Join us April 8-12 for a tribute to the trailblazing Nebraska director Joan Micklin Silver. TICKETS: $10 General Admission | $5 Members & UNL Students

“Born in Omaha, Joan Micklin Silver (1935-2020) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and director known for her pioneering efforts to bring Jewish stories to the stage and screen. Silver frequently butted heads with the patriarchal Hollywood studio system and broke barriers for women directors with her seven feature films, including her debut Hester Street and the romantic comedy Crossing Delancey.

HESTER STREET (1975)
Wednesday, April 8 – 7:15 p.m.

Joan Micklin Silver’s remarkable feature debut is a vivid, lovingly detailed evocation of the late-nineteenth-century Jewish Lower East Side built around a luminous, Academy Award–nominated performance from Carol Kane as Gitl, a young woman from Eastern Europe who arrives in New York to join her husband Yankel (Steven Keats) who has already emigrated. While Yankel, who now goes by Jake, has quickly acclimated to life in America—and even begun an affair with a dancer—Gitl initially struggles to assimilate. As she attempts to find her place within an unfamiliar culture, Gitl must find a way to become a victor instead of a victim.

1 hour, 29 minutes | Rated PG
Starring Steven Keats, Carol Kane, Dorrie Kavanaugh

BETWEEN THE LINES (1977)
Thursday, April 9 – 7:15 p.m.

Inspired by Joan Micklin Silver’s time working at New York’s storied alt weekly the “Village Voice,” this unsung gem of 1970s slice-of-life seriocomedy offers an incisive, bittersweet look at a shifting media landscape that feels as fresh and relevant as ever. At the offices of a Boston independent newspaper, the staff members—including music critic Max (Jeff Goldblum, in one of his first leading roles), news reporter Harry (John Heard) and photographer Abbie (Lindsay Crouse)—enjoy a positive and open-minded work environment. However, it seems as though their relatively carefree days are numbered when the owner of a major publishing company buys the paper, leading to more money, but big changes.

1 hour, 41 minutes | Rated R
Starring John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum

CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER (1979)
Friday, April 10 – 7:15 p.m.

The trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver digs fearlessly into the psychology of a thorny relationship in this anti–romantic comedy, based on Ann Beattie’s best-selling novel, about lovelorn civil servant Charles (John Heard) and his married-but-separated coworker Laura (Mary Beth Hurt). Months after their affair has ended, Charles is haunted by memories as he desperately attempts to rekindle a love that perhaps never was. Switching deftly between past and present, Micklin Silver guides this piercing deconstruction of male wish-fulfillment fantasy beyond standard movie-romance tropes into something more complicated and cuttingly truthful.

1 hour, 25 minutes | Rated PG
Starring John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert

CROSSING DELANCEY (1988)
Saturday, April 11 – 7:15 p.m.

Joan Micklin Silver’s wonderfully affectionate spin on the romantic comedy infuses the genre with a fresh, personal perspective, following an unmarried Jewish woman’s search for fulfillment in New York City. Happily independent bookstore manager Izzy (a luminous Amy Irving) isn’t looking for love, but she’s forced to reevaluate her desires when she catches the eye of two very different men: a self-centered novelist (Jeroen Krabbé) and the mild-mannered Lower East Side pickle seller (Peter Riegert) with whom her old-fashioned bubbie (scene-stealing Yiddish-theater star Reizl Bozyk) sets her up. A love letter to 1980s Manhattan shot in beautifully burnished, autumnal tones, Crossing Delancey gracefully captures the magic of a city where disparate cultures, generations, and traditions both clash and connect.

1 hour, 37 minutes | Rated PG
Starring Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, Reizl Bozyk

A FISH IN THE BATHTUB (1999)
Sunday, April 12 – 7:15 p.m.

Legendary comedy duo (and real-life husband and wife) Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara star as the constantly bickering couple at the center of this sprightly comedy from writer-director Joan Micklin Silver. When Sam (Stiller) stubbornly refuses to get rid of the new pet carp he’s unleashed in their bathtub, Molly (Meara) finally decides she’s had enough and moves in with their married son Joel (a young Mark Ruffalo). Desperate to get his mother out of his hair (and house), Joel enlists his boy-crazed travel-agent sister (Jane Adams) to help repair their parent’s relationship—even as he’s tempted toward infidelity by a flirtatious client (Pamela Gray).

1 hour, 36 minutes | Rated PG-13
Starring Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Mark Ruffalo