March 27 Biutiful (Spain/Mexico, 2010)
The new film by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel), one of the undisputed masters of contemporary cinema, is driven by Javier Bardem's extraordinary performance that won him Best Actor Award at Cannes as well as Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nominations.
Biutiful is a tribute to a love between a father and his children. Bardem plays Uxbal, a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His livelihood is earned out of bounds, his sacrifices for his children know no bounds. Like life itself, this is a circular tale that ends where it begins. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the paternal guiding hand that navigates life's corridors, whether bright, bad - or biutiful.
On the surface there is only the callous selfishness and brutality of a dog-eat-dog world, alleviated by brief moments of tenderness and self-sacrifice - but hidden amongst the confusion there is the age-old journey of the immortal hero towards liberation. The film succeeds in creating something close to a modern myth - it is a sublime epic, and possibly the best film of the year by a long way. 147 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.

April 10 Alamar (Mexico, 2010)
Jorge has only a few weeks with his five-year-old son Natan before he leaves to live with his mother in Rome. Intent on teaching Natan about their Mayan heritage, Jorge takes him to the pristine Chinchorro Reef, and eases him into the rhythms of a fisherman's life. As the bond between father and son grows stronger, Natan learns to live in harmony with life above and below the surface of the sea.

"Alamar provides a nearly hypnotic immersion in the brilliantly aqua, impossibly tranquil Caribbean -- a Paradise Regained not just for Natan, but for everyone." (Village Voice)

"A deceptively simple but enchanting story about a father who bonds with his young son on the Mexican sea, accomplishes something quite complex: It provides a breathtaking sense of place, chronicles in intimate detail a way of life, and touches us with a relationship that develops naturally, right before our eyes" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Alamar is like ambrosia -- you will drink it in and feel divinely connected to nature and humanity. Winner of the Rotterdam and Miami International Film Festivals. 73 minutes.

April 28 Bill Cunningham New York (US/France, 2011)

The Jepson Center for the Arts
6:15 PM. $6, cash only

For decades, Bill Cunningham, the 80+ Schwinn-riding New York Times photographer and cultural anthropologist, has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.
Winner of several doc festival awards. 84 minutes.