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Voices del Valle is a youth-led podcast spotlighting powerful coming-of-age stories from California’s Imperial Valley. Told through the eyes of local teens, each episode dives into real experiences of growing up in a rural, tight-knit, and culturally rich border community. From navigating mental health and multigenerational households to chasing dreams in sports, music, and media, these stories reveal the resilience, creativity, and identity of young people forging their own paths. Whether facing homelessness or finding purpose through podcasting, Voices del Valle captures what it truly means to come of age in el Valle — with honesty, heart, and hometown pride.

Jafar Panahi reaffirms his status as one of this century’s great cinematic heroes with perhaps his bravest film yet, which won him the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Ever since he was arrested, imprisoned, and banned from making movies by the Iranian government 15 years ago, Panahi has found ways of producing films in secret and without official permission. Working once again with a courageous cast and crew, he shows both his political risk-taking and confident command of craft in his most explicit attack on his country’s repressive regime—a cutting and darkly humorous thriller that concerns a mechanic, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who believes he has reencountered by chance the government intelligence officer, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who had tortured him while under detainment. As Vahid enlists the services of acquaintances whose lives were also forever altered by Eghbal’s cruelties, the thirst for revenge and the sense of danger escalate—as do questions of moral choice and culpability. Digital Gym Cinema on Facebook / Instagram

Filmmaker Charlie Shackleton was hot on the trail of the next great American true crime documentary—a riveting account of a highway patrolman’s quixotic effort to identify and capture the infamous Zodiac Killer. Shackleton devised a plan, began collecting interviews, and shot “evocative B-roll” footage of ghostly California freeways and parking lots where the killer may have once lurked. And then the project fell apart, leaving Shackleton with fragments of the unfinished film and time to ruminate on shortcuts and signifiers of the ubiquitous genre. "Zodiac Killer Project" emerges from the ash heap to probe and deconstruct the form with the incisive eye of a true crime connoisseur. A witty and beautifully assembled deep dive into our obsession with serial killers and the stories we tell about them, Shackleton’s resuscitation of his abandoned film follows in the free-range footsteps of documentary philosophers Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, and Joshua Oppenheimer. Digital Gym Cinema on Facebook / Instagram

Presented as part of AMONG FRIENDS – UNTER FREUNDEN, a campaign of the Goethe-Institut USA to celebrate and strengthen transatlantic friendship. Keith Jarrett’s legendary performance in January 1975 nearly didn’t happen. Based on a true story, "Köln 75" follows how the concert was conceived and orchestrated by the efforts of a teenage up and coming concert promoter, Vera Brandes, (played by German actress Mala Emde). Her enthusiasm set her to multitasking – from organizing the concert venue (the Cologne Opera House), promoting the event, and selling the tickets, to convincing Jarrett to perform when he almost dropped out when the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano he was promised was nowhere to be found. John Magaro plays Jarrett with his own intensity, a sublime counterpoint to Mala Emde’s joyful portrayal of the enthusiastic and unstoppable Vera. "Köln 75" captures the compelling, entertaining and, until now, unknown backstory about Jarrett’s one-hour, entirely improvised concert, which became the best-selling solo album in jazz history. Digital Gym Cinema on Facebook / Instagram

Join Museum educators in creating a mixed media art work. Drawing inspiration from the beautiful and meaningful art work of Nick Cave, create your own mixed media piece of art using found objects. Please join us! No reservation is required. All materials are provided. Great for artists of all ages. Community Art Workshops invite artists to enjoy hands-on art making experiences inspired by the thinking and creating processes of artists on view at the Museum. Artists under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the workshop. The San Diego Museum of Art on Facebook / Instagram

Foreign visitors who are eligible to bypass the visa application process may soon have to turn over five years' worth of social media history to enter the U.S., under a new Trump administration plan.

Natalie takes our friend and colleague, Leslie Gonzalez, on her first-ever trip to Tijuana to explore Mercado Hidalgo, celebrate Día de Muertos, and dive into the sights, smells, and flavors of this tradition.

Books can be life-changing for people who are incarcerated. When Cherish Burtson went to federal prison, books became her source of survival. Her story – and the volunteers fighting censorship to get books past prison walls – reveals how access to reading can mean survival, connection and hope.

Lecture speaker event with Dr. Alina Polyakova on the Russian-Ukrainian War moderated by SDSU Professor Mikhail Alexseev. Dr. Alina Polyakova is President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) as well as the Donald Marron Senior Fellow at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Dr. Polyakova is a recognized expert on transatlantic relations, European security including Russia and Ukraine, tech policy, and populism. She is the author of the book, "The Dark Side of European Integration," which examines the rise of far-right political movements in Europe, as well as dozens of major policy reports and articles in outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and The Atlantic, and others. She is a frequent commentator in major media outlets, such as Fox News, CNN, and BBC. Dr. Polyakova is an experienced leader with previous roles as the Founding Director for Global Democracy and Emerging Technology at the Brookings Institution, Director of Research for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council, among others. She has also held numerous prestigious fellowships, including at the National Science Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Fulbright Foundation, among others. She serves on the board of the Free Russia Foundation and is a member of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS) and the Scientific Council of the Elcano Royal Institute. Dr. Polyakova holds a Ph.D. and MA in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Emory University. Alexander Hamiliton Society at The University of San Diego on Instagram

Presented by Pacific Arts Movement, producers of the San Diego Asian Film Festival. CINEMATHEK is a year-round screening series presented by Pacific Arts Movement (Pac Arts) and Digital Gym Cinema (DGC), launching in June 2025. Inspired by Pac Arts’ early Film Forums, CINEMATHEK offers members and the public year-round access to curated screenings of classic, cult, and newly restored Asian and Asian American films. Hosted at Digital Gym Cinema, CINEMATHEK strengthens community ties, builds new audiences, and celebrates the best of Asian cinema in one of San Diego’s last remaining venues for independent and international films. Like the Royal Theater in "The Last Picture Show" and the title movie house in "Cinema Paradiso," the Fu-Ho is shutting down for good. The Fu-Ho’s valedictory screening is King Hu’s 1967 wuxia epic "Dragon Inn," playing to a motley smattering of spectators. The standard grievances persist: patrons snack noisily and remove their shoes, treating this temple of cinema like their living room. The sense that moviegoing as a communal experience is slipping away takes on a powerful and painful resonance. Yet Tsai Ming-liang’s "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" is too multifaceted to collapse into a simple valentine to the age of pre-VOD cinephilia. A minimalist where King Hu was a maximalist, preferring long, static shots and sparse use of dialogue, Tsai rises to the narrative challenges he sets for himself and offers the slyest, most delicate of character arcs (the manager, a woman with an iron brace on her leg, embarks on a torturous odyssey to deliver food to the projectionist, played by Lee Kang-sheng). By the time the possibility arises that the theater is haunted, we’ve already identified it as a space outside of time—indeed, two stars of Hu’s original opus, Miao Tien and Shih Chun, watch their younger selves with tears in their eyes, past and present commingling harmoniously and poignantly. Digital Gym Cinema on Facebook / Instagram