Event Timeline
6:30pm - Doors open
7pm - Film
The Virgin Suicides (2000)
Sofia Coppola's debut film, The Virgin Suicides, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 and immediately put her on the map as a serious auteur director. The film also marked the beginning of a long and successful partnership between Coppola and star Kirsten Dunst. Coppola's breakthrough and subsequent success as a female filmmaker in a male dominated field merits recognition and also reflection on the gendered inequalities in Hollywood.
Synopsis: In an ordinary suburban house, on a lovely tree-lined street, in the middle of 1970s America, lived the five beautiful, dreamy Lisbon sisters, whose doomed fates indelibly marked the neighborhood boys who to this day continue to obsess over them. A story of love and repression, fantasy and terror, sex and death, memory and longing. It is at its core a mystery story: a heart-rending investigation into the impenetrable, life-altering secrets of American adolescence.
About CindeSpotlight
Each September, Cindependent is proud to shine a spotlight on undiscovered and rising talent from across the country and the globe. And as a festival, we're especially proud to celebrate the brilliant independent filmmakers who live and work in the greater Cincinnati area. The Cindependent Spotlight series will carry that celebratory spirit across the calendar year, with 9 handpicked repertory film screenings and 4 special programs running from March to December in the black box theater at the Contemporary Arts Center.
The repertory lineup features the debut films from auteur directors, Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball), Tim Burton (Pee Wee's Big Adventure), Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides), Anna Rose Holmer (The Fits), and Brad Bird (The Iron Giant), alongside some true star making turns by the Queen City herself in films by John Huston (The Asphalt Jungle), John Sayles (Eight Men Out), Larry Yust (Homebodies), and William Wyler (The Best Years of Our Lives). The special programs include a first of its kind Dance Film program curated by local filmmaker and Cindependent alum, Cat Rider, in August, and a Cindependent 2025 Best of Fest program in October.
Cindependent Spotlight events will feature community partners, special guests, and unlimited opportunities to learn from and connect with industry professionals and film enthusiasts. Cindependent is set apart by our dedication to recognizing and elevating the freshest new voices in independent filmmaking and by our commitment to uplifting the Cincinnati film community in all of its many facets. We are excited to share this stirring program of breakthrough film as we continue to build together as a community.
Visit www.cindependentfilmfest.org to see more of our work.
