Films

Now Playing

Art Blakey: The Jazz Messenger

Directed by Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley
(USA, 1988, 78 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Art Blakey formed the Jazz Messengers in the mid-1950s, and the evolving group became a rite of passage for talented young musicians for the next 35 years. This documentary portrait of Blakey captures the legendary drummer, bandleader, and teacher in the 1980s as he leads workshops and performances in London and New York City.

Friday, June 20, 2025

7 p.m.
The Pawnbroker

Directed by Sidney Lumet
(USA, 1964, 116 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Rod Steiger stars as a German-Jewish immigrant who lives a bitter, lonely existence running a pawn shop in Harlem. Quincy Jones’s first Hollywood film score features musicians Dave Grusin, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, and Oliver Nelson.

Saturday, June 21, 2025

7 p.m.
Killer of Sheep

Directed by Charles Burnett
(USA, 1977, 80 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, 4K digital restoration

Killer of Sheep examines life in Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan (Houston native Henry G. Sanders), a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse.

Sunday, June 22, 2025

5 p.m.
The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival

Directed by Julie Rubio
(USA, 2024, 96 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka took Paris, Milan, Berlin, and New York by storm in the 1920s. A century later, this fascinating film tells the story of her life, tracing Lempicka’s flight from persecution, her affairs with men and women, and her hidden Jewish heritage.

Friday, June 27, 2025

7 p.m.

Saturday, June 28, 2025

7 p.m.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

2 p.m.
Barry Lyndon

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
(UK, 1975, 184 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, 35mm

Ryan O’Neal and Marisa Berenson star in Stanley Kubrick’s lavish, Oscar-winning adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic 18th-century novel about the rise and fall of a sensitive and dashing rogue.

Saturday, July 5, 2025

5 p.m.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

2 p.m.
Shall We Dance?

Directed by Masayuki Suô
(Japan, 1996, 136 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital restoration

Shohei Sugiyama has a high-paying job, an exquisite home, and a caring wife and daughter he loves dearly. However, he feels something is missing in his life. One day while commuting on the train he spots a beautiful woman staring wistfully out a window and eventually decides to find her. His search leads him headfirst into the world of competitive ballroom dancing.

Friday, July 11, 2025

7 p.m.

Saturday, July 12, 2025

7 p.m.

Sunday, July 13, 2025

5 p.m.

Coming Soon

Mildred Pierce

Directed by Michael Curtiz
(USA, 1945, 111 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, 35mm

A landmark film noir exploring complex themes of female ambition and the societal expectations of women in the post-World War II era, Mildred Pierce stars Joan Crawford as a hard-working woman raising two daughters on her own.

Friday, July 18, 2025

7 p.m.

Saturday, July 19, 2025

7 p.m.
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

Directed by Shoshannah Stern
(USA, 2025, 98 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Marlee Matlin shattered expectations as the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her groundbreaking performance in Children of a Lesser God (1987). Catapulted into the spotlight, 21-year-old Matlin challenged an industry unprepared for her immense talent, emerging as a trailblazer not only as a performer but also as an author and activist.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

5 p.m.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

7 p.m.
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light

Directed by Paul Wagner
(USA, 2024, 118 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Showcasing O’Keeffe’s vibrant art, observations by curators and scholars, and excerpts from 20,000 pages of letters between the artist and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, the life of this remarkable artist is detailed. Claire Danes voices Georgia O’Keeffe.

Friday, July 25, 2025

7 p.m.

Sunday, July 27, 2025

5 p.m.
Compensation

Directed by Zeinabu irene Davis
(USA, 1999, 95 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, 4K digital rejuvenation

A milestone of independent cinema, Zeinabu irene Davis’s first feature (presented in a 4K rejuvenation) presents parallel African American love stories between a deaf woman and a hearing man set decades apart. Inspired by a poem by legendary African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, this moving narrative depicts their struggle to overcome racism, disability, and discrimination.

Saturday, July 26, 2025

7 p.m.
Stray Dog (Noru Inu)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1949, 122 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Stray Dog goes beyond a crime thriller, probing the squalid world of postwar Japan, and the nature of the criminal mind.

Friday, August 1, 2025

7 p.m.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Directed by Philip Kaufman
(USA, 1988, 171 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

In translating Milan Kundera’s supposedly “unfilmable” novel to the big screen, Philip Kaufman achieves a delicate, erotic balance by focusing on three central characters.

Saturday, August 2, 2025

7 p.m.
Ikiru

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1952, 143 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Ikiru shows the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an exploration of death.

Sunday, August 3, 2025

5 p.m.
The People’s Joker

Directed by Vera Drew
(USA, 2022, 92 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, 35mm

A hilarious reimagining of the classic coming-of-age story follows an unconfident, closeted trans girl as she moves to Gotham City to make it big by joining the cast of a government-sanctioned, late-night sketch show in a world where comedy has been outlawed.

Friday, August 8, 2025

7 p.m.
The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-Toride No San-Akunin)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1958, 139 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Toshiro Mifune is a general charged with guarding his defeated clan’s princess as the two smuggle royal treasure across hostile territory.

Saturday, August 9, 2025

7 p.m.
Yojimbo (Yôjinbô)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1961, 110 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily, masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage.

Sunday, August 10, 2025

5 p.m.
A Portrait of a Postman

Directed by Christopher Charles Scott
(USA, 2025, 97 minutes, in English)
Lynn Wyatt Theater

This fascinating new documentary—winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Texas Feature at the 2025 Dallas International Film Festival—profiles Texas artist Kermit Oliver.

Friday, August 15, 2025

7 p.m.

Saturday, August 16, 2025

7 p.m.

Sunday, August 17, 2025

2 p.m.
Aurora Picture Show Summer Filmmaking Camp World Premiere

Directed by various directors
(USA, 2025, 100 minutes)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Walk the red carpet for Aurora’s annual Summer Filmmaking Camp World Premieres event, where young filmmakers’ visions come to life on the screen! This free screening showcases a wide range of creative short films made by Houston kids and teens (ages 7–15) through Aurora’s summer youth education program.

Saturday, August 16, 2025

1 p.m.
Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1962, 95 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

In this sly companion piece to Yojimbo, jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear.

Friday, August 22, 2025

7 p.m.
Hook

Directed by Steven Spielberg
(USA, 1991, 142 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

What if Peter Pan grew up? Grab your happy thoughts and fly to Neverland in Steven Spielberg’s fantasy classic Hook.

Saturday, August 23, 2025

7 p.m.
High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1963, 143 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Toshiro Mifune is a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Kurosawa’s highly influential domestic drama and police procedural.

Sunday, August 24, 2025

5 p.m.