Film at the Rubin Museum
From the upcoming film Just Trial and Error: Conversations on Consciousness
The Rubin Museum of Art screens 150 films a year, and many documentaries receive their premiere here. Our regular film series are listed here:
Cabaret Cinema
Friday night screenings of classic films from around the world which explore themes featured in the museum's galleries. Each film is introduced by a notable guest to provide context. Past presenters have included Sam Shepard, Liv Ullmann, Tyne Daly, Marina Abramovic, and Alan Cumming. Series Details
Lunch Matters
The museum's Wednesday lunchtime screenings of short documentaries followed by moderated discussions. Visitors are welcome to bring their lunch from the museum café into the theater for this program. Series Details
Free Seniors Day Films
The first Monday of every month is Free Seniors Day at the Rubin Museum and features a special film screening. Click here to learn more about Free Seniors Day. Series Details
Special Screenings
Just Trial and Error: Conversations on Consciousness
What do art and science have to say about consciousness? Perhaps no aspect of the mind is more familiar or more puzzling than consciousness - it is something that has defied definition. Yet our conscious experience of self and the world is what shapes us and our history.
In an attempt to understand consciousness, filmmaker Alex Gabbay invites sculptor Antony Gormley, eminent neuroscientists Prof. Brian Butterworth and Dr. Beau Lotto and internet entrepreneur Twain Luu-whose study of the 'global brain' makes fascinating reading-to explore its meaning and how it affects their area of work. Learn More!
Caris' Peace
She was an exceptional graduate of the Yale School of Drama. She was a rising star among such luminaries as Lewis Black, Kate Burton, and Mark Linn-Baker. She played opposite Tim Curry and Ian McKellen in the Broadway hit play Amadeus. And then she had a brain tumor. And then she lost her short-term memory. Gaylen Ross with collaborator Rebecca Nelson create a wrenching documentary which tells the story of Caris Corfman, a brilliant actress who was robbed of her ability to learn, recall, and recite lines. Unlike dementia sufferers who gradually lose awareness of their deteriorating condition, Corfman was swiftly forced to recognize that her career was over. This film captures what it is like to live trapped in the past, with only the thinnest slivers of the present. Learn More!
Crazy Wisdom
Allen Ginsberg made him his guru. Joni Mitchell wrote a song about him. It was 1970 and he was the first Tibetan lama most Americans had ever seen. Yet he openly drank, and bedded his students. Was this how an enlightened teacher should behave? Crazy Wisdom tells the story of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche the brilliant "bad boy of Buddhism" with exclusive never-before-seen archival material and commentary from Ram Dass, Pema Chödrön and others of his circle.
Learn More
Prince of the Himalayas
The first theatrical screenings in the US of Sherwood Hu's exhilarating high-altitude Hamlet. Set in ancient Tibet under the shadow of the Himalayas, the film is a visually ravishing historical epic with stunning scenery, richly saturated color, and lush costuming. As the proto-typical tale of oedipal anxiety, or of the terrifying possibilities of taking action in the social world, this film re-invents a story we thought we knew. Rubin Museum Exclusive. Learn More

