The Premieres series continues with more early and exclusive looks at the very best in current arthouse cinema—on the big screen where they belong! This spring kicks off with the anticipated return of a leading light of 21st century independent cinema—director Joe Swanberg, who will join us in person for his new film, The Sun Never Sets. In October, director J.M. Harper and journalist Jesse Lewis will appear to discuss the fascinating new documentary Soul Patrol. Additional highlights include the winner of the 2026 Palme d’Or (Fjord), a documentary 50 years in the making (Once Upon a Time in Harlem), and two daring new indies screening on 35mm film (Rose of Nevada and The Misconceived). This series was made possible by a generous donation from an anonymous cinephile. (MK)
THURS., 8/27, 7 p.m.
Joe Swanberg in Person!
THE SUN NEVER SETS
USA | DCP | 2026 | 102 min.
Director: Joe Swanberg
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Jake Johnson, Cory Michael Smith
Committed couple Jack (Johnson) and Wendy (Fanning) have just started a six-month break when Wendy’s hunky ex Chuck (Smith) suddenly returns to their picturesque Anchorage community. Surprised to discover their break might become permanent, Jack quickly backpedals and tries to win Wendy back. Shot on crisp 35mm, this perceptive love triangle is Swanberg’s first theatrical feature in a decade, marking a welcome return for one of American independent cinema’s most distinctive voices. (MK)
THURS., 9/3, 7 p.m.
ROSE OF NEVADA
UK | 35mm | 2025 | 114 min.
Director: Mark Jenkin
Cast: Callum Turner, George Mackay, Emily Daglish-Laine
in a remote Cornish fishing village, the inexplicable return of a fishing vessel believed lost for thirty years unsettles the community and quiet tensions resurface. Through its grainy 16mm imagery, haunting soundscape, and uncanny atmosphere, Jenkin transforms a simple mystery into a dreamlike vision reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s explorations of memory, space, and time. Combining intimate ingenuity and a lo-fi visual aesthetic, Rose of Nevada emerges as a profound, emotional, and philosophical experience. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see a stunning 35mm print!
THURS., 9/10, 7 p.m.
SERPENT’S PATH
France, Japan, Belgium, Luxembourg | DCP | 2024 | 112 min. | French and Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Damien Bonnard, Kō Shibasaki, Mathieu Amalric
A father captures the man he believes is responsible for kidnapping his daughter, and holds him prisoner in a stark warehouse. As he pursues the truth of what happened to his child, he uncovers a disturbing criminal underworld. J-horror master Kurosawa’s remake of his unshakable 1998 chiller makes several intriguing revisions—including transplanting the action to contemporary France and significant changes to one of the main characters—while maintaining its harrowing core. (MK)
THURS., 9/17, 7 p.m.
THE MISCONCEIVED
USA | 35mm | 2026 | 88 min.
Director: James N. Kienitz Wilkins
Cast: Jesse Wakeman, Jess Barbagallo, John Magary
A fortysomething failed filmmaker reluctantly takes a carpentry job renovating the second home of his former college friend in this wry satire of the current gig economy. One of the more unique-looking and destabilizing American indies in recent memory, The Misconceived was created with an uncanny-valley combination of motion capture and 3D animation, rendered within a video game engine. Preceded by Justin Dean’s far-out computer animation A Beautiful Day (2024, 6 min.), presented on 16mm. (MK)
THURS., 9/24, 7 p.m.
ASK E. JEAN
USA | DCP | 2026 | 92 min.
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Ask E. Jean traces the life of the writer, journalist, and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, from her rise as a witty and groundbreaking voice in American magazine publishing to her historic legal victories against Donald Trump. Carroll refused to be silenced and, using candor, resilience, and a sense of humor, she led a fight for accountability that reshaped the national conversation around truth and justice. (This summer, after the initial release of this compelling documentary, Carroll finally collected the more than $5.6 million judgment from Trump after years of appeals, while a separate $83.3 million defamation award remains under appeal.)
THURS., 10/1, 7 p.m.
THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE
USA | 2026 | DCP| 101 mins.
Director: John Wilson
Unsure of what to do after the conclusion of his essential HBO show How To With John Wilson, first-person filmmaker John Wilson enrolls in a workshop on how to create the perfect Hallmark movie. He then attempts to apply what he’s learned to a new project: a documentary about concrete. This omnipresent, overlooked building material leads him down a mind-bending array of rabbit holes. With his signature mix of inquisitive wonder, alert street photography, and witty, free-associative editing, Wilson unerringly finds funny and roundabout avenues into the profound. (MK)
THURS., 10/8, 7 p.m.
HOW TO DIVORCE DURING THE WAR
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Ireland, Czech Republic | 2026 | DCP 108 min. Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian with English subtitles
Director: Andrius Blaževičiusy
Cast: Zygimante Elena Jakstaite, Marius Repsys
One day after Marija finally works up the nerve to tell her husband she wants to separate, Russia invades Ukraine. As they welcome refugees into their now-fractured home in Vilnius, each is forced to reconcile their personal lives with global calamity. This nuanced, perceptive snapshot of life in a country adjacent to a war zone won a Best Director prize at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. How to Divorce During the War is the latest release from longtime arthouse distributor Zeitgeist Films, whose storied catalog is celebrated in our Sunday afternoon series at the Chazen this fall. (MK)
THURS., 10/15, 7 p.m.
FJORD
Romania, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark | 2026 | DCP | 146 min. | Romanian, Norwegian, English, Swedish with English subtitles
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Fjord stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a devout couple who move their family from Romania to Norway. Their belief system puts them at odds with their new, overwhelmingly secular community. The latest from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days director Cristian Mungiu is a characteristically knotty inquiry into the double standards of liberal tolerance. (MK)
THURS., 10/22, 7 p.m.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM
USA | 2026 | DCP| 100 mins.
Director: David Greaves
On a summer day in 1972, many of the key figures of the Harlem Renaissance convened for a party at Duke Ellington’s apartment, where they reminisced and debated their legacy. This lively, once-in-a-lifetime reunion was captured on 16mm by Symbiopsychotaxiplasm director William Greaves. Over fifty years later, that footage has finally been edited into this invaluable document, a double reflection spanning 100 years of Black American art. “One of the greatest talking pictures, one of the greatest cinematic works of creative nonfiction, that I’ve ever seen” (Richard Brody, The New Yorker). (MK)
THURS., 10/29, 7 p.m.
J.M. Harper and Jesse Lewis in person!
SOUL PATROL
USA | 2026 | DCP| 100 mins.
Director: J.M. Harper
As a teenager, Ed Emanuel enlisted in the U.S. Army only to find himself in Vietnam questioning what it meant to fight for freedom abroad while Black Americans continued to struggle for equality at home. In Soul Patrol, Emanuel reunites the surviving members of Company F, the Vietnam War’s first all-Black Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol unit, whose extraordinary story is brought to life through intimate conversations, personal archives, and rare Super 8 footage. This vital historical document is also a moving exploration of brotherhood, identity, and the enduring search for healing decades after the war. Immediately following this screening will be an in-person discussion with journalist/war correspondent Jesse Lewis and Soul Patrol filmmaker J.M. Harper, winner of the U.S. Documentary Competition Directing Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. A co-presentation of the Cinematheque, African-American Studies at UW-Madison, and the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
THURS., 11/5, 7 p.m.
CLUB KID
USA | 2026 | DCP | 122 min.
Director: Jordan Firstman
Cast: Jordan Firstman, Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva
A hard-partying New York City club promoter sees his whirlwind lifestyle upended by the arrival of the 10-year-old son he never knew he had. (A24 publicity)
THURS., 11/12, 7 p.m.
THE DEBUT
USA | 2026 | DCP | 105 min.
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Cast: Julianne Moore, Jesse Eisenberg, Paul Giamatti
When Mona Friedman is cast in a bit part at a small community theater, she transforms from a shy, unassuming housewife into a zealous method actor willing to do anything to protect the artistic integrity of her marginal role—even if it means waging war against the show’s domineering director. (A24 publicity)
THURS., 11/19, 7 p.m.
CHRONOVISOR
USA | DCP | 2026 | 100 min. | French, English, German, and Italian with English subtitles
Director: Kevin Walker, Jack Auen
Cast: Anne-Laure Sellier
In the 1960s, an Italian Benedictine monk claimed to have invented a machine that allowed users to see into the past, as though on a TV set. While doing research, present-day academic Béatrice becomes fascinated by this “Chronovisor,” and plunges headlong into uncovering the truth about this mysterious device. This unusual and beguiling indie perfectly captures the sensation of going down a rabbit hole of dubious arcana. (MK)