USA | 99 MINUTES

REALITY BITES

Comedy, Drama, Romance

Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke star in Ben Stiller’s 1994 feature film directorial debut, the iconic comedy-drama that defined a generation of independent moviegoing-and-moviegoers with its achingly-relatable portrait of early 90’s disaffected youth struggling to live and love amid the brutal reality of (almost) adulthood.



In the film, written by Helen Childress, Lelaina Pierce (Ryder) navigates her post-college disillusionment by turning the camera on her friends: the free-spirited Vickie (Janeane Garofalo); Sammy (Steve Zahn), struggling to come out to his conservative parents; and the passionate but direction-less Troy (Hawke), with whom Lelaina is romantically-entwined until video executive Michael (Stiller, who co-stars) arrives with the promise of both budding romance and the chance for Lelaina to cash in on her dreams—but at what expense?



Reality Bites may have been for and about Generation X, but has proven itself a timeless, decades-spanning classic.



After the Screening: A conversation reuniting director Ben Stiller, writer Helen Childress, actors Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder, and Janeane Garofalo, producer Michael Shamberg, and executive producer Stacey Sher. Moderated by Award-Winning journalist Stacey Wilson Hunt.