Alternative-movie offerings are plentiful this fall. In addition to festivals featuring indie and foreign films — the Feminist Film Festival, the EROS gay film festival, the Festival of Ibero American Cinema, the Manhattan Short Film Festival — there will be lots of fun movie events between now and the end of the year, including a screening of “Diamond Ruff,” shot in Hartford, a Halloween-themed evening of riffing on bad horror movies, and a documentary, “Punk Jews,” about raucous performers.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main St. in Hartford, will show 1942 Bette Davis classic “Now, Voyager” and 1948 Barbara Stanwyck thriller “Sorry, Wrong Number” Sept. 14, and show costumes from the films. A lecture by the owner of those costumes, and hundreds more, will be held on Oct. 18. From Oct. 2 to 5, Manhattan Short Film Festival will make its annual stop. On Oct. 10, “Diamond Ruff,” a gangster drama shot in Hartford, will be shown, with Joe Young, who created the character, in attendance.
On Oct. 12, four classic films — “Teddy at the Throttle,” “The Gold Rush” and “Foolish Wives” and “The Blue Angel” — are on tap, in homage to the same film series presented by the Atheneum in 1934. The 2014 biopic “Belle” is on tap for Oct. 16 and 19. On Oct. 18, the 1992 Mexican foodie movie “Like Water for Chocolate” will be shown, and a dinner will be served with foods in the movie.
“The Better Angels,” a black-and-white 2014 film about Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood, will have a sneak peak, in advance of its release, from Oct. 23 to 26. “Artemisia,” the 1997 French-language biopic of artist Artemisia Gentileschi, will be shown Nov. 2, with a sneak peek at “Self-Portrait as a Lute Player,” a Gentileschi painting that the Atheneum acquired recently.
Nov. 6 and 9 will see a screening of the French biopic “Yves Saint Laurent.” On Nov. 13 and 16, “Remembering the Artist,” a doc on abstract expressionist painter Robert De Niro Sr. A DeNiro painting will be on view. On Dec. 4, the 1942 classic “The Shop Around the Corner,” with Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart, will be shown. www.thewadsworth.org.
Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St. in Hartford, will open “God Help the Girl,” a story of a young songwriter, on Sept. 19. On Sept. 26, “Take Me to the River,” a documentary about the music of Memphis, and “Wetlands,” a story about a disaffected teen, will open. On Sept. 28, the Connecticut Citizen Action Group co-presents a screening of “Ivory Tower,” a documentary about the student-loan crisis. On Oct. 30, Sea Tea Improv will present “Improv’d Cinema: The Halloween Edition,” an evening of comedy in which they riff on bad horror movies. www.realartways.org.
Cinestudio, at Trinity College in Hartford, presents the 1975 rock opera “Tommy,” starring Roger Daltrey, on Sept. 24. Iranian documentary films “Road to Kurdistan,” “Unwelcome in Tehran” and “Dream of Silk” on Oct. 1, and the feminist documentary “Half the Sky” on Oct. 8. Cinestudio continues its First Thursday series of LGBT-themed films Oct. 2 with “Eastern Boys” and on Nov. 6 with “Dear White People.”
The 2011 anime film “A Letter to Momo” will be shown Oct. 5 to 7, the Children’s Latino Film Festival Oct. 11 and “The Conformist” the 1970 Bernardo Bertolucci story of a weakling who becomes a fascist, Oct. 12 to 14. “The Honor Diaries,” profiles of women’s rights advocates, is on tap for Oct. 15, “Sing Along ‘Sound of Music'” is on Oct. 18 and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” remastered in 4K, will be shown Oct. 19 to 22.
Michael Gondry’s “Mood Indigo” from Oct. 26 to 28. The annual run of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is from Dec. 21 to 24. Cinestudio also will be the site of the annual EROS Film Fest, the student-run offshoot of the Connecticut LGBT Film Festival, from Nov. 12 to 16. www.cinestudio.org.
On other campuses: New England Underground Film Festival will be Oct. 11 at Wilde Auditorium at University of Hartford in West Hartford. The lineup includes films by Mike Finnegan of New Haven, whose film is on New Britain poet and AIDS activist Mike Hawkins, Samuel B. Russell of Fairfield and Daniel Kuriakose of Woodbury. Wesleyan University’s “Israeli Voices” series presents “What Animal Are You?” Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. and “Zaytoun” Nov. 22 at 8 p.m., both at Goldsmith Family Cinema, with directors in attendance (Etgar Keret and Eran Riklis, respectively).
The Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University in New Haven is the host of the 5th annual New England Festival of Ibero American Cinema and the 7th annual From Cuba / Desde Cuba series of Cuban films from Oct. 21 to 26. www.nefiac.com. Another Spanish-language festival is being held at McCook Auditorium at Trinity College in Hartford College every Wednesday until Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. www.spanishtrincoll.blospot.
Manchester Community College plans a four-film free series of foreign productions: British thriller “Locke” Sept. 19, Chilean feminist drama “Gloria” Oct. 17, Nigerian-American domestic drama “Mother of George” Nov. 14, and French road movie “On My Way” Dec. 12. All showtimes at 7 p.m.
Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford presents Feminist Film Festival, opening on Sept. 18 at 1:40 p.m. with the documentary “I Am A Girl,” about girls in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, Afghanistan, the United States and Australia, at Davidson Hall, Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. Domestic drama “Middle of Nowhere” is Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. at Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main St. in Hartford.
On Sept. 20 at 3 p.m., “Strong!,” a doc on weightlifter Cheryl Haworth, is at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St. in Hartford, with two shorts, “Trinity Men Take a Stand: Fight to End Sexual Assault” by Bettina Gonzalez and “Aliens Arrive, by Trinity Prof. Madalene Speziaetti. Charter Oak also presents “Regarding Susan Sontag” on Sept. 23 and “Punk Jews” in Oct. 28. Both docs are part of the 10th annual Celebration of Jewish Arts and Culture. Details: www.charteroakcenter.org.
From stages around the world: Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet will show four performances as Sunday matinees, including “The Legend of Love” on Oct. 26 and “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 21. www.fathomevents.com. National Theatre Live, from London’s West End, brings “A Streetcar Named Desire” starring Gillian Anderson starting Sept. 16, and adults-only dance-theater work “John” beginning Dec. 9. www.ntlive.com.
Met Live in HD, from Metropolitan Opera in New York, opens its 2014-15 season with Verdi’s “Macbeth” Oct. 11, Mozart’s “La Nozze di Figaro” Oct. 18, Bizet’s “Carmen” Nov. 1, Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” Nov. 22 and Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” Dec. 16. www.metopera.org. “Opera in Cinema: Madama Butterfly” from Sydney Opera House starts Sept. 21. www.cinemalive.com. Tim Rice’s “From Here to Eternity,” recorded in London, will be Oct. 2, 5 and 9. Royal Ballet’s “Manon” is Oct. 16 and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” Dec. 16. www.fathomevents.com.
Mandell Jewish Community Center, 335 Bloomfield Ave. in West Hartford, will show “The Green Prince,” a documentary about Mosab HassanYousef, the son of a Hamas leader who became an Israeli spy, on Oct. 6. www.mandelljcc.org.
Bijou Theatre, 275 Fairfield Ave. in Bridgeport, has an “Unconventional Love Stories” film series that includes “The Great Beauty” on Sept. 14, “Broken Flowers” on Oct. 12, “I Am Love” on Nov. 9 and “Three Colors Red” on Dec. 14. The theater’s Reel Law series continues with “The People vs. Larry Flynt” on Oct. 9. The Manhattan Short Film Fest will be on Oct. 4. www.thebijoutheatre.com.
Criterion Cinemas in New Haven shows classic and campy films on the weekends, and the few coming up are fun: “There’s No Business Like Show Business” on Sept. 14, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” on Sept. 19 and 20, “Laura” on Sept. 20 and 21, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox on Sept. 26 and 27 and “The Hustler” on Sept. 27 and 28. www.bowtiecinemas.com.
Avon Theatre, 272 Bedford St. in Stamford, continues its “Legends of Rock Live” series of classic concert films on Sept. 17 with “Rod Stewart: The Early Years,” on Nov. 19 with “The Eagles: 1976 Tour” and on Dec. 17 with “The Beach Boys: Summer Concerts From 1970-1981.” Its “Cult Classics” series continues Sept. 23 with the 1985 whodunit “Clue,” based on the popular board game, on Oct. 21 with “The Shining,” on Nov. 25 with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and Dec. 23 with “Alien.” The FTMA Talk Back Series continues Sept. 24 with the 1970 Paul Newman movie “Sometimes a Great Notion,” on Oct. 8 with the 1988 family drama “Running on Empty,” on Oct. 22 with the 1981 sentimental love story “On Golden Pond,” on Nov. 5 with the 1979 George Burns comedy “Going in Style” and on Nov. 19 with the 1999 adventure “The Straight Story.”
The French Cinematheque series continues on Oct. 16 with “Venus in Fur,” Nov. 13 with “Jealousy” and Dec. 11 with “That Man from Rio.” The “Documentary Night” series continues Oct. 1 with “Abrazos,” Nov. 5 with “Afternoon of a Faun,” Dec. 3 with “Code Black.” A special free event Sept. 26 is “Lucky Them,” a Toni Collette drama about a rock journalist, with screenwriter Emily Wachtel present. www.avontheatre.org.
This story has been corrected from an earlier version to correct the date of the screening of “The Green Prince.”
