This week we take a look at the first widely distributed film directed by a Black woman. As part of their efforts to highlight Black filmmakers, the Criterion Channel has released Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust—among other films—for free to non-subscribers. So there’s no reason not to go watch this impressive tale of family, values, and the non-linearity of experience.

What’s more fun than a road trip with family? Well, a road trip with family to determine if your partner is having an affair. Wacky hijinks ensue in The Daytrippers.

Someday we’ll be through the thick of this and get to our lives. After we have a home. And a family. And after a murder or two. Maria’s living a life deferred in the hopes of an idyllic romance. She becomes too focused on the destination and lets the journey slip by in The Marriage of Maria Braun.

We’re returning to the oeuvre of Aki Kaurismaki this week and the middle segment of his Proletariat Trilogy (having unintentionally skipped the first part) with Ariel.