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A LONG WINTER
Adapted from Colm Tóibín's short story of the same name, this introspective exploration of loss follows Mike, a young man on the precipice of coming into himself. With his brother going off to the warfront in Korea, he finds solace in the animals he tends to outside of his family's remote cabin. When his mother goes missing, he and his hardened father do their best to gather the community to help find her before it's too late.
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ALL OF A SUDDEN
Marie-Lou runs a nursing home near Paris and strives for more humane elder care but is plagued by labor shortages and is butting heads with her staff. She develops a friendship with Mari, a Japanese theatre director facing terminal cancer, forming a strong bond that transforms each of their lives.
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ASHES
Eight years after their mother left for Madrid to chase a better future for her family, Lucila and her younger brother leave Mexico to reunite with her. Adapted from Eating Ashes by Brenda Navarro, Diego Luna directs this delicate exploration of familial relationships, migrant struggles, class dynamics, and grief with a gentle touch.
Fri, Oct 23 7:00 PM Sat, Oct 24 9:45 PM
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BLANK CHECK PRESENTS: THE GARBAGE PAIL KIDS MOVIE
Griffin Newman and Ben Hosley from the essential film podcast Blank Check join Refocus Film Festival to revisit and celebrate one of the great big screen abominations of all time: The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
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CHRONOVISOR
An armchair mystery in which the life of a reclusive academic collides with the story of a clandestine technology that can photograph the past.
Fri, Oct 23 4:00 PM Sat, Oct 24 10:15 PM Sun, Oct 25 2:15 PM
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CINEMA SAVANT: ANDREW HAIGH + 45 YEARS
Kate and her husband are excitedly planning a party to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. However, one week before the celebration, a letter arrives that will change everything. We revisit this Oscar-winning film from director Andrew Haigh on the occasion of awarding him with the 2026 Cinema Savant award.
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CLARISSA
Mrs. Dalloway is adapted to modern Lagos as we follow a society woman throwing a party with unexpected guests from her past.
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DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (2026)
A young Romanian woman living in France works for a French family and joins a theatre company who are adapting Octave Mirbeau's The Diary of a Chambermaid.
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DO YOU LOVE ME
Through 70 years of found footage, home movies, and media archives, Beirut's vibrant soul emerges - revealing intimate moments of joy and loss that shaped Lebanon's cultural memory, despite the absence of official records.
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EPIGRAPH COFFEE TALK: (EXTRA)ORDINARY!
Start your morning with a coffee from fix! and conversation with a worldly group of artists discussing the convergence of the personal and universal through big concepts and intimate stories.
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EPIGRAPH COFFEE TALK: PLAYING TELEPHONE
Start your morning with a coffee from fix! and conversation with our Refocus artists discussing how they remix and reimagine existing works in contemporary forms. Melding existing materials and inspired new work, these artists pay homage to artistic legacies through creative installations at the fest.
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EXTRA GEOGRAPHY
Set in an English girls’ boarding school, two teenage best friends grapple with the challenges of girlhood—friendship, romance, studies, and growing up—and embark on their summer project, falling in love. Based on the short story of the same name by Rose Tremain, this funny, authentic coming of age story is an intimate snapshot of the challenges and joys of teenage girlhood.
Fri, Oct 23 9:30 PM Sat, Oct 24 4:10 PM
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FAUST: LIVE SCORE
A colossal adaptation of Goethe's Faust, one of the greatest achievements of German silent cinema. Gösta Ekman stars as the titular alchemist who is offered the power to cure and the gift of youth... in exchange for his soul.
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FILMSPOTTING LIVE
Join hosts Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen and guest film critic Matt Singer for a special live taping of this beloved and long-running movie podcast!
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FINDING CHAUCER'S G-SPOT
Finding Chaucer's G-spot marks the 25th anniversary of G-Spots?, a cinematic deconstruction of Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” The program will also include a live reading and the 2026 short film Tea Spots.
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GREGORIUS, THE CHOSEN ONE
Gregorius grows up an orphan, later accidentally marries his mother, and towards the end of his life becomes the Pope. An absurd comedy inspired by a Thomas Mann novel, itself a retelling of the medieval verse epic.
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HANABI (FIRE FLOWER)
A savage adaptation of Yoko Hayasuke’s Journal of a Radioactive Brain, written in the wake of the tsunami and nuclear disaster that ensued the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, weaving diary with tales of survival and resistance.
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I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING
Five childhood friends face adult struggles: Patrick and Shiv's relationship strains over a secret, Oli parties destructively, Conor awaits fatherhood with business dreams, and wealthy Rian can't escape his past despite moving away.
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I SHOT ANDY WARHOL
The story of Valerie Solanas, a '60s radical who preached misandry in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but after he repeatedly ignored her, she shot him.
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JANE SCHOENBRUN: PUBLIC ACCESS AFTERWORLD
Book reading, Q&A, and signing with Jane Scheonbrun for their profound, binge-all-night, headrush of a debut novel
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KEIRAN GODDARD: I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING
A free author reading, Q&A, and signing event with Keiran Goddard for I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
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LA BOLA NEGRA
A bold tapestry spanning nearly a century of Spanish history, La Bola Negra tells the story of three generations of men whose lives are intimately connected through desire, pain, and love.
Sat, Oct 24 6:30 PM Sun, Oct 25 11:30 AM
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LA GRADIVA
A group of high school students sets off on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii. They are seized by a sense of vertigo. They allow themselves to be overwhelmed by desire and anger, until they surrender completely.
Sat, Oct 24 4:45 PM Sun, Oct 25 11:00 AM
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LA PERRA
A middle-aged woman living alone on a Chilean island finds an abandoned puppy, naming it Yuri - her chosen name for a daughter she never had. Through bonding with the dog, she seeks healing from her past.
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LEILA AND THE WOLVES
Drawing on the Arab heritage of the Arabian Nights, Leila and the Wolves combines fictional drama, archival footage, fantasy sequences, mosaic pattern, to refute the colonial and male dominated version of history.
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LOOK BACK (2026)
Fujino is a young girl with complete confidence in her talent for drawing manga who is united with Kyomoto, a reclusive classmate whose artistic ability far surpasses her own, through their passionate love of manga.
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MANHUNTER: THE FINAL CUT
Former FBI profiler Will Graham returns to service to pursue a deranged serial killer dubbed "the Tooth Fairy" by the media.
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MATT SINGER: FUNNY BUSINESS
A free author reading, Q&A, and signing event with Matt Signer for Funny Business
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MINOTAUR
A high-powered executive's meticulously controlled existence unravels when professional crises, global chaos, and marital betrayal converge, pushing him toward a dangerous breaking point.
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MONOGRAPH SHORTS 2026
A Refocus Film Festival shorts block, featuring six selections that expand our understanding of art and adaptation—from narratively confrontational animation to intimate family stories, formally innovative historical documentaries and experimental work.
Sat, Oct 24 12:00 PM Sun, Oct 25 3:10 PM
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MYSTERIOUS SKIN
Two pre-adolescent boys both experienced a strange event and later it affects their lives in different ways. One becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM
A decade post-death, filmmaker William Greaves reveals his final work: footage of a 1972 gathering he arranged with Harlem Renaissance legends, which he deemed his most significant capture.
Fri, Oct 23 1:00 PM Sat, Oct 24 11:30 AM Sun, Oct 25 2:30 PM
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REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION
Pegah Ahangarani traces her life through five portraits of relatives and mentors. Using personal archives, home videos, protests, and newspapers, she chronicles over 40 years of Iranian history from 1979 to 2026.
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REVOLUTIONARIES NEVER DIE
Seeking to decode a final, unanswered invitation, a filmmaker explores why the renowned Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab reached out for a collaboration just two months before her passing. Since his reply can never reach her, the film transforms into a lyrical expedition through the life, political commitments, and artistic vision of a singular voice from the era of revolution.
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SCOTT HEIM: MYSTERIOUS SKIN
A free author reading, Q&A, and signing event with Scott Heim for Mysterious Skin
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SOUL PATROL
Vietnam War's first Black special ops team reunites to share their untold story, revealing hidden military history and exploring whether confronting the past can heal old wounds.
Fri, Oct 23 3:30 PM Sun, Oct 25 4:45 PM
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THE THING IN THE COFFIN
An abstract experimental reinterpretation of Dracula, this film fuses analog and digital decay-from Super 8 to 35mm-into a glitch-infused vision that transforms the novel's ghotic eroticism into a haunting new audiovisual experience.
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VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST
In a dark and distant future, where the undead have arisen from apocalyptic ashes, Vampire hunters now threaten the vampires with extinction. D, the son of a vampire and a mortal who has dedicated his life to exterminating vampires, is hired to rescue Charlotte Elbourne from the vampire nobleman Meier Link.
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VIVA CARMEN
Teenage Salvador, assistant to the gifted knife grinder Antonio, encounters a captivating young gypsy woman, Carmen. Her stunning beauty and independent spirit set the town abuzz, but Antonio’s mystical ability to glimpse the future in sharpened blades foretells a tragic fate for Carmen.
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WHISKEY TANGO FILMSCENE
Join us for a night of storytelling with guests of Refocus Film Festival to hear their war stories about creating art and getting it out into the world while sipping some whiskey from John’s Grocery.
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