RL Cinema Series

Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Carrie (1976): 98 min
An outsider’s longing. A terrifying power.

Shy, sheltered Carrie White wants what every teenager wants: acceptance. Instead, she faces cruelty at school and religious oppression at home—until she discovers an extraordinary power that changes everything. Directed by Brian De Palma and based on Stephen King’s novel, Carrie stars Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie in a haunting story of adolescence, humiliation, and revenge. Both deeply sympathetic and terrifying, it offers a memorable opening to our series during Halloween week.

❦

Tuesday, November 10, 2026
The Tenant (1976): 126 min
A new apartment. A disappearing sense of self.

When a timid man rents a Paris apartment whose previous occupant attempted suicide, his new surroundings become increasingly unsettling. The neighbors seem hostile, ordinary encounters take on sinister meanings, and his sense of identity begins to unravel. Directed by and starring Roman Polanski, with Isabelle Adjani and Shelley Winters, The Tenant draws us into a disturbing world of isolation, suspicion, and psychological uncertainty. Is he uncovering a conspiracy—or becoming trapped within his own fears?

❦

Tuesday, December 8, 2026
Network (1976): 121 min
When outrage becomes entertainment.

When veteran television anchor Howard Beale suffers an on-air breakdown, his network discovers that anger can be very good for ratings. What follows is a fiercely funny and increasingly chilling story of ambition, corporate power, and the transformation of news into spectacle. Directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Paddy Chayefsky, Network stars Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, and William Holden. Fifty years later, its questions about who controls the screen—and what we are willing to watch—remain uncomfortably familiar.

1976, America’s bicentennial

In 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, cinema offered a darker reflection of the world around it. Fear, alienation, ambition, and the power of television came into focus through films that continue to provoke and unsettle audiences fifty years later. Roosevelt Library, in collaboration with filmmaker, screenwriter, and director Drake Wootton, presents Carrie, The Tenant, and Network—three distinctive works that invite us to consider whether 1976 marked the height of New Hollywood or the beginning of its end. Join us for dinner, film, and conversation as we revisit a remarkable year in cinema.

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Our menu is finalized shortly before each screening, often the day before, so please share any dietary restrictions or food preferences when making your reservation so we can prepare a meal you will enjoy.

Drake Wootton is a San Antonio–based filmmaker, screenwriter, and director who studied film at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written, directed, and edited more than sixty independent short films, with work screened at festivals in New York and Seattle, including an Audience Award at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth. His feature screenplay, People Walk Dogs Late at Night in the Suburbs, was selected for the prestigious 2023 Black List, an annual survey recognizing outstanding unproduced screenplays. As presenter of Roosevelt Library’s Cinema Series, Drake brings a filmmaker’s perspective to the stories, techniques, and ideas that make cinema an enduring subject of conversation.