ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee with Ingrid Rojas Contreras: Where is the Friend’s House?

Books! Banter! Cinema! In partnership with Litquake!

Zyzzyva Movie Night returns—this time in its first Matinee edition!

Held at the historic Roxie Theatre in the Mission District, and co-hosted by acclaimed author Ingrid Rojas Contreras and ZYZZYVA Editor Oscar Villalon, ZYZZYVA Movie Night features an acclaimed writer sharing one of their favorite films—along with a reading list related to their selected title. 

On Sunday, October 13, poet and novelist Kaveh Akbar will grace our stage with Abbas Kiarostami’s 1987 film, “Where Is the Friend’s House?” 

Akbar calls Kiarostami’s classic work “a crystalline, irreducible film about the persistence of care, how the materials of adult living—solipsism, ignorance, cruelty—merely glance off the resolved tenderness of childhood devotion.” 

“Where Is the Friend’s House?” will be introduced by Akbar, whose first novel, Martyr! (PenguinRandomHouse), was a critically lauded New York Times bestseller, a Barack Obama Summer Reading pick, and hailed as “almost violently artful, full of sentences that stab, pierce, and slice with their beauty,” and already appearing among the Best Books of 2024 lists.

Following the movie, there will be a short on-stage conversation with Kaveh Akbar and Ahmad Kiarostami about his film pick and about the themes of devotion, surrender, earnestness, and the politics of each.

ZYZZYVA Movie Night has everything you’ll need for a grand literary day at the cinema: books for sale, an author signing, welcoming co-hosts, and a concession stand with all the drinks and eats your heart could desire. 

Doors open at 12:00 p.m. with a book signing. Movie introduction starts promptly at 12:30 p.m., followed by a conversation at the end of the screening.

Seating is limited. Order your ticket today!