Powerful women who have changed the course of history, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Julia Child are respected and honored today, and in their own right have become pop culture icons, but their rise to power are tales of blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice that most powerful men have never even had to even consider, and even still to this day, it is far too common for those who don’t know of those struggles to dismiss these women as “just…

Even though throughout most of my childhood, I grew up on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Reservation in North Carolina, it was almost impossible to ever see a positive representation of Native people and American Indians on screen. In almost every cartoon or classic movie I consumed, there were only ugly and outdated stereotypes of American Indian culture. I was nine years old when my parents took my brother and I to our first arthouse theater experience. It was…

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes a very long time for empires to root themselves into our collective consciences. For modern film fans, it’s almost impossible to imagine a time before the Sundance Film Festival, quite possibly the most prestigious of all the American film festivals. It’s easy to simply imagine that the Sundance Film Festival and Institute sprung up out of the ground in Park City, Utah, immediately establishing itself as the indisputable capital of the finest…

What is cinema? The dictionary definition is “Movies collectively, as an art.” Okay, that’s a little broad. What are some other takes? French Auteur Jean-Luc Godard believes, “Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” Agnes Varda says “I live in cinema. I feel I’ve lived here forever.” And Pedro Almodovar, well he asserts “Cinema can fill in the empty spaces of your life and your loneliness.” It seems everyone has an opinion on what cinema truly is. Though,…

With Bookmarks’ 16th Annual Festival of Books & Authors on the horizon, here at a/perture cinema, we decided to take a look at six of the most exciting upcoming film adaptations of classic and modern bestseller books that we’re anticipating watching the most. The 16th Annual Festival of Books & Authors will run from Thursday, September 23rd through Sunday, September 26th.

“Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man.” - Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the fantasy genre? The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, World of Warcraft, and Game of Thrones (or A Song Of Ice And Fire, depending on which side of that coin you prefer). These are all some of the biggest names in recent fantasy works, spanning multiple mediums, and while they each have their special places in all our hearts, you’re more likely to see tales set in these universes inside the…

We caught up with Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams), a professor at Wake Forest University's documentary filmmaking program, and Brian Gersten, an alumnus of the Graduate Program to discuss the upcoming film, Searching For Mr. Rugoff, on which Gilbert was the supervising cinematographer/executive producer, and Gersten was the editor. These interviews have been edited for brevity.

My name is Lee Briggs. I am a Visual Effects Producer at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic. I grew up in Winston-Salem, went to Brunson, Wiley, Reynolds and then onto Wake Forest majoring in Theater. My parents still live in Winston, they love and support a/perture. One of my good buddies growing up was Lawren Desai's (a/perture's founder and Executive Director) brother Jay. After Wake l was living in New York, and I remember Lawren talking about opening an independent…