Virginia Film Festival

41on41

41 storytellers weave a multidimensional profile of President George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of…

An Afternoon with Rita Dove & Julian Bond

Focusing on these two celebrated figures, director Eduardo Montes-Bradley creates comprehensive biographical sketches, steeped in historical…

Another Way of Living: The Story of Reston, VA

Visionary American urban planner Robert Simon believed that building community is more important than creating buildings.…

The Birth of a Nation

A century after its debut, Griffith’s groundbreaking film remains one of the most important works in…

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature-length documentary to explore the Black…

Bombs Away: LBJ, Goldwater and the 1964 Campaign that Changed it All

Looking back a half-century to the 1964 White House contest between President Lyndon Johnson and Senator…

Boom and Bust: America’s Journey on the Erie Canal

A meditation on economic cycles and the American Dream, this remarkable film tells the tale of…

Born on the Fourth of July

Ron Kovic enlists in the Marines and, by 1968, is a sergeant fighting in the Vietnam…

Buskin’ Blues

Preceded by the short film Boardwalk Músico Buskers, more commonly referred to as street performers, come…

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Political satire abounds in this Cold War era, Oscar-nominated black comedy. Chaos ensues in the War…

Embrace of the Serpent

This visionary adventure epic tracks two parallel odysseys as a lone shaman leads two European ethnographers…

Freedom Summer

In the hot and deadly summer of 1964, the nation’s eyes were riveted on Mississippi. Despite…

Frost/Nixon

Based on a series of 1977 interviews between television personality David Frost (Sheen) and former President…

Hallowed Ground

Amid the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Hallowed Ground explores Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of the…

Harry & Snowman

Preceded by the short film Mr. Balloon's Wild Ride Snowman was an old Amish plow horse…

The Imitation Game

Winner of the Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, this Alan Turing (Cumberbatch) biopic explores the…

Larry Kramer in Love and Anger

This powerful documentary candidly peers into the life of visionary author and playwright Larry Kramer, the…

Last Days in the Desert

Ewan McGregor plays both Jesus and the devil in the reimagination of Christ’s 40 days in…

Lost Colony

While navigating life with his hyperprotective mother, teenaged Loren struggles with his pregnant girlfriend’s ambivalence toward…

Low Down

Based on Amy-Jo Albany’s memoir, Low Down brings the audience into the life of 1970s jazz…

Men Go to Battle

A truly distinctive and sparse period piece, Men Go to Battle imagines the different paths that…

Mercy Street

This new PBS Civil War drama produced in and around Richmond, Virginia, takes viewers beyond the…

Monroe Hill

Monroe Hill offers an unprecedented overview of President James Monroe’s first farm in Albemarle County, the…

Most Likely to Succeed

Director Greg Whiteley examines the history of education in the United States, revealing the growing shortcomings…

Mr. Turner

In the last quarter century of life for the eccentric, vulnerable, and sometimes uncouth British painter,…

Paradise

Produced over the course of eight years beginning in 2007, Paradise is a feature-length nonfiction film…

Projections of America

Narrated by John Lithgow, the film uncovers the lost “Projections of America”—a series of 26 short…

Radical Grace

In 2011 the Vatican was reprimanding American nuns for “radical feminism”—for focusing on social justice work…

Reconquest of the Useless

In Werner Herzog’s 1982 adventure film, Fitzcarraldo, the eccentric explorer Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald has the crazy…

Red Army

Fueled by the height of Cold War passions, hockey served as a form of propaganda in…

The Redfern Story

The Redfern Story documents the efforts of a small group of untrained, but passionate, activists in…

Reel In The Closet

Discover the lost news stories, community productions, and home movies that generations of LGBTQ people have…

Return to Cuba: In the Footsteps of Walker Evans

Just weeks before the American and Cuban governments reconciled, a group of renowned photographers traveled to…

Rosenwald

Director Aviva Kempner examines the often-overlooked philanthropy and civil rights activism of Julius Rosenwald, the former…

Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot

This is a free, unticketed event. Please arrive 15 to 30 minutes before the listed start…

Sembene!

Sembene! documents the life of Ousmane Sembene, a self-taught novelist and filmmaker who fought a 50-year…

Some Beasts

Sal abandons the modern world and leaves his troubled past behind, finding solitude on an isolated…

Son of Saul

Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of Auschwitz-Birkenau’s Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from…

Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem

This layered documentary delves into celebrated actor Theodore Bikel’s charismatic storytelling and masterful performances with a…

Walesa: Man of Hope

Famous journalist Oriana Fallaci conducts a daringly brazen interview, with former Polish “Solidarity” movement leader Lech…

Wings of Desire

The sky over war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured…

Wish You Well

In the wake of the tragedy of the loss of their father, young Lou Cardinal and…