KINDS OF KINDNESS

KINDS OF KINDNESS is a triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

SCREAMS BEFORE SILENCE

The event is sponsored by the foundation, Seed the Dream, as part of the "I Believe Israeli Women" initiative. The screening will be hosted by Marcy Gringlas and Alexi Ashe Meyers.

Never-before-heard eyewitness accounts from released hostages, survivors, and first responders.

During the October 7 attacks on Israeli towns and at the Nova Music Festival, women and girls were raped, assaulted, and mutilated. Released hostages have revealed that Israeli captives in Gaza have also been sexually assaulted. Despite the indisputable evidence, these atrocities have received little scrutiny from human rights groups and international organizations. Many leading figures in politics, academia, and media have attempted to minimize or even deny that they occurred. In Screams Before Silence, a 60-minute, presenter-led documentary film, Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta and founder of LeanIn.org, interviews multiple eyewitnesses, released hostages, first responders, medical and forensic experts, and survivors of the Hamas massacres.

DOC WEEK: SUGARCANE

A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, SUGARCANE, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning.  

In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere.

DOC WEEK: PORCELAIN WAR

Amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras, and, for the first time in their lives, their guns. Despite daily shelling, Anya finds resistance and purpose in her art, Andrey takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Slava becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely soldiers. As the war intensifies, Andrey picks up his camera to film their story, and on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present, and hope for the future.

Co-directed by Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo, with extraordinary footage from first-time cinematographer Stefanov, Porcelain War is a stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, one which embodies the passion and fight, that only an artist can put back into the world when it’s crumbling around them.

DOC WEEK: ADMISSIONS GRANTED

Followed by a discussion with the director Miao Wang

In a landmark Supreme Court case pitting Asian American plaintiffs against Harvard University, activists on both sides wrestle with hard truths about race and equality, as the fate of affirmative action hangs in the balance.

FINDING YOUR ROOTS - with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Levar Burton

Presented by The Inkwell Society

Renowned scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. returns to the Martha's Vineyard Film Center for a special screening of FINDING YOUR ROOTS. Gates will present an episode of the show featuring actor and activist Levar Burton, who will then join Gates on stage for a discussion. Gates uses genealogical detective work and cutting-edge DNA analysis to guide guests through the branches of their family trees. Uncovering buried secrets and inspiring stories of long- forgotten ancestors.

FINDING YOUR ROOTS highlights the genealogical backgrounds and ancestral stories of prominent guests that helped to define who they are today. At the center of it all, guiding every discovery, is host and executive producer Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.

TOUCH

A romantic and thrilling story that spans several decades and continents; TOUCH follows one widower’s emotional journey to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago, before his time runs out.

WIDOW CLICQUOT

Followed by a Q&A with producer Christina Weiss Lurie

After her husband's untimely death, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot flouts convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business they had nurtured together. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial reversals, she defies her critics and revolutionizes the champagne industry to become one of the world's first great businesswomen.

JON STETSON: PSYCHIC, MIND-BLOWING COMEDY SHOW

Jon Stetson returns to the Film Center stage

5 TIME WHITEHOUSE PERFORMER AND THE INSPIRATION FOR THE CBS SHOW “THE MENTALIST” JON STETSON RETURNS TO MARTHA'S VINEYARD!

There is simply NO other audience interactive performer like Jon Stetson. Known across the globe as America’s Master Mentalist, Jon knows what you’re thinking. No, he really does! What is The Stetson Experience? A truly mindblowing, crowd-pleasing, audience interactive mix of magic, mind reading, and amazing mystery all packaged together and delivered by an engaging and very funny comedic personality.

4 US Presidents, The King of Sweden, Bob Kraft & the New England Patriots, Fortune 1000 organizations, associations and celebrity audiences have experienced Jon Stetson worldwide because NOBODY does what Jon Stetson does in quite the way that he does it. Stetson is a champion player of mind games. Jon began as a magician, but moved beyond the traditional tricks and props of magic to explore the real mysteries of the human mind. Call him a “cognitionist.” He observes people’s patterns and steps inside their heads. He amazes them with information they didn’t even know about themselves. He engages people in a psychic partnership that makes them the real stars of the show. Together, Jon and and the audience do the impossible. The result is a new, powerful, provocative, and thrilling package of entertainment unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. Better still, it’s funny. Jon’s stand-up comedy covers a core of mystery in an uproarious wrapper of fun. This internationally acclaimed conjurer/comedian/cognitionist will make you laugh, make you think, make you feel like an awe-struck kid.

Part comedian, part mind-reader, and all audience interactive master showman.

MY FATHER'S NAME

Followed by a discussion with the director, Susanna Styron, and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Years after Lee Ed Frazier's death, his daughter Jan made a shocking discovery: as a young man her father had participated in a lynching. Now, as she attempts to uncover the truth about what happened, Jan must reckon with deeply conflicted feelings about the father she loved, grapple with how to hold her family accountable, and face the dawning awareness of her own unconscious racism.”

ELIZABETH TAYLOR: THE LOST TAPES

Followed by a live Q&A with director Nanette Burstein

ELIZABETH TAYLOR: THE LOST TAPES offers an unprecedented exploration into the life of Elizabeth Taylor, Hollywood’s quintessential star. With extraordinary access to Taylor’s personal archives and seventy hours of newly-unearthed intimate audio, these candid conversations peel back the layers of one of cinema’s most enduring icons, revealing a woman at odds with her public image, yearning for respect and agency. Foregoing traditional talking heads, the film allows Elizabeth’s own voice to narrate her story and challenges audiences to reconsider Taylor’s legacy, presenting her not just as a film icon but as a trailblazer who leveraged her stardom for humanitarian efforts, effecting real change in the world.

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: FULL SEASON PASS (Nine Performances)

This pass gets you admission for all Nine operas in this year's season

Includes our traditional Holiday screening of the MAGIC FLUTE - Julie Taymor’s version. 

The Metropolitan Opera announces 2024–25 The Met: Live in HD season, featuring eight performances transmitted live from the Met stage to cinemas worldwide.

The Metropolitan Opera’s award- winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, opens its 18th season on Saturday, October 5, 2024, with a live transmission of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, which stars acclaimed tenor Benjamin Bernheim in the title role of the tormented poet, alongside sopranos Erin Morley and Pretty Yende and mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine. The 2024–25 Live in HD season also features the Met premiere and live transmission of Jeanine Tesori’s new opera Grounded, starring mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo; new stagings of Strauss’s Salome by director Claus Guth, with a cast led by soprano Elza van den Heever and baritone Peter Mattei, and Verdi’s Aida, with soprano Angel Blue and tenor Piotr Beczała, directed by Michael Mayer; the first-ever Met Live in HD transmission of Beethoven’s Fidelio, along with Puccini’s Tosca, both featuring soprano Lise Davidsen as she continues to explore the full range of Italian and German dramatic repertoire; Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with an all-star cast; and director Bartlett Sher’s beloved take on Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, with opera’s newest star, mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, returning to the Met after her hit run this season in the new production of Bizet’s Carmen. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Grounded, Aida, and Salome.

PLEASE NOTE: When purchasing a pass, we will email you to ask which operas you would like to attend with your pass. And then we will send you individual tickets to the operas you have selected.