Welcome back to the wonderful world of the Wesleyan Film Series! It’s a brand new semester and we hope you’ll check out our fresh slate of movies before the pileup of homework sets in. We kick off the week with “Tel Aviv on Fire,” which marks the start of our 13th Annual Israeli Film Festival. This series features the best recent works from Israel and runs each Wednesday for the rest of the calendar. We also begin our Black History Month celebration by highlighting influential African-American artists both in front of and behind the camera. Two very different films, drama “Boyz in the Hood” and musical “Stormy Weather” start this program. We then round out the week with “Honeyland,” a fascinating documentary about a Macedonian beekeeper and the first film to be nominated for both best documentary and best international feature at the Oscars.

Screenings are free (except on Fridays, when we show big blockbusters or newer releases) and they run Wednesday through Saturday every week at the Goldsmith Family Cinema.

“Tel Aviv on Fire”

2019. Israel. Dir: Sameh Zoabi. With Kais Nashef, Yaniv Bitton. 95 min.

Wednesday, January 29. 8pm. Free.

Salam, an inexperienced young Palestinian man, becomes a writer on a popular soap opera after a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. His creative career is on the rise until the soldier and the show’s financial backers disagree about how the show should end, and Salam is caught in the middle, concocting plot twists to please all sides.

“Honeyland”

2019. Macedonia. Dir: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov. Documentary. 86 min. 

Thursday, January 30th. 8pm. Free.

“Half for them, half for us.” This is the code closely followed by Hatidze Muratova, last in a generations-long line of wild beekeepers. Hatidze’s lifestyle is both picturesque and perilous; her existence entirely dependent on the fragile balance of nature. The arrival of a large, nomadic family threatens to upset this balance, and in turn, Hatidze’s livelihood.

 

“Boyz n the Hood”

1991. USA. Dir: John Singleton. With Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube. 112 min.

Friday, January 31st. 8pm. $5.

The late Singleton’s directorial debut explores the complexities and underlying humanity of a predominantly black southern L.A. neighborhood. Following the story of adolescent Tre as he grows up in this community, Singleton offers a genuine and devastating look at the lasting repercussions of gang violence and conflict in 1990s America.

“Stormy Weather”

1943. USA. Dir: Andrew L. Stone. With Lena Horne, Bill Robinson. 78 min.

Saturday, February 1st. 8pm. Free.

One of the few feature-length studio-system musicals with an all-black cast serves as a showcase for the greatest performers of the era: bandleader Cab Calloway and jazz pianist Fats Waller; dancers  “Bojangles” Robinson, Katherine Dunham, and the Nicholas Brothers; and of course Horne, performing a showstopping rendition of the title number.