Hello Friends of Film,

I recently returned from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival where I had the good fortune to view more than 25 films over six days, several of which we hope to bring to Aspen to share with you. It was a rousing festival particularly since the past two years were virtual; I especially loved being able to connect with friends and colleagues while waiting to get into films and while in the theaters. There is always a fantastic mix of engaging documentaries and unique features. 

Two of my favorite features - FAIR PLAY and FLORA AND SON scored huge deals from Netflix and Apple, respectively, and the docs on Michael J. Fox, Stephen Curry and Brooke Shields (with my photos of Stephen and Brooke both above) are all inspiring and compelling. 

It was an exciting first week of February which kicked off on the 1st with our homage screening to Jean-Luc Godard, showcasing his influential master work BREATHLESS. Thanks to the group who came out for this special screening and for your feedback about wanting to see more classic foreign cinema in general - we are listening!

Now that we have the ability to do special program curation at the Isis Theatre, we are always looking for feedback from you on what you would love to see presented so please feel free to drop us a line at [email protected] to let us know what you’d like to see.

As we’ve mentioned, we plan to bring more special screenings with guests to you over the coming year.  

Our next special event will be an eye-opening documentary Wednesday, February 22: THE UNREDACTED at the Isis Theatre at 7 PM.

THE UNREDACTED is a documentary about a group of men trained by al-Qaeda who are transferred from Guantanamo to the world’s first rehabilitation center for “terrorists” located in Saudi Arabia.

I will host a conversation with the film’s director Meg Smaker, following this surprising and telling film.

“This kind of willingness and aptitude to understand the layers of the otherized
has never felt more urgent.”
-Tomris Laffley, Variety

Since February is a short month, we want to make you aware of a couple of upcoming, early March notable screenings so that you can mark your calendars:

On Wednesday, March 1, in honor of the AUDI Ajax Cup, we will be featuring a new ski film called CHASING THE LINE which tells the story behind the epic downhill race of Franz Klammer at the 1976 Winter Olympics.

For our next Indie Showcase, Wednesday, March 8, we are bringing back by popular demand director Laura Poitras’ award-winning ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED (2022), after the enthusiasm it garnered at Academy Screenings and its 2023 Oscar® nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

“No matter how closely you’ve followed Goldin’s career, or the story of the Sackler family’s forced reckoning, there is something new to learn in All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”
-Tony Bravo, San Francisco Chronicle

“So much of this documentary is about what we cannot get back, what we were lucky enough to have when we had it, and what art preserves, accidentally and not.”
-K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone

Stay tuned for more exciting events and offerings. Several of these will be exclusively for Aspen Film Members (membership does matter), so if you are interested in joining our film community, please view our membership opportunities here.  

Looking forward to seeing you at the cinema!

Warm regards,

Susan Wrubel
Executive Director + Artistic Director, Aspen Film