TPR Cinema Tuesdays

“I sincerely believe that to see good films, and to see important films, is one of the most profoundly civilizing experiences that we can have as people.” — Roger Ebert

Texas Public Radio’s Cinema Tuesdays series returns this summer with 14 weeks of classic, foreign, and independent films on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen and enjoyed!

Screenings take place on Tuesday nights at 7:30. During May and June, all shows will be at the Santikos Galaxy theater. During July and August, all shows will be at the Santikos Northwest theater.

Suggested donations of $12 for members and $17 for non-members will get you in for these one-time only showings! You may also elect to contribute what you wish for entry. Reservations for all 14 shows will open for TPR members only on Wednesday, April 26, and to the general public on Monday, May 1.

Beginning May 1, you may also call 210-614-8977 during regular business hours to make advance reservations. All proceeds from the Cinema Tuesdays series benefit Texas Public Radio.

The 2023 Cinema Tuesdays series is made possible by Americus Diamond, Stevens Lighting, Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop, and the City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture. Thank you!

May 30 – True Stories

Welcome to Virgil, Texas, where all of the residents are getting ready to celebrate the state’s sesquicentennial, and all of them seem like they could have been ripped from the pages of Weekly World News. Songwriter and artist David Byrne’s only film is a sweet and loving celebration of ordinary people and the creations they make. The script, by Texans Beth Henley and Stephen Tobolowsky, was only loosely followed! The film features Talking Heads songs like “Wild Wild Life” and “City of Dreams,” and features Tito Larriva singing “Radio Head” and John Goodman sings “People Like Us.” 90 minutes, Rated PG.

June 6 – Last Night at the Alamo

“A cowboy movie, but it’s not a western.” — Roger Ebert

In just a handful of films – “Last Night at the Alamo,” “Hell of a Note,” and “The Whole Shootin’ Match” — Eagle Pennell lionized those laconic dreamers balanced between ambition and nostalgia who later became Austin, TX’s civic identity.

Eagle’s woozy testament to the comically disenfranchised is a self-medicating rodeo where the heroes ride barstools and pray they can hang on until last call. This legendary dog-eared hangout movie is from a script by Kim Henkel (co-writer of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”), and was filmed in B&W by Eric Alan Edwards (“My Own Private Idaho”). SPECIAL GUEST!! The film’s star, Sonny Carl Davis, will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. 81 minutes, Not Rated.

June 13 – Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut

American Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is assigned to track down and kill Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reportedly massacred hundreds of innocent people and set up his own fiefdom in the jungle. Willard and his crew encounter strange sights and people on their surreal journey into the heart of darkness. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, “Apocalypse Now” won two, for Best Cinematography, and Best Sound. In the years since its original release in 1979, director Francis For Coppola has re-edited the film twice. TPR will be screening the “Final Cut” version. 183 minutes, Rated R.

June 20 – Rififi

Tony Le St?phanois (Jean Servais), back from prison after taking a rap for Jo le Su?dois (Carl M?hner), is ready to settle a few scores and mastermind a brilliant jewel heist. A worldwide smash hit, Rififi earned director Jules Dassin the Best Director prize at Cannes and set the standard for screen robberies for decades to come. 118 minutes, Not Rated.

June 27 – Carmen

Antonio (Antonio Gades), a Spanish choreographer, is planning a ballet set to the music of Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen.” Searching for a lead dancer, he finally discovers a rare talent, fortuitously named Carmen. His choice awakens jealousy in Cristina, considered the best dancer in the troupe. Gradually, the ballet begins to affect the dancers’ real lives outside of the studio, as their lives dovetail with the plot of “Carmen” itself. This is a rare opportunity to see one of Carlos Saura’s treasured flamenco dance films anywhere – the film has been long out of print on home video. 102 minutes, Not Rated.

July 5 – Meet Me in St. Louis

The well-off Smith family leads a comfortable, happy existence in St. Louis, a city set to welcome the 1904 World’s Fair. Seventeen-year-old Esther Smith (Judy Garland) has fallen in love with the boy who has just moved next door, though he hardly notices her at first. When Mr. Alonzo Smith announces that he has been transferred to New York for business and that his family must follow him, Esther and her siblings are distraught at the thought of leaving St. Louis, their lives and the World’s Fair behind. 113 minutes, Not Rated. NOTE: This screening is on a Wednesday, since the July 4 Independence Day holiday falls on a Tuesday this summer.

July 11 – Oscar Shorts

With no easy way to find all of the Oscar-nominated short films in one place online, Texas Public Radio’s annual tradition of screening the Oscar Shorts at one of our Cinema Tuesdays shows continues, with the animated and live action features in one night! Final runtime TBA, not rated.

July 18 – In the Mood for Love

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite–until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s “In the Mood for Love” is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching musical soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bin, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past decade of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career. 98 minutes, Rated PG.

July 25 – Shaft

“Who’s the Black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks? Who is the man who would risk his neck for his brother man? Who’s the cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about?”

Richard Roundtree plays John Shaft in this seminal genre film from director Gordon Parks. Set to the pulsating sound of a wah-wah guitar, Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and bring back his kidnapped daughter. “Shaft” opened the doors for a new generation of more diverse talent in Hollywood action films, kick-starting the Blaxploitation era. Can you dig it? 100 minutes, Rated R.

August 1 – Prisioneros de la Tierra

The most acclaimed film by one of classic Argentine cinema’s foremost directors, Mario Soffici’s gut-punching work of social realism, shot on location in the dense, sweltering jungle of the Misiones region, simmers with rage against the oppression of workers. A group of desperate men are conscripted into indentured labor on a treacherous, disease-ridden yerba mat? plantation under the control of the brutal foreman K?hner (Francisco Petrone)–a situation that boils over in an explosive act of rebellion led by the defiant Podeley (?ngel Maga?a), and made all the more tense by the fact that K?hner and Podeley love the same woman: Andrea (Elisa Galv?), the sweet-spirited daughter of the camp’s doctor. The expressionistic, shadow-sculpted cinematography of Pablo Tabernero evokes the feverish dread of a place where suffocating heat, economic exploitation, and unremitting cruelty lead inexorably to madness and violence. 86 minutes, Not Rated.

August 8 – Paris Is Burning

Where did voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s drag ball scene. Made over seven years, Paris Is Burning offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion “houses,” from fierce contests for trophies, to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia and transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women–including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza–Paris Is Burning brings it, celebrating the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community. 76 minutes, Not Rated.

August 15 – Shadow of a Doubt

Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton) – a killer just one step ahead of the law – travels to the sleepy town of Santa Rosa under the pretense of visiting his relatives. But his favorite niece and namesake – Young Charlie – soon begins to suspect that her uncle is the Merry Widow Murderer, setting in motion a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Repeatedly named by director Alfred Hitchcock as his favorite of his many films, the director’s daughter Pat explained it was “because he loved the thought of bringing menace into a small town.” 108 minutes, Rated PG.

August 22 – Mississippi Masala

The vibrant cultures of India, Uganda, and the American South are blended and simmered into a rich and fragrant fusion feast in Mira Nair’s luminous look at the complexities of love in the modern melting pot. Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their home in Uganda by the dictatorship of Idi Amin, twentysomething Mina (Sarita Choudhury) finds herself helping to run a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. It’s there that a passionate romance with the charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius (Denzel Washington) challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region’s Indian and African American communities. Tackling thorny issues of racism, colorism, culture clash, and displacement with big-hearted humor and keen insight, Nair serves up a sweet, sexy, and radical celebration of love’s power to break down the barriers between us. 117 minutes, Rated R.

August 29 – Red River

Based on the Borden Chase novel “Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail,” John Wayne shows off a darker side to his screen persona as Thomas Dunson, a frontiersman who, with his longtime partner Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), abandons a westbound wagon train in 1851 to make his future as a rancher in Texas. Tension arises over the direction of a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas, as Dunson vows to kill his ranching partner Matt (Montgomery Clift). Long heralded as one of the best westerns of all time, this Howard Hawks film was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Editing and Best Writing. 133 minutes, Not Rated.

  Join us each summer for classic films on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen! Details about this summer’s series are at the link.