Newton Cultural Alliance

West Newton presents Behind the Screen: Sinners
2026-02-08 13:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
SINNERS is a genre-defying period horror drama written and directed by Ryan Coogler, set in 1932 Mississippi during the Jim Crow era. The story follows twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in dual roles, who return to their hometown to open a juke joint for the local Black community, only to find that an ancient, supernatural evil threatens their celebration and their lives. The film blends Southern Gothic, blues music, historical memory, and supernatural horror, creating a richly layered narrative about community, survival, and cultural expression.
POST SCREENING PANEL DISCUSSION
Our panel will explore the film’s fusion of music, history, and horror, considering how SINNERS engages with African-American cultural traditions, the symbolic role of blues music in confronting evil, and the artistic choices that make the film a singular cinematic experience.
JAKE BLOUNT, A.M.
Musician, Scholar, and Music Consultant on SINNERS;
Specialist in Traditional African-American Music and Afrofuturism
Jake Blount is an award-winning musician and scholar whose work bridges performance, research, and advocacy. He specializes in African-American traditional music and Afrofuturist approaches, and his recordings have appeared on best-of lists from NPR, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone. Blount served as a music consultant on SINNERS and his work often interrogates the cultural and historical roots of American music.
JOEL LARUE SMITH, Ph.D.
Associate Teaching Professor, Tufts, Pianist, Composer, Arranger
Joel LaRue Smith has been the Director of the Tufts Jazz Orchestra (formerly the Big Band) and Jazz Activities at Tufts University since 1996. He is also a pianist and composer known for moving seamlessly between jazz, classical, gospel, and Afro-Cuban repertoire. He has performed globally at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Royal Albert Hall, and has received numerous awards including ASCAP’s distinguished George and Ira Gershwin Award.
BILL LOWE, Ph.D.
Composer, Performer, Educator; Leader of Signifyin’ Natives
Bill Lowe is a distinguished bassist trombonist, tuba player, composer, and educator with decades of experience in creative music. His ensemble Signifyin’ Natives explores African-American musical traditions through improvisation and collaboration, and Lowe has performed and taught extensively throughout the United States and internationally.

West Newton Cinema presents Mary Pickford's Sparrows: Live Music Accompaniment
2026-02-15 14:00 - 16:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
Join us for a screening of Mary Pickford’s, SPARROWS (1926) with live musical accompaniment.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Molly, the eldest child at a baby farm hidden deep in a swamp, must rescue the others when their cruel master decides that one of them will be disposed of.
LIVE MUSIC
BRUCE VOGT
Bruce Vogt is a Canadian pianist who has devoted a distinguished career to performing and teaching. He has toured cities and towns of all sizes throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. He has mentored generations of young artists in his role as professor of piano at the University of Victoria, and has lectured widely, leading master classes, workshops, and adjudicating for festivals.
Bruce has sustained an interest in exploring the many conversations to be found between music and film, literature and painting. This has evolved into an unusual side hustle: improvising accompaniments for the great films of the silent era. He has developed a robust career in this multimedia sphere bringing sound to many masterpieces — by Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Griffith, Sjöström, Von Sternberg and many others. In movie theaters across Europe, Asia, and North America, he has provided for audiences a greater intimacy with these films, transforming the silence of the medium into another sphere.

West Newton Cinema presents Night Fight
2026-02-19 19:00 - 20:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
Night Fight is a hybrid documentary, nonfiction framed with creative, cinematic storytelling directed and edited by Khary Saeed Jones. The film emerges from a harrowing incident in 2017 when Jones was followed by a racist vigilante along back roads in rural Canada. Over time, that encounter cast a long shadow over his life, prompting a deep, introspective journey to understand not just what happened, but how it shaped him.
Rather than a conventional documentary, Night Fight weaves together Jones’s personal reflections, self-portrait video fragments, and interviews with academics, artists, and writers about racial violence, memory, and psychological impact. The narrative oscillates between the literal journey back to the site of the incident and an emotional, internal journey toward meaning and healing.
Described as a candid, nuanced, and deeply personal film, Night Fight confronts systemic and interpersonal racial violence and discrimination. It engages with the challenge of sharing an internal reality that is both singular and emblematic of broader collective experiences.
Join us for a post-film discussion with the filmmaker Khary Jones.
Khary Saeed Jones is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, and Professor of the Practice in Drama, Film, and Performance Studies at Tufts University, where he teaches screen storytelling and mentors students in both documentary and scripted projects. Jones holds an MFA in Film Directing and an MA in English from Columbia University, as well as a BA in English from Morehouse College.
His work as a writer-director explores the tensions between fiction, memory, and lived experience, and has screened at major festivals and cultural venues including Sundance, SXSW, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and ICA Boston.

West Newton Cinema presents Behind the Screen: All God's Children
2026-02-22 13:00 - 15:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
In an unprecedented attempt to heal centuries of racism and antisemitism, and combat the rising racial and ethnic tension in their Brooklyn communities, the largest reform synagogue and the oldest black Baptist Church attempt to unite their congregations and bring about peace, by becoming family. Shot over five years by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner, ALL GOD’S CHILDREN follows her sister, activist Rabbi Rachel Timoner, and her Congregation Beth Elohim’s partnership with Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman of Antioch Baptist Church as their faith is put to the test, and both congregations struggle not to let their differences drive them apart. Though it’s a fraught partnership, they refuse to walk away, no matter how hard it gets, and ultimately emerge with an inspiring model for how other communities might build bridges across religious, economic and class divides to foster enduring, powerful partnerships.
PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWS
REVEREND ELIJAH GIPSON-DAVIS
The Rev. Elijah Gipson-Davis, a native of Riverdale, Georgia, was ordained into the Gospel ministry at the New Macedonia Baptist Church. An anointed preacher, talented scholar, and skilled administrator, he currently serves as the Minister of Administration and Assistant to the Pastor at the Myrtle Baptist Church of West Newton, Massachusetts. Rev. Elijah shares academic interests in religion, specifically African American and North American religious history, gender and sexuality, congregational studies, Christian education, and liturgics.
RABBI TIFERET BERENBAUM
Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum received Rabbinic Ordination and a Master’s in Jewish Education from Hebrew College in 2013, after spending a year in Israel as part of her studies. Rav Tiferet served congregations in Milwaukee, WI and Mt. Holly, New Jersey, then returned home to Boston and TBZ in 2019. Always desiring to continue to learn, she is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.
MODERATED BY: JAYMIE SAKS
Jaymie is the Director of Development at 2LifeCommunities and served for more than a decade as executive director of Boston Jewish Film (BJF) and was chief operating officer of the Jewish Women’s Archive.

NewTV Members Network Meet-Up
2026-02-25 18:00 - 20:00 | NewTV, 23 Needham St, Newton, MA, 02461, United States
Join us at our Needham Street studio on Wednesday, February 25 at 6:00PM, for a Members Network Meet-Up! This will be a fun and engaging evening in a relaxed atmosphere. There will be food, technical help sessions, and plenty of opportunities to connect with fellow members! Non-members are welcome to attend as well!
6:00PM – 6:30PM – Networking and… (wait for it)… FREE PIZZA!
6:30PM – 8:00PM – Introductions, followed by technical help breakout sessions including:
How to Create & Manage Your Own YouTube Channel, with Peter Taber-Simonian
Control Room Basics, with Kathleen Golden
How to Host an Interview, with Jenn Adams
Please RSVP by Friday, February 20, so we can plan accordingly.
If you’re not a member and would like to join us, sign-up for a NewTV membership at https://newtv.org/join
Email membership@newtv.org with any questions!

West Newton Cinema presents Behind the Screen: Hoosiers with Brad Stevens
2026-03-01 12:30 - 15:00 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
ABOUT THE FILM:
A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship.
PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWS
BRAD STEVENS
Brad Stevens is the President of Basketball Operations for the NBA’s Boston Celtics, a position he has held since June 2021, where he built the 2024 NBA championship team. A former standout college coach at Butler University—leading them to two consecutive NCAA Championship games in 2010 and 2011—he previously served as the Celtics’ head coach for eight seasons (2013–2021).
DAN SHAUGHNESSY
Dan Shaughnessy is a sports columnist and associate editor at the Boston Globe. He has been named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year 14 times and 12 times has been voted one of America’s top ten sports columnists by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2016 Shaughnessy was the recipient of the BBWAA Career Excellence Award for “meritorious contributions to baseball writing,” presented at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Shaughnessy has written thirteen books, including New York Times bestseller “Francona,” “The Curse of the Bambino,” and “Senior Year.” He most recently wrote “Wish It Lasted Forever — Life With The Larry Bird Celtics”, a book about his days covering the 1980s Bird Celtics.

West Newton Cinema presents Ty Burr's Movie Club: The Holdovers
2026-03-12 18:30 - 21:00 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, THE HOLDOVERS follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
TY BURR’S MOVIE CLUB is hosted by the nationally recognized film critic Ty Burr.
Each month Ty presents and discusses one of his favorite films with the audience. His selections span the spectrum from classics that have stood the test of time to contemporary films that merit a second viewing.

West Newton Cinema presents Oscars Party
2026-03-15 18:00 - 22:00 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
Strike a pose at our red carpet photo booth, enjoy a dinner buffet by Anoush’ella, and settle in to watch the Awards with fellow film lovers. A cash bar will be available throughout the evening. Film critic Ty Burr will serve as MC, sharing commentary, predictions, and reactions as the night unfolds.
Be sure to cast your ballot in our Oscars poll. The guest with the most correct predictions will win a Golden Ticket, granting free admission to West Newton Cinema movies and events throughout 2026.

West Newton Cinema presents Cosmic Coda
2026-03-25 19:00 - 21:00 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
Join West Newton Cinema for the Local Spotlight screening of Cosmic Coda with a post-film discussion with the Filmmaker MJ Doherty and Senior Research Scientist Peter Fritschel. COSMIC CODA is about the in-between moments of scientific discovery – how it feels going to work each day on a machine that tests both the limits of our universe and our ability to comprehend this mind boggling goal.

9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero
2026-03-26 19:00 - 21:00 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero
To inaugurate the We the People: Finding Our Voices speaker series, we invite you to a special VIP private screening of the newly created film 9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero. The evening will continue with a forum with Carolyn Lukensmeyer, founder of AmericaSpeaks, Jerren Chang of Partners in Democracy, and community leader Marcy Crary. The screening will take place at West Newton Cinema. Admission is free, but registration is required. Join us for this powerful opening event as we come together to reflect, learn, and begin an important community conversation.

The Allen Center Presents An Uncommon Education
2026-04-16 19:00 - 21:00 | The Allen Center, 35 Webster St, WEST NEWTON, MA, 02465, United States
The Allen Center and Historic Newton present a special screening of An Uncommon Education, a documentary exploring the legacy of Nathaniel T. Allen—right here where his groundbreaking work took place. Learn about Allen’s English and Classical School, a forward-looking program of study at a time when slavery was still the law of the land and women’s suffrage yet a distant goal.

West Newton Cinema presents Bending the Arc: The Journey Continues
2026-04-17 17:00 - 19:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
Global Spotlight: Partners in Health
Partners In Health: The Journey Continues
In the 1980s, Dr. Paul Farmer, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, activist Ophelia Dahl, Todd McCormack, and investor Thomas White began a movement that changed global health forever. Treating patients who had been abandoned by the health establishment, they developed through Partners In Health (PIH) a community health model that saved millions of lives in the developing world. Their fight became a global battle in the highest halls of power for the right to health for all. Join PIH co-founder Todd McCormack, their CEO Sheila Davis, and Dr. Anatole Manzi to learn the challenges and opportunities for global health now and in the future. This event will begin at 5 pm with a pre-screening reception with PIH representatives. At 5:30 pm, we will screen Bending the Arc, the riveting documentary that shows how moral imagination, strategy, and sheer force of will can change the trajectory of the world. After the screening, our panelists will discuss the film and their work followed by an audience Q&A.
PANELISTS:
DR. SHEILA DAVIS
Dr. Sheila Davis is Chief Executive Officer of Partners In Health (PIH), where she previously
served as Chief of Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Officer, overseeing global clinical and operational programs. She led PIH’s response to the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic and has spent more than two decades advancing global health, HIV/AIDS care, and nursing leadership worldwide. A nationally recognized speaker and Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, she holds doctoral and graduate nursing degrees from the MGH Institute of Health Professions.
TODD MCCORMACK
Todd McCormack is a co-founder of Partners In Health and has supported the organization
since meeting Paul Farmer at Duke University in 1978. He serves on PIH’s Board of Trustees
and Board of Directors, where he focuses on stewarding partnerships and mobilizing resources to advance the organization’s mission, and chairs the Governance and Nominating Committee. A Senior Corporate Vice President at IMG, he has been a pioneer in digital media strategy and continues to advise and invest in emerging media ventures.
DR. ANATOLE MANZI
Dr. Anatole Manzi is a global health leader advancing equity and excellence in healthcare
delivery and serves as Cluster Lead for Capacity Strengthening & Professional Development at the University of Global Health Equity’s LEAP Center. He previously served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Partners In Health, leading multi-country strategies to improve clinical quality and care systems. Born and raised in Rwanda, he holds academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, the University of Global Health Equity, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, grounding his work in social justice and accompaniment.

Director's Spotlight: Age Group Winner
2026-04-18 19:00 - 21:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
In 1980 Jay Helgerson shocked the world, becoming the first person to run a marathon a week for a year – each race completed in under three hours. For the last ten years, his daughter, filmmaker Alexandra Helgerson, followed him with a camera in order to understand the eccentric man who raised her. What she gets are his projected anxieties, his struggles with physical age and emotional distress, all while he endlessly trains for the Boston Marathon. But as Jay trains, the film is nearly derailed by Alexandra’s encounter with a life threatening illness. Ultimately, AGE GROUP WINNER is an affirmation of the will to live.
Join us after the film for a discussion with the filmmakers:
Alexandra Helgerson is a filmmaker, actor and musician. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where she played basketball her freshman year. After working in publishing in New York City, she began a career in acting. Notable roles include Viola and Rosaline for the American Shakespeare Center, Vivien in VIVIEN, and Brynne in the horror-comedy HAPPY ENDING. AGE GROUP WINNER, a ten year in the making cinema-verité documentary about her world record setting, marathon running father, is her directorial debut. A recent survivor of sarcoma, Helgerson chronicles her experiences of love, loss, and desire on her debut album Halcyon Days, to be released in the summer of 2026.
Jay Helgerson was born in Wichita, KS and served in the U.S. Marine Corps before earning a degree in History at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1980 he became the first person in the world to run 52 marathons in one year, each in under 3 hours. His feat earned him a place in the Guiness Book of World Records. He trains daily in Portland’s Forest Park, and at age 71 will run his 20th Boston Marathon in April of 2026. When not running, Jay enjoys eating pizza, reading the news, and talking pop culture, mostly with his three daughters and two granddaughters.

West Newton Cinema presents Join or Die
2026-05-02 15:00 - 17:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
Directed by Rebecca Davis, Pete Davis
Starring Robert Putnam, Vivek Murthy, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Raj Chetty, Priya Parker, Jane McAlevey, Glenn Loury, Hahrie Han
THE POWER OF BELONGING: JOIN OR DIE
Stronger communities start with showing up.
3:00 – 4:30 PM – “Join or Die” screening
4:30 – 5:30 PM – Club Fair in the Cinema Lobby
The West Newton Cinema, together with The Boston Club, is hosting a special screening of “Join or Die” and a post screening “joining fair” with 15 area clubs and organizations.
“Join or Die” is a film about why you should join a club—and why the fate of America may depend on it. Follow the story of America’s civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose viral “Bowling Alone” research into the decline in American community lights a path out of our democracy’s present crisis. The film shows that the solution is within reach: getting involved.
After the film, connect with local clubs and organizations, including Green Newton, Newton Free Library, The Boston Club, Ty Burr’s Movie Club, The Highland Glee Club, Newton Camera Club, LGBTQ Newton, Newton Rotary, Newton Lions Club, Newton Women’s Forum, Rock Voices, and more. Discover how you can turn inspiration into action by becoming part of a community.

West Newton Cinema Reads: Perrotta & Phillips
2026-05-24 16:00 - 18:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
West Newton Cinema Reads & Newtonville Books present:
Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers, Little Children, and Election, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jayne Anne Phillips reading from, discussing, and signing copies of their new books, Ghost Town and Small Town Girls, followed by a screening of The Last Picture Show.
Tom Perrotta’s new novel, Ghost Town, is a gripping and darkly nostalgic tale about a tumultuous summer in 1970s suburban New Jersey, told from the perspective of a middle-aged writer looking back on events that changed his life—and the story he finally has the courage to tell. Ghost Town reveals the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we’ve left them behind.
Small Town Girls is Oprah’s #1 most anticipated book of 2026. Part coming-of-age story, part social history, this tender, sparkling memoir is Jayne Anne Phillips’s love letter to the place and the people who have shaped her perceptions and her writing. Phillips grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia—dense with forests and small churches, rich in history and misunderstandings. In her singular voice, Phillips re-creates the place she calls home and reflects on her origins, the mysteries of memory, and the troubled annals of the last American centuries.
And in Peter Bogdonavich’s The Last Picture Show (1971), adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, we experience an aching portrait of a dying West. Set in Texas in the early fifties, The Last Picture Show portrays the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and rich rebel Jacy (Cybill Shepherd)—and the aging, lost souls who bump up against them. Shot in arresting black-and-white, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains a pivotal film (Criterion).
Our event will begin with a reading and conversation between the authors in our first-floor Cinema 2, followed by an audience Q&A and book signing in our lobby, with books for sale courtesy of Newtonville Books. We will then return to Cinema 2 to watch The Last Picture Show.
PANEL DISCUSSION
TOM PERROTTA
Tom Perrotta is the author of eleven works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were adapted into acclaimed HBO series.
JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS
Jayne Anne Phillips is the author of Black Tickets, Machine Dreams, Fast Lanes, Shelter, MotherKind, Lark and Termite, Quiet Dell, and Night Watch, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been a finalist once for the National Book Award and twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The recipient of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts, Howard, Bunting, and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Newton Juneteenth Celebration
2026-06-19 15:00 - 22:00 | Hyde Community Center, 90 Lincoln St, Newton Highlands, MA, 02461, United States
Newton Juneteenth Celebration
Friday, June 19, 3:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Come celebrate. Come connect. Come feel the JOY—this is more than an event, it’s a celebration of resilience, unity, and community pride.
Kick off Juneteenth with an exciting New England Patriots Skills and Drills Clinic at Newton North High School hosted by Newton Community Education, and then join us at the Hyde Community Center from 3PM for an unforgettable celebration of culture, heritage and tradition.
Starting at 3 PM you can look forward to:
🎤 A party atmosphere hosted by DJ Firestarta
🛍️ Shopping unique finds from local artisans & craft vendors
🎶 Live performances that move your spirit (African dancing by Afro Diamond, Newton reggae artist DJ Everla$t)
📣 Meet the New England Patriots cheerleaders
🍴 Two food trucks serving up delicious Caribbean flavors: Reggae Foods and Gourmet Kreyol
🎤 A Summer Concert Series event featuring hip-hop cover band sensation The GRV from 6–8 PM
🎬 Stretch out under the summer sky for an 8PM screening of Black Panther, the critically acclaimed box office delight that defines Black Excellence.
This year we reject division and instead embrace ‘JOYFUL RESISTANCE!’ Together, let’s uplift the value and richness of African-American culture and Black Excellence. All residents and visitors are invited to help celebrate 161 years since the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans.
Speaking of excellence, we honor the service of featured guest, Dr. Henry Turner, Newton North High School Principal of 10 years who departs to assume his new role as Superintendent of Reading Public Schools.
We are proud to partner with the Hyde Community Center to seamlessly incorporate Juneteenth into their Friday Summer Concert Series.
Thank you to our partners and sponsors!
Our partners include our fiscal sponsor, Families Organizing for Justice (FORJ), the Newton Coalition of Black Residents (NCBR) and FORJ@Newton North High School (FORJ NNHS). We are grateful for generous support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Harmony Foundation and Village Bank. This Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts program is supported by Spark Newton in collaboration with The City of Newton.

West Newton Cinema Presents Rebel with a Clause - Open Caption
2026-06-20 16:00 - 17:30 | West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton, MA, 02465, United States
Rebel with a Clause – Open Caption
Saturday, June 20, 4:00 pm, West Newton Cinema
Directed by Brandt Johnson
Starring Brandt Johnson, Ellen Jovin
The grammar table is back at West Newton Cinema! Ellen will set up her nationally acclaimed Grammar Table one hour before the show to answer your most pressing grammar questions, resolve long-standing family grammar disputes, and take complaints. The June 20th screening with Rebel With a Clause will be Open Captioned. After the screening, please stick around for a Q&A with Brandt and Ellen, followed by a book signing of Ellen’s national bestseller, also called Rebel with a Clause.
ABOUT
Rebel with a Clause is a charming and insightful documentary that follows grammarian Ellen Jovin as she travels the country with her “Grammar Table,” sparking spontaneous conversations about commas, clauses, and the quirks of English with curious passersby. What begins as a playful educational project turns into a moving exploration of civility, curiosity, and the unexpected ways language brings people together.
