Oscar Goff

Among local movie programmers, the good folks at Channel Zero stand alone, digging up nigh-unstreamable obscurities and projecting them on the big screen where they belong. On Friday, Channel Zero returns to the Somerville Theatre MicroCinema with “Flight for Freedom” (1943), a rarely screened gem of wartime propaganda cinema.

Among the great artists who’ve called Boston home is the martial arts master Bow-sim Mark, who in 1976 founded the Chinese Wushu Research Institute, one of the first tai chi schools in the United States. Sifu Mark remains active to this day from her home in Newton. One of her sons is international movie star Donnie Yen. To celebrate the institute’s 50th anniversary, the Brattle Theatre has programmed a weekend-long program of films featuring Yen.

⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 2.5 out of 4. By any metric, the Minion movies are among the most successful cinematic creations of the 21st century. Since their introduction in 2015’s “Despicable Me,” the subverbal yellow creatures have appeared in seven films, launched a merchandising empire and inspired one of the internet’s most inscrutable meme formats.