CINEMA
Did you know that the Boedecker Theater is Boulder’s ONLY year-round arthouse cinema?
The Boedecker Theater opened within the Dairy Arts Center in 2010 as a first-run arthouse cinema. With an intimate seating capacity of 70, “the Boe” is the perfect place to see films not available at the commercial cinemas in a professional theater setting. Concessions, including alcohol, are available for purchase at every screening; our popcorn is a staff favorite!
What types of films do we screen?
With nearly 700 screenings last year, the Dairy Arts Center’s cinema programming is noted for excellence as well as diversity. From contemplative documentaries to quirky independent comedies and international dramas (we’ve shown films from over 85 countries since 2015), there is something for everyone!
Our regularly scheduled films play Wednesday – Sunday and typically rotate between one narrative and one documentary feature throughout the week, with special programs generally taking place Sunday – Tuesday evenings, including cultural offerings like international ballet and opera screenings, Exhibition on Screen and National Theatre Live, or community partnerships and local showcases. Many films also feature “talkbacks*,” post film discussions led by film critics, community leaders, and professional experts so that you can get the most out of the cinema experience!
Community is what sets our theater apart. The Boedecker is home is to numerous series and festivals including Classics with Jeffrey Kash, Friday Night Weird, How to Watch a Movie, the Boulder Jewish Film Festival, Boulder Environmental/Nature/Outdoors Film Festival, and Mimesis Film Festival.
*Talkback screenings noted on the ticketing page of a given film
How do I find out what's playing?
Sign up for our WEEKLY CINEMA EBLAST by logging into your online account and updating your preferences! Look for the cinema eblast in your inbox Wednesday mornings from the Dairy Arts Center ([email protected])
You can also follow us on Facebook & Instagram for event postings and trailers.
Want a printed calendar for your bulletin board or refrigerator? Print it out from the monthly calendar section below or pick one up next time you’re at the Dairy!
Plus the Dairy Arts Center is now on Letterboxd! Follow us as we update our weekly film screenings and view an archive of over 900 films that you can sort by release date, country origin, tags of interest and more!
Become a Member!
Join our artistic family to receive discounted tickets and exclusive offers. Plus, you won’t want to miss the annual Academy Awards party!
Accessibility
ACCESSIBLE PARKING AND WHEELCHAIR ACCESS
Parking spaces for persons with disabilities are located at the southwest corner of the building in our Dairy parking lot nearest the West Entrance. A valid parking permit is required for use of these spots. There is an elevator accessible from directly inside the West Entrance (with curb cut outside of the entrance) and ramp access from the East (front) Entrance (with curb cut on the corner of 26th and Walnut). Patrons may use the temporary loading zone directly in front of the East Entrance (26th Street) to drop off patrons and then park. Unfortunately the nearest curb cut to this entrance is located on the corner of 26th and Walnut. The Dairy’s facilities including its two Main Entrances, East (front) and West, and all public restrooms are wheelchair accessible.
ACCOMMODATED SEATING
For general admission shows, it is best to call the Box Office in advance at 303-444-7328 to make sure we can accommodate your needs before you purchase tickets. For reserved seating shows, you can select the ADA-designated seats that best suit your individual needs. Please arrive 30 minutes before show time, and check in with the Box Office or Dairy house management staff. ADA-designated seats will be located in Row A of the Grace Gamm and Gordon Gamm Theaters and Row E of the Boedecker Theater. ADA-designated seats in the Carsen Theater will depend on the configuration of the particular performance. Dairy Hartman Box Office Associates and House Managers will work with you to make sure you purchase the seat that best fits your needs for a particular show.
COURTESY WHEELCHAIR
A courtesy wheelchair is available by request to any patron during their visit on a first come, first served basis. Patrons are encouraged to call Dairy Arts Center staff in advance if they anticipate needing a courtesy wheelchair. It is strongly recommended that patrons who do not normally use a wheelchair bring a friend or companion to assist them in maneuvering the wheelchair around the Dairy Arts Center. Staff can make arrangements for patrons to borrow wheelchairs but may not be able to leave their posts to assist patrons in moving around the building.
AUDIO ENHANCEMENT
Personal listening devices (with ear buds or loop necklace) are available free of charge to audience members attending all performances at The Dairy. To check them out, the box office will hold your driver’s license or credit card, returning it to you when the listening device is turned in to The Dairy House Manager on duty at the end of the performance. These earbuds are tuned into an FM frequency that receive sound picked up from the transmissions of choir mics suspended above our stages. Currently, over-the-ear listening devices are unavailable but you are welcome to bring your own.
Note: Our Boedecker Theater is now equipped with a hearing loop.
What is a hearing loop and how does it work? Hearing Loops allow people who wear hearing aids to directly receive the sound from a PA system in their own hearing aids, much like Wi-Fi for laptops. To hear better, you will no longer have to pick up a separate listening device. Europe has thousands of hearing loops in churches, cathedrals and theaters. US installations are becoming more common.
Do my hearing aids work in a loop? If you wear hearing instruments you will need to find out if they have this wireless receiver, called a T-coil or Telecoil, built in to benefit from the hearing loop in our theater. The T-coil program is accessed by pushing a button on your hearing aid. This T-coil setting has to be activated before use. Please consult your audiologist to ensure your t-coils are properly adjusted.
Hearing loops improve hearing aids
Digital hearing aids have significantly improved in the last decade, but they do not restore hearing to normal. Difficulties often remain when in challenging listening situations. Hearing loops help hearing aid users overcome this problem by broadcasting sound without background noise or reverberation. Loop Information: www.hearingloop.org
OPEN CAPTION SCREENINGS
When possible, the Dairy will provide open caption screenings of films in the Boedecker Theater and will be noted on the event page for the film. Open captions are captions that are permanently visible in movies, TV and online videos. In addition to dialogue, they display important audio information on-screen, separate from subtitles accompanying films in a language other than English. Unlike closed captions, they are burned into the film and can’t be switched on or off.
See a list of upcoming films with open captioning here
CLOSED CAPTION EYEWEAR
Closed Caption Glasses (Captionwear CCH-100) are available the Boedecker Cinema for certain screenings! Screenings that offer closed caption technology will be noted on the event page for the film.
You can download the user manual here for more information.
See a list of upcoming closed caption enabled screenings here
Advisory
Films exhibited at the Dairy Arts Center may contain depictions of violence and death, assault, abuse, self-harm, addiction, acts of discrimination, white supremacy, brutality, war, mental illness, medical situations, blood, sex, sexuality and nudity of all manners, and other potentially sensitive subjects.
We acknowledge these depictions are powerful and have the potential to cause distressing emotional and psychological responses or contribute to otherwise harmful situations for some individuals; we also believe that great art comes with inherent risk, and we invite you to take an informed part in the process of deciding which artistic experiences feel appropriate for you.
Content Warnings
In certain situations, we will share potentially distressing or offensive content depicted in a film with the audience ahead of time. This will most likely appear on the film’s synopsis page of our website and/or preshow email to ticket holders.
Truthfully, not every film is prescreened start to finish by staff, especially through the lens of content analysis. This is an industry standard, often due to a mix of staff resources and media availability.
We rely on recommendations from trusted distributors, festival credentials and critical evaluations that align with our values, a community advisory committee, and guest programmers with diverse experience and expertise to guide our programming decisions. It is a point of pride that our programming is deeply human. But that also means it is subject to, well, our own subjectivity. Sometimes we don’t agree on what content is worth flagging; sometimes we rely overly on our own personal sensitivities; sometimes we have blind spots; and sometimes potentially sensitive content is so obscured in ambiguity that we miss it entirely.
We recognize this is an imperfect system and we invite you to use additional resources deciding what content is right for you.
Additional Resources
Deeper engagement makes us all better appreciators of the artistic world that surrounds us. We believe the filmgoing experience should extend beyond the screen. Programs like Talkbacks and Cinema Club seek to do just that, but we also know that some audiences need more, specific information before the film to decide if it’s right for them– and we support that whole heartedly. Here are some resources:
DoestheDogDie.com
DoestheDogDie.com is a community-driven platform, creating an extensive database of trigger warnings covering a wide range of emotional content
Common Sense Media
Since 2003, Common Sense has been the leading independent source for media recommendations and advice for families – focusing on content through the lens suitability for children and young audiences.
Critical Reviews
Critical analysis of films helps us better understand the context and subtext of a film; you can often get a sense of the themes and tone that might guide your decisions without any spoilers. And finding a critic you admire means you now have a trusted friend to recommend films professionally.
Pro tip: Most online outlets will allow you to see an archive of their contributor’s work so you can build trust through a critic’s previous reviews of films you are already familiar with.
Synopsis & Trailers
Trailers and Synopsis are mainly marketing tools to entice you without revealing too much, so take them with a grain of salt, but they do often introduce to you to the overarching story, characters, and style of a film – offering clues to the less apparent aspects of a film. They often set the tone for the world in which the film exists, reference the previous works of directors and producers for context, or use evocative language, visuals and stylistic cues like editing and score, to indicate the genre or produce an emotional response.
Trailers are their own fascinating artform within the industry. If you’re interested in a deeper dive, you can check out this video from Vice News on the way trailers can manipulate audiences or this video on the different trailer styles from Vanity Fair
Ratings
When available, we provide MPA (formerly MPAA) ratings for films – these are G, PG, R or NC-17 ratings you see at the end of our film descriptions. MPA ratings act as recognizable model for larger categories of content that may be present in a film (such as violence, strong language, and sexuality). In sharing these ratings, the Dairy Arts Center intends them to act as a shorthand, but does not enforce any official admission policy under the guidance of MPA ratings.
It is important to note that there is not much transparency surrounding the MPA decision making process; the identity of its members is not public information, and many filmmakers have alleged that some films, subjects, and identities are judged more harshly than others, impacting the marketability of a film. You may notice that many films we curate are listed as NR or Not Rated; MPA ratings are a voluntary system, with many international and independent filmmakers who are not relying on commercial theaters to reach their audience opting out of the process. An NR designation simply means the film was not submitted to the MPA for rating and has no bearing on what content may be present within a film.
When in doubt, just ask!
We are passionate about connecting the right movies with the right audiences. We don’t just want to sell you a ticket, we want to invite you into our community and connect you with meaningful artistic experiences. In order to do that, we’re happy to make a recommendation based on what kinds of films you do (and do not) want to see – or help you find the information you need to make that decision yourself. We’re not just one voice – we’re many; if a staff member is unable to help with your specific request, we’ll do our best to find someone who can!
Sometimes, we get it wrong
Sometimes, even if we take all the right steps, someone ends up seeing a film that isn’t a good fit for them. It is never our intention to create a harmful environment for any audience. If any content in a film you attend causes discomfort or distress, we invite you to the leave the theater. You are welcome to take a break in our lobby and re-enter at any time. If you are unable to attend a film due to sensitive content, we may be able to credit your account for a future film.
PLAYING TODAY
When Fall Is Coming
Boedecker Theater Walnut Street, BoulderTICKETS July 2-6 After a tumultuous life in Paris, Michelle (Hélène Vincent) has retired to a quiet existence in Burgundy, tending her garden and attending services at her parish. The voracious hostility of her adult daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) remains Michelle’s great puzzlement: how can a child for whom she sacrificed so much treat her […]
Secret Mall Apartment
Boedecker Theater Walnut Street, BoulderTICKETS July 2-6 In 2003, eight Rhode Island artists created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even constructed a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock. Far more than […]
Friday Night Weird: Dangerous Animals
Boedecker Theater Walnut Street, BoulderTICKETS July 4 When Zephyr, a rebellious surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. (Sean Byrne, 2025, Australia, 1:38, R)
PLAYING THIS WEEK
Choose a date or adjust your browser display view to see more information
Week of Events
Featured Bank Job
Bank Job
TICKETS June 25-29 Artist/filmmaker team Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell live in an area plagued by debt - mortgage debt, credit card debt, public debt - which impoverishes families, communities and public services. So they recruit their neighbors to set up a bank in their High Street to print their own currency which they then […]
Featured Most People Die on Sundays
Most People Die on Sundays
TICKETS June 25-29 David is in his 30s, overweight, gay and with a crippling fear of flying. He regretfully returns to his native Argentina to attend his uncle's funeral. There he will reconnect with his mother and his Jewish family, while embarking on a quest across Buenos Aires to quench his anxiety via driving lessons, […]
Featured When Fall Is Coming
When Fall Is Coming
TICKETS July 2-6 After a tumultuous life in Paris, Michelle (Hélène Vincent) has retired to a quiet existence in Burgundy, tending her garden and attending services at her parish. The voracious hostility of her adult daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) remains Michelle’s great puzzlement: how can a child for whom she sacrificed so much treat her […]
Featured Secret Mall Apartment
Secret Mall Apartment
TICKETS July 2-6 In 2003, eight Rhode Island artists created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even constructed a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock. Far more than […]
Featured Secret Mall Apartment
Secret Mall Apartment
TICKETS July 2-6 In 2003, eight Rhode Island artists created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even constructed a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock. Far more than […]
Featured When Fall Is Coming
When Fall Is Coming
TICKETS July 2-6 After a tumultuous life in Paris, Michelle (Hélène Vincent) has retired to a quiet existence in Burgundy, tending her garden and attending services at her parish. The voracious hostility of her adult daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) remains Michelle’s great puzzlement: how can a child for whom she sacrificed so much treat her […]
Featured When Fall Is Coming
When Fall Is Coming
TICKETS July 2-6 After a tumultuous life in Paris, Michelle (Hélène Vincent) has retired to a quiet existence in Burgundy, tending her garden and attending services at her parish. The voracious hostility of her adult daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) remains Michelle’s great puzzlement: how can a child for whom she sacrificed so much treat her […]
Featured Secret Mall Apartment
Secret Mall Apartment
TICKETS July 2-6 In 2003, eight Rhode Island artists created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even constructed a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock. Far more than […]
Featured Friday Night Weird: Dangerous Animals
Friday Night Weird: Dangerous Animals
TICKETS July 4 When Zephyr, a rebellious surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. (Sean Byrne, 2025, Australia, 1:38, R)
Featured Secret Mall Apartment
Secret Mall Apartment
TICKETS July 2-6 In 2003, eight Rhode Island artists created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even constructed a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock. Far more than […]
Featured When Fall Is Coming
When Fall Is Coming
TICKETS July 2-6 After a tumultuous life in Paris, Michelle (Hélène Vincent) has retired to a quiet existence in Burgundy, tending her garden and attending services at her parish. The voracious hostility of her adult daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) remains Michelle’s great puzzlement: how can a child for whom she sacrificed so much treat her […]
PLAYING THIS MONTH
Choose a date, adjust your browser display view to see more information, or use the button below to view the printable PDF monthly calendar
Calendar of Events
|
S
Sun
|
M
Mon
|
T
Tue
|
W
Wed
|
T
Thu
|
F
Fri
|
S
Sat
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2 events,
|
0 events,
|
0 events,
|
2 events,
|
2 events,
|
3 events,
Featured
-
|
2 events,
|
|
4 events,
Featured
-
|
1 event,
|
0 events,
|
2 events,
|
2 events,
|
3 events,
Featured
-
|
2 events,
|
|
3 events,
|
2 events,
|
5 events,
|
2 events,
|
4 events,
|
4 events,
|
5 events,
|
|
5 events,
|
0 events,
|
1 event,
Featured
-
|
2 events,
|
2 events,
|
3 events,
Featured
-
|
2 events,
|
|
3 events,
|
1 event,
|
1 event,
|
2 events,
|
2 events,
|
3 events,
Featured
-
|
2 events,
|
SERIES, COURSES & SHOWCASES
From curated series to educational opportunities, we create programs that go beyond the screen to enrich our community and cultivate the next generation of audiences.
Classics with Jeffrey Kash
In this monthly series, curator Jeffrey Kash takes the typical theater experience beyond the screen with his pre-talks and curation of overlooked and underappreciated titles. Many of the films are award winners or mentioned in online lists and are removed one to two steps from the list of mainstream, popular classics, paired with introductions from Kash expertly explaining what’s happening behind the scenes, offering fun facts about the stars and costars, their careers and those of the filmmakers, and touching on worldwide events occurring at the time of filming.
Upcoming Screenings:
Comedy in the Boe
Sometimes, we take a break from cinema and showcase the best of the Denver Metro comedy scene, curated by comedian Zoe Rogers.
Upcoming Events:
Friday Night Weird
We believe that even the weirdest films deserve the proper theater experience.
Our weekly Friday Night Weird program provides curated access to the best in new and classic genre films from first-time filmmakers, marginalized and outsider voices, innovators of style, and provocative auteurs.
Upcoming Screenings:
How to Watch a Movie
Whether you are a lifelong cinephile or just beginning your journey into film appreciation, this course will deeply enrich your viewing experiences and change the way you watch “the movies” forever.
Filmmaker, podcaster, programmer, and historian, Jack Hanley guides you through an entertaining and interactive course on how to get more out of the cinematic experience. From the fascinating history of the medium, through an introduction of the fundamentals, and analysis of the filmic process, participants will become more literate in the language of cinema and deepen their appreciation of how films are constructed- from how they are directed and shot, to how they tell stories, comment on, and reflect our world, to how they develop characters and articulate their stories through the employment of sound and image.
Topics:
- Development of an Art Form: A History of Film
- The Auteur’s Eye: Film Direction
- Framing the Story: Cinematography
- The Science of Storytelling: Screenwriting
- The Method and the Madness: Performance on Screen
- The Art of the Cut: Film
- Dropping the Needle: The Art of Sound and Music
- Thinking About Film Critically: Theory and More
New series coming soon!
Members Cinema Club
Our Members Cinema Club Conversations are designed to form a deeper connection with our member community and discuss the love of cinema. Each month, the Dairy’s programming committee will select one film and host a post film discussion facilitated by our cinema and membership staff. Different from our expert-led talkbacks, these are designed to be group discussion outside the cinema, where all are welcome to share their thoughts, feedback, and questions in a community centered environment – as well as form shared connections over additional film recommendations and experiences.
Pizza & Soda is provided! These conversations are free for members, but please RSVP! Conversation RSVP does not include the film ticket, so please make sure to purchased your film ticket separately! If you plan to attend and have a dietary restriction, please email us at [email protected]
This series is generously sponsored by Belzer Law LLC
Upcoming Screenings:
World Cinema Classics
World Cinema Classics presents annual min-series exploring essential international films with CU Professor Emeritus Suranjan Ganguly of the Cinema Studies Department. Ganguly teaches a wide range of international film courses; former chair of the department and director of the Stan Brakhage Center for Media Arts, he is the founder and curator of the monthly Brakhage Film Series, Celebrating Stan.
Summer 2025: Landscape & Architecture in Cinema
This six-part series, presented by Dr. Suranjan Ganguly, is an investigation of the ways in which landscape and architecture are represented on film, focusing on issues such as margins and centers, political geography, exile, inner space, memory and time, the sublime, and transcendence.
Upcoming Screenings:
FILM FESTIVALS, PARTNERS & COMMUNITY RENTALS
In addition to year-round programming, the Boe has been home to numerous local film festivals and community partners that bring exciting new works, filmmakers, and perspectives to our cinema.
Special Events
Don’t miss special events like our annual Oscars celebration, Member Movie Pick, and PEEK fundraising gala!
Upcoming Special Events:
Festivals
The Dairy is home to a number of annual film festivals, showcasing local filmmakers, curated short films, and programs that spotlight topics of interest. The Dairy Arts Center is a primary venue for the Boulder Environmental Nature Outdoor Film Festival (BENOFF), Boulder Jewish Film Festival (BJFF), and Mimesis Documentary Festival.
Boulder ENOFF
Boulder Environmental/Nature/Outdoors Film Festival celebrates the natural world around us – the ocean, land, nature, and the air we breathe. The selection of feature and short films will be drawn from around the world to bring to you both a local and global perspective of the challenges and solutions ahead for our environment. The films are just the beginning. Making your festival experience more enlightening, special guests from film, media, government, and science will discuss the films’ issues with our audiences afterward. Learn more at the Boulder ENOFF Festival Website
2025 Festival Program:
The Boulder Environmental Nature Outdoors Film Festival will be back at the Dairy Arts Center with live events and in-person screenings each day and night. Showcasing the best environmental/nature/outdoors documentary features; as well as short films from around the globe. Films will cover topics such as clean energy, climate change, nature appreciation, outdoor adventure, and other topical environmental issues.
Festival Pass: $175 — includes all Parties, Films, and the kitchen sink
In-person Individual Tickets: $15 to $75
Upcoming Screenings:
Boulder Jewish Film Festival
Annual 8-day celebration of Jewish world cinema and conversation hosted by the Boulder JCC. The Dairy Arts Center also partners with the JCC on periodic film screenings throughout the year. Learn more at the Boulder Jewish Film Festival Website
Upcoming Screenings:
Mimesis Documentary Festival
Mimesis (n.) /məˈmēsis/
Resemblance, receptivity, representation, and the act of expression.
The Mimesis Documentary Festival in Boulder, Colorado, is an immersive theatrical and virtual experience featuring in-person and at-home screenings, workshops, and conversations with documentary artists, scholars, and producers from across the world. Learn More at the Mimesis Festival Website
Community Partners
In addition to multi-day festivals, the Dairy periodically partners with film oriented community organizations for special events, such as our annual student showcase in partnership with with Film and Video Arts program at Boulder TEC.
Upcoming Partner Screenings
Rentals
Did you know that you can rent our venues? The Dairy rents our professional venue space – including the Boe – at affordable rates to over 100 organizations annually! The Boe is the perfect venue for test screenings, private audiences, and presentations! Learn more about venue rentals & pricing or fill out our venue application form here!
Upcoming Rentals
Any events listed below are open to the public; ticket prices may vary. Private rentals do not receive calendar listings and are not ticketed through the Dairy’s box office.
