Events

WITH A PIECE IN HIS HAND, HE TAKES ON THE MAN! The epochal cultural moment that first brought reggae to the international stage, made Jimmy Cliff a star, and demonstrated how music can change the world. Fifty years on, THE HARDER THEY COME is still electric with the feeling of discovery. This SCARFACE-y blend of crime drama and musical tracks Cliff’s country-boy-in-search-of-fame through Jamaica under the guises of laborer, recording artist, convict, ganja dealer, and outlaw folk hero. Before THE HARDER THEY COME, the collective perception of a “foreign film” was limited to the Bergmans and the Kurosawas of the world. This game-changer forever blew those doors off — and it still hasn’t lost a drop of its cool, its edge, or its way of making you dance.

BLUE COLLAR was Paul Schrader’s debut as a director, and making the movie reportedly literally drove him insane. BLUE COLLAR is a caper about three auto workers (Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto) who rob their union and unexpectedly uncover an illegal loan operation and ties to organized crime. BLUE COLLAR is about corruption, the impossible grind of the working class, powerlessness, and most definitely, the use of racial difference as a weapon by the oppressors against the oppressed.