Starting tonight, the Esquire Theatre will participate in “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair,” a week-long film festival that takes place at 82 theaters around the world—from Canada to Scotland to Mexico to Uruguay to right here in the Queen City.
The international festival, created by film nonprofit American Cinematheque, showcases some of the greatest works of cinema from across the globe that venture into the darkest sides of humanity and the bleakest points in human history.
Classics like the 1945 film noir “Detour” will be shown alongside contemporary films like “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” a 2017 thriller set in Cincinnati starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. What do the two films have in common? They’ll make you feel bad.
Festival programmer Justin Wiese said American Cinematheque initially began the festival as a way to get people back to theaters post-COVID, with the idea being that people get to “watch a bunch of the more difficult and challenging films that theaters get asked to play, but they’re often so dark that you need context behind them.”
“With our picks, we tried to go all over the place in different decades,” he said. “Some of these are for the real heads, y’know? Like, real sickos. Take “Highway Hypnosis,” for example. I was like, maybe we should play this one, maybe not… so, for each film, I felt it was important to have someone introduce every single movie to explain the historical context in which it was made. Especially if it’s a film from 30, 40 years ago.”
Wiese and the Esquire have partnered with several nearby film collectives and local stores to choose their 17 selections and decide “what flavor of despair” they’ll be showcasing. Conveyor Belt Books, Secret Base Cinema, Leontine Cinema Collective and Wiese’s own Outer Cinema Cincinnati all worked together to pick the films they most wanted to see on screen, and members from each group will introduce every showing.
Wiese believes that being exposed to difficult art is important, whether it’s through film or literature or music or otherwise, because it’s “easier to get a grip on” important social issues when viewing it through the lens of art.
“I think when you go and watch a movie in a communal space with a lot of different people and share some pretty disparaging emotions together, that’s almost like a communal bond that you then have, and you can relate to other people in a positive way, having sat through these challenging films,” he said. “You’re experiencing these emotions that you probably don’t want to experience, but I think that makes you stronger and more educated coming out of it.”
For the Esquire to be asked to participate in one of the biggest cinema events across the globe all year is “huge,” Wiese said.
“It puts the Esquire on the map of people that haven’t been aware of the type of screenings that myself and all the other programmers have been doing for the last couple years,” he said. “We’ve definitely been getting some local attention, but this really puts us on an internationally recognized scale, and that’s super exciting. Because that can only mean more opportunities, and now lots of different types of things can happen at the Esquire because of this. It’s super exciting for the film scene here and the whole region, really.”
For the full lineup at the Esquire’s “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair,” scroll down. For tickets and more information, visit their website.
Friday 6/5/26
THE KILLING OF A SCARED DEER (2017) 7:00pm
VAGABOND (1985) 10:00pm
Saturday 6/6/26
DETOUR (1945) 1:40pm
QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (1991) 4:00pm
THE VANISHING (1988) 6:30pm
HIGHWAY HYPNOSIS/SHOCK VIDEO Ken Camp Double Feature (1984, 1985) 9:20pm
Sunday 6/7/26
AMERICAN JOB (1996) 1:00pm
MENACE II SOCIETY (1993) 3:40pm
PUSHER (1996) 6:30pm
Monday 6/8/26
CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972) 7:00pm
THE NAKED KISS (1964) 9:30pm
Tuesday 6/9/26
WENDY AND LUCY (2008) 7:00pm
ELEPHANT (2003) 9:20pm
Wednesday 6/10/26
THE PLAGUE DOGS (1982) 6:00pm
COME AND SEE (1985) 8:20pm
Thursday 6/11/26
DAMNATION (1988) 6:40pm
MELANCHOLIA (2011) 9:30pm
