Familiar Touch

ICON GUIDE
OCOpen Caption screening
Additional program content
35mm
SFSensory Friendly. Details HERE
Showtimes updated on Tuesday evenings

Familiar Touch

Q&A with lead actress Kathleen Chalfant on July 9

Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), a retired cook, prepares breakfast in her sunny and cozy kitchen—a dish she seems to have made many times before, although small and puzzling errors now punctuate her comfortable routine. When her son (H. Jon Benjamin) arrives to dine with her, she mistakes him for a suitor. Their “date” takes them to an assisted living facility, which Ruth does not remember that she had previously selected for herself.

Among her fellow memory care residents, Ruth feels lost and adrift, certain she has found herself somewhere she does not belong. As she slowly begins to accept the warmth and support of care workers Vanessa (Carolyn Michelle) and Brian (Andy McQueen), she finds new ways to ground herself in her body, even as her mind embarks on a journey all its own. Writer-director Sarah Friedland’s coming-of-old-age feature compassionately follows the winding path of octogenarian Ruth’s shifting memories and desires while remaining rooted in her sage perspective.

"Friedland’s film, as sharp as it is soft, conveys both the terror of losing the life you recognize, and the intermittent, fragmented joy of finding it again."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"Chalfant’s Ruth is merely, momentously human: an older woman in need, but no less expressive of life’s fullness because of it. It’s a portrayal to remember, for as long as any of us can."
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

PAST EVENTS

Q&A with actress Kathleen Chalfant
Wednesday, Jul. 9 2025, 7:15
This event is over. View all of our upcoming events.

  • Kathleen Chalfant has spent more than five decades performing on stage, screen, and TV. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Vivian Bearing in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Wit, for which she received Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Ovation awards. Other critically acclaimed roles include Hannah Pitt/Ethel Rosenberg in the original cast of Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking Angels in America, receiving nominations for both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Notable film credits include Kinsey, Duplicity, and The Last Days of Disco, among many others. Her beloved TV characters include playing Margaret Butler on Showtime’s The Affair, as well as roles in House of Cards, The AmericansMadame Secretary, Elementary, High Maintenence, and all of the various Law and Orders. Kathleen has collaborated with acclaimed experimental filmmakers and choreographers, including Yvonne Rainer, Barbara Hammer, and Pam Tanowitz


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