Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair

Coming soon. June 5 – June 11.

Co-presented by the American Cinematheque.

2026: A year of war, and no peace. In honor of the world’s current descent into madness and self-destruction, I felt it was fitting to embrace the despairing theme of combat in our selection of films for Bleak Week, a curatorial opportunity to explore the many crises of humanity from various perspectives and genres. Here you will find literal warfare, from the cover-less terrain of the Volga (The Red and the White) to the sewers of Warsaw (Kanal) and the jungles of the Philippines (Fires on the Plain), and the psychological kind on the open plains of the American west (Meek’s Cutoff) and the dark canals of Venice (Don’t Look Now). The cryptic and frenetic genre entries from provocateurs Lars von Trier (Europa) and Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher) are equally crushing portraits of youth in free fall.  But no matter how dire the world view becomes (the late Bela Tarr’s The Turin Horse is especially stormy), these films all share a sense of resilience and a resistance to the loss of hope. Look no further than Allan King’s epic documentary Dying at Grace, one of the greatest films ever made about physical deterioration and emotional expression.

But who can pick just one nightmare when there are so many to choose from? I suggest you see them all, because collectively, they serve as a reminder of how far we can fall as human beings, and how we can ultimately survive the relentlessness of it all.

• Glenn Heath Jr., Artistic Director, Digital Gym Cinema.