“Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan” and “The Little Hours” open at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center Sept. 15.

“Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan,” a documentary by Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger, offers an intimate portrait of prima ballerina Wendy Whelan as she prepares to leave New York City Ballet after a record-setting three decades with the company. One of the modern era’s most acclaimed dancers, Whelan was a principal ballerina for New York City Ballet.

As the film opens, Whelan is 46, battling a painful injury that has kept her from the ballet stage, and facing the prospect of her impending retirement from the company. The audience sees a woman of tremendous strength, resilience and good humor.

Whelan braves the surgery that she hopes will enable her comeback to the ballet and begins to explore the world of contemporary dance, as she steps outside the traditionally patriarchal world of ballet to create Restless Creature, a collection of four contemporary vignettes forged in collaboration with four young choreographers.

"Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan" trailer

“The Little Hours,” freely adapted from one of the bawdy tales in Bocaccio’s fabled Decameron, is a film of three quarrelsome nuns who meet a strapping young man who finds refuge at their convent.

Bored and volatile Renaissance nuns Alessandra (Alison Brie), Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza), and Ginevra (Kate Micucci) live in a monastery under the watchful eye of Father Tommasso (John C. Reilly).

Their dull lives are shaken up by the arrival of a handsome new groundskeeper, Massetto (Dave Franco), whom Tommasso introduces as a deaf-mute to discourage temptation. Massetto struggles to maintain his cover as the situation erupts into a frenzy of debauchery.

“The Little Hours,” which is rated R, and “Restless Creature:Wendy Whelan” play at the Ross through Sept. 21.

"The Little Hours" trailer

For more information on films showing at the Ross, including show times, click here or call 402-472-5353.