We’ve welcomed dozens of filmmakers to Omaha over the past few years, but we were so thrilled when Steve James accepted our invitation that we decided to present a special repertory series in his honor. It begins, of course, with his epic HOOP DREAMS, a triumph of American nonfiction filmmaking that established him as one of the form’s finest practitioners. In the years that followed, his films explored issues of mental health (STEVIE), capital punishment (AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR), the concussion epidemic (HEAD GAMES), and cinema itself (REEL PARADISE). In addition to those films, we’ll present a special screening of THE INTERRUPTERS, his outstanding 2011 documentary about violence prevention in Chicago, with Steve in person (May 14), plus two of his own personal picks for the series: the Maysles brothers’ cult classic GREY GARDENS and Jean Renoir’s 1939 masterpiece THE RULES OF THE GAME (also with Steve in person; May 13).