In 1968, Peace Corps veteran David Schickele enlisted his friend Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam to star in a light-hearted comedy about the adventures of a young Nigerian intellectual in San Francisco. Using a docu-fictional style reminiscent of Cassavetes' Shadows, the film observes the foibles of late 1960s African-American culture with an outsider's incisive eye. The result is less frothy comedy, and more of a vibrant snapshot of the nation's racial politics, from interracial romance to cross-cultural misunderstandings and countercultural joy.

This criminally overlooked comic masterpiece finally gets a 4k restoration and the deluxe treatment it deserves! Wendell B. Harris wrote, directed and starred in this edgy, hilarious deep-dive into the mind of a brilliant African-American, William Douglas Street, a man who seeks to adopt any identity – baseball player, journalist, Harvard grad student, even surgeon – other than his own. Harris fully embodies Street, a riveting cinematic character, as he ascends (and descends) through the social order, where he is briefly accepted, then harshly rejected, at each turn.

Master documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s latest film, Menus-Plaisirs– Les Troisgros, is a film about the Troisgros family and their three restaurants: Troisgros, Le Central and Colline, located in three neighboring locations in bucolic central France. Troisgros is a legendary restaurant, founded 93 years ago with a sustaining 3-star Michelin rating for the past 55 years. In 2020, Troisgros was awarded a Michelin green star for exemplary sustainable practices. Much of the film takes place at Troisgros.

Strictly as a legal undertaking, The People’s Joker is fascinating just for the fact of its existence – IndieWire accurately calls it “one of the most impressive and subversive stretches of fair use law ever put to film.” Writer/director/star Vera Drew adapts and deeply subverts the famous DC Comics villain, taking shots at all variety of trademarked superheroes…and gets away with it.