• Asheville filmmaker Rod Murphy’s new feature, El Chivo, premieres Friday, Feb. 26, at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Mont. The indigenous Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyon have called Barnardsville runner Will Harlan by that titular moniker, Spanish for “the mountain goat,” ever since he won the Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon.
A work more than three years in the making, Murphy’s film shows how Harlan’s time with the Tarahumara has dramatically changed the way he and his family live. It explores the demands of being an altruistic, elite ultramarathoner. The documentary is currently attracting interest from other major festivals, and plans for an Asheville area screening in spring or summer are in the works. vimeo.com/121737671
• As part of its North American road tour, the award-winning documentary Run Free: The True Story of Caballo Blanco makes a stop at the Carolina Cinemas on Monday, Feb. 29, for a 7:30 p.m. screening.
Sterling Noren’s film centers on Boulder, Colo., ultrarunner Micah True, who is the central figure of Christopher McDougall’s 2009 New York Times bestseller Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen about the Tarahumara Indians. Better-known as Caballo Blanco (“the white horse”), True went missing in the desert of New Mexico in 2012 and was later found dead on the trail. The event is sponsored locally by the Asheville Track Club. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. avl.mx/27p
• Homeward Bound of WNC and the Carolina Cinemas present a benefit screening of Time Out of Mind on Tuesday, March 8, at 6:30 p.m. Oren Overman’s 2015 film stars Richard Gere as George, a homeless New York City alcoholic with mental illness who attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter Maggie (Jena Malone). The cast also includes Steve Buscemi, Ben Vereen, Kyra Sedgwick and Michael Kenneth Williams.
A private prescreening reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the upstairs Cinema Lounge. Tickets for the reception are $25 and include entrance to the film, plus beer, wine and appetizers. Tickets for the film alone are $10. All proceeds go to Homeward Bound’s work to end homelessness in Western North Carolina. homewardboundwnc.org
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