The annual Thin Line Festival this weekend in Denton includes documentaries, music, and photography, but I’m most excited about the movies screening completely free and primarily at Campus Theatre (214 W Hickory St, Denton, 940-382-1915, free tix at ThinLine.us). Here are some of the titles you can see there now thru Sunday, plus a few other big-screen ideas for your consideration.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Before heading to Denton for (almost) everything below, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200 Darnell St, 817-738-9215) is screening a classic. At 2pm, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor star in 1958’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, based on the Tennessee Williams’ play of the same name. Tickets are $5 at TheModern.org.
The first film of the Thin Line festival is No One Asked You at 6:30pm. Comedian and disruptor-extraordinaire Lizz Winstead (co-creator of The Daily Show) and her team, Abortion Access Front, crisscross the country to support abortion clinic staff and bust stigma. Pop-culture icons and next-gen comics fuel this 6-year road film activating small-town folks to rebuild vandalized clinics and exposing corrupt politicians, domestic terrorists, and media neglect as the race to the bottom ensues. A bold call to action reminds us that when the patriarchy burns down, joy will prevail.
Breaking the News screens at 9:15pm. It’s about a group of female LGBTQ+ journalists working to buck the white-male status quo by launching a news startup to ask who’s been omitted from mainstream coverage and to find ways to include them.
Courtesy Astral Studios
Thursday, April 25, 2024
At 4pm, it’s An Open Door, about Dr. Temple Grandin, who champions the humane treatment of livestock, autism rights, and inclusive neurodiversity.
A Photographic Memory screens at 6pm. It’s an intimate, genre-bending portrait of a daughter’s attempt to piece together a picture of the mother she never knew, who was an avant-garde journalist. Uncovering the vast archive that Sheila Turner Seed produced, including lost interviews with iconic photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Cecil Beaton, Bruce Davidson, Lisette Model, and others, the film explores memory, legacy, and untold stories.
At 8:30pm, see Lesvia. Since the 1970s, lesbians worldwide have flocked to a paradise island in Greece, where they sometimes create tension among local residents while creating their own community.
Screening at 11pm is the final film of the evening, Artists: Depression Anxiety & Rage, by Lydia Lunch and Jasmine Hirst. For this movie, Lunch says that she and Hirst spent the past two years interviewing musicians, artists, and writers about their lifelong struggles with mental health. “The roots of depression run deep.” It’s at Rubber Gloves (411 E Sycamore St, Denton, 940-594-2207) rather than Campus Theatre like the rest of the festival’s features. Following the screening will be a comedy and spoken-word segment with Lunch.
Friday, April 26, 2024
At 3:30pm, Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes follows the life of the well-known activist and bandleader and his struggles and triumphs from the Jim Crow years to jazz and modern hip-hop.
Screening at 9:30pm, Nobody May Come is about Valerie Sassyfras, a 68-year-old multi-instrumentalist from New Orleans with musical roots in Cajun and zydeco. Along with the accordion, she plays the mandolin and has some dance moves that all blend together into something called swamp-pop. Known as The Sass, she achieved viral fame after one of her videos appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She was then invited to compete in America’s Got Talent. She has a lot to say about reality shows.
You can also check out Remembering Gene Wilder at the Modern (3200 Darnell St, 817-738-9215) 4pm, 6pm, or 8pm Fri, 5pm Sat, or noon, 2pm, or 4pm Sun. As part of the Magnolia at the Modern series, this movie about the legendary actor includes hilarious clips and outtakes, never-before-seen home movies, narration from Wilder’s audiobook memoir, and interviews with friends and collaborators. Tickets are $10 at TheModern.org.
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Pedro, an aspiring social worker who is a blind undocumented immigrant, navigates obstacles as he tries to obtain a college degree and a health-care job in Unseen at 10am. Through experimental cinematography and sound, this film reimagines a cinema accessible for blind/low-vision audiences while exploring the intersections of immigration, disability, and mental health.
Screening at 12:15pm is Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi, in which the internationally acclaimed composer and songwriter performs at locations associated with the Japanese-American internment camps during WWII. Then, Into the Spotlight screens at 2pm. This feature follows a North Texas theatre troupe with mental disabilities determined to write, rehearse, and perform their 11th annual original musical during the 2021-22 season.
Love to the Max, about teenager Max Briggle, who loves cats, his trampoline, and singing at church, is playing at 5pm. No biggie, but Max is transgender, and that’s why the government of Texas is targeting the whole family. This film is about their everyday lives but also their preparations for “a midnight escape from a rising tyranny in their home state that threatens to tear them apart.”
Also screening at 5pm is Fallout, which follows three individuals experiencing illnesses after exposure to environmental contamination from a nearby U.S. Army Ammunition Plant, and The Nationals, about the Haudenosaunee U21 lacrosse team on their journey to the world championships.
However, my pick for 5pm is Barbette + Fontaine. This film tells the story of two drag icons from the past and present who share a legacy of self-expression and freedom: Cynthia Lee Fontaine of RuPaul’s Drag Race and Vander Clyde “Barbette” Broadway (1899-1973), an American female impersonator, high-wire performer, and trapeze artist born in Texas.
From the early pioneers to the present day, Shaggy and Sean Paul create a coherent account of dancehall music as a New York immigrant evolution of shared identity and as a cultural bridge between Jamaica and New York in Bad Like Brooklyn Dancehall at 7:30pm.
At 10pm, Something Divine follows Ray Cappo, frontperson for Youth of Today, who, at the height of his straight-edge band’s popularity, decamped for India to become the monk Raghunath. What entails is the confluence of two opposites: hardcore punk and spirituality.
Courtesy Into the Spotlight
Sunday, April 28, 2024
At 10:30am, start the final festival day with the experimental film Thank You: Part II about people attempting to break ground in the field of Radical Autoethnographic Meditation.
How can individuals who are blind and visually impaired play baseball? Find out by watching Thunder Rolls: The World of Blind Baseball at 1pm. The film traces the Indy Thunder Beep baseball team in their quest to win a world championship.
The final film of the festival screens at 3:30pm. Shot over several years, Música! shows students at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory of Music — known for training the best young Cuban musicians — embarking on their professional careers. Even this prestigious institution in a musically rich culture suffers from its nation’s political isolation. Enter: Horns to Havana, a volunteer organization of U.S. artisans that makes regular pilgrimages to Cuba to deliver strings and other essential supplies and conduct instrument-repair workshops.
Monday, April 29, 2024
Well, Nat Geo got to me again. Just as Taylor Swift dropped her double-album last weekend, the network premiered its latest octopus-oriented documentary with some epic Eras Tour-inspired art. Directed by James Cameron and narrated by Paul Rudd, Secrets of the Octopus can now be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu for a limited time.
Courtesy Nat Geo
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
In honor of May the Fourth Be with You Week, Birdie’s Social Club (2736 W 6th St, Fort Worth, 817-888-8914) wants to test your Star Wars knowledge at a free event. Starting at 6:20pm, you can register to compete for a chance to win a $100 Birdie’s gift card at Trivia Tuesday. Teams and costumes are encouraged. Also, enjoy $6 margaritas (frozen or on the rocks), $2 off tacos, and free parking at the lot off 5th Street. (Look for the windmill.)
