Mother's Day Celebration! PETITE MAMAN

Join us for the 4th Summer Season of transforming the Epsilon Spires parking lot into an outdoor cinema! Picture a picnic under the stars with your friends where you are entertained by innovative films projected on the big screen. Our Backlot Cinema programming celebrates cinema past and present, both popular and experimental, highlighting diverse creative voices from around the world. Sunday, May 14th, a special screening of Petite Maman in honor of Mother's Day! Enjoy a glass of sparkling wine and a chocolate-covered strawberry upon arrival + delicious French cuisine from Madame Jo's Crêperie!  Tickets are by Sliding-Scale $5-15.

Petite Maman (2021, 72 minutes).

Céline Sciamma continues to be one of the most accomplished and unpredictable contemporary French filmmakers with her follow up to Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, the uniquely emotional, Petite Maman. This captivating coming of age story explores childhood and a mother-daughter relationship that crosses through time and space for a heartbreakingly hopeful fairytale for all ages. 8-year-old Nelly has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. She explores the house and the surrounding woods where her Mom, Marion, used to play and built the treehouse she’s heard so much about. One day her mother abruptly leaves. That’s when Nelly meets a girl her own age in the woods building a treehouse. Her name is Marion. What follows is a tender tale of healing through nurturing and building connection through shared memories.

Delicious French Cuisine from Madame Jo's Crêperie of Trollhaugen Farm will be available to purchase and enjoy during the film experience! Crêpes, a Bretagne treat dating back to the 13th century, have spoiled French children and smeared the faces of Paris’ tourists for as long as anyone can remember. Madame Jo’s crêpes honor the best of the traditional French culinary styles while marrying them with distinctive local flavors like Grafton cheddar cheese and homegrown garden greens. 

★★★★★

“What a superb movie – a jewel of this year’s Berlin film festival”

– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

★★★★★

“Whether you are six or 60, this astonishingly insightful and heartbreakingly hopeful cinematic poem will pierce your heart, broaden your mind and gladden your soul, even as you wipe away tears”

– Mark Kermode, The Observer

★★★★★

“Petite Maman hits all the right notes, creating an epic in miniature. One warning: It may leave you a blubbering mess”

– Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

A note about seating in The Backlot Cinema: We encourage our guests to come as if to a picnic – so please bring your own blankets, cushions or folding chairs – you want to be comfortable so bring all the coziness you need! Restrooms provided. In the case of rain this event will be moved indoors into our Sanctuary.