Programmed February 2025

Directed by Joan Micklin Silver

One of the greatest American filmmakers to emerge in the 1970s, Joan Micklin Silver drew on her background as the daughter of Russian-born Jewish parents to write and direct beautifully bittersweet portraits of women, immigrants, and marginalized communities. With profound empathy, her films vividly evoke specific times and places: New York’s turn-of-the-century Lower East Side ( Hester Street ), the whirlwind office of a Boston alt-weekly newspaper ( Between the Lines , inspired by her time as a writer for the Village Voice ), or the intergenerational cultural melting pot of 1980s Manhattan ( Crossing Delancey ). Brimming with humor, Silver’s films are rich with insight into the experience of finding one’s place in a rapidly changing world.