Films with Special Guests

VIVA VERDI! offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of celebrated opera singers and musicians living out their “third act” at Milan’s Casa Verdi—the unique retirement home built by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896. Among these remarkable residents, ages 77 to 107, are international singers, dancers, conductors, and composers whose stories are filled with music, magic, and passion. As they mentor young music students who live among them, VIVA VERDI! reveals why Verdi called this home his “best work” and how its spirit of creativity and care remains as visionary today as it was over a century ago. A Q&A with the filmmakers follows the film.

Join us for this perennial holiday classic followed by a Q&A with Chevy and Jayni Chase, moderated by Tony Deyo. This holiday season, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) vows his clan will enjoy "the most fun-filled family Christmas ever." Before anyone can stop him, there will be 25,000 lights on the roof, an exploding turkey on the dining room table and a SWAT team taking siege outside. A festive supporting cast helps bring to life a John Hughes script full of wit, heart and sheer goofiness. 

A Q&A with Tova Friedman and the filmmakers follows the screening. Behind Her Eyes is a 40-minute documentary short that tells the powerful journey of one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust who uses the power of social media to bridge across generations. Born in Poland in 1938, Tova Friedman was one of the few Jewish children to survive the horrors of Auschwitz. Her early years were marked by unimaginable suffering—deportation, starvation, forced labor, and the loss of countless family members to Nazi cruelty. After liberation, she rebuilt her life, became a therapist and continues to be an unyielding advocate for education working against all forms of prejudice and bigotry.