A Press Democrat Blog

Arts

Dan Taylor on the fine arts scene.

Rialto Cinemas screens ‘Mumia’ documentary

Thursday, at 7:00 by

“Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary, a two-hour documentary about journalist and writer Mumia Abu-Jamal, opens Friday (May 10) at the Rialto, 6868 McKinley St. Sentenced to death after he was convicted of murdering a policeman in 1981, Abu-Jamal continues to live and work on Death Row in a Pennsylvania prison. The film includes interviews with author-activists Cornel West, Alice Walker and Angela Davis, comedian and activist Dick Gregory, and journalist Amy Goodman. Tickets prices range from $7.25 to $9.50. Information: 525-4840,… Read More »

Oscar-nominated short films come to movie theaters

Wednesday, at 7:00 by

Every year, the Academy Award nominations spark a fierce flash of interest among film fans. But for decades, one category languished in the shadows — the short films. Locally, Ky Boyd, proprietor of the Rialto Cinemas — first in Santa Rosa, and now in Sebastopol — has championed these little gems. When the shorts, both live and animated, became available to release as a package program to movie theaters in 2001, the Rialto was among the few nationwide to leap… Read More »

Rialto Cinemas screens ‘Rebels With a Cause’

Tuesday, at 11:03 by

“Rebels With a Cause,” an award-winning documentary about the fight to preserve open space, protect agriculture and wildlife and establish public parks, will screen 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, at the Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol. Created local filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto, who will attend the screening, the film is narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand. Special guests also include Marty Griffin, author of “Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast,” a novel about the crusades to preserve the Point Reyes… Read More »

Rialto hosts new ‘Community Cinema’ film series.

Monday, at 7:00 by

Rialto Cinemas and the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival will launch “Community Cinema,” a new free monthly series of films from the Emmy Award-winning Public Broadcasting System series, “Independent Lens,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11. The series kick offs with “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” a documentary miniseries by Maro Chermayeff, based on the bestselling book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The series follows six actress-advocates — America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg… Read More »

Rialto screens ‘Collaborators’ at 6th Street

Monday, at 10:11 by

What happens when a satirist tangles with a tyrant? John Hodge, best-known for his “Trainspotting” screenplay, has a written a new play about an imaginary 1938 encounter between Josef Stalin and dissident Russian playwright Mikhail Bulgakov. In the play, Bulgakov — stalked by the secret police — is offered a commission to write a play about Stalin to celebrate the Premier’s 60th birthday. You can see the London production of the play, starring Alex Jennings as Bulgakov and Simon Russell… Read More »

Rialto Cinemas lives on at 6th Street Playhouse

Tuesday, at 10:36 by

Ky Boyd’s Rialto Cinemas lost its lease on its longtime site on Summerfield Road last August,  but Boyd’s passion for showing good movies lives on in his “Rialto on the Road” events. Boyd and his partner, Michael O’Rand, showed up Monday night at the 6th Street Playhouse to present “E.T.” at the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition’s “Bike-In Movie” fund-raiser, which featured valet bike parking and a screening of the film in the theater’s main auditorium. Boyd and company return June… Read More »

‘Prairie Home’ in Santa Rosa

Monday, at 10:00 by

This just in from Lake Wobegon: The Jewish Community Center, working with Rialto Cinemas, will present a live, high-definition broadcast of a performance of  Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minn. The program screens at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, in the Jackson Theater at Sonoma Country Day School, 4400 Day School Place, Santa Rosa. The show features singer and fiddle player Sara Watkins, roots music quintet Old Crow Medicine Show, Texas singer-songwriter… Read More »

‘Giants’ at 3rd Street Cinemas

Wednesday, at 10:00 by

When the Rialto Cinemas lost its lease on Summerfield Road, cinema fans worried that they’d no longer have a local venue where they could see independent, foreign and art films. But ultimately, they may have more than one. Ky Boyd of the Rialto has vowed to return at a Santa Rosa site, and is showing some programs at the 6th Street Playhouse and in the Jackson Theater at the Sonoma Country Day School in the meantime.  You’ll see more on… Read More »

Checking the flicks at the Rialto

Monday, at 6:06 by

The Rialto Cinemas of Santa Rosa got a lot of press last March, when it was announced the fine art and independent film house was losing its lease Aug. 31. That deadline still holds, and proprietor Ky Boyd said he has no announcement yet on a new venue, but in the meantime, the Rialto continues to runs some very good movies. I’d like to mention three I’ve seen recently, all still running this week: – “Babies,” a hard-to-describe documentary that… Read More »

Adios, Rialto? Fans will mourn

Thursday, at 11:45 by

During an online discussion a few weeks ago about local movie houses in general, readers eagerly volunteered their support for Ky Boyd’s Rialto Cinemas in Santa Rosa. Everybody weeps and wails when an old favorite is suddenly gone, but the true measure of the Rialto fans’  sincerity is simply this: At the time the fans declared their love for the cozy art film house, no one knew there was any danger of ever losing it. Today, the news broke that… Read More »