Soul Patrol uncovers a hidden chapter of American military history by focusing on the Vietnam War’s first Black special ops team, an elite unit operating deep behind enemy lines. With unprecedented access to this once-secretive group of African-American veterans, director J.M. Harper reconstructs their journey with an immediacy rarely seen in Vietnam War storytelling, using raw Super 8 footage, photographs, and audio recordings from their personal archives. Opening on the war’s 50th anniversary, the surviving members reunite in a hotel that becomes a surreal liminal space, where memory, brotherhood, and unresolved trauma collide. As the men reflect on their experiences, the film interrogates the contradictions of fighting for freedom abroad while facing inequality at home.
Winner of the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, Soul Patrol is not just a war story, but a reckoning – an intimate portrait of survival, memory, and the enduring cost of war on those asked to fight it.
Relased 2026
Directed by J. M. Harper
November 11, 2026 4:30 PM
Location: Theater 2 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
Saturday, October 24 at 4:00 PM – Screening + Q&A with Co-Director Rachel Lauren Mueller & Co-Producer Adam Mellion
Daily Showings Starting Sunday, October 25
ABOUT THE FILM
They’re Here is a horror film that follows Edén Villa (a pseudonym) and anonymous Minneapolis residents as they evade and resist the paramilitary occupation of their city. Told in the tradition of dystopian cinema, They’re Here is set in a winter landscape where masked agents abduct children, residents travel in trunks, shackled prisoners are loaded onto airplanes within eyesight of vacationers, and bicyclists track the movements of an invading force.
Documenting the behind-the-scenes movement against the 3-month occupation by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) of Minneapolis, where thousands of immigrants were abducted, They’re Here uses dash cam footage, crowdsourced data visualizations, counter-surveillance and original on-the-ground footage to create a nonfiction portrait of resistance.
ICE continues its abductions across the United States, with a stated goal of deporting 1 million people per year. The agency’s budget is over $70 billion.
Directed by Academy Award® and Golden Lion winning filmmaker Laura Poitras and award-winning Minneapolis-based filmmaker Rachel Lauren Mueller.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Laura Poitras is an Academy Award®, Pulitzer Prize, and Golden Lion winning filmmaker and journalist. Her 2025 film, Cover-Up, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for BAFTA, DGA and Emmy awards. Her previous film, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award®. Her film CITIZENFOUR won an Academy Award® for Best Documentary, along with awards from DGA, BAFTA, and Independent Spirit Award. Laura received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for her reporting on the National Security Agency’’s global mass surveillance programs. Her film about the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, My Country, My Country, was nominated for an Academy Award®. In 2006, she was placed on a terrorist watchlist because of her work documenting post-9/11 America. In 2015 she successfully sued the U.S. government to obtain her classified FBI files.
Rachel Lauren Mueller is a documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist whose work examines power and identity. Her films and reporting have appeared in The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera. Her short documentary 8 Days at Ware (Double Exposure, 2022), alongside her New York Times investigation into abuse cover-ups in a juvenile detention center, was recognized by the Dart Center for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, shortlisted for a Livingston Award, and received multiple honors for investigative reporting and documentary. Her debut feature, The Quiet Part (post-production), will explore how extremism becomes normalized through the arrival of a pagan white supremacist group in a rural Midwestern town.
Relased 2026
Directed by Laura Poitras, Rachel Lauren Mueller
October 24, 2026 4:00 PM
Location: Theater 3 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
Party: 6:00pm in the Film Strip
Screening: 7:15pm at The Main Cinema
The screening is preceded by a party in the Film Strip at The Main Cinema and will be followed by a conversation with the filmmakers.
ABOUT THE FILM
Why We Dance traces the heartbeat of land through footwork, sound and circular movement, revealing how dance becomes a bridge between body and earth, self and community, and why reclaiming space matters.
On land marked by erasure and ignorance, a letter arrived in 1923 ordering hundreds of Tribal Nations to stop dancing. What officials called “unproductive gatherings” were in truth ceremonies of harvest, gratitude, and renewal — times when communities came together to thank the land, share food, and prepare for winter.
The Meskwaki people refused to be silenced. In response, they organized one of the largest powwows of their time, a four-day celebration that drew thousands from neighboring towns and Tribal Nations. The tradition itself became the resistance. One hundred years later, the Meskwaki Annual Powwow continues celebrating, gathering families, friends to dance, sing, and give, carrying forward a rhythm that could not be outlawed.
Why We Dance traces that enduring heartbeat of land and people, examines the culture and complexity of dance within Indigenous communities, and the resilience of individuals and nations continuing to preserve their traditions despite generations of erasure and ongoing atrocities. Through powwow footwork, hand-beaded regalia, stories passed down through families, the film reveals how dance becomes a bridge between body and earth, anger and hope, memory and future.
Filmed across the Rosebud Reservation, the Meskwaki Settlement, the Twin Cities, O?ahu, Hawaii and Mataxhi, Mexico, Why We Dance is both document and celebration. A story of endurance, belonging and the movement that continues to bind communities across generations and geographies.
ABOUT MN MADE
The MN Made series celebrates the dynamic range of films made by Minnesota filmmakers and artists. Presented with support from the McKnight Foundation and Minnesota State Arts Board.
Relased 2026
Directed by Oogie_Push
November 10, 2026 7:15 PM
Location: Theater 3 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
Staff Picks: Possession – Selected by B Bottenfield (Box Office Supervisor) & Blaine Redden (Projectionist)
Look ugly, look vulgar. Know how much righteous anger and sheer will you’ve got. Recognize the self who has just done something horrible. Know there’s a third possibility, like cancer, or madness. Make him suffer. Make your own evil, because goodness is only a reflection upon evil. Bleed for a while. Say I for me.
Maybe it’s something all couples go through.
Possession is Polish auteur Andrzej Zulawski’s horrible masterpiece of the basest emotions made manifest, featuring pantheonic performances from Isabelle Adjani and the late Sam Neil as Anna and Mark, a married couple who’s partnership crumbles under the weight of infidelity, paranoia, and violence. When Anna leaves Mark to care for their young son alone, he embarks on a deliriously oblique investigation through West Germany, encountering doppelgängers, espionage, pink socks, and an electric carving knife, in search of who (or what) his wife left him for, finding instead only a spiritual void of self annihilation and hatred.
B Bottenfield and Blaine Redden are two friends who met over 12 years ago working together at a grocery store in the suburbs and who bonded immediately over a shared love of dark and mysterious movies and music. They are both artists- B working in drawing, painting, sculpture and photography, exploring strange figures and abstract forms, and Blaine as a filmmaker who’s polarizing debut feature Poor Clare premiered at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival. B has worked at The Main since it opened in 2022, and Blaine joined the projectionist team in April of the year.
Staff Picks is our monthly screening series where a Main Cinema staff member selects the film and hosts the screening!
Relased 1981
Rated R
Directed by Andrzej Zulawski
October 28, 2026 7:00 PM
Location: Theater 2 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
In James Gray’s deeply felt and intense crime thriller, set in 1986 New York, a naïve engineer, Irwin (Miles Teller) accepts a seemingly lucrative business proposition from his brother, Gary (Adam Driver), a former cop. But when Irwin witnesses something he wasn’t meant to see at the Gowanus Canal, the brothers find themselves pulled into a dangerous confrontation with the newly emerging Russian mafia. As the threat of violence escalates, Irwin’s wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson) sounds the alarm, Irwin desperately tries to protect his family, and Gary is forced to make an impossible choice to save those he loves.
Relased 2026
Rated R
Directed by James Gray
November 25, 2026 12:00 PM
Location: Coming Soon 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his
sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he
engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. For four hours, this
extraordinary group – many of whom had not seen each other in fifty years – reminisced,
critiqued, argued, laughed and drank while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural
landscape. Shot on 16mm film, newly restored and now directed by Greaves’ son David, this
landmark film is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of
energy called the Harlem Renaissance. William Greaves’ intent was not only to document these
artists and intellectuals as they spoke about their lives and work but also to plumb the meaning
of the extraordinary creative period in which they lived to help us better understand how culture
has been passed on from one generation to another and the role that the artist plays in keeping
it alive.
Relased 2026
Rated PG-13
Directed by David Greaves
November 13, 2026 12:00 PM
Location: Coming Soon 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
From writer-actor-director Jordan Firstman, making his feature directorial debut, comes an intoxicating crowdpleaser brimming with equal parts humor and heart about a 30-something nightlife promoter whose life changes in a flash when he meets the 10-year-old son he never knew he had. Firstman (I LOVE L.A.) stars as Peter, a professional clubgoer hungover from a decade of hard-partying and blurry New York City nights out with his friends, including business partner Sophie (Cara Delevingne) and queer club-kid entourage (Saturn Risin9, Alaska Riley, Miss Benny, Nigil Whyte, River Moon, David Peck, Jack Cameron Kay). When a British woman (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) arrives at his downtown apartment with 10-year-old Arlo (Reggie Absolom) in tow, insisting he’s his son, Peter’s life changes in an instant. Clearly unprepared for parenting, but determined to support the child, Peter turns to handsome social worker Oscar (Diego Calva), who helps father and son navigate the complex bureaucracy of Manhattan child-rearing — until the harsh realities of adult life intercede, forcing Peter to reckon with his life choices, and responsibilities.
Relased 2026
Rated R
Directed by Jordan Firstman
November 25, 2026 12:00 PM
Location: Coming Soon 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
MSP Film presents a special MN Made Legacy screening of Sweet Land with Filmmaker Ali Selim & Writer Will Weaver.
The screening will be followed by a conversation with Selim and Weaver about adapting the short story for the screen, memories of making the film, and how they both echo in immigrant stories of today.
Presented in partnership with Minnesota Film Alliance, a non-profit trade association representing Minnesota’s production industry.
Based on Will Weaver’s acclaimed short story “A Gravestone Made of Wheat” and written and directed by Ali Selim, SWEET LAND is an intimate story of immigration and belonging. Set in rural Minnesota in 1920, the film follows the arrival of a young immigrant (Elizabeth Reaser) whose presence in a small farming community stirs suspicion, while a quiet romance grows between her and the deeply reserved farmer she is set to marry (Tim Guinee). As cultural tensions and community resistance gradually fade, the film becomes both a deeply personal story and a loving portrait of the first wave of immigrant communities that helped shape Minnesota.
Featured as the Closing Night Film at MSPIFF 2006, SWEET LAND includes stand out performances by an impressive ensemble, including Alan Cumming, Lois Smith, Alex Kingston, John Heard, and Ned Beatty. Shot on 35mm in southern Minnesota, the film endures as a cinematic love letter to the state’s expansive landscapes and farming communities, and remains a high point in MN Made filmmaking. The film earned widespread critical acclaim, including an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Twenty+ years later, the film’s exploration of immigration, resilience, and assimilation remains as resonant as ever.
Relased 2005
Rated PG
Directed by Ali Selim
October 25, 2026 4:00 PM
Location: Theater 3 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi). Amongst the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.
Relased 2026
Rated R
Directed by Martin McDonagh
November 5, 2026 3:45 PM
Location: Theater 1 115 SE Main Street Minneapolis, MN 55414
Synopsis: Based on Ghassan Kanafani’s novella, Return to Haifa is set in 1967, when some Palestinian refugees living in the newly occupied territories could visit their homes before their expulsion from them in 1948. Saeed and Safiyya return to Haifa hoping to discover something about the child they left behind nearly two decades ago, and they discover their son has been adopted by an Israeli couple and now serves in the army.
In collaboration with Filmlab Palestine, Mizna presents Return to Haifa on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. This screening is part of an international initiative to make the Palestine Cinema Days Festival a global event.
From Filmlab Palestine: “A fragile ceasefire may quiet the headlines, but it does not stop the genocide. In Gaza, death continues through siege, starvation, displacement, and abandonment. As the world slowly looks away, we are reminded how easily Palestine can disappear from the news while its people continue to endure unimaginable loss.
That is precisely why our stories must travel further and louder this year. At a time when silence is imposed on our existence, and our grief is treated as background noise, cinema becomes more than art; it becomes presence, memory, and resistance.
Through Palestine Cinema Days Around the World 2026, we gather not only to screen films but to affirm that the Palestinian narrative cannot be erased.”
This screening will also include a fundraiser for The Sameer Project, a mutual aid campaign aimed at providing food, water, shelter, and medical services to children and families in need in Gaza. Learn more here.
