Everybody’s favorite plumber-jumper gets a moment in the spotlight. The previous attempt to make The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the 1990s was an epic train wreck, but this one is animated and getting good buzz from audience, if not from critics. The all-star voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Seth Rogan, Fred Armisen, and Keegan-Michael Key, But will it escape the curse of video game adaptation? Spoiler alert: The princess is in another castle.
In 1984, Nike was a struggling athletic shoe company on the verge of bankruptcy. Then they struck sponsorship deal with a young basketball player named Michael Jordan. Ben Affleck returns to the director’s chair for Air, the origin story of modern sneaker culture, with Viola Davis as Jordan’s mother Deloris and Matt Damon as Nike exec Steve Vaccaro.
The winner of the 2023 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, A.V. Rockwell’s AThousand And One film is the story of a poor, Black single mother trying to raise her son in New York City. Triple threat Teyana Taylor stars in what is being called the performance of the year.
Come to John Wick: Chapter 4 for the great Keanu Reeves gun-fu-ing his way through hordes of assassins who disrespected his dog or something. Stay for the scene stealing turn by action movie legend Donnie Yen.
Nam June Paik was the first, and many say still the greatest, video artist. The Japanese-Korean had a strong connection with Memphis — his last commission, Vide-O-belisk was created for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. On Thursday, April 14, Crosstown Theater will host the Memphis premiere of a new biographical documentary about the trailblazer, Nam Jun Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV.
Snowglobe founding member Jeff Hulett continues his rich solo career with a new EP. “‘Rarely Last’ is about time more than anything else. The slipping away of time, wasting time, longing for simpler times, looking ahead to better times,” Hulett says.
For many, the pandemic gave us a visceral reminder that our time on Earth is limited. Hulett says “Rarely Last” is not about despair, but about the richness of life. “I’ve learned and realized slowly over time (see what I did there) that every year is hard, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Every year is also filled with joy and beautiful moments. People die, careers change, friendships grow, but whatever the case may be — good or bad — the moments rarely last.”
For the “Rarely Last” music video, director Jenny Myers foregrounds Hulett’s lyrics in a unique way. Running human figures transform into the font, and the background becomes more visually complex during the song’s instrumental passages. The resulting synergy between song and image is quite beautiful.
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Justice Smith, Sophie Lillis, Chris Pine, and Michelle Rodriguez in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. (Courtesy Paramount Pictures)
In the 50 years since Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s first gaming session in a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin basement, Dungeons & Dragons has gone from weird niche hobby to Satanic plot to widely influential pillar of popular culture. Game concepts like hit points, character classes, and alignment which underlie everything from Final Fantasy to Grand Theft Auto began with D&D. Now in its fifth edition, the game is more popular than ever; current owners Wizards of the Coast estimates there are more than 50 million players worldwide.
D&D has evolved over the years. Coming from the tradition of H.G. Wells’ Little Wars and military tabletop training exercises, Gygax and Arneson were mostly concerned with creating a set of rules for simulating medieval combat and magic. In 1980, The Straight Dope described D&D as “a game that combines the charm of a Pentagon briefing with the excitement of double-entry bookkeeping.”
But what most players found fascinating was creating characters and participating in derring-do. D&D 5E and other contemporary role playing games like Stars Without Number are primarily story creation engines. A typical D&D game in 2023 is equal parts improv theater and group problem-solving exercise — a game of craps with a plot.
Hugh Grant as Forge the Lord of Neverwinter. (Courtesy Paramount Pictures)
The setting that Gygax and company envisioned for their game was a mix of real details from the Middle Ages (Gygax had a peculiar obsession with halberds) and Romantic and fantasy literature from Ivanhoe to The Eternal Champion. Knights and kings rub shoulders with wizards and griffons. A part of the game’s appeal is that everyone can create their own fantasy stories, but in practice, the characters and plots created rarely rise to the majesty of Tolkien or exhibit the moral clarity of Le Guin. But so what? The important part is, you’re the one who gets to make the choices, reap the rewards, and suffer the consequences.
D&D was catapulted into the mainstream when Eliot played it in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, but four previous attempts to adapt it for the big screen (not to mention the beloved but terminally corny animated series) have been abject failures. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves avoids the traps its predecessors fell into by taking the source material as seriously as the average player takes their gaming sessions. In other words, it’s an action comedy.
Michelle Rodriguez and Chris Pine in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Courtesy Paramount Pictures)
Edgin (Chris Pine) is a bard who ditched his vows as a Harper to take a few levels as rogue after his wife was killed by vengeful Red Wizards of Thay. He finds crime pays better than heroism, and forms an adventuring party with the barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), the sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), and charismatic thief Forge (Hugh Grant in full camp mode). They meet the warlock Sofina (Daisy Head) in a tavern, who enlists them in her quest to burgle a Harper trove which she says contains a magic item that could bring Edgin’s wife back to life. Leaving daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) behind, Edgin leads the party into the vault, only to be betrayed and left to be captured.
Two years later, Holga and Edgin escape the slammer. Forge has parlayed his ill-gotten gains into the lordship of Neverwinter, with Sophina as his trusted advisor, and Kira his adoptive daughter. Instead of the family reunion they were expecting, Forge marks them for execution, so they’re on the run again. Such is the life of the freelance murder hobo.
Sophia Lillis as Doric the Druid. (Courtesy Paramount Pictures)
In true D&D fashion, each new obstacle in the party’s path leads to a mini-quest. To redeem himself with his daughter, Edgin must plan a new heist that will expose Forge as Sophina’s catspaw. To do that, he needs a magic helmet. To find out where the magic helmet is, he must speak with the dead. To do that, he needs his old friend Simon, the shapeshifting druid Doric (Sophia Lillis), and the paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). And so on.
The usual problem with adapting games into film is that there’s not enough plot to hang a story on (I’m looking at you, Angry Birds.) D&D is nothing but stories. Honor Among Thieves feels like something a dungeon master would cook up for a campaign. Directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who did the sleeper hit action comedy Game Night, understand that formulating an overly complex plan and then bickering about who messed up the plan is the real essence of the game. The action sequences are generally well done, and — with the exception of a bravado one-shot sequence where the shape-shifting Doric escapes from a castle —succinct. The magic duels are actually creative, not just wizards unimaginatively shooting lasers at each other like in so many Harry Potter movies. For longtime players, it’s thrilling to see Monster Manual entries like Displacer Beasts and Gelatinous Cubes come to life — proving that these classic creature designs are still superior to most modern Hollywood imaginings.
Pine, who has been great in everything for years, finally comes into his own as a movie star. The chemistry between him and his team ultimately elevate Honor Among Thieves. What the film most resembles is the low- to mid-budget fantasies of the 80s, like Willow,Ladyhawk, and Legend. Even for the uninitiated, it’s still good fun.
Michelle Rodriguez and Chris Pine in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Courtesy Paramount Pictures)
Break out your d20s and Mountain Dew, it’s D&D weekend at the movies.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the fourth attempt to adapt the mother of all role playing games for the big screen. With Chris Pine in the lead, supported by an ensemble who understand the assignment, it’s the first one that actually succeeds as a movie. DMs and PC everywhere will enjoy visiting Baldur’s Gate and thrill to the Displacer Beast cameo, but it’s broadly entertaining enough for the uninitiated.
But let’s say dragons ain’t your thing. In a perfect bit of counter-programming, this is also the weekend Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner A Thousand and One goes broad. (This is a very different “Grand Jury prize” from the one He Who Will Not Be Named just won.) Director A.V. Rockwell’s story of maternal love and systemic racism in New York City stars triple-threat Teyana Taylor (last seen opposite Eddie Murphy in Craig Brewer’s Coming 2 America) as a single mom struggling to stay out of prison and raise her son Terry, played at three different ages by three different actors. I’m issuing a Three-Hanky Cry alert for this one.
The Great Keanu continues to tear up the box office with John Wick: Chapter 4. Directed by ace stuntman Chad Stahelski, these films represent the pinnacle of action choreography. In fact, I would argue that they’re essentially dance movies, and place Reeves in the proud tradition of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly — but y’all ain’t ready for that conversation yet.
On Monday (April 3rd) at Studio on the Square, Indie Memphis brings the French film The Five Devils to the Bluff City. This wildly imaginative debut from director Léa Mysius looks incredible.
HEELS is back, and the folk-punk duo of drummer Josh McLane and Guitarist Brennan Whalen is pissed. As usual.
The platonic life partners are no strangers to Music Video Monday. “Last Man,” the new single from and second track on Pop Songs for a Dying Planet. “It’s about fury and being exhausted with pretty much everyone, and a warning about being in your own bubble,” says McLane.
For the video, McLane says “We asked Nathan Parten to make something simple, and he made another work of art for us.”
Parten is a popular Memphis tattoo artist and prolific animator who has created eye-popping videos for HEELS and Louise Page. His visual interpretation of “Last Man” will take your head clean off.
You can see HEELS this Friday at B-Side Memphis playing the “Freeloader” EP release party with Trash Goblin. Parton also did the artwork for Freeloader’s new record, so it’s gonna be a family affair.
If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Jacir is directed by Waheed AlQawasmi, an immigrant from the Middle East who landed in Memphis two decades ago. Set in the director’s adopted hometown, it arrives in theaters amidst a storm of controversy. A lawsuit by the film’s first producer Amy Williams alleges an abusive working environment on set, culminating in wrongful termination, and a number of financial improprieties. It’s never a good sign when the behind-the-scenes drama overshadows the story on the screen. If it’s any consolation to all those involved in the ongoing turmoil, at least it wasn’t for nothing. Jacir is an artistic success.
You probably know Memphis is a poor city, but how poor is it, in the big picture? Last Sunday, the New York Times published a story on the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. Writer Alissa J. Rubin notes that “About a quarter of Iraqis live at or below the poverty line, according to Iraq’s Planning Ministry.”
According to U of M’s 2021 Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet, 24.6 percent of the city’s adults and 39.6 percent of children live at or below the poverty level.
That’s right — Memphis, Tennessee, USA, is as poor as Iraq, the county we destroyed on a whim two decades ago. During the course of the invasion, and the eight-year occupation, the U.S. military killed approximately 80,000 enemy combatants and 200,000 civilians. ISIS formed to fill the power vacuum in the northwestern part of Iraq, sparking a series of conflicts that spread to Syria, where a multi-pronged civil war still occasionally flares up. Millions of people fleeing the fighting are now refugees, spread out across the world.
Tutweezy and Malik Rahbani in Jacir. (Credit: WAFilms)
In Jacir, Malik Rahbani stars as young man from the destroyed city of Aleppo, Syria, who fled the fighting and made it all the way to Memphis. His entire family is dead, and the former architecture student is now a dishwasher at a Middle Eastern restaurant run by the acerbic Adam (Tony Mehanna). He gets in the good graces of fellow kitchen staffer Jerome (Tutweezy) by telling him Adam is calling him the n-word in Arabic.
When Jacir walks through the urban blight of South Memphis, with gunfire echoing in the distance, he can’t help but be reminded of the bombed-out streets of Aleppo, and wonders if he has come to “a worse shithole.” As he stares at pictures of his dead family on his cracked smartphone screen and plays Al Kapone on his scavenged stereo, he hears anti-immigrant Fox News rants coming through the walls. His neighbor Meryl (Lorraine Bracco) is a disabled retiree who has given up on life. “I like drinking by myself now,” she tells her last friend who tries to coax her back to the land of the living. Instead, she chooses to soothe her pain with racist grievance and oxycontin.
Lorraine Bracco in Jacir. (Credit WAFilms)
Raised in a tradition of kindness towards strangers, Jacir wants to help his neighbor, to prove that he’s a nice guy, not a dirty animal. But she pushes back, continually insulting him even after he saves her from a burglary. Jacir’s immigration officer (Mark Jeffrey Miller) is not happy about his charge showing up on police reports, no matter what the reason. He threatens Jacir with deportation, even though he has no place to go.
What Jacir, Jerome, and Meryl all have in common is that they are members of the disposable class that their governments and economic systems have tossed on the trash heap. Their challenge is to figure out how to carve out space for themselves while learning to accept the humanity of their fellow strugglers. They want to live, to create, to pursue happiness in their own way, but whether it’s Fallujah or Allepo or Memphis, they’re all in the same place.
These are well-trod roads. Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, with its restaurant setting and casually racist owner, is a clear inspiration. Tutweezy’s aspiring rapper is right out of Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow, and AlQawasmi indulges in Brewer-esque montages for several character beats. The cinematography by Memphis lenser Ryan Earl Parker is excellent at evoking both the bleakness of the impoverished settings and the city’s unpredictable bursts of beauty.
But it’s the performances that really make Jacir. Rahbani, who looks like John Cusack by way of Beirut, goes from wide-eyed vulnerability to flinty cynicism while holding on to the human core of his character. Bracco brings out the pain, confusion, and denial behind the devotion of many Trumpist cultists. Miller, Tutweezy, and Leila Almas Rose as Adam’s sympathetic daughter Nadia all deliver solid turns.
Jacir’s jacket. (Credit: WAFilms)
There is a long tradition in art of the enfant terrible, the troubled visionary whose rages and cruelty go hand in hand with their undeniable talent. Some see Welles’ tantrums, Hitchcock’s misogyny, Goddard’s abusiveness, Polanski, and Singer’s sex crimes as part of a package with their brilliance. In fact, these great men — and notice, they’re all men — were held back by their bad behavior. Their films succeeded in spite of, not because of, the rampant assholery. They were saved by crews who knew how to behave professionally, even when their leaders failed to. The days of John Ford slugging whiskey while directing a cavalry charge are over, mostly thanks to crews who refuse to put up with it in the wake of #MeToo and several recent high-profile on-set fatalities. In this case, it’s a real shame, because Jacir is a legitimately remarkable achievement, both in artistic and business terms. Is that what it will be remembered for?
I’m just going to come out and say it: The superhero movies made by DC Studios and Warner Brothers have been awful. Officially beginning with Suicide Squad in 2016, the 12 films have ranged from tedious to unwatchable. The only decent one is 2017’s Wonder Woman, which succeeds on the strength of the pitch-perfect performance by Gal Gadot in the leading role. Now, with the release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the DC franchise machine finds itself in a strange position: Its down-market product is better than its marquee product.
Shazam has always been a fascinating also-ran in comic book history. The character was created by Fawcett Comics in early 1939, only months after Superman made his debut. Captain Marvel, as he was originally called, was the star of best-selling superhero comic books of the 1940s. Then, National Comics sued for copyright infringement, and by the mid-’50s, they owned Captain Marvel and rebranded as DC Comics — which became a real sticking point between them and their rival, Marvel comics, who had their own Captain Marvel. Long story and many billable legal hours later, the original Captain Marvel is now known by his catchphrase Shazam and played by Zachary Levi, and the Marvel Captain Marvel is a billion-dollar character played by Brie Larson.
While WB was bleeding money in two unsuccessful attempts to make Justice League watchable, the first Shazam felt like an afterthought — and was all the better for it. The sequel, Fury of the Gods, also seems to have benefited from benign neglect at the studio executive level. (That seems to be the key to successfully making a film in the Hollywood system right now: Get enough money to make the movie, but don’t let the budget get big enough that the money guys actually feel threatened by it.)
Why do I call Shazam “down-market”? Well, in Justice League, the A-team superheroes are trying to stop the A-team super villains from destroying the world. In Fury of the Gods, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is trying to save Philadelphia. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Philly is a fine city, full of history and cheesesteak. If I were in Philly, I would certainly hope a civically focused superhero would save us when two magical beings named Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu) reclaim the magic staff that the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) used to bestow the power of the gods on Shazam. But Batson is still a kid at heart (and also physically, when he’s not Shazam-ed up), so all this pressure is really getting to him. He’s trying to lead the super-team he created when he bestowed magical powers on his fellow foster kids, but they’re increasingly put off by his leadership style. Billy’s facing some major imposter syndrome when a new girl shows up at school. Anne (Rachel Zegler) takes an interest in Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), one of the Shazam fam who walks with a cane when in kid form. She baits and charms Freddy into revealing his super-form (“Captain Everypower”) before revealing that she is actually the goddess Anthea, third sister to Hespera and Kalypso. With his super-team fractured and Philadelphia trapped under a Simpsons Movie-like dome, Shazam must save the day.
Lucy Liu understands how much mustard to put on lines like “Ladon, World-Eater, rise from the pit!” Helen Mirren phones it in while munching on cheesesteaks, and she’s perfect. When Jack Dylan Glazer is following Rachel Zegler around like a puppy, it feels accurate because what high school geek wouldn’t react that way? In fact, the film only runs into big problems when it dwells on Levi as Shazam. Imagine Tim Allen trying to play Superman.
My beef with superhero blockbusters isn’t that they’re trash — I love well-made trash. It’s that they’re badly executed, ruinously expensive trash. Batman v. Superman thinks it’s Shakespeare. The Joker thinks it’s Scorsese. Shazam! Fury of the Gods knows it’s trash and just tries to be entertaining.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods Now playing Multiple locations
Whether you wear the cape or you’re sick of watching people in super suits, there’s something for you in theaters this weekend.
When young Billy Batson (Asher Angel) says the magic words, he becomes Shazam (Zachary Levi), one of the OG superheroes who, many lawsuits ago, used to be called Captain Marvel. Now, he’s the star of the DC property that is the most fun, and we’ve got Memphis screenwriter Henry Gayden to thank for that. In Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Batson and his super-team take on the Daughters of Atlas, a sinister girl-god gang with Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu.
Wes Craven’s meta-horror Scream just won’t die — the sixth installment made more money on opening weekend than any of the previous five, which means we’ll be screaming for the indefinite future. They can thank spooky teen sensation Jenna Ortega for that one.
Willem Dafoe is an art thief who gets in way over his head when he accidentally locks himself Inside a high-security New York penthouse. As he tries to get out with the art intact, things go from weird to bad to extremely weird.
Jonathan Majors hits hard as Adonis Creed’s rival in Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut, Creed III. The actor/director steps into Stallone’s boots to create a minor classic of the sports movie genre. Watch for the anime-inspired climax!
On Wednesday, March 22nd, Indie Memphis presents Sansón and Me. When filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes was working as a courtroom interpreter in California, he witnessed a trial where a young man named Sansón was sentenced to life in prison. Over the next decade, he corresponded with Sansón in prison and created a hybrid documentary film based on his life. The screening at 7 p.m. at Malco’s Studio on the Square is presented in partnership with Just City Memphis.
Jack Black plays a singing Stalin in History of the World, Part II</i.
Mel Brooks is the king of the dad joke. The 96-year-old writer/director/producer comes by it honest. He cut his comic teeth in the Catskill mountains of New York, where former vaudevillians could make a good living doing stand-up comedy for the mostly Jewish New Yorkers who would flee the city in the summer for a weekend at a lake resort. He was there at the beginning of TV comedy — his first gig was in 1949, writing jokes for Sid Caesar on the now-defunct DuMont Network.
The Catskills style of comedy was quick, broad, and punchy. Designed to keep the attention of vacationers on their third martini, it translated well to television. One of the running bits Brooks did with his friend and co-writer Carl Reiner was “The 2000 Year Old Man.” Reiner would ask questions about historical events, and Brooks would crack wise about meeting Jesus or the Dark Ages.
The bit, which always killed, would eventually evolve into the 1981 film, History of the World, Part I. In the episodic skit film, narrated by Orson Welles, Brooks plays four different characters — Moses, a greek philosopher named Comicus, the Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, and King Louis XVI. Brooks was coming off of a decade when he made some of history’s greatest comedies, like Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. History of the World, Part I never quite reaches those heights, but it has some glorious moments, like Moses dropping one of the stone tablets God gave him and quickly revising the number of commandments from 15 to 10. History of the World, Part I was kept alive through endless reruns on cable TV, but Brooks always denied he intended to do a Part II — the number was part of the joke.
Then, almost 40 years later, Hulu picked up History of the World, Part II. The concept works much better as a 30-minute sketch show than it did as a film. At 96, Brooks is more about attracting good collaborators than one-man-banding it. Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, and Ike Barinholtz produce and replace Brooks in the multi-role role. The Mindy Project’s David Stassen is the showrunner, and the writing staff is enormous. In the first episode, William Shakespeare pays a visit to his writers room, where a new recruit tries to hide that she’s actually a woman — a self-aware commentary on how this kind of traditional comedy has long been made.
Teasing away Borscht Belt comedy’s sexism and homophobia while keeping its vital technical aspects and still allowing some raunch is difficult, but for the most part, Brooks and co. are up to it. Brooks’ comedy was always deeply anti-racist, and episode 1 closes with the show’s brain trust posing as TV announcers at the Olympics commenting on “Hitler on Ice,” the infamous one-off gag that closed History of the World, Part I.
Any comedy nerd worth their tight five would give their schwartz to work with Brooks, so the show is studded with cameos. Jack Black slays as Stalin, who gets a musical number in the multi-episode story arc about the Russian Revolution that somehow combines Fiddler on the Roof with Reds. In a stroke of casting genius, comedian and national treasure George Wallace plays racist governor George Wallace opposite Wanda Sykes as Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. Seth Rogen is fun as Noah, who thinks God’s “two of every kind” plan is a lot of hassle, so he just collects an ark full of cute dogs instead.
Brooks has always been a “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” kind of guy, and History of the World, Part II is wildly uneven. The extended story of Ulysses S. Grant (Ike Barinholtz) trying to find a drink is tedious, until it ends with a big musical number. If you’re a Brooks fan, or if you’re really missing Drunk History, History of the World, Part II is for you.
History of the World, Part II is streaming on Hulu.
Ghostface in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group's "Scream VI."
Good news, fans of accurate naming systems — they’re numbering Scream movies again! After the 2022 Scream, which had no number (perhaps to confuse you into believing you’re buying a ticket for Wes Craven’s 1996 masterpiece of meta-horror) but was actually the fifth Scream, the Roman numerals are back, baby! Anyway, in Scream VI, Ghostface returns, he’s got a gun, and you’re trapped on the subway with him.
Yay, more numbers! Adam Driver stars in 65 as an astronaut who crashes on a distant planet, only to find that it’s not really a distant planet, it’s the Earth 65 million years in the past. Think the Planet of the Apes scenario, only with hordes of dinosaurs who don’t take kindly to strangers. Legend Sam Raimi produces, and A Quiet Place helm team Scott Beck and Bryan Woods wrote and directed.
Woody Harrelson is Marcus, an NBA G-league coach who has a bit of an anger problem, in Champions. After a legal entanglement, he is ordered to perform community service by coaching a team of players with intellectual disabilities. It’s tough at first, but by golly, he’s gonna take this band of misfits all the way to the Special Olympics!
One of the strangest high-concept films in recent memory is The Magic Flute. German director Florian Sigl takes Mozart’s opera, which debuted in 1791 and is still performed regularly today, and makes it literal, with the help of some expensive CGI and Hollywood scholockmiester Roland Emmerich. A hit in Germany last year that is just now hitting the States, it looks entertainingly weird.
Don’t hibernate on the year’s biggest sleeper hit. She’s black, she’s bad, she’s a bear, and she’s on hard drugs. Spoiler alert: She eats O’Shea Jackson Jr. But is this East Tennessee mom serving as a good role model for her cubs?
On Wednesday, Indie Memphis continues their long-running Microcinema series with A String of Pearls: The Film of Camille Billops and James Hatch. Three of the pair’s short documentaries from the 1980s and 1990, “Older Women and Love,” “Suzanne, Suzanne,” and “Take Your Bags” have been restored to spread the word about the groundbreaking documentarians. The screening at Crosstown Theatre will be pay-what-you-can.
