This Week Features Two Cutting Edge Women Filmmakers
“Saint Frances,” - written by and starring Kelly O’Sullivan. The movie premiered at last year’s SXSW Film Festival and won the audience award in the narrative feature competition, as well as a special jury recognition for breakthrough voice. O’Sullivan (who makes her feature screenwriting debut while also leading the film, appearing in every scene), is a real find, the kind of “voice of a generation” talent who spends less time talking about her genius insight and more time simply delivering on it.
"Thousand Pieces of Gold" - Directed by Nancy Kelly, starring Rosalind Chao and Chris Cooper. Way ahead of its time, the film resonates even more powerfully today in the era of #MeToo. But Nancy Kelly became a victim of prejudice against women directors within the American film industry and was never offered another movie to direct in spite of extraordinary reviews from critics, some of whom compared her talent to that of John Ford. Rosalind Chao's performance is a wonder - the sort that, in a conventional Hollywood epic, would inspire Oscar speculation. It's quite a story.
Thank you for your support and enjoy the films!
**Technical Support: Every film released in our virtual cinema is available through the individual distributor’s websites and streaming services. The link to rent and view the film will take you to their website, but a portion of your virtual rental will help support the Sea View Theatre during this challenging time when their doors must remail closed to protect the community. If you are having technical issues, please read the FAQ or help tab on the distributor's website when you buy a ticket.
Flailing thirty-four-year-old Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan) finally catches a break when she meets a nice guy and lands a much-needed job nannying six-year-old Frances (played by a scene-stealing Ramona Edith-Williams). But an unwanted pregnancy introduces an unexpected complication. To make matters worse, she clashes with the obstinate Frances and struggles to navigate a growing tension between Frances’s moms. Amidst her tempestuous personal relationships, a reluctant friendship with Frances emerges, and Bridget contends with the inevitable joys and shit-shows of becoming a part of someone else’s family.
Set in a mining town in the 1880s, Thousand Pieces of Gold is based on the classic novel by Ruthanne Lum McCunn with a screenplay by award-winning filmmaker Anne Makepeace (Tribal Justice). Upon its release in 1990, the film won immediate acclaim for its portrayal of the real-life story of Lalu (Rosalind Chao), a young Chinese woman whose desperately poor parents sell her into slavery. She is trafficked to a nefarious saloonkeeper in Idaho's gold country. Eventually, Charlie (Chris Cooper), a man of different ilk, wins her in a poker game and slowly gains her trust. Way ahead of its time, the film resonates even more powerfully today in the era of #MeToo. Nancy Kelly became a victim of prejudice against women directors within the American film industry and was never offered another movie to direct in spite of extraordinary reviews from critics, some of whom compared her talent to that of John Ford.
On A Magical Night France | 2019 | Romantic Comedy | 86min
In this fantastical comedy about middle-age love and regret from writer-director Christophe Honoré, we meet Maria (Chiara Mastroianni), a woman with a wandering eye. After a heated argument with her husband of 20 years, she spends the night in room 212 of the hotel across the street from their home. There, she has a bird’s eye view of her apartment, her husband, and her marriage. In this comic romp, she confronts her past lovers and relationships on one magical night, fantasizing about the lives she could’ve lived and wondering if she’s made the right decisions.
Someone, Somewhere France | 2019 | Romantic Comedy | 110min
In this modern twist on the classic romantic comedy genre, warehouse employee Rémy (François Civil) and research assistant Mélanie (Ana Girardot) have never met, but they live parallel lives: they reside in neighboring apartment buildings, ride the same subway route, and are troubled by bouts of insomnia and depression. As they stumble through psychotherapy, dating apps, fainting spells, and family visits, the seemingly star-crossed duo orbit around each other but remain just out of reach. Director Cedric Klapisch spins a delicate “what-if” exploration of modern relationships that is funny and moving.
Antiquarian booksellers are part scholar, part detective, and part businessperson, and their personalities and knowledge are as broad as the material they handle. They also play an underappreciated yet essential role in preserving history. THE BOOKSELLERS takes viewers inside their small but fascinating world, populated by an assortment of obsessives, intellects, eccentrics and dreamers.
The art world is confronted with a sensational discovery -- a hundred years too late! How could it happen, that an artist who discovered abstract painting at the beginning of the 20th century remained largely unnoticed? Hilma af Klint's first abstract painting is dated 1906, four years before that of Vassily Kandinsky. Why was she ignored? This is the first film about her life and work. It investigates the role accorded to women in art history and asks why Hilma af Klint was scandalously denied the status of a pioneer of modern art. And how this recognition is now finally taking place. Today her exhibitions are attracting millions of people worldwide. The cinematic approach of her paintings reveals an artist who is seeking for meaning in life beyond the visible. Hilma af Klint's clairvoyant work developed a unique visual world and more than 25.000 pages of notes reveal a boundless thinking that led into an outstanding oeuvre. Her timeless paintings cross all conventional borders and resonate with our innermost feelings today.
A thriller-like true story of one of the most spectacular escapes of the 20th Century. BALLOON is based on the true events of one of the most daring escapes of the Cold War in which two families living in Communist East Germany sailed over the heavily fortified border in a homemade hot-air balloon.
Adapted from the eponymous novel by Leïla Slimani and based on a true story that took place in Manhattan, this psychological thriller stars the luminous actress Karin Viard as the seemingly perfect Mary Poppins nanny. She is an instant hit with both the kids and the parents... but appearances can be deceiving and even dangerous as her perfection gradually cracks into something much more disturbing.
In this heartfelt and uplifting dramedy based on the best selling novel by José Luis Sampedro, Brian Cox (HBO’s SUCCESSION) delivers a career-defining performance as Rory MacNeil, a rugged old Scotsman who reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island and travels to San Francisco to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son, Rory’s life will be transformed, just when he least expects it, through a newly found love for his baby grandson. Also starring JJ Feild, Thora Birch, Peter Coyote and Rosanna Arquette.
The Woman Who Loves Giraffes Canada | 2019 Documentary | 150min
In 1956, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees and seven years before Dian Fossey left to work with mountain gorillas, 23-year-old biologist Anne Innis Dagg made an unprecedented solo journey to South Africa to study giraffes in the wild. In The Woman Who Loves Giraffes Anne (now 86) retraces her steps, and with letters and stunning, original 16mm film footage offers an intimate window into her life as a young woman, juxtaposed with a first-hand look at the devastating reality that giraffes are facing today. Both the world’s first “giraffologist,” whose research findings ultimately became the foundation for many scientists following in her footsteps, and the species she loves have each experienced triumphs as well as setbacks. The Woman Who Loves Giraffes gives us a moving perspective on both.
The Best of Cat Video Fest 2020
USA | 2020 Comedy | 45min
For the first time ever, CatVideoFest is available to screen virtually outside of theaters! Long time CatVideoFest curator extraordinaire Will Braden has crafted a 40-min “treat” of a reel specifically designed for home-viewing, which includes the very best videos from CVF’s illustrious history. The Best of CatVideoFest is being offered on a sliding scale with 75% of the proceeds going to support The Sea View Theatre. The suggested ticket price is $7.50 BUT you can pay as little as .99 cents or as much as $100 or even more to support The Sea View.
Todd is a hyper-articulate, obsessive-compulsive gay twentysomething whose fear of dying alone leads him to a baffling conclusion: he might not be gay after all. When he meets Rory, a whip-smart struggling actress with her own set of insecurities, the two forge a relationship that’s all talk and no sex. Writer-Director-Star James Sweeney delivers a razor-sharp rom-com that’s equal parts Classical Hollywood and distinctly 21st century, exploring just how elastic our definitions of love and sexuality can get.
Orcas Island Film Festival 2019 Vanguard Award Winner. A passionate coming-of age tale set amidst the conservative confines of modern Tbilisi, Georgia, AND THEN WE DANCED follows Merab, a competitive dancer who is thrown off balance by the arrival of Irakli, a fellow male dancer with a rebellious streak. Official Academy Award Subission for Best International Film, Sweden.
Set in the aftermath of World War II, this dazzling, richly burnished and harrowing film centers on two women who are each scarred by war trauma. As the film begins, Iya works as a nurse in a shell-shocked hospital. A shocking accident brings the two women closer and also seals their fates. Russian director Kantemir Balagov won the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard Section. Official Academy Award Submission from Russia for Best International Film.
The 1981 Academy Award-winning Best Foreign Language Film MEPHISTO, by Hungarian master István Szabó, concerns a passionate but struggling actor (Klaus Maria Brandauer) who remains in Germany during the Nazi regime and reaps the rewards of this Faustian pact by finally achieving the stardom he has long craved. Sparkling new 4K restoration.
Sorry We Missed You United Kingdom | 2019 | 101min
The British working class is once again the empathetic subject of renowned filmmaker Ken Loach’s SORRY WE MISSED YOU, an absorbing, intimate family drama that exposes the dark side of the so-called “gig economy”.
