Dave Barber Cinematheque

04/28/2026

Lisa, a sports photographer, vanishes off into the greener pastures of the Georgian countryside, traces of her passing embedded in the landscape like clues. Her father, Irakli (David Koberidze), picks up her scent in the ochre foliage and communal soccer fields she documented for her last assignment. His search-and-rescue trip defies her wishes not to be followed. With a disembodied voice in his passenger seat, he embarks on a winding pastoral picaresque, marked by the recurring gaggles of adolescents, wild dogs, and oral histories he encounters along the way. Undulating between impressionistic reverie and subversive detective story, Irakli’s near-fruitless search invites us to see—with renewed eyes—the quotidian elements which constitute both cinema and life.

Shot with a pixelated W595 Sony Ericsson phone camera, Dry Leaf stands as a palpable salvo on cinematic degrowth. While director Alexandre Koberidze teeters on the edge of a formal gimmick to challenge technological tyranny, his characters swim against the false currents of modern life. Taking an audacious leap of faith after his breakthrough What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?, and harkening back to his low-res debut Let the Summer Never Come Again, Koberidze reignites the threadbare wonders of cinematic language in spectacular, big-screen fashion.

Dry Leaf opens May 29.

04/28/2026

Cult-O-Rama returns May 28 with the new restoration of Banmei Takahashi’s A New Love in Tokyo! Presented in partnership with Sookram’s Brewing Co. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

Rei (Sawa Suzuki), a seasoned do******ix and aspiring actor, spends her days rehearsing experimental theatre and her nights whipping straightlaced salarymen into ecstasy. Between appointments, she meets Ayumi (Reiko Kataoka), a call-girl bound to be the wife of a doctor or lawyer. The women bring us into their nocturnal orbit: a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure, camaraderie, and the joys of hanging out in the thriving, h***y, districts of Shinjuku and Shibuya, at the terminus of the Japanese Bubble era.

Marketed in some territories as a sequel to Ryu Murakami’s moody Tokyo Decadence (1992), Banmei Takahashi’s A New Love in Tokyo unfolds as its tonal opposite: less somber sexploitation than unexpectedly sex-positive workplace comedy. Based on a book of essays by Kei Shimamoto and Nobuyoshi Araki that brings the reader into an erotic underworld, the film is also notable for featuring the cult photographer’s work. A glimpse into a bygone era of Japanese eroticism, A New Love in Tokyo provided pink film, V-cinema and Director’s Company veteran Banmei Takahashi (Door, Door II) with a bridge towards a broader range of human experience.

04/28/2026

Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is revealed here as the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, Earth’s Greatest Enemy challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism.

Join us on May 22 for a virtual post-screening conversation with filmmaker Abby Martin.

Presented in partnership with Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition, and the Manitoba Eco Network.

04/28/2026

“An immersion into Blackness … By fashioning a kinetic work that pulls together references and sources from Black literature, music, politics, and meme culture, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions stands as a seismic intellectual awakening.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions opens May 22.

04/28/2026

A dazzling embroidery of ideas on Black history, identity, and aesthetics gives shape to artist Kahlil Joseph’s eagerly awaited debut feature, an expansion of his acclaimed 2019 Venice Biennale installation BLKNWS. Joseph, who rose to prominence directing music videos for, among others, Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, and Lemonade-era Beyoncé, assembles the film’s kaleidoscopic material as though sequencing an LP, moving fluidly between modes (archival, memoir, essay, pure fiction) and concepts while carrying key, structural motifs forward. One such throughline is Encyclopedia Africana, originally conceived by W.E.B. Du Bois (but unrealized in his lifetime), which serves as an index of Black consciousness in the film. Another is an Afro-futuristic reverie: aboard an enormous ocean liner bound for Africa, the art of a transatlantic biennale is en route to repatriation. ​“This is not a documentary,” the film declares; either way, truth bristles everywhere.

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions opens May 22.

04/28/2026

Bikini Drive-In returns on May 21 to present the new restoration of Brian De Palma's Carrie! Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn.

04/21/2026

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice. Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.

Blue Heron opens May 15.

Open Caption screenings of the film will play on May 16 at 5:00PM and May 20 at 7:00PM

Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.