Considering the large number of films we screen each year, this year more than 140, we wanted to release some of the titles early so that our audiences could get an overview of the diversity of films we are highlighting.  We chose 10 very different films, representative of each of our main feature film sections, to share. From big budget fare to American independent films, films with local connections and even classics being screened the way they were when first released, this year’s RiverRun will once again have a little something for everyone.”

From Special Screenings:

SCORE
Director: Matt Schrader
USA / 2016 / ENGLISH / 94 MIN.

Featuring legendary composers like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and John Williams, among many others, this documentary brings Hollywood’s premier composers together to give viewers a privileged look inside the musical challenges and creative secrecy of the world’s most widely known music genre: the film score.

From Narrative Features Competition section:

WINDOW HORSES
Director: Ann Marie Fleming
CANADA / 2016 / ENGLISH / 85 MIN.

In this delightfully funny animated feature, featuring the voices of Sandra Oh and Ellen Page, a young Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian parents travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival, reconnecting with her family’s ancestral roots in the process.

From Documentary Features Competition:

THE CINEMA TRAVELLERS
Directors: Shirley Abraham & Amit Madheshiya
INDIA / 2016 / HINDI / MARATHI / 96 MIN.

Showmen riding cinema lorries have brought the wonder of the movies to faraway villages in India once every year. Seven decades on, as their cinema projectors crumble and film reels become scarce, their patrons are lured by slick digital technology.

From Altered States: New Directions in American Cinema

11:55
Directors: Ari Issler & Ben Snyder
USA / 2016 / ENGLISH / 80 MIN.

U.S. Marine Nelson Sanchez has run out of time. After being honorably discharged and returning to his economically depressed hometown, Nelson must face the consequences of the violent past he thought he had escaped. Featuring John Leguizamo and Julia Stiles in supporting roles, the film is co-directed by Winston-Salem resident Ari Issler.

From Focus section:

DOLORES
Director: Peter Bratt
USA / 2017 / ENGLISH / 95 MIN.

In the copious volumes written about Cesar Chavez there’s little mention of Dolores Huerta, although she was his equal partner and co-founder of the Farm Workers Union in America. Dolores sheds light on this enigmatic, intensely private woman who is among the most important activists in American history.

THE TRANSFIGURATION
Director: Michael O’Shea
USA / 2016 / ENGLISH / 97 MIN.

14-year-old Milo is an orphaned outsider ignored by his schoolmates and bullied by older kids. He takes refuge in the Queens apartment he shares with his older brother andimmerses himself in the world of the vampire, but a chance encounter with new neighbor Sophie leads him to develop unexpected feelings.

From the Spotlight: Cuba on Screen section:

I AM CUBA – 35mm
Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
CUBA / SOVIET UNION / 1968 / SPANISH / 143 MIN.

This sprawling Soviet/Cuban co-production from 1964 was not well received when it was first released and was largely forgotten until the 1990s, when directors like Martin Scorsese pushed for its restoration. Alternatingly dreamlike and neo-realist in presentation, “I Am Cuba” attempts to characterize the Cuban revolution and the suffering of its citizens through an anthology of four varied vignettes. RiverRun will screen the film from a 35mm print courtesy of Milestone Films.


From NC Stories section:

PURPLE DREAMS
Director: Joanne Hock
USA / 2016 / ENGLISH / 72 MIN.

This regionally produced documentary charts the three-year journey of an arts high school in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the transformative power of arts education serves as an inspirational window into the lives of the inner-city, at-risk students who succeed in their passions. Several students featured were later admitted to the drama program at UNC School of the Arts.


From the Archives: Focus on 70mm

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA – 70mm
Director: David Lean
UK / USA / 1962 / ENGLISH / ARABIC / TURKISH / 216 MIN.

This 1962 film directed by David Lean and starring Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif won seven Academy Awards, four BAFTAs and six Golden Globes and is on the Library of Congress National Film Registry. A wide-screen classic, the film was originally photographed on 70mm and RiverRun will screen a 70mm print in Main Theatre at UNCSA.

From Films With Class section presented by Wells Fargo:

OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE
Director: Deborah Riley Draper
GERMANY / USA / 2016 / ENGLISH / 82 MIN.

In 1936, when eighteen African-American athletes participated in the Berlin Olympic Games, history forgot all except one. This is the story of the other 17.