THE FILMS

Films Listed in Alphabetical Order

BEAUTIFUL BOY

Sunday, September 30, 5:00pm
Wheeler Opera House

Based on the bestselling pair of memoirs by father and son David and Nic Sheff, Felix Van Groeningen’s film chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years. (USA, 2018) 1HR 51MIN | Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH DIRECTOR FELIX VAN GROENINGEN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival 2018

DIRECTOR: Felix Van Groeningen
WRITTEN BY: Felix Van Groeningen, Luke Davies
WITH: Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan

COLD WAR

Tuesday, September 25, 5:30pm
Wheeler Opera House

Cold War is a passionate love story of a man and a woman who meet in the ruins of postwar Poland. With different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet fatefully condemned to each other. Living during the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia, and Paris, the couple are separated by politics, character flaws, and unfortunate twists of fate—an impossible love story in impossible times. (Poland, 2018) 1HR 30MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Cannes Film Festival Best Director Award 2018

DIRECTOR: Paweł Pawlikowski
WRITTEN BY: Paweł Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki, Piotr Borkowski
WITH: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza

PRESENTED BY: Paulette and Mel Blumenthal

COLETTE

Thursday, September 27, 8:30pm
Wheeler Opera House

Based on the true story of Colette (Keira Knightley) who writes a series of novels that spark a cultural sensation published under her husband’s name. After years of sup-pression, she fights to challenge gender norms and make her voice known. (United Kingdom, 2017) 1HR 52MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selections of the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival 2018, Nominee for People’s Choice Award, Special Presentations DIRECTOR: Wash Westmoreland
WRITTEN BY: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland,
Rebecca Lenkiewicz
WITH: Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Denise Gough, Fiona Shaw, Robert Pugh, Eleanor Tomlinson

COMMUNITY PARTNER: AspenOut

EVERYBODY KNOWS

Wednesday, September 26, 2:30pm
Isis Theatre

The film follows Laura (Penélope Cruz) and her two children on their travels from Argentina to her small hometown in Spain for her sister’s wedding. Amid the joyful reunion and festivities, the eldest daughter is abducted. In the tense days that follow, various family and community tensions surface, and deeply hidden secrets are revealed. (France, Spain, Italy, 2018) 2HR 13MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Best Actress nomination 2018

DIRECTOR: Asghar Farhadi
WRITTEN BY: Asghar Farhadi
WITH: Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Ricardo Darín, Eduard Fernández, Bárbara Lennie

PRESENTED BY: Darlynn and Tom Fellman

HOWARD

Tuesday, September 25, 2:30pm
Isis Theatre

Howard Ashman grew up in an average Jewish family in Baltimore with an extraordinary love for musical theater. After college, he opened a theater in a derelict section of New York and struggled to put on shows, until his adaptation of Roger Corman’s film Little Shop of Horrors became a huge Off-Off-Broadway hit and catapulted him into the limelight. Finally on Broadway, he collaborated with Oscar®- and Tony-winner Marvin Hamlisch to create the ultimately disappointing Smile. Embarrassed, Howard fled to Los Angeles and took up with a struggling gang of artists in a ware-house—Disney animators who had just been kicked off the studio lot until they could prove them-selves. Along with Alan Menken, Howard wrote the Oscar®-winning songs for The Little Mermaid. While the film became a global phenomenon, Howard was diagnosed with HIV—which he kept a secret in an era when AIDS was a death sentence and gay men were at the margins of society. After he created the initial songs for Aladdin, his health deteriorated and he wrote the lyrics to Beauty and the Beast from his hospital bed. Howard died before he was able to see his final Disney film released, but the legacy of his work lives on in Broadway productions and live action remakes for a new generation. (USA, 2018) 1HR 33MIN | Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH DIRECTOR DON HAHN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival 2018

DIRECTOR: Don Hahn
WRITTEN BY: Don Hahn
WITH: Howard Ashman

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Anderson Ranch

SEE ALSO | FILMMAKER DISCUSSION: Behind the Magic with DON HAHN
Wednesday, September 26 (10:30am) @ the Wheeler Opera House Lobby

THE INVISIBLES

Thursday, September 27, 2:00pm
Isis Theatre

Hanni, Cioama, Eugen, and Ruth, four ordinary German youths trying to navigate the scarcities and prohibitions of Berlin at the height of World War II, hailed from dif-ferent social classes and different neighborhoods but shared a single common secret: they were Jews. While Goebbels infamously declared Berlin “free of Jews” in 1943, some 1,700 managed to survive in Nazism’s capital until liberation. Claus Räfle’s gripping docudrama traces the stories of four real-life survivors who learned that sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. While moving between cinemas, cafés, and safehouses, they dodged Gestapo and a dense network of spies and infor-mants, knowing that certain death was just one mistake away. Masterfully weaving the different story threads together, The Invisibles is a testament to the resourceful-ness, willpower, and sheer chance that permit us to sur-vive against incredible odds. (Germany, 2017) 1HR 50MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Audience Favorite Silver Award Mill Valley Film Festival, Official Selection of the Hamburg Film Festival 2017

DIRECTOR: Claus Räfle
WRITTEN BY: Alejandra Lopez, Claus Räfle
WITH: Max Mauff, Alice Dwyer, Ruby O. Fee

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Jewish Community Center

KUSAMA: INFINITY

Saturday, September 29, 2:00pm
Isis Theatre

Now the top-selling female artist in the world, Yayoi Kusama overcame impossible odds to bring her radical artistic vision to the world stage. People around the globe are experiencing her instal-lation Infinity Mirrored Rooms in record numbers. After working as an artist for over six decades, Kusama continues to create new work every day. (USA, 2018) 1HR 16MIN Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS RYAN BROOKS AND JESSICA LATHAM

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2018 DIRECTOR: Heather Lenz
WRITTEN BY: Heather Lenz
WITH: Yayoi Kusama

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Aspen Art Museum

LEAVE NO TRACE

Thursday, September 27, 5:00pm
Wheeler Opera House

After years living in the wildlands near Portland, Will (Ben Foster), and his daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), are suddenly forced back into traditional housing. After trying to adapt to their new surroundings, and clashing with each other as Tom begins to explore her own dreams, they embark on a journey back to the wild. (USA, 2017) 1HR 49MIN | Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH AUTHOR PETER ROCK AND LINDA REISMAN, MODERATOR ADRIENNE BRODEUR From Book to Big Screen

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival, Independent Film Festival of Boston, Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature 2018

DIRECTOR: Debra Granik
WRITTEN BY: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini (based on the novel My Abandonment by Peter Rock)
WITH: Ben Foster, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Jeff Kober, and Dale Dickey

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Aspen Words

SEE ALSO | PANEL DISCUSSION: From Book to Big Screen with PETER ROCK AND LINDA REISMAN, Moderator ADRIENNE BRODEUR
Thursday, September 27 (7:00pm) @ the Wheeler Opera House Lobby

MOMENTUM GENERATION

Friday, September 28, 8:15pm
Wheeler Opera House

Momentum Generation is a feature-length documentary about the deep friendships that were formed and tested among surfing’s most legendary crew, including Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Taylor Knox, Benji Weatherley, Kalani Robb, Ross Williams, and Pat O’Connell. After leaving their families in their early teens to live crammed together in a house on the North Shore of Oahu, they courageously followed each other into Mother Nature’s most dangerous waves … and when some of them didn’t make it back to shore, together they found a way to mourn and adapt. Fueled by camaraderie—but even more by a deep-seated competitiveness—this tight-knit crew became known as the “Momentum Generation” after being featured in Taylor Steele’s groundbreaking surf films. They went on to win world titles, break records, and redefine the world’s perception of the surfer, of youth culture, and of what it means to be free. (USA, 2018) 1HR 43MIN | Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH DIRECTORS JEFF AND MICHAEL ZIMBALIST

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, nominated for the Documentary Audience Award and Best Documentary Feature 2018

DIRECTORS: Jeff Zimbalist, Michael Zimbalist
WRITTEN BY: Jeff Zimbalist, Michael Zimbalist
WITH: Jeannie Chesser, Thomas DeLonge, Shane Dorian, Kelly Slater

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Mountainfilm in Aspen presented by The Wheeler Opera House

SEE ALSO | Documentary Panel: TAKING IT TO THE EXTREME Saturday, September 29 (10:30am) @ the Wheeler Opera House Lobby

THIS MOUNTAIN LIFE

Friday, September 28, 2:30pm
Isis Theatre

The awe that mountainous landscapes evoke is universal, yet few ever venture into true wilderness. Living among us is a special breed of people for whom the draw of the mountains is so strong that their lives must revolve around it. Martina Halik and her 60-year-old mother Tania attempt a bitterly cold 2300-kilometer ski trek from Canada to Alaska through the treacherous Coast Mountains. Woven throughout their adventure are vignettes of others who have chosen this life: a group of nuns inhabiting a mountain retreat to be closer to God, a photographer who is later buried in an avalanche, an impassioned alpinist, a focused snow artist, a couple who have been living off the grid in the mountains for nearly 50 years. This Mountain Life is a riveting and intimate portrait of human passion set high in the peaks of British Columbia. (Canada, 2018) 1HR 17MIN US Premiere | Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH DIRECTOR GRANT BALDWIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Hot Docs Top 20 Audience Choice, Official Selection of the Vancouver International Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, and Banff Mountain Film Festival 2018

DIRECTOR: Grant Baldwin
WRITTEN BY: Grant Baldwin, Jenny Rustemeyer
WITH: Tania Halik, Martina Halik, Barry Blanchard, Bernard and Mary Thor

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Mountainfilm in Aspen presented by The Wheeler Opera House

SEE ALSO | Documentary Panel: TAKING IT TO THE EXTREME Saturday, September 29 (10:30am) @ the Wheeler Opera House Lobby

ON HER SHOULDERS

Friday, September 28, 12:00pm
Isis Theatre

Twenty-three-year-old Nadia Murad’s life is a dizzying array of exhausting undertakings—from giving testimony before the UN to visiting refugee camps to participating in soul-baring media interviews and one-on-one meet-ings with top government officials. With deep compas-sion and a formal precision and elegance that match Nadia’s calm and steely demeanor, filmmaker Alexandria Bombach follows this strong-willed young woman, who survived the 2014 genocide of the Yazidis in northern Iraq and escaped ISIS to become a relentless beacon of hope for her people, even when at times she longs to lay aside this monumental burden and simply have an ordinary life. (USA, 2018) 1HR 34MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Sundance Film Festival, Winner of the Documentary Directing Award / Nominee for Grand Jury Prize; SXSW, Winner of the Chicken and Egg Award 2018

DIRECTOR: Alexandria Bombach
WRITTEN BY: Alexandria Bombach
WITH: Nadia Murad

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Aspen Institute

PICK OF THE LITTER

Wednesday, September 26, 12:00pm
Isis Theatre

This film follows a litter of puppies from the moment they’re born until they begin their quest to become guide dogs for the blind. Cameras follow these pups through an intense two-year odyssey as they train to become dogs whose ultimate responsibility is to protect their blind partners from harm. Along the way, these remarkable animals rely on a community of dedicated individuals who train them to do amazing, life-changing things in the service of their humans. The stakes are high and not every dog can make the cut. Only the best of the best. (USA, 2018) 1HR 21MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Slamdance Film Festival and AFI Docs Festival 2018

DIRECTOR: Don Hardy Jr., Dana Nachman
WRITTEN BY: Dana Nachman

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Aspen Animal Shelter

THE PRICE OF FREE

Thursday, September 27, 12:00pm
Isis Theatre

From producers Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, He Named Me Malala), Sarah Anthony, and rising director Derek Doneen comes The Price of Free, a sus-penseful yet intimate look at one man’s groundbreaking crusade to liberate every child possible. Kailash Satyarthi’s kinetic journey through secret raids and quests for missing kids shows how refusing to accept an unacceptable status quo can create sweeping change. Gripping as it is, the film is also the story of spirited children who, released from a nightmare, latch onto a second chance for joy with all they’ve got. It is the rescued kids who prove the absolute necessity of what Satyarthi does: giving hope to the world one child at a time.
(USA, 2018) 1HR 32MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Sundance Film Festival, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary 2018

DIRECTOR: Derek Doneen
WITH: Kailash Satyarthi

SECRET SCREENING

Sunday, September 30, 2:00pm
Isis Theatre

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Award Winner 2018

SHOPLIFTERS

Saturday, September 29, 4:30pm
Wheeler Opera House

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them. (Japan, 2018) 2HRS

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Cannes Film Festival, Palme d’Or 2018 Winner

DIRECTOR: Hirokazu Kore-eda
WRITTEN BY: Hirokazu Kore-eda
WITH: Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Mayu Matsuoka, Kilin Kiki, Kairi Jyo, Miyu Sasaki

THE SISTERS BROTHERS

Wednesday, September 26, 8:15pm
Wheeler Opera House

Based on Patrick deWitt’s acclaimed novel of the same name, this film follows two brothers—Eli and Charlie Sisters—who are hired to kill a prospector who has stolen from their boss. The story, a genre-hybrid with comedic elements, takes place in Oregon in 1851. (France, 2017) 2HRS

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and Venice Film Festival 2018

DIRECTOR: Jacques Audiard
WRITTEN BY: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, based on the novel by Patrick deWitt
WITH: Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed, John C. Reilly

PRESENTED BY: Melony and Adam Lewis

SPIRITED AWAY

Filmfest’s Family Fun

11:00am
Isis Theatre

Milk and cookies to follow the screening!

Kids 16 and younger Free (complimentary ticket must be obtained through the Wheeler Opera House Box Office) Recommended for ages 8 and up.

Wandering through an abandoned carnival site, ten-year-old Chihiro is separated from her parents and stumbles into a dreamlike spirit world where she is put to work in a bathhouse for the gods, a place where all kinds of nonhuman beings come to refresh, relax, and recharge. Here she encounters a vast menagerie of impossibly inventive characters—shape-shift-ing phantoms and spirits, some friendly, some less so—and must find the inner strength to outsmart her captors and return to her family. Combining Japanese mythology with Through the Looking Glass–type whimsy, Spirited Away cemented Miyazaki’s reputation as an icon of inspired animation and wondrous, lyrical storytelling. (Japan, 2001) 2HRS 5MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Academy Award® Winner for Best Animated Feature 2003

DIRECTOR: Hayao Miyazaki, Kirk Wise
WRITTEN BY: Hayao Miyazaki
WITH: Daveigh Chase, Jason Marsden

COMMUNITY PARTNERS: Paradise Bakery, Red Butte Roasters

STUDIO 54

Saturday, September 29, 7:15pm
Wheeler Opera House

For 33 months, from 1977 to 1980, the nightclub Studio 54 was the place to be seen in Manhattan. A haven of hedonism, tolerance, glitz, and glamour, Studio 54 was very hard to gain entrance to and impossible to ignore, with news of who was there filling the gossip columns daily. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two college friends from Brooklyn, succeeded in creating the ultimate escapist fantasy in the heart of the theater district. Studio 54 was an instant success and a cash cow, but the drug-and-sex-fueled dream soon imploded in financial scandal and the club’s demise. With unprecedented access to Schrager, who tells the whole unvarnished story for the first time, and a treasure trove of rare footage, director Matt Tyrnauer (Valentino: The Last Emperor, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood) constructs a vivid, glorious portrait of a disco-era phenomenon, and tells the story of two friends who stuck together through an incredible series of highs and lows. (USA, 2018) 1HR 38MIN | Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH DIRECTOR MATT TYRNAUER

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival 2018

DIRECTOR: Matt Tyrnauer
WRITTEN BY: Matt Tyrnauer
WITH: Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Modern Luxury Aspen Magazine

Three days, Two Nights (this needs lightened)

3 DAYS 2 NIGHTS

Wednesday, September 26, 5:30pm
Wheeler Opera House

Imagine the defining moment of your life. Then imagine never talking about it with anyone. In 1974, Mark and Andy Godfrey went on a family ski vacation to Aspen, Colo. The plane they were traveling in crashed, taking the lives of their parents, brother, and sister. Mark and Andy, who were 11 and 8 years old at the time of the accident, respectively, survived three days and two nights in the frigid mountains. For nearly 40 years they rarely discussed the crash, even between themselves. Finally, the brothers confront and come to grips with the tragic event that changed their lives forever. Their story is one of cathartic discovery in hopes that the twin beacons of love and family can reconcile such a tragedy. Work in progress. (USA, 2018) 1 HR 20 MIN | Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH DIRECTOR JOHN BREEN, MARK AND ANDY GODFREY

DIRECTOR: John Breen
WITH: Mark Godfrey, Andy Godfrey

PRESENTED BY: Becky and Chris Steere

COMMUNITY PARTNER: Challenge Aspen

WHAT THEY HAD

Friday, September 28, 5:30pm
Wheeler Opera house

At her brother’s (Michael Shannon) urging, Bridget (Hilary Swank) returns home to deal with her ailing mother (Blythe Danner) and her father’s (Robert Forster) reluctance to let go of their life together. (USA, 2017) 1HR 41MIN

FESTIVALS | AWARDS: Toronto International Film Festival, Nominated for the People’s Choice Award; Heartland Film, Winner of the Truly Moving Picture Award 2018

DIRECTOR: Elizabeth Chomko
WRITTEN BY: Elizabeth Chomko
WITH: Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster, Taissa Farmiga, Josh Lucas, Blythe Danner

WIDOWS

Tuesday, September 25, 8:15pm
Wheeler Opera House

From Academy Award®–winning director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and co-writer and bestselling author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) comes a blistering, modern-day thriller set against a backdrop of crime, passion, and corruption. Widows is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Oscar® winner Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms. (USA, 2018) 2HRS 8MIN