Portside

“The Nightingale,” from Jennifer Kent, looks at the effects of sexual assault in 1820s Tasmania. Critics say it is too graphic; defenders say it reflects historical truths.

Burkinabè Rising showcases creative nonviolent resistance in Burkina Faso, a small, landlocked country in West Africa, home to a vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens, who provide an example of making inspirational political change.

Few films portray working people realistically. One thinks of rare movies such as Hollywood’s Norma Rae, the independent Salt of the Earth, Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike or the Italian classic, The Organizer.

Newly restored, Elaine May’s darkest comedy is one of the great underappreciated American movies of the 1970s.

Six black filmmakers discuss a 1990s boom that went bust. They talk about racism, misogyny, of being marginalized by executives who feigned interest in their work, of lacking a safety net that buoyed white peers, of 'director's jail'.

This moving and profound portrait serves as a fitting biographical tribute as well as a piercing, often painful recount of African American history from slavery and the Civil War to the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights movement and beyond.

Jennie Livingston's 1991 documentary is the story of the queer, working-class, black and brown subculture that then revolved around the fierce and fabulous ballroom competitions in New York City.

Martin Scorsese blends fact and fiction for a playfully experimental film about the most freewheeling tour Bob Dylan ever did. The true shock of Rolling Thunder Revue is in how good, how alive, Dylan is on stage.

The Last Black Man In San Francisco doesn’t follow an established playbook. It tries to write a new one, earnestly to life as it’s lived and dreamed.

Friday also brings a movie on another musical icon, albeit one largely unfamiliar to the American masses: Viktor Tsoi, frontman of perhaps the most popular and influential of Soviet rock bands, Kino.