A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time…

Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp, puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory employee who becomes smitten with a gorgeous gamine (Paulette Goddard). With its barrage of unforgettable gags and sly commentary on class struggle during the Great Depression, Modern Times—though made almost a decade into the talkie era and containing moments of sound (even song!)—is a timeless showcase of Chaplin’s untouchable genius as a director of silent comedy. -JANUS FILMS

featuring Felix Revolts (a.k.a. Felix the Cat) from Third World Newsreel’s Newsreel Retrospective:

Newsreel’s first foray into animation finds them adding music and dialogue to the classic cartoon of the same title while also updating its political message to the late 1960s. Hungry and impoverished, Felix convinces his fellow cats to go on strike to achieve basic rights from their human overlords. When mice take over the town, and the cats are begged back to restore order, they negotiate a deal where cats, mice, and humans can live together in peace and with dignity.

Felix’s unruly rebelliousness and inventive problem solving were easy sources of identification for the New Left, which saw themselves in similar terms. Also, the revival of a cartoon from the 1920s extended the New Left to the Old Left and thus storied histories of the labor movement. A fun short showing a fascination with pop spectacle that characterized early Newsreel as well as groups it was affiliated such as the Yippies and Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker.

Doors Open 30 Minutes Before Showtime.