A dual-portrait documentary featuring iconic American artists Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams opens July 9 at Nebraska’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
Continuing to show are “Summer of Soul” and “All Light, Everywhere,” feature films that explore, respectively, a watershed 1969 Harlem concert and the rapid expansion of surveillance technology.
In “Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation,” filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland showcases the loves, fears and artistic achievements of Capote and Williams. The production includes an array of archival materials, film clips and vibrant voiceover work from Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto as Capote and Williams, respectively.
The film celebrates the duo’s sometimes tumultuous friendship through the ages, and how their queer identity informed their artistic achievements and relationships.
“Truman and Tennessee,” which is not rated, shows through July 22.
In “Summer of Soul,” first-time director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson interweaves live footage with revealing interviews to shine a light on the largely forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival. Filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park), the festival spanned six weeks in summer 1969. It includes never-before-seen concerts by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach and the Fifth Dimension.
The festival was intended to channel collective community anger about the assassination of civil rights leaders and the growing Black Panther movement into a celebratory event that affirmed Black pride in those who attended and the much-maligned Harlem neighborhood.
Stories told in the film come from concertgoers, musicians and behind-the-scenes workers.
“Summer of Soul,” which opens July 2 and is rated PG-13 for some disturbing images, smoking and brief drug material, shows at the Ross through July 15.
Also showing is “All Light, Everywhere,” a documentary that poses thought-provoking questions about the modern view of objective reality and implications on the growing reliance on surveillance technology.
Winner of the Sundance 2021 Special Jury Prize for Nonfiction Experimentation, the film explores the shared histories of cameras, weapons, policing and justice. Showcasing how surveillance technologies have become a fixture in modern life, the film navigates the complexities of an objective point of view, probing biases inherent in human perception and the lens.
“All Light, Everywhere,” which is not rated, shows at the Ross through July 15.
For more information about films playing at the Ross, including show times and ticket pricing, click here or call 402-472-5353.
