“Easily One of the Best Films of the Year:” I, DANIEL BLAKE; Opens This Weekend at AFS Cinema

As you have probably read, or even seen for yourself, the AFS Cinema is open again, newly renovated, expanded and improved. We are offering the same kind of repertory, documentary, and community programming as before, only much more of it.

Additionally, we now have a New Release screen, dedicated to the best first run films. Even within the excellent cinema landscape of Austin, home to first-class venues like the Violet Crown, Alamo Drafthouse and Regal’s Arbor theater, some of the most interesting and acclaimed art house titles have bypassed Austin because the screens just weren’t here.

Well, there’s a screen here now, dedicated to just that kind of programming. This Friday, June 2, we open the new film Palme D’Or winning film from cinema giant Ken Loach, I, DANIEL BLAKE. It is about a man, unable to look for work because of a recent heart attack, who is squeezed by the U.K.’s changing benefits system, and is compelled to join with others and fight back.

Reviews on the film have been rapturous. In her review, Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle calls I, DANIEL BLAKE “Emotionally involving and gut-wrenching throughout.”

In the Washington Post, Ann Hornaday says the film: “brims with spirit, sympathy and candor as it tackles the catastrophic displacement brought on by economic and technological change.”