Join us at the Ives Main Library every Friday at 2 pm for a free film screening!
May's Free Friday Films selections are complimentary to the NEA Big Read Program’s 2024 selection, “The Best We Could Do” by Thi Bui. The book chronicles Thi Bui's parents' life before and during the Vietnam War, their escape from Vietnam when Bui was a child, and their eventual migration to the United States as refugees. Our film selections tell diverse stories about migration and immigration all over the world and the scope of experiences this brings, from hardships and pain to love and unexpected kinship.
Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this riveting 3D documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation.
(Documentary, 2014, No Rating, 2h 42m)
The Ives Main Library, designed by renowned architect, Cass Gilbert in 1911, is a cornerstone of the historic New Haven Green. The facility is a community treasure and features unique design details, including several WPA-era murals. Ives is open 54 hours a week, Monday-Saturday, and houses major public service departments for children and teens as well as adult reference, a computer tech center and Ives Squared, a newly renovated space for innovation and entrepreneurship.