“Loving” celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Negga), who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown.  Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry. Their love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since!

Calvin Wilson, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, calls the film “a beautiful film about daring to love, without fear or compromise.”  Ann Hornaday, in the Washington Post, calls it “intimate, moving and superbly underplayed, every bit as soft-spoken and subtly implacable as its protagonists.”  Barbara Scharres, on RogerEbert.com, calls it “a well-crafted historical drama that pays minute attention to recreating the period and the couple’s personal history, with much dialogue and legal particulars based on documented fact.”  Katie Walsh, in the Tribune News Service, says “for all of its subtlety and restraint, ‘Loving’ washes over you, seeps into your blood stream and remains there long after the film is over.”

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, “Loving” runs two hours, three minutes.

The Opera House Cinema Series is sponsored by Lake Shore Savings Bank.  Tickets are available at the door for $7 (adults), $6.50 (seniors & Opera House members) and $5 (students) the night of each screening.   A book of 10 movie passes is available for $60 at the door or online at www.fredopera.org. For more information, call the Opera House Box Office at 679-1891.

Submitted Photos “Loving,” which stars Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton, is based on the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live in their hometown.

The Opera House is equipped with individualized closed captioning headsets for the deaf as well as with assistive listening headsets for the hearing-impaired.  Simply request one from any usher or Opera House staff member.  Headset funding provided by Robert & Marilyn Maytum, the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, the Dunkirk-Fredonia Lions Club, and by a grant from Theatre Development Fund’s TAP Plus program in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House is a member-supported not-for-profit performing arts center located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia.  For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.