Honouring Black History Month, MUBI’s film collection CUT TO BLACK: CELEBRATING BLACK CINEMA celebrates the incredible wealth of Black artistry, both in front of and behind the camera. From acclaimed classics to hidden treasures, social critiques to genre pleasures, these films powerfully articulate the struggles, resilience, and joy experienced by the Black community all around the world. New titles arriving to the collection include:
MLK/FBI (Documentary) – Streaming February 1
Dir. Samuel D. Pollard, 2020
Throughout Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s history-altering political career, he was treated by U.S. intelligence agencies like an enemy of the state. Newly declassified files detail the FBI surveillance that dogged King’s activism, fueled by the racist and red-baiting paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover.
Red Hook Summer (Drama) – Streaming February 1
Dir. Spike Lee, 2012
Flik, a middle-class boy from Atlanta, is spending the summer with his religious grandfather in a Brooklyn housing project. With his grandfather’s preaching and the culture shock of inner-city life, Flik’s summer is a disaster—until he meets local girl Chazz, who shows him Brooklyn’s brighter side.
Eve’s Bayou (Mystery) – Streaming February 1 (Pictured)
Dir. Kasi Lemmons, 1999
Over the course of a long, hot Louisiana summer, 10-year-old Eve discovers that her family’s affluent existence is merely a facade. The philandering of her suave doctor father creates a rift, throwing Eve’s mother and teenage sister into emotional turmoil. This haunting drama premiered at TIFF 1997 and stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jurnee Smollett, Megan Good and Lynn Whitfield.
Audiences can celebrate Black talent in cinema with MUBI year-round and stream their full list of films in this collection here.
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
This Valentine’s day, fall in love with MUBI’s selection of cinematic romances. Whether it’s the thrill of that first encounter or the depth of a decade-long affair, a quick and dramatic tryst or the bitter regret of a breakup, love can take many shapes and forms, inducing all manner of emotions. Starting February 14, subscribers can find swoon-worthy romances to warm the coldest of hearts in MUBI’s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE film collection.
Lovely & Amazing (Comedy) – Streaming February 14
Dir. Nicole Holofcener, 2001
Wealthy Los Angelino Jane has three daughters who seem to have nothing in common with each other. There’s married struggling artist Michelle (Catherine Keener), Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer), an aspiring actress in her twenties, and adopted kid Annie (Raven Goodwin). Together, the women deal with insecurities about their looks, relationships, and jobs. In 2003, Lovely & Amazing won Best Supporting Female at the Independent Spirit Awards and also stars Jake Gyllenhaal.
Fallen Leaves (Romance) – Streaming Now – MUBI RELEASE*
Dir. Aki Kaurismäki, 2023
In modern-day Helsinki, Ansa and Holappa, two lonely souls in search of their first love, meet by chance in a local karaoke bar. However, the pair’s path to happiness is beset by numerous obstacles—from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog. Fallen Leaves was awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated in two categories at the 2024 Golden Globes.
Paterson (Comedy) – Streaming Now
Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2016
Following an everyman observer as he transfigures his low-key daily routine into verse, Jarmusch’s film depicts moments of epiphany and inspiration, finding the rhymes and rhythms of everyday life. A disarming, imperfectly symmetrical relationship drama, starring Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani. Paterson received the Palm Dog award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
WIZARD OF WINNIPEG: TWO GUY MADDIN RESTORATIONS
Each fleck of snow and pillow feather thrown to the air twinkles in these new 4K restorations of two early Guy Maddin films. Cult treasures from one of Canada’s most cinephilic filmmakers, Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988) and Archangel (1990) travel back in time to take the shimmering form of 1930s talkies. Set in the mid-1880s and during the First World War, Maddin’s first feature shivers around an Icelandic enclave of Lake Winnipeg, while his next work unfolds in far-flung Russia. Both films find a lead in Kyle McCulloch: a Regina-born actor who started his career embodying feverish men, capable of death-defying jealousy and love in WIZARD OF WINNIPEG: TWO GUY MADDIN RESTORATIONS.
Archangel, 1990 (Comedy) – Streaming February 1
In 1919, one-legged Canadian soldier Lt. John Boles arrives in the northern Russian town of Archangel where Bolsheviks, White Russians and German Huns converge during World War I. When Boles encounters a local woman Veronkha, he faints and becomes convinced that she is his dead wife Iris. Archangel was awarded the Special Award by the National Society of Film Critics Awards in 1992.
Tales From The Gimli Hospital, 1988 (Fantasy) – Streaming February 1
Late 19th century. A smallpox epidemic ravages Gimli, a small Icelandic-Canadian fishing village on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. In a hospital room, two patients, Einar and Gunnar, become friends at first—but bitter jealousy emerges once they reveal their darkest secrets to one another.
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Source: MUBI Canada
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
