MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival is hosting a special screening of the compelling drama “The Kindergarten Teacher” on Saturday, Dec. 29, at 7 p.m., as part its MNFF 2018/19 Winter/Spring Screening Series at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. The film’s star, Maggie Gyllenhaal, will appear at Town Hall Theater for a Q&A session following the screening. The Q&A will be moderated by Gyllenhaal’s husband, actor Peter Sarsgaard.
“I’m thrilled to be screening ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ at the MNFF Winter/Spring Screening Series,” Gyllenhaal said. “This community has been so welcoming to me and my family and it feels great to be able to share some of my most recent work.”
“We are incredibly grateful to Maggie, and to Peter, for their ongoing involvement with the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival,” noted Lloyd Komesar, MNFF Producer, “Maggie’s performance in ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ is widely considered to be masterful and we are delighted that she will be at Town Hall Theater following the screening to engage with our audience and take questions. And to have Peter Sarsgaard moderate the Q&A is just wonderful! This should be quite a special evening.”
Directed by Sara Colangelo, “The Kindergarten Teacher” tells the powerful story of Lisa Spinelli, a dissatisfied working wife and mother on Staten Island whose frustrated artistic aspirations find an outlet of sorts in the discovery that one of her 5-year-old kindergarten students is an apparent poetry prodigy. As IndieWire’s David Ehrlich deftly notes in describing her performance as Lisa, Gyllenhaal “has been too good too often to label any one of her performances as her best, but she’s certainly never been better than she is here, filling her character with the full courage of her convictions, and finding deep reservoirs of distressed humanity in all of her contradictions.”
Come see “The Kindergarten Teacher” at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury on Saturday, evening and stay to participate in the Q&A with Maggie Gyllenhaal following the screening. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the Town Hall Theater Box Office, in person or over the phone at (802) 382-9222, Monday-Saturday 12-5 p.m., or online at townhalltheater.org/calendar-and-tickets.
Upcoming schedule for the 2018/19 MNFF Winter/Spring Screening Series:
• Sunday, January 13 @ 2pm: Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Directed by Marielle Heller [Narrative Drama]
• Sunday, February 17 @ 2pm: What They Had, Directed by Elizabeth Chomko [Narrative Drama]
• Sunday, March 17 @ 2pm: Chef Flynn, Directed by Cameron Yates [Documentary]
• Thursday, April 18 @ 7pm: Museo, Directed by Alonzo Ruizpalacios [Narrative Drama]
• Friday, May 10 @ 7pm: Wildlife, Directed by Paul Dano [Narrative Drama]