Past Lives, it’s arrived! Both films will take their final bows on Thursday, July 20 before they leave our screens, making way for a “Barbenheimer” double-delight, two films that promise to be the biggest films of the summer and which require all of our screen space (more on those films in a moment). And as much as we are excited about our new films, having to say goodbye to Asteroid City and Past Lives before we are quite ready to is a stark reminder of what we lost when we lost the Limelight: an additional screen which gave us the ability to hang on to the films we loved, while also adding new films to the rotation. Happily, we do have our new space on Grand Ave. to look forward to, and I am already dreaming about how we are going to fill those three additional screens when The Grand opens!

Before the Barbenheimer weeks are upon us, however, I couldn’t resist adding one new film to the Past Lives and Asteroid City mix: It Ain’t Over, a new documentary about none other than the great Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra. It Ain’t Over is a film my Doctober co-programmers, Jane Julian, Michael Falter, and I had planned to include in our 2022 documentary festival. We all three adored it and were in immediate agreement about its Doctober inclusion. As sometimes happens with a wonderful documentary, however, It Ain’t Over got snapped up for theatrical distribution, and it was no longer available as a festival film; we’ve had to wait for its theatrical release. Happily, that moment has finally arrived. Described by the film as the "most overlooked superstar in the history of baseball," Yogi Berra was a man who, in a strange twist of fate, became almost more well-known for his Yogi-isms ("It ain't over til it's over," "When you come to a fork in the road, take it") than for his incredible skill in baseball. The film explores that fate--the relative lack of recognition of his prowess in the sport--while also offering a loving portrait of a man who by all accounts was a genuinely good person as well as being a superstar athlete with a delightfully quick wit. It's a warm hug of a film and absolutely perfect for the current summer baseball season. I only wish we could keep it around a bit longer: we’ll have it only one week, July 14-20, so be sure to stop by for a show while you can!

We also have some very special events this week, including the second and final showing of Good from our National Theater Live series playing Sunday, July 16, 11 am (see my newsletter from last week for more about that film) as well as the powerful documentary film Lyra. It’s always a pleasure to partner with our friends at CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival and celebrate women filmmakers, and so we are delighted to bring Lyra, sponsored by CASCADIA and directed by Alison Millar, to our screens this week. Through the lens of the continuing aftermath of “The Troubles,” the bloody ethno-nationalist conflict in Ireland that lasted 30 years, the film follows the story of Lyra McKee, a young investigative journalist who was killed by a stray bullet during a violent riot on the streets of Derry in 2019. As the CASCADIA newsletter noted this week, “Lyra McKee became a symbol for the generation that grew up after the peace agreement,” and the film is “an intimate examination of “post-conflict” Northern Ireland twenty-five years after the Good Friday Agreements.” As such, the film “seeks to make sense of McKee’s death and the significance it came to hold for the country . . . tell[ing] the story of a life fearlessly committed to truth and justice for forgotten crimes.” We are also pleased to partner on this screening, with the Bellingham Queer Collective and the Salish Current; Salish Currentpublisher, Amy Nelson, and managing editor, Mike Sato, will be leading a brief discussion after the film. It’s the kind of film that invites engagement and processing, and we are grateful to CASCADIA for arranging this discussion as a part of the event. The film plays on Tuesday, July 18, at 5:30 pm.

Finally, last, but most certainly not least--after all the memes have been memed, the pink glitter purchased, the biography American Prometheusread--the moment has at last arrived: maybe the most delightfully unlikely summer blockbuster pairing ever, Oppenheimer and Barbie, opening together on July 20 for their previews. It is a pairing that, when originally announced, was immediately and joyfully dubbed “Barbenheimer” by movie fans, and the question very quickly became, which film to see first?

We have on the one hand, a very serious film by Hollywood superstar director Christopher Nolan, a film detailing the life of Robert Oppenheimer and based on the Pulitzer Prize winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called “father of the atomic bomb,” the scientific genius who created an unfathomable destructive power. It’s a film that boasts an incredible cast, a veritable who’s who of Hollywood, and stars Cillian Murphy, one of the finest actors working today, who will, surely, give the performance of a lifetime and is already being tagged for an Oscar nomination. And, on the other hand, we have, from beloved indie-film writer-director Greta Gerwig, a buoyantly, unashamedly pink film, a film that from the very first teaser trailer -- a cheeky and hilariously clever riff on 2001: A Space Odyssey -- announced just how irreverent, playful, and just plain fun a film about a famous toy promised to be. It is also a film that has gathered together a phenomenal cast, from the sparkling Margot Robbie and perfectly cast Ryan Gosling, to a supporting crew including Helen Mirren, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Dua Lipa, America Ferrera, and Rhea Perlman.

There isn’t really a choice then, is there? From Barbie-pinks to apocalyptic biopics, we movie fans contain multitudes: we can see them both! And for the double-feature-hardy among us, on July 20, there’s a choice of Barbie at 5:30 and then Oppenheimer at 8:00, or Oppenheimer at 5:15 and then Barbie at 9:00.

And watch out for a glitter-tattoo station in the lobby, all ready for those who want to really put on some Barbie-fun, and look for the “vote for your favorite Nolan film” ballot table, too, for the opportunity to tell us which pre-OppenheimerChristopher Nolan film you want us to screen later this summer.

I’ll have more to say next week, when Barbie and Oppenheimer officially open on July 21, but in the meantime, friends, it’s here: Barbenheimer preview day is upon us.

See you on the other side!

Melissa