USA-UK | 1968 | 139 minutes

If you’re going to talk about eclipses on film, you have to talk about 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film opens with a staggering shot of the sun, earth and moon falling into alignment, and only slowly do you realize that you’re not seeing it from an earthbound perspective. It’s the first mind-blowing moment in this masterpiece, but it’s not the last, and the movie is only 90 seconds old.

Not just the best movie ever set (partly) in outer space, but a clear contender for the best movie ever made, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey continues to enthrall even 56 years after its release. If anything, the movie is more prescient than ever, drawing parallels between Hal the malevolent computer and our current social conversation about artificial intelligence.

Voted the best film ever by 480 filmmakers in Sight & Sound magazine in 2022, the film’s audacious use of music, phenomenal sets, trippy visual effects, knockout costumes—from ape-suits to spacesuits—and willingness to tackle the big questions (such as, “Where did humanity come from?”) make it a unique experience.

Whether seeing the film for the 10th or, if you’re lucky enough, the first time, it is a magical, splendiferous cinematic adventure, one-of-a-kind and still unequaled.

Cash bar from Burlington Beer Company featuring the official Obscura BTV beer.

This event will be held at Contois Auditorium, Free.