Destined to be remembered as one of the great films about the meaning, texture, and experience of food, this sumptuous, exceptionally well-crafted work, set in late 19th-century France, stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel (married, decades ago, in real life) as Eugénie, a cook, and Dodin, the gourmet chef she has been working with for 20 years. As they reach middle age, they can no longer deny their mutual romantic feelings, which have so long been concentrated in their passionate professionalism. This simple narrative—based upon Marcel Rouff’s 1924 novel La passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet—sets the table for a sublime, sense-heightening exploration of pleasure, in which the play of sunlight across a late-afternoon kitchen is as meaningful as the image of a perfectly poached pear or the crisp of a buoyant vol-au-vent. Director Trân Anh Hùng won the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his bravura, scrupulously deployed feat of epicurean cinema.

Directed by Anh Hung Tran.

In French with English subtitles

Rated PG-13

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Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in NY. As time runs out on his work visa, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country.

Directed by Julio Torres.

Rated R

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NONSENSE - Dir. Strahinja Mlađenović (Serbia)

FOR ROY - Dir. Vivian Cheung (Canada)

ECOSPHERE - Dir. Vito Pistone (Belgium)

WEAVE OF CULTURE - Dir. Santhosh Ram (India)

DOMESTIC - Marcial Ruiz Lasida (Spain)

CARAVAN - Szonja Szabo (Hungary)

THE HEAVIEST ORDER - Peter Böving (Germany)

MASCARADA - Ana Maria Ferri (Spain)

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When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local Edith--begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town's women investigate.

Directed by Thea Sharrock.

Rated R

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.

PERFECT DAYS was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and for the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by Wim Wenders. Starring Kôji Yakusho (Named Best Actor at Cannes)

In Japanese with English subtitles

Rated PG

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Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons narrates RELENTLESS, the fascinating true story told in a procedural style about remarkable people tackling an exotic species invasion that nearly destroyed the largest freshwater ecosystem on Earth: the Great Lakes. The silent predator devastated jobs and businesses, threatening the survival of cities, towns and indigenous communities across the region.

The film traces how tenacious scientists identified the menace then struggled to control it. Their work continues to influence the Great Lakes region’s economic fortunes and sounds a warning about how invasive species threaten the future of vital natural resources and the prosperity of millions around the world today.

Directed by Thomas Lindsey Haskin.

CAMP RICSTAR is a new documentary feature film about the dramatic story behind a one-of-a-kind camp for people with disabilities. For over 20 years, the Eric ‘RicStar’ Winter Music Therapy Summer Camp in East Lansing, Michigan has impacted the lives of thousands of music lovers with disabilities — and their families —  by allowing them to participate in group music therapy. CAMP RICSTAR is ultimately an affirmation of the joys of music, the power of community, and the need for inclusion of a population too often left out.

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Girls Will Be Girls follows the journey of 16 year old Mira, whose sexy, rebellious coming of age is disrupted by her young mother who never got to come of age herself.

Directed by Shuchi Talati.

In English and Hindi with subtitles

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Between light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses to fill in their absence.

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.

In Arabic and French with English subtitles

Sponsored by Mid Michigan College as part of their Global Projects and Studies co-curricular programming for studying the Middle East. Free admission for all Mid Michigan students with student ID.

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A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman's life in Mississippi, the feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer and filmmaker Raven Jackson is a haunting and richly layered portrait, a beautiful ode to the generations of people and places that shape us. The New Yorker called it “the directorial debut of the year.”

Directed by Raven Jackson.

Rated PG-13

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Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in NY. As time runs out on his work visa, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country.

Directed by Julio Torres.

Rated R

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