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Join us on Free Third Thursday, October 19 for a film screening and discussion in collaboration with Pacific Arts Movement and the San Diego Asian Film Festival: "Rea Tajiri, History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige" (1991) Filmmaker Rea Tajiri’s family was among the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Drawing from a variety of sources—Hollywood spectacle, government propaganda, newsreels, memories of the living, and spirits of the dead—"History and Memory" offers a poetic exploration of recorded history and unrecorded memory. About: Rea Tajiri is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and educator who creates installation, documentary and experimental films. Her work situates itself in poetic, non-traditional storytelling forms to encourage dialog and reflection around buried histories. Tajiri is a Sansei who grew up in Rogers Park, Chicago and Van Nuys, California. She earned her BFA and MFA degree from the California Institute of the Arts where she studied post-studio art. Upon graduation, Tajiri began working in video art, two early shorts were included in the Whitney Biennials of 1989 and 1991. The San Diego Asian Film Festival is the flagship event of Pacific Arts Movement (Pac Arts), one of the largest media arts organizations in North America that focuses on Asian and Asian American cinema. The festival is dedicated to highlighting the diversity and breadth of Asian Pacific Islander and Asian international images, from impassioned independent voices and provocative documentary subjects to the top hits from the world’s biggest continent, the latest works from the masters of cinema, and the fresh points of view of Asian Pacific Islander American filmmakers. Related links: MCASD website | Instagram | Facebook Pacific Arts Movement website | Instagram | Facebook

Senegal will finally go to the polls this weekend, in a vote that was delayed, then reinstated. A beacon of relative stability in a restless region, its democratic resilience has been sorely tested.

A Sea Lion Symphony is a multi-media live performance of a string quintet set to an enchanting film on the life of the La Jolla's resident sea lions interspersed with narrative poetry. Conceptualized, composed, and conducted by David Bowser, conductor of the Toronto Mozart Players, this unique experience takes you high above the land and under the water to see La Jolla's sea lions in their natural habitat. Produced by the Sierra Club Seal Society, this fundraiser event educates and delights the audience. Questions and Answers to follow. Seal Society of San Diego on Facebook / Instagram

In this captivating, skewed World War II drama from Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie regally embodies Celliers, a British officer interned by the Japanese as a POW. Rock star Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed this film’s hypnotic score) plays the camp commander, obsessed with the mysterious blond major, while Tom Conti is the British lieutenant colonel Lawrence, who tries to bridge the emotional and language divides between captor and prisoner. Also featuring actor-director Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role, "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" is a multilayered, brutal, at times erotic tale of culture clash, and one of Oshima’s greatest successes. Digital Gym Cinema on Facebook / Instagram

The FIRE+WATER double bill will couple Hong Sangsoo's "IN WATER" (61 min) with Pedro Costa's "THE DAUGHTERS OF FIRE" (9 min). Both films, fresh of their North American premieres, show consummate artists taking some of the boldest risks of their careers. For Hong it's shooting a feature film in varying focal lengths, a decision that comes fully into focus in the film's indelible final image. For Costa, it's staging a three-screen mini-opera with three incredible performers filmed independently but somehow performing in unison. "THE DAUGHTERS OF FIRE" by Pedro Costa, 2023, 9 min Official Selection - Cannes, TIFF, NYFF Three young sisters are separated by the eruption of Fogo, but they sing: one day, we will know why we live and why we suffer. "IN WATER" by Hong Sangsoo, 2023, 61 min Official Selection - Berlinale, NYFF A trio of friends venture to the rocky shores of a large island to shoot a film together. The director, Seongmo (Shin Seokho), recently gave up acting and has decided to make a film with his own money. His former classmate, Sangguk (Ha Seongguk), will operate the camera and Namhee (Kim Seungyun) will act in it. The only problem: Seongmo hasn’t decided what to make. As he wanders in the rocks and wind, Seongmo searches for a story. What he finds is a young woman picking up trash. And that is all he needs. His most overtly experimental work to date, "In Water" reveals Hong at the height of his allusory powers. The story is simple: three friends set out to make a film, and then they do it. But with bold formal choices and his signature impulse toward the uncanny, Hong evokes infinite mysteries and hints at whole worlds lurking below the surface of everyday reality. Digital Gym Cinema on Facebook / Instagram

The high-rise building block near the forest is famous for its carefully curated community. As a dog disappears and her daughter refuses to leave the bathroom, security officer Anna faces an absurd battle against the fear, that slowly spreads among the residents and shakes the utopia with a view. Click here for more details about this showing!

A loving wife and her husband move away to a remote cabin to heal from the devastating loss of their stillborn twins. Soon she senses an evil presence and is pushed to the edge when dark secrets begin to unravel. For more information visit: digitalgym.org Stay Connected on Facebook

“We all get dressed for Bill,” says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. The “Bill” in question is 80+ New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace. For more information visit: digitalgym.org Stay Connected on Facebook

While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother’s tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy’s mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the “long-awaited one.” Showtimes Here! For more information visit: digitalgym.org Stay Connected on Facebook

The South African singer brought a homegrown genre, amapiano, to new ears with a viral hit and a Grammy. With her debut album, she wants to prove the world is ready for a full-blown African pop star.