This week at Maine cinemas: Mar. 7–Mar. 13
Sean Baker + Oscar Winners Playing in Maine + Bong Joon-ho, Cabin Fever FF, 55 Days at Peking on 16mm
“So, we’re all here tonight and watching this broadcast because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater. Watching a film in the theater, with an audience, is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, scream in fright together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together, and in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal you simply don’t get at home. And right now the theater going experience is under threat. Movie theaters, especially independently owned theaters are struggling, and it’s up to us to support them. During the pandemic, we lost nearly 1,000 screens in the US, and we continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture. This is my battle cry. Filmmakers: keep making films for the big screen. I know I will. Distributors: please focus first and foremost on the theatrical releases of your films. Neon did that for me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Parents: introduce your children to feature films in movie theaters, and you’ll be molding the next generation of movie lovers and filmmakers. And for all of us, when we can, please watch movies in the theater and let’s keep the great tradition of the movie going experience alive and well. And one last thing, my mother introduced me to cinema at five years old. Today is also her birthday. Happy birthday mom. I love you. Thank you for everything. And…this is for you!” - Sean Baker, Acceptance Speech at the Academy Awards for Best Director
TL;DR watch movies in the theater. And speaking of Sean Baker, his film and other Oscar winners are still playing in Maine. Anora, Flow, and No Other Land can be seen all around the Pine Tree State, and you can find the showtimes below.
Cabin Fever Film Fest
I enjoy a good film festival, and we do not get many of them in the winter in Maine. Points North is putting on a film festival to shake off those winter blues, with documentaries at the Camden Opera House all weekend long. Tickets and a summary of Sally are below, but you can buy tickets and passes to all the screenings by clicking the button below.
SALLY (2025)
Saturday, March 8 | Camden Opera House
Directed by Cristina Costantini, Sally focuses on Sally Ride's groundbreaking journey as the first American woman in space and her concealed deeply personal story. Her life partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, unveils their covert 27-year romance and its accompanying sacrifices.
ANORA (2024)
Friday, March 7 - Thursday, March 13 | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono and Various Venues
Anora, a young woman from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
FLOW (2024)
Friday, March 7 - Thursday, March 13 | The Nickelodeon, Portland
Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences.
NO OTHER LAND (2024)
March 8 - 9 | Maine Film Center, Waterville
Oscar winner for Best Documentary! For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel's occupation. Basel builds an unlikely alliance with Yuval, an Israeli journalist, and the pair work together to shed light on the brutal military occupation, while reconciling the inequality between them. Co-created by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists and filmmakers as a way to creatively battle Apartheid, No Other Land searches for equality and justice and exemplifies the importance of compassion, empathy, and humanity in one of Masafer Yatta's darkest hours.
55 Days at Peking (1963)
Wednesday, March 12 | Kinonik, Portland
55 Days at Peking dramatizes the Battle of Peking, a turning point of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. When Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi (Flora Robson) orders the Boxers, a group of Chinese secret societies, to massacre foreigners within China, a group of ambassadors, their families and staff hole up in a diplomatic compound. Major Matt Lewis of the United States Marine Corps (Charlton Heston) leads the defense while romancing Russian baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner).
Shown on 16mm.
MICKEY 17 (2025)
Friday, March 7 - March 13 | Various Venues
From director Bong Joon-ho and based on the book by Edward Ashton, Mickey 17 focuses on Mickey Barnes is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim.
Coming soon…
Waldo County Bounty: Feeding Tomorrow — Tuesday, March 25 at 6:30pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast
EEPHUS — Wednesday, March 26 at 7pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland | **director Carson Lund in attendance
L.A. in Film: Wildfire Relief Series — Throughout April | PMA Films, Portland
Mulholland Dr. (2001): Sunday, April 6 at 3 p.m.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985): Friday, April 18 at 6 p.m.
Sunset Boulevard (1950): Sunday, April 20 at 3 p.m.
Killer of Sheep (1977): Screening April 25-27 in a new 4K restoration.
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003): Saturday, April 26 at 3 p.m.
Murder on the Orient Express (1974) — Thursday, May 8 at 6pm | Alamo Theatre, Bucksport