Sy Montgomery & E.B. Bartels: A Turtle Celebration
2025-11-15 11:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
West Newton Cinema Reads and Newtonville Books present:
Famed naturalist Sy Montgomery, author of THE TRUE AND LUCKY LIFE OF A TURTLE, and E. B. Bartels, author of GOOD GRIEF, together for a talk and book signing to benefit the Turtle Survival Alliance!
Our day begins with a turtle meet and greet. Sy and E.B. will then share big-screen stories and more from their animal adventures, followed by a Q&A. Guests are invited to stay for a screening of THE SLOWEST STAMPEDE ON EARTH and join Sy and E.B. for a book signing in our lobby.
And don’t forget to bid on items—like turtle quilts—in the silent auction!
The day’s events:
11am-11:30:
Turtle meet & greet; mingle in the lobby to browse books & turtle merch & bid on the silent auction items
11:30-12:30:
Authors talk books & turtles, followed by a Q&A, in the theater
12:30-1:30:
Join us for a screening of THE SLOWEST STAMPEDE ON EARTH (20 mins, in the theater) & a book signing (in the lobby)
National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller SY MONTGOMERY is the author of thirty-nine books for both adults and children, including Soul of an Octopus and Of Time and Turtles, and has been honored with a Sibert Medal, three Sibert Honors, two Science Book and Film Prizes from the National Association for the Advancement of Science, four honorary degrees, and many other awards. She lives in Hancock, New Hampshire, with her husband, Howard Mansfield, and their border collie, Thurber.
E.B. BARTELS is a nonfiction writer, a teacher, an editor, and a former bookseller with an MFA from Columbia. She is the author of Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter (out in paperback from Mariner Books/HarperCollins on 11/11/25), a narrative nonfiction book about loving and losing animals, which has received positive press from many media outlets including The Associated Press, NPR, The Boston Globe, WBUR, Kinship, Psychology Today, and the American Kennel Club, and which has been translated into Korean. Her essays and interviews have appeared in Salon, Slate, WBUR, Literary Hub, Catapult, Electric Literature, The Believer, and The Rumpus, among others. E.B. lives in Arlington, Massachusetts, with her husband (Richie), her son (Luca), and a pair of red-footed tortoises (Terrence and Twyla).

Behind the Screen: It Was Just an Accident
2025-11-16 14:00 - 16:00
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT marks another remarkable act of defiance by Jafar Panahi, one of the most courageous filmmakers of our time. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the film is a tense, darkly humorous thriller about Vahid, a mechanic who believes he has reencountered Eghbal, the intelligence officer who once tortured him. As Vahid gathers others whose lives were also scarred by Eghbal, a dangerous plan for revenge takes shape. Panahi crafts a powerful meditation on justice, morality, and resistance under repression. A NEON release and a NYFF63 Main Slate selection.
POST SCREENING PANEL DISCUSSION
Our distinguished panel will discuss IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT in the context of Iranian cinema, political expression, and the role of art as resistance under authoritarian rule.
ALI BANUAZIZI, Ph.D.
Research Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for International Studies at M.I.T.
Ali Banuazizi’s research focuses on the political cultures of the Middle East and the comparative study of religion, civil society, and politics. His work includes Iran’s social history and its contemporary domestic and foreign relations. A past president of both the Middle East Studies Association and the International Society for Iranian Studies, he has held visiting appointments at Princeton, Harvard, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, MIT, and Oxford University.
RASHIN FAHANDEJ
Multimedia Artist and Filmmaker; Research Fellow, MIT Open Documentary Lab
Rashin Fahandej’s multimedia projects center on marginalized voices and the use of media and technology for social change. Her multi-platform project A Father’s Lullaby explores the role of men in raising children and the impact of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. A 2019 James and Audrey Foster Prize recipient, she has been a Boston Artist-in-Residence and a visiting faculty member at MassArt. She is also a recipient of the Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant.
KAMRAN RASTEGAR, Ph.D.
Professor of Comparative Literature, Tufts University
Kamran Rastegar’s scholarship focuses on modern Middle Eastern literature and film, with attention to representation, cultural memory, and transnational identity. He is a founding faculty member of the Department for Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora and an affiliate of the Film and Media Studies Program. He served as Director of the Center for the Humanities at Tufts from 2018 to 2022. His work bridges cultural studies and the political dimensions of art in the Middle East.

West Newton Cinema presents Producers Circle: Nine
2025-12-04 18:30 - 20:30
Join us for a special evening with filmmakers Jeremy S. Levine and Rachael DeCruz as they share a rough cut and discuss the making of their documentary, “Nine”.
In this contemplative, immersive documentary, we see two men’s parallel lives unfold, separated by generations and bound together by experience. In Act I, Nine interweaves the lives of Gerald and Henry. They are both stuck. Henry’s life in prison is on loop; he works as a janitor, calls his wife Juanita—who stayed with him during his decades of incarceration—and mentors the younger men while playing dominos before starting it all over again the next day. Gerald frantically juggles his day job, his activism, and at night, he digs into the archives of Henry’s case, looking for something—anything—that will help bring his Pops home. Act II centers on Gerald’s campaign to free Henry. Gerald and his team of formerly incarcerated activists strategize on ways to bring Henry home. They work to pass a bill Gerald wrote while still in prison that would radically transform the clemency board. Gerald records emotional video testimonies from men whose lives Henry transformed. He’s worried it’s not enough and that he’s failing Henry. Things come to a head in Act III, leading to Henry’s clemency hearing and his unexpected freedom after 45 years of incarceration.
With quiet attention to details, Nine feels like a cinematic poem. In moments small and large, the film builds a beautiful, lyrical world that explores the resilience and joy that can be found in our most cherished relationships.
Jeremy S. Levine, Director/Producer
Levine’s work explores race, class, and the power of parental bonds through cinematic, formally rigorous films.
Rachael DeCruz, Director/Producer
DeCruz’s work centers on how familial and community bonds fortify people to push back against racist systems.
Producer’s Circle is an opportunity to:
Experience excerpts of a filmmaker’s past work to understand their vision and craftsmanship.
-Engage directly with in-progress productions that need your support.
-Participate in shaping the final stages of a film’s journey, through discussion and financial contributions.
-Foster a Vibrant Film Community. Beyond supporting a single documentary, your participation helps strengthen Boston’s larger documentary scene. By investing in these works-in-progress, you become part of a community pushing the boundaries of independent storytelling, inspiring future filmmakers, and expanding the city’s creative horizons.

West Newton Cinema presents Behind the Screen: Hamnet
2025-12-07 14:00 - 17:00
HAMNET is a historical drama directed by the Academy Award winning writer/director Chloé Zhao and based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell. The film follows the arc in the relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes in the wake of the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet. It tells a powerful story of love and loss, and one that is believed to have inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet.
POST SCREENING DISCUSSION
Our distinguished panelists will explore the film’s cultural and historical context and discuss more broadly the influence of Shakespeare on the arts, having inspired countless works across different mediums and periods. Artists have continually drawn on Shakespeare’s work for inspiration, an enduring legacy that has shaped modern art and culture.
FEATURING:
STEPHEN GREENBLATT, Ph.D.
John Cogan University Professor of Humanities, Harvard University
Greenblatt is the author of fifteen books, including Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics; The Swerve: How the World Became Modern; Shakespeare’s Freedom; Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; and most recently Dark Renaissance. He is General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and of The Norton Shakespeare. His honors include the 2016 Holberg Prize from the Norwegian Parliament, the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and the 2011 National Book Award for The Swerve, and two Guggenheim Fellowships. He has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Philosophical Society, the Italian literary academy Accademia degli Arcadi, and is a fellow of the British Academy.
IN CONVERSATION WITH:
MICHELLE EPHRAIM, Ph.D.
Professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Ephraim, a Shakespeare scholar, is the author of Green World: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare, which was awarded the 2023 Juniper Prize for Creative Nonfiction; Reading the Jewish Woman on the Elizabethan Stage; and the co-author of the literary humor book Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas. Her latest venture is the award-winning podcast, Everyday Shakespeare, which explores ways that Shakespeare sheds light on our modern problems.

West Newton Cinema presents Director's Spotlight: Drink and Be Merry
2025-12-18 19:00 - 20:30
ABOUT THE FILM
Set at a struggling New York dive bar in the days approaching Christmas, 2019, Chet (Jefferson White), a beleaguered bartender in a state of extended arrested development, must balance taking care of his difficult regulars, who have nowhere else to go, and rely on him for far more than pouring drinks, with his naive desire to muster some Christmas Spirit.
Q&A FOLLOWS THE SCREENING
ADAM VOLERICH
Filmmaker and Podcast Producer
The set is his natural habitat and the crew his family. His films have screened and been awarded at festivals worldwide. His latest short film, MISPRINT, premiered on Omeleto, and his feature directing debut, DRINK AND BE MERRY, is available to rent or buy.
Adam is also the co-creator of the hit film podcast EYE OF THE DUCK on the Morbid Podcast Network for SiriusXM. He also produced and developed the Signal Award Winning and Ambie and Webby Nominated narrative fiction podcasts AMERICAN HOSTAGE (Amazon Originals), starring Jon Hamm (soon to be a TV Show from Shawn Ryan and MGM+), and THE FOXES OF HYDESVILLE (QCODE), starring Carey Mulligan, for Criminal Content.
ETHAN WARREN
Author
Ethan Warren is the author of The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha, and the forthcoming When I Paint My Masterpiece: The Cinematic Dylan.
