Oscar-nominated movies get a lot of attention, but there are some that many movie-goers never get to see. Those are the short films, both animated and live-action, gathered for special release once a year in two separate feature-length packages. Two Sonoma County theaters will show the films, starting Friday, Jan. [...]
Two Sonoma County movie theaters plan special events this month. The Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol opens the new monthly New York Film Critics Series next week, featuring screenings of new films before their national release, plus high-definition simulcasts of question-and-answer sessions with the stars and filmmakers. The first [...]
Coming up at Sonoma County’s art cinema houses: — “The Magic Flute,” the film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s classic two-act opera, will screen twice at Summerfield Cinemas in Santa Rosa. The 134-minute film, directed by Kenneth Branagh, will be show at 1 p.m. Sunday (June 9) and [...]
“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 [...]
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 [...]
“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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
What is art? Whether it’s oil on canvas or actors on stage, dancers on their toes or comedians doing stand-up, Press Democrat staff writer Dan Taylor covers the fine and lively arts in Northern California. Meet the people, go behind the scenes and get ahead on what’s coming up.