Feature: Bleak Week returns for Year 4, we talk to programmers behind the festival

This year marks the 4th year of the American Cinematheque’s Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, a weeklong festival dedicated to screening films with dark and bleak themes. In this year’s lineup, you’ll find screenings of Michael Haneke’s English adaptation of Funny Games, the Soviet anti-war film Come and See, and Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies. You’ll also find that the Year 4 lineup includes introductions/Q&As with the likes of Bill Hader, Elliot Gould, and Brady Corbet.

Outside of the usual festival screenings here in Los Angeles, the American Cinematheque has partnered with other arthouse theaters across the country, and even The Prince Charles Cinema in London.

Joining us to discuss this year’s iteration of the festival is Chris LeMaire, lead programmer on the American Cinematheque’s Bleak Week, and Grant Moninger, American Cinematheque’s Artistic Director. We also have our critics, Charles Solomon, Claudia Puig and Peter Rainer, commenting on what about the festival has allowed it to garner interest.

Bleak Week runs from June 1-7. You can find this year’s Bleak Week lineup by clicking here or on bleakweek.com