Films

It Ain’t Over

February 17 & 18, 2024  |  3:00PM

2022. Directed by Sean Mullin. 98 minutes. Rated PG.

Showings take place at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater. Tickets are $15 person/$12 Billings Farm member.

Purchase Tickets – Saturday, February 17

Purchase Tickets – Sunday, February 18

An intimate portrait of a misunderstood American icon, this emotional and uplifting documentary about Yogi Berra takes us beyond the caricatures and “Yogisms,” and into the heart of a sports legend whose unparalleled accomplishments on the baseball diamond were often overshadowed by his off-the-field persona.

He might have become more famous off the baseball field than on it, but there’s no denying that he was a great player, and “It Ain’t Over” provides an excellent reminder.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Joonam

February 3 & 4, 2024  |  3:00PM

2023. Directed by Sierra Urich. 100 minutes. Not rated.
Q&A with filmmaker Sierra Urich following the Saturday screening
In English and Farsi with subtitles

Showings take place at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater. Tickets are $15 person/$12 Billings Farm member.

Purchase Tickets – Saturday, February 3

Purchase Tickets – Sunday, February 4

Filmmaker Sierra Urich grew up in rural Vermont, a place and an upbringing far removed from Iran, the homeland of her mother, Mitra, and grandmother, Behjat. Only knowing Iran through family stories, food, and holidays, and with the prospect of travel to the country a seemingly impossible dream, she embarks on a personal quest to make sense of her fractured Iranian identity. Navigating barriers of language and culture (not to mention the complications of geopolitical conflict and displacement), Sierra turns to Mitra and Behjat to construct a deeply moving and sometimes disarmingly funny portrait of three generations of women and their complex relationship to an Iran of the past.

Named for a Farsi term of endearment, Joonam is infused with humor and heart like only a film about family could be. Interrogating family history and memory, including her grandmother’s experiences as a preteen bride and her mother’s rebellious teenage years during the Iranian Revolution, Sierra Urich constructs a rich, personal film that poignantly reflects the experiences of the Iranian diasporic community and speaks to anyone affected by the dislocation that accompanies immigration.

A heartfelt exploration of those living within a diaspora, the fractured connection each generation has to their own culture, and the irrevocable bond of shared roots.” ~ RogerEbert.com

All that Breathes

January 27 & 28, 2024  |  3:00PM

2022. Directed by Shaunak Sen. 97 minutes. Not rated.
Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Feature Film
In Hindi with subtitles

Showings take place at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater. Tickets are $15 person/$12 Billings Farm member.

Purchase Tickets – Saturday, January 27

Purchase Tickets – Sunday, January 28

In one of the world’s most populated cities, cows, rats, monkeys, frogs, and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people. Here, two brothers fall in love with a bird — the black kite. From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, the “kite brothers” care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between this Muslim family and the neglected kite forms a poetic chronicle of the city’s collapsing ecology and rising social tensions.

Simple in its slow, calm storytelling, but profound in the philosophical points it raised about how we are all connected in the vast ecosystem.” ~ Times of London 

Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Feature Film

Joan Baez I Am a Noise

January 13 & 14, 2024  |  3:00PM

2023. Directed by Miri Navasky, Karen O’Connor, and Maeve O’Boyle. 113 minutes. Not rated.

Showings take place at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater. Tickets are $15 person/$12 Billings Farm member.

Purchase Tickets – Saturday, January 13

Purchase Tickets – Sunday, January 14

Facing the end of a 60-year musical career, legendary folk singer and activist Joan Baez takes an honest look back and a deep look inward as she tries to make sense of her large history-making life, and the personal struggles she’s kept private. Baez bids farewell to performing, and takes stock of her life in this unusually intimate and honest film.

Drawing from Baez’s extraordinary archive, filmmakers Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle construct a deeply honest portrait of the living legend who was the voice of her generation, reflecting on her life on and off the stage, personal emotional struggles, and family secrets—revealing for the first time the full truth of her life.

Anyone with an interest in the key artists of the counterculture movement will find much to appreciate here.” ~ Hollywood Reporter  

Pianoforte

December 30 & 31, 2023  |  3:00PM

2023. Directed by Jakub Piatek. 91 minutes. Not rated.
Nominee, Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival
In Polish, English, Chinese, Italian, and Russian with subtitles

Showings take place at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater. Tickets are $15 person/$12 Billings Farm member.

Purchase Tickets – Saturday, December 30 

Purchase Tickets – Sunday, December 31 

Considered to be one of the most prestigious competitions in classical music, the International Chopin Piano Competition, held in Warsaw every five years since 1927, has been a career launchpad for such piano virtuosos as Krystian Zimerman, Mitsuko Uchida, Kevin Kenner, and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

This fly-on-the-philharmonic-wall documentary takes us on a roller coaster of a classical ride, where we meet some of the most talented, young professional piano players from all over the world as they navigate the pressure and drama.

Pianoforte captures the highs and lows of competition, as well as the emotional moments as strong and as soft as the dynamic that gives the instrument its name. Sit back and revel at the fun….” ~ POV 

Close to Vermeer

December 16 & 17, 2023  |  3:00PM

2023. Directed by Suzanne Raes. 78 minutes. Not rated.
In Dutch, English, and German with subtitles.

Showings take place at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater. Tickets are $15 person/$12 Billings Farm member.

Purchase Tickets – Saturday, December 16 

Purchase Tickets – Sunday, December 17 

Go behind the scenes of the largest Vermeer exhibition ever mounted, which was on view from February to June 2023 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Capturing the imagination of the art world — with glowing reviews, global publicity, and tickets sold out through the entirety of its run — the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer retrospective was nothing short of an historic event.

Suzanne Raes’s film follows curators, conservators, collectors, and experts in their joint mission to shine a new light on the elusive Dutch Master. This fascinating documentary reveals everything from the quiet diplomacy required to get the Vermeers to the Netherlands and the new technical knowledge gained by scanning the paintings layer by layer, to the shocking news that one work may not be by Vermeer after all.

In the process, we discover how Vermeer was able to depict reality so differently from his contemporaries. But above all, Close to Vermeer shows the infectious love Vermeer’s art inspires. As one curator lovingly puts it: “A good exhibition should change your view of the world. Vermeer can really do that.”

How many paintings did Vermeer actually paint? That’s the challenge facing Vermeer expert Gregor Weber and exhibition curator Peter Roelofs as they attempt to put together the definitive exhibition of his works… wander through the gallery as the team attempts to define what a Vermeer is.” ~ Austin Chronicle