Jazz on Film
June 6–21, 2025
“Jazz on Film” returns with three weekends of screenings that explore the various intersections of jazz and cinema. This year’s series is bookended with two 1960s films scored by Quincy Jones, who passed away in November 2024. Organized by guest curator Peter Lucas, the lineup also features documentaries on drummer Art Blakey and free-jazz visionary Ornette Coleman; the Oscar-nominated Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat connecting jazz with geopolitical history; and a 35th-anniversary screening of Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues.
Guest curator Peter Lucas, founder of “Jazz on Film,” has organized exhibitions, film series, and public programs in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; the Menil Collection; Aurora Picture Show; Seattle International Film Festival; Northwest Film Forum; and the Museum of Pop Culture. He is also a writer and multidisciplinary artist.
Upcoming Events in this Series
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The Slender Thread
Sydney Pollack’s directorial debut stars Sidney Poitier as a young crisis-center volunteer and Anne Bancroft as a suicidal woman who calls the hotline. This dramatic thriller follows their unlikely conversation, the story of her unmooring, and a race against time to save her.
- Friday, June 6, 2025
- 7 p.m.
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Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Johan Grimonprez’s Oscar-nominated essay film examines how jazz and geopolitics collided in a nefarious chapter of Cold War history. This propulsive cinematic collage illuminates the political machinations behind the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba.
- Sunday, June 8, 2025
- 5 p.m.
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Ornette: Made in America
Shirley Clarke’s portrait of Texas jazz visionary Ornette Coleman chronicles the musician’s story and captures the premiere of a new work in his hometown of Fort Worth in 1983.
- Friday, June 13, 2025
- 7 p.m.
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Mo’ Better Blues
Spike Lee’s stylish film stars Denzel Washington as a trumpet player attempting to balance craft, career, and cool while juggling relationships with two women.
- Saturday, June 14, 2025
- 7 p.m.
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Art Blakey: The Jazz Messenger
Art Blakey formed the Jazz Messengers in the mid-1950s, and the evolving group became a rite of passage for talented young musicians for the next 35 years. This documentary portrait of Blakey captures the legendary drummer, bandleader, and teacher in the 1980s as he leads workshops and performances in London and New York City.
- Friday, June 20, 2025
- 7 p.m.
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The Pawnbroker
Director Sidney Lumet’s groundbreaking 1964 drama stars Rod Steiger as a German-Jewish immigrant who lives a bitter, lonely existence running a pawn shop in Harlem. Quincy Jones’s first Hollywood film score features musicians Dave Grusin, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, and Oliver Nelson.
- Saturday, June 21, 2025
- 7 p.m.
Generous support has been provided by the Foundation for Independent Arts, Gerry Aitken, Richard Levy and Dinah Chetrit, and Anne Tucker and Robert Morris.