An elegant and stirring entertainment —The New Yorker

George Clooney’s perceptive film chronicles the real-life conflict between esteemed television newsman Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn) and red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy, who is presented in archival footage seamlessly blended into this vivid historical drama. (2005, 93 min.)

General public $6 / UCSB students free with valid id

One of the world’s great cities comes vibrantly alive through its music —Variety

In the follow-up to his acclaimed film Head-On, director Fatih Akin assembles an inspired portrait of Turkish music, from modern electronic, rock and hip-hop to classical “Arabesque.” On-screen guide Alexander Hacke from German proto-industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten unlocks Istanbul’s cultural secrets. Includes performances by Sezen Aksu, Erkin Koray, Baba Zula, Müzeyyen Senar and many other superstars. (2005, 90 min.)

General public $6 / UCSB students $5

France’s most compelling, most visceral and exciting filmmaker —Los Angeles Times

Charismatic Romain Duris plays an emotionally conflicted man torn between a life of crime and his dream of becoming a concert pianist. Director Jacques Audiard has fashioned a powerful, pulpy film based on James Toback’s 1978 cult neo-noir Fingers, as stylish as it is suspenseful. (2005, 107 min.)

General public $6 / UCSB students $5

Explosive, funny, tragic, challenging and constantly surprising...a masterpiece —Salon.com

This exhilarating film, starring two of France’s greatest young actors, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric, expertly mixes comedy, tragedy and melodrama to tell the emotionally gripping story of the intersecting lives of two former lovers. (Arnaud Desplechin, 2004, 150 min.)

General public $6 / UCSB students $5

Both riveting and disturbing —Village Voice

This Sundance Festival Jury Prize-winning documentary tells the dramatic and compelling story of seven innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. (2005, 95 min.)

Co-presented with the UCSB Center on Police Practices and Community

General public $6 / UCSB students $5

Compelling, chilling and immediate —Variety

Inspired by the real-life story of a bus hijacking in Greece, Hostage explores the sensitive issue of Greek-Albanian relations through the story of a young man who takes over an intercity bus headed toward the Albanian border. The tension builds to a harrowing conclusion. (2004, 105 min.)

Co-presented with the James & Sarah Argyropoulos Endowment in Hellenic Studies at UCSB in association with the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles

General public $6 / UCSB students $5

A potent and imaginative creative biography —Los Angeles Times

This magical documentary about superbly inventive percussionist Evelyn Glennie, deaf since childhood, is the latest film by Thomas Riedelsheimer, whose previous work Rivers & Tides examined the haunting art of Andy Goldsworthy. Touch the Sound takes viewers on a fascinating sensory expedition, full of gorgeous music. (2004, 99 min.)

General public $6 / UCSB students $5

The most morally engaged, socially far-reaching annual film series...offers a different kind of global tour, conducted without the usual rose-colored glasses and tourist distractions. —The New York Times

For the first time in Santa Barbara, the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival is a program of 8 intelligent, inspiring and indispensable feature films and documentaries from around the globe, articulating many of the human, environmental and geo-political stories of our times. For details see the festival page.

Required viewing for anyone interested in the struggle for American racial equality. —Christian Science Monitor

Ten years in the making, this film re-examines the nightmarish 1955 Mississippi murder of a 15-year-old accused of whistling at a white woman. The brutal killing of Emmett Till and the acquital of his white murderers helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement. This film unearthed new facts that might finally lead to justice. (Keith Beauchamp, 2005, 70 min.)

General public $6 / UCSB students $5

Shutka, Macedonia, nicknamed “Happy Valley,” is the unofficial world capital of the Roma. Mixing documentary and re-enactments of personal stories commented on by Dr. Koljo, a character from Emir Kusturica’s Black Cat, White Cat, this high-spirited film introduces us to the town’s eccentric inhabitants who all want to be champions, be it of goose fights, dog fights or lounge singing. (Aleksandar Manic, 2005, 78 min.)

General public $6 / UCSB students $5