THE COOLIDGE ANNOUNCES MAY REPERTORY SERIES ‘TAKE TWO: FILMMAKING IN THE MOVIES’ CO-PRESENTED BY MUBI

THE COOLIDGE ANNOUNCES MAY REPERTORY SERIES  ‘TAKE TWO: FILMMAKING IN THE MOVIES’ CO-PRESENTED BY MUBI

Brookline, Massachusetts (May 1, 2026) — Lights! Camera! Ah sh*t… Take Two: Filmmaking in the Movies rolls on the messy, hilarious, and occasionally disastrous business of making movies, where everything that can go wrong does, and sometimes that’s where the magic happens. 

From the on-set chaos of Living in Oblivion to the scrappy DIY dreams of American Movie, and the loving outsider portrait of Ed Wood to the existential nightmare of Epidemic, this series explores the many ways filmmakers chase inspiration, wrestle with failure, and somehow (against all odds) cut together something worth watching. Along the way, films like Irma Vep and The Stunt Man blur the line between performance and reality, while The Blair Witch Project reminds us just how thin that line can be. 

Sunday afternoon double features offer a deep dive into cinema’s self-reflective side. Spend Mother’s Day in Hollywood with Singin’ in the Rain and Sullivan’s Travels, trace the myth and reality of outsider filmmaking with Ed Wood and Plan 9 from Outer Space, and venture into the labyrinth of artistic obsession with Adaptation and Synecdoche, New York. 

Whether you’re a casual movie lover, a cinephile, or just curious how the sausage gets made, Take Two invites you to step onto the set, where the cameras are rolling, the egos are clashing, and anything can happen.

Want to dive deeper? Take the five-week class in tandem with this series! The class pass gets you access to every Wednesday screening in the series, plus pre– and post-film lectures and discussions.

A full schedule is listed below - Take Two: Filmmaking in the Movies

Living in Oblivion Wednesday, May 6 at 7pm

Pre-screening Coolidge Education seminar at 6:15pm, taught by filmmaker Justin Liberman

From award-winning writer/director Tom DiCillo comes an inventive, hilarious look at the movie-making business. Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, James Le Gros and Peter Dinklage star in this "smart, well-crafted" (San Francisco Gate) and "savagely funny satire" (The Washington Post) you'll want to experience again and again. Runtime: 1h 30m Format: 35mm

Double Feature: Sullivan’s Travels and Singin’ in the Rain Sunday, May 10 at 2pm

An afternoon of Hollywood glamour and satire! Celebrate the magic and mayhem of moviemaking in this Mother’s Day double feature. Runtime: 3h 13m Format: DCP 

American Movie Tuesday, May 12 at 7pm

The camera doesn't flinch as it captures every emotional crisis and financial pitfall in his two-year odyssey. What emerges is a bizarre, yet surprisingly heartfelt, documentary portrait of a true American character. Welcome to the Real World. Runtime: 1h 47m Format: 35mm

Hollywood Shuffle Wednesday, May 13 at 7pm

This debut feature by Robert Townsend is an ingenious guerrilla satire that takes riotous aim at the typecasting of Black actors in 1980s Hollywood. Runtime: 1h 21m Format: 35mm

Double Feature: Ed Wood & Plan 9 from Outer Space Sunday, May 17 at 2pm

From cult chaos to cinematic infamy, follow the lovable disaster behind the camera in films that prove ambition trumps talent. Runtime: 3h 26m Format: DCP

The Blair Witch Project Wednesday, May 20 at 7pm

The Blair Witch Project follows those filmmakers on what should have been a simple walk in the woods, but quickly becomes an excursion into heart-stopping terror. As the three become inexplicably lost, morale deteriorates. Runtime: 1h 21m Format: 35mm

Cecil B. Demented  Thursday, May 21 at 9:30pm

A ragtag crew of underground filmmakers known as the Sprocket Holes, who abhor conventional cinema, rebel against the tenets of mainstream Hollywood in this send-up of filmmakers who take themselves too seriously.  Runtime: 1h 27m Format: Digital

Double Feature: Adaptation & Synecdoche, New York Sunday, May 24 at 2pm

Writers obsess, dreams unravel, and art imitates life in this mind-bending double dive into creativity run wild from the mind of Charlie Kaufman. Runtime: 3h 59m Format: 35mm

Irma Vep Wednesday, May 27 at 7pm

Olivier Assayas’s live-wire international breakthrough stars a magnetic Maggie Cheung as a version of herself: a Hong Kong action-movie star who arrives in Paris to play the latex-clad lead in a remake of Louis Feuillade’s classic silent crime serial Les vampires. Runtime: 1h 39m Format: 35mm

The Stunt Man Thursday, May 28 at 9:30pm

Vietnam vet Cameron (Steve Railsback) stumbles upon a movie location shoot that just lost its stunt man under tragic circumstances. Rather than stopping to involve the police, eccentric director Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole) hires Cameron on the spot as a replacement, but will he become the dictatorial filmmaker's next casualty? Runtime: 1h 39m Format: 35mm

Double Feature: Nouvelle Vague & Contempt Sunday, May 31 at 2pm

French style meets existential Hollywood. Join us for two cinematic meditations on desire, ambition, and the art of making movies. Runtime: 3h 28m Format: DCP

Epidemic Wednesday, June 3 at 7pm

A jet-black comedy of contagion, a subversive medical-horror freak-out, and a sly metacinematic prank, Lars von Trier’s sophomore feature (born from a bet that he couldn’t make a film for less than $150,000) finds the director channeling his singular thematic obsessions into an evocatively lo-fi, perversely self-reflexive provocation.  Runtime: 1h 46m Format: DCP