Cooley High in 35mm Fri, Dec 22 | 7:30pm | TMT Added to the National Film Registry in 2021.
Medium Cool Sat, Dec 23 | 2pm | TMT
dangerous road. Cited as a high point of the noir genre, this independently produced picture shimmers and simmers thanks to the direction of B-movie auteur Edgar G. Ulmer—a Jewish- Moravian Austrian-American filmmaker known for his arresting visual style and prolific output with the low-budget Poverty Row studios—coupled with Ann Savage’s unbelievably sinister turn as Vera, a femme fatale for the ages. DIRECTED BY: Edgar G. Ulmer. WRITTEN BY: Martin Goldsmith. WITH: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald. 1945. 67 min. USA. B&W. English. 4K DCP. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation in collaboration with Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique, The Museum of Modern Art, and Cinémathèque Française. Restoration funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation. DCP courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Set in 1964 in Chicago, and inspired by screenwriter Eric Monte’s own coming-of-age in the Cabrini-Green housing project, best friends Leroy “Preach” Jackson and Richard “Cochise” Morris would rather cut class than focus on exams in their last month at Edwin G. Cooley Vocational High School. A brush with the law pivots this coming-of- age comedy into a shocking tragedy for a fully rounded portrait of Black life in the mid-1960s. Offering an alternative to the Blaxploitation fare that saturated the decade, Cooley High’ s dense Motown soundtrack and rich mise - en - scène make it a classic of Black cinema, inspiring directors Spike Lee and John Singleton. DIRECTED BY: Michael Schultz. WRITTEN BY: Eric Monte. WITH: Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis. 1975. 107 min. USA. Color. English. Rated PG. 35mm. New print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive. Medium Cool in 35mm Sat, Dec 23 | 2pm | TMT Added to the National Film Registry in 2003. Chicago, 1968. Just prior to the Democratic National Convention, impassive TV news cameraman John Cassellis (Robert Forster) learns his footage is being sold to the FBI in a flagrant abetting of civilian surveillance. This revelation kickstarts an awakening in an otherwise apolitical man. Massively influential cinematographer, producer, and director Haskell Wexler’s (1922–2015) narrative feature directorial debut is one of the more visceral, urgent American pictures to emerge from the tense 1960s to address the countercultural movement of a frustrated generation. The unassuming masterpiece blends fiction with reality for a “hybrid” film that insists the personal is political. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Haskell Wexler. WITH: Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill. 1969. 111 min. USA. Technicolor. English. Rated R. 35mm. New print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
LIMITED SERIES WORKS OF ENDURING IMPORTANCE:
35 YEARS OF THE
NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY
DEC 14, 2023–JAN 27, 2024
A TIME FOR BURNING
A Time for Burning Sun, Dec 17 | 2pm | TMT Added to the National Film Registry in 2005.
Established in 1988, the National Film Registry is a growing list of films deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Librarian of Congress. Filmmakers, archives, studios, and the public make recommendations, and each December another twenty-five films are added to the Registry, highlighting the importance of their preservation for generations to come. Each year, this highly anticipated announcement has massive implications not just for film workers and cinephiles around the country, but also for the ongoing conservation and legacy of our national film heritage. As of December 14, 2022, the Registry includes 850 films, over 500 of which are represented within the collection of the Academy Film Archive. This limited series showcases the breadth, depth, and diversity of the Registry across its 35-year history. To continue the celebration of the National Film Registry’s history, this series is complemented by screenings in our ongoing Oscar ® Sundays and Family Matinees series during the months of December and January. Programmed by K.J. Relth-Miller. Notes by Hyesung ii, Sari Navarro, and K.J. Relth-Miller.
Commissioned by Lutheran Film Associates to display the church’s progressive views on civil rights issues, Barbara Connell and William C. Jersey’s Oscar-nominated film, A Time for Burning , takes a cinéma vérité approach to documenting the white, Omaha-based Augustana Lutheran Church, whose progressive pastor L. William Youngdahl preaches about integration in attempts to unite with a neighboring Black congregation. At the time, this cinematic experiment stoked so much controversy the project was nearly halted after protests from Nebraskan Lutheran leadership. A vital document underscoring the concept that “change is hard,” this powerful film is also the very catalyst for change needed to showcase a movement’s potential. DIRECTED BY: Barbara Connell, William C. Jersey. WITH: Reverend L. William Youngdahl, Ernie Chambers, Ray Christensen. 1966. 58 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP. Restored by the Academy Film Archive, with the help of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). DCP courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Thanks to Heidi Atlas, Academy Gold Intern, Film Programs at the Academy Museum, and Taylor Morales, Senior Manager, Public Access at the Academy Film Archive.
murder trial that led to the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. Barrio leader Henry Reyna (Daniel Valdez, who wrote the film’s score) and others from the Mexican American and Latinx communities are wrongfully imprisoned, and their activist counsel fights to shine a light on the discriminatory nature of the charges. Featuring Edward James Olmos ( Stand and Deliver ), Zoot Suit is a scorching indictment of the criminal justice system and the racially motivated arrests that proliferated in the Latinx community in the 1940s. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Luis Valdez. WITH: Daniel Valdez, Edward James Olmos, Charles Aidman, Tyne Daly. 1981. 103 min. USA. Color. English. Rated R. 70mm.
Detour in 4K Sat, Dec 16 | 7:30pm | TMT Added to the National Film Registry in 1992.
ZOOT SUIT
EL NORTE
Zoot Suit in 70mm Thu, Dec 14 | 7:30pm | DGT Added to the National Film Registry in 2019. Luis Valdez’s ( La Bamba ) searing adaptation of his acclaimed stage play blends shocking history with cinematic fiction for this tale of the Sleepy Lagoon
El Norte Fri, Jan 5 | 7:30pm | TMT Added to the National Film Registry in 1995.
Based on screenwriter Martin Goldsmith’s novel of the same name, Detour opens with disheveled drifter Al Roberts (Tom Neal) hitchhiking cross-country to marry his sweetheart. When one of his drivers suddenly dies, Al evades the law by adopting the dead man’s identity, leading himself down a more
After their family is murdered by the government during a massacre in civil war Guatemala, Indigenous siblings Rosa and
COOLEY HIGH
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