While we continue to offer our usual selection of archival treasures in January and February, the Dryden will also present the local premieres of seven unique and innovative new films, some of which offer exciting variations on cinematic traditions.

On Friday, January 11, famed actor and filmmaker John Turturro (Do the Right Thing, Barton Fink) will personally present his film Romance & Cigarettes, starring James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon, Steve Buscemi, and Christopher Walken.

Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain! (screening January 12) mixes late silent-era movies (featuring narration by Isabella Rossellini, a lush music score, and sound effects) with a perversely original exploration of the director’s personal hang-ups.

Abel Raises Cain (January 18) also takes a decidedly personal approach to the life of professional media hoaxer Alan Abel, who inspired everyone from Jerry Springer to Sasha Baron Cohen. Abel’s daughter, Jenny, co-directed this funny and unexpectedly touching documentary.

Mixing familiar documentary techniques with re-enactments, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Strange Culture (January 25) tells the harrowing story of Buffalo-based couple Hope and Steve Kurtz. Hope’s (played by actress Tilda Swinton) sudden death from heart failure in 2004 set off a series of events resulting in her husband being investigated for bioterrorism, and still facing federal mail- and wire-fraud charges that could send him to prison for 20 years. Steve Kurtz will appear in person at the screening.

The latest work from direct cinema pioneer Albert Maysles is The Gates (February 15), a documentary about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s massive public art project in New York’s Central Park. Maysles and brother David began filming in the late 1970s to capture the artists’ many struggles over 25 years to realize their dream project. Co-director Antonio Ferrera will introduce and answer questions following the screening.

Heddy Honigmann’s Forever (February 23) takes us inside Paris’s famed Père Lachaise cemetery, where countless visitors pay homage to their idols: Proust, Wilde, Chopin, and many more. This lovely new documentary offers a different perspective on immortality through interviews with those who have been profoundly touched by the legacies of these artistic greats.

A follow-up to his celebrated first feature, Killer of Sheep (screening February 22), Charles Burnett’s My Brother’s Wedding returns to Watts in Los Angeles. Recently re-edited by Burnett, My Brother’s Wedding—The Director’s Cut (February 29) poignantly observes a young man pressured to choose between his friends and a more middle-class lifestyle.

Jim Healy, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, Motion Picture Department