Two films, one created by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists and one released after almost 20 years in limbo, will show at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center beginning April 18.
Continuing is "Georgia O'Keeffe: The Brightness of Light."
Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community’s mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta, as soldiers destroy the homes of families – the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for more than five years they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free. The film, which won the 2025 Academy Award for best documentary feature, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path toward equality and justice.
"No Other Land," which is not rated, shows through April 24.
In Charles Burnett’s long-awaited 1999 comedic masterpiece, "The Annihilation of Fish," Obediah “Fish” Johnson (James Earl Jones) is an aging Jamaican widower who has spent decades wrestling an invisible demon named Hank. De-institutionalized, he takes a bus to Los Angeles and finds lodging in the eccentric boarding house of Mrs. Muldroone (Margot Kidder). There, Fish meets Poinsettia (Lynn Redgrave), who has moved from San Francisco, fleeing her spurned long-dead fiancé, composer Giacomo Puccini. The two lodgers become friends, playing endless games of gin that Poinsettia always wins. Fish persuades her to referee his demonic wrestling matches — but Hank does not fight fair.
Shot in 1999, the film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival that September and was acquired for distribution. But following a negative review in Variety, the distributor canceled the film’s release. For almost a quarter-century, "The Annihilation of Fish" has been unavailable on any media.
In 2003, Burnett asked Milestone Films (distributor of his films "Killer of Sheep" and "My Brother's Wedding") to try to acquire the rights for the film. Thus began a 19-year-long odyssey that included researching and contacting distributors, producers and heirs, lawyers, the U.S. Treasury Department and finally the California bankruptcy court.
"The Annihilation of Fish," which is rated R, shows through April 24.
More information is available on the Ross' website.
