Philadelphia Repertory Film Blog

Temple Cinematheque: David Holzman's Diary

2012-02-14T08:03:00.002-08:00

This friday writer/actor/producer L.M. "Kit" Carson will come to discuss his role in the production of David Holzman's Diary, this week's Temple Cinemathèque film presentation. The documentary will be shown in 16mm

Friday, Febuary 17

3PM

Annenberg Hall, AH 3 (basement screening room)

13th and Norris

Temple University main campus

SCT Film Lab Coordinator Len Guercio will introduce the film as well as moderate a post-film Q&A.

In a career characterized by a diverse body of work and a singular independent filmmaking aesthetic, Carson will also discuss his latest documentary, Africa Diary, which will premiere this March on the Sundance Channel.

As before, the screening is free and open to all. However, seating is limited so please arrive early.

This Cinemathèque screening is made possible by support from Temple's FMA Department & faculty as well as the SCT Operations department.

General Idi Amin Dada

2012-02-13T13:35:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning to mention the regular screening series of the Cinematheque Internationale of Philadelphia. They screen films of video, but with full rights clearance and with a good discussion afterward - something useful to the repertory film experience.

I will be leading discussion next Wednesday at their screening of Barbet Schroeder's Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait.

Wednesday, February 22

Doors open at 6:30pm. Films begins at 7:00pm.

L'Etage at Beau Monde

624 South 6th Street

Discussion following each film.
$10.00 General Admission

$5.00 Students and Artists

Upcoming films:

03.11.12: THE SCAR – Krzysztof Kieslowski
03.28.12: VERONIKA VOSS – Rainer Werner Fassbinder
04.15.12: PERSONA – Ingmar Bergman
04.25.12: VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS – Jires
05.06.12: COME AND SEE – Elem Klimov
05.23.12: HUKKLE – György Pálfi
06.10.12: VEILED VOICES – Brigid Maher
06.27.12: BEIRUT: THE LAST HOME MOVIE – Jennifer Fox

Experimental: Austrian Avant-Garde and Canyon Cinema

2012-02-07T08:33:00.001-08:00

There are two screenings of experimental work at the International House this week. The first, part of the "Archive Fever" series, features found-footage compilation films by Austrian avant-garde makers. The program is tomorrow (Wednesday) and starts at 7:00PM.

Tito-Material
dir. Elke Groen, Austria, 1998, 16mm, 5 mins, color

14. März 1938-Ein Nachmittag
dir. Christoph Weihrich, Austria, 2008, 16mm, 10 mins ,color

Notes on Film 05 CONFERENCE
dir. Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Austria, 2011, 35mm, 8 mins, color

Oceano Nox
dir. Georg Wasner, Austria, 2011, HDCAM, 15 mins, color

Coming Attractions
dir. Peter Tscherkassky, Austria, 2010, 35mm, 25 mins, color and b/w

Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth)
dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1996-2003, 35mm, 13 mins, color

To the Happy Few
dir. Thomas Draschan, Austria, 2003, 16mm, 4 mins, color, sound

Metropolen des Leichtsinns (Metropolis of Recklessness)
dir. Thomas Draschan, Austria, 2000, 16mm, 12 mins, color, sound

This Saturday, Feb. 11, a Bruce Baillie retrospective screens at 5:00pm, while a Chick Strand retrospective starts at 8:00pm.

Program 1, at 5PM: Bruce Baillie’s Early Canyon Cinema Years
Early Canyon Cinema Years comprises seven of Baillie’s films of the early Canyon years. Made between 1961 and 1966, they include canyon “CinemaNews” films as well as some of Baillie’s most famous early experimental works.

On Sundays
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1960-1961, 16mm, 27 mins, b/w, sound

The Gymnasts
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1961, 16mm, 8 mins, b/w, sound

Mr Hayashi
dir. Bruce Baillie, USA 1961, 16mm, 3 mins. b/w, sound

Here I Am
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1962, 16mm, 11 mins, b/w, sound

Termination
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1966, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w, sound

Mass For The Dakota Sioux
dir. Bruce Baillie, USA, 1963-1964, 16mm, 20 mins, b/w, sound

Castro Street
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1966, 16mm, 10 mins, color, sound

Program 2, at 8PM: Chick Strand: Beginnings, Ends and In-Betweens
This overview of Chick Strand includes both experimental and documentary works. In the mid-1960s, Strand left Canyon Cinema to move to Los Angeles where she began her own filmmaking career. Her intimate, sensual camerawork combined with an exploration of women’s personal and domestic worlds, make her films, shot largely in California and in Mexico, absolutely unique.

Waterfall
dir. Chick Strand, US, 1967, 16mm, 3 mins, color, sound

Kristallnacht
dir. Chick Strand, US, 1979, 16mm, 7 mins, b/w, sound

Soft Fiction
dir. Chick Strand, US, 1979, 16mm, 54 mins. b/w, sound

Señora con Flores
dir. Chick Strand, US, 2011, 16mm, 15 mins. color, sound

Full descriptions of the Austrian program and Canyon Cinema programs available from the website.

Flaherty on the Road

2012-01-31T15:48:00.000-08:00

The International House is exhibiting a series of films from the Flaherty Seminar.

Program 1: The Artist and the Process
Thursday, Feb 02
07:00 PM

The Artist and the Computer (dir. Lillian F Schwartz, US, 1980, video, 11 mins, color)

Pixillation (dir. Lillian F Schwartz, US, 1970, video, 4 mins, color)

UFOs (dir. Lillian F Schwartz, US, 1971, video, 3 mins, color)

From Zero (dir. Frank Scheffer, Netherlands, 2011, video, 60 mins, color)
From Zero incorporates extensive footage of Scheffer’s first interview with American composer, philosopher, and poet John Cage, much of it never before seen. A Cagecollaborator, Scheffer created From Zero expressly for the 2011 Flaherty Film Seminar, completing it on the morning of its premiere.

Program 2: City Symphonies
Friday, Feb 03
07:00 PM

Window Cleaning in Shanghai (dir. Laura Kissel, US, 2010, video, 3 mins, color, Chinese w/English subtitles)
Media artist Laura Kissel describes her subjects simply as “two workers I met, hanging off the edges of my apartment building in Shanghai.” This arresting moment captures places, people, and events that suggested the qualities of everyday life in contemporary Shanghai. A work self-aware of the verité tradition it inhabits, Window Cleaning uses only location sound and defers to long takes. Yet Kissel also has a photographer’s eye for composition, structuring her window on the world in ways that are beautiful, honest, and only occasionally ironic.

Tan Mian Hua (dir. Laura Kissel, US, 2011, video, 15 mins, color, Chinese w/ English subtitles)
While documenting the contemporary textile industry in Shanghai, Kissel found the Zhu family on Chongming Island, who demonstrated the disappearing art of making a quilt with simple tools. Tan mian hua (beating cotton) is the process of assembling this type of handcrafted quilt.

Singapore GaGa (dir. Tan Pin Pin, Singapore, 2005, video, 54 mins, color, English, Mandarin and Arabic w/ English subtitles)
Tan Pin Pin’s work shows a studied devotion to the audio dimension of contemporary life, particularly as experienced in her home city. Official declarations – school songs, patriotic parades – are heard in contrast to marginalized voices: a wheel chaired busker, avant-garde musicians, and the
multilingual polyphony of everyday life.

Program 3: Heart and Soul
Saturday, Feb 04
05:00 PM

Multiple Sidosis (dir. Sid Laverents, US, 1970, video, 10 mins, color)
Sid Laverents, a retired Convair engineer, has long been a legend in the amateur film community. Multiple Sidosis is a kind of latter-day trick film, in which Sid reprises the one-man band act he performed as a traveling Vaudevillian in the ‘20s and ‘30s. This self-reflexive masterpiece features Sid– or rather many, many Sids – hysterically performing the song “Nola,” recorded with his ingenious sound-on-sound looping technique and filmed with the use of his handmade in-camera mattes. – Ross Lipman, Filmmakers

Yard Work Is Hard Work (dir. Jodie Mack, US, 2008, video, 30 mins, color)
What if Caroline and Frank Mouris (Frank Film, 1973) had made a narrative operetta about the difficulties of romance and home ownership in the cell-phone era? A handsome, hyperactive, funny, cut-out animation tour de force, Yard Work is of considerable length for such a labor-intensive form. Accomplished animation technique aside, the music is memorable and delightfully sung (by director Mack and others), with a “libretto” of wit. To go from making dozens of miniatures in this form to producing a film of such depth is a major achievement in the art of animation.

The Florestine Collection (dir. Helen Hill, completed by Paul Gailiunas, US, 2011, video, 30 mins, color)
Animator Helen Hill (1970-2007) was beloved for her enchanting, whimsical movies, her passionate advocacy for her craft, and her radical dedication to making the world better for more people in the experimental cinema and DIY art worlds. Her shocking murder in New Orleans after Katrina was incalculably tragic, but her life and work have since inspired many. Completed posthumously by her husband and creative partner Paul Gailiunas, The Florestine Collection was always conceived as being about the connection between two New Orleans DIY artists. The film tells the story of African American seamstress Florestine Kinchen, and Helen’s discovery of Kinchen’s handmade dresses on a trash pile one Mardi Gras morning.

Los Angeles Plays Itself

2012-01-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

The ICA and The International House, with Penn Cinema studies, is hosting an ongoing series examining the use of archival image in moving-image art: Living Document / Naked Reality: Towards an Archival Cinema will present works in video, installation, and traditional “black box” cinema that respond to a particular historical moment and cultural movement through the engagement of archival material.

This Saturday, January 14, at 1pm, they will be screening Thom Andersen's LA Plays Itself (2003, 169 min.), an essay film that juxtaposes Hollywood's depiction of Los Angeles with the city's social and political history.

The will be followed with a roundtable discussion with myself and Timothy Corrigan, from Penn's Cinema Studies' program.

Saturday, January 14

1pm
International House (3701 Chestnut St.)
$9 and $7 for Students/Seniors (Free for ICA and International House members)

Nuremberg

2011-12-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

Swarthmore College

Film & Media Studies presents:

NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY (1948)
The Schulberg/Waletzky Restoration

One Screening Only

Monday, December 5, 2011

7:00 pm

Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema

Swarthmore College

Special guest Sandra Schulberg -- daughter of filmmaker Stuart Schulberg & producer of the restoration -- will speak about the making of Nuremberg and its subsequent suppression in the U.S.

Co-sponsored by German Studies, History, Peace & Conflict Studies. Event made possible by the Serendipity Fund

5 Short Documentaries at I-House

2011-11-27T15:59:00.000-08:00

Five MFA graduates from Temple's film program are screening documentary work at the International House this Tuesday, November 27, at 7:00pm. I've personally seen some of this work, either in-progress or completed, and I can say that it's quite strong and represents a range of approaches to documentary, including observation, animation, self-reflexivity, and poetic approaches.

The program, titled "The Things They Carry," comprises five shorts:

3956 County Road 15 (Ellen Knechel) 26m

Inheritance (Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz) 29m
Pigment (Alexis McCrimmon) 12m
Roy: Dream Catcher (Andrew Bateman) 65m
Things We Keep (David Cooper Moore) 20m

More descriptions can be found at the event's homepage. In all, it's a cohesive program worth catching.

Ides of March at Bryn Mawr Film Institute

2011-11-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

The mainstream film may turn some people on the right side of the political fence off, but there is no doubt that this power house drama is among the best that 2011 has to offer. This is the last chance to catch the film during its time at the cineplex, being pulled on November 22nd. So make sure to get over there!

"George Clooney goes behind the camera for the fourth time to direct The Ides of March, an adaptation of Beau Willimon's play Farragut North. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as Stephen Meyers, an idealistic deputy campaign manager for Governor Mike Morris (Clooney), who is in a major political battle in Ohio that could be the key to winning the Democratic presidential nomination. When the opposing candidate's campaign manager (Paul Giamatti) offers Stephen a job on his staff, Stephen neglects to inform his boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Just as that omission is revealed, Stephen uncovers a dirty personal secret that could sink Morris' political career. The Ides of March screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival."

The film provides phenomenal supporting performences from Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who should both be appearing at the Oscars with nominations come this February.

If you want to see some of Clooney's new work, Alexander Payne's "The Descendant's" is beginning at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute on November 23rd! If you can't wait until then, it opens at the Ritz in center city Philadelphia this Friday, 11/18.

Film Festival offerings

2011-10-20T18:13:00.001-07:00

Kevin, a Temple film student who has been helping me on this site, posted some upcoming highlights from the Philadelphia Film Festival. Given the scope of the offerings, I thought I'd add to his list by highlighting a few films I'm particularly interested in.

Dreileben (Three Lives). This German trilogy has been a bit of a festival hit, partly because it explores a crime mystery/art film hybrid across three separate self-contained films from three different filmmakers. David Bordwell had a fuller discussion of the films. (Wed 10/26 and Sun 10/30).

The Kid with the Bike. The Dardenne brothers' latest film gets a rave from Jonathan Rosenbaum, who calls it one of the best films he's seen this year. (Sat 10/22, Sun 10/23)

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, this Turkish film sounds to be a slow-cinema version of the police procedural, with stunning cinematography. (Fri 10/28, Sun 10/30)

Life Without Principle. Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To is better known for his action films, but lately he's been venturing into other territory. This one is about the recent financial crisis and its impact on Hong Kong society. (Tues 10/25, Sat 10/29)

And as a reminder, our downloadable iCal calendar has the film festival included, so you can import and even copy the films you want to see into your personal calendar.

Animate Art! series

2011-10-18T18:32:00.001-07:00

Karen Beckman, from Penn's Cinema Studies and Art History programs, has curated for the ICA a series of media makers using animation:

The Animate Art! series foregrounds the recent interest that artists have shown in a variety of animation practices within the museum context. Through conversation with artists from a variety of geographic locations we will consider a variety of questions, including: the relationship between animation and other media; contemporary artists' engagement with the histories of art and film; the role of music; the differences among various forms of animation; and animation's treatment of history, time, and place.

This Thursday, at 6:30pm, the series continues with Jennifer Levonian, a local artist who works in cut-paper animation. Levonian will screen her latest film, The Oven Sky, with a live performance by New York-based artist and singer Rachel Mason.

Fall Calendar update

2011-10-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

The Repertory Film calendar has been updated. You can download it and import into iCal, Google calendar, or similar program. We've even included the upcoming Philadelphia Film Festival calendar for your convenience.

Bryn Mawr Film Club-The Guard

2011-09-28T10:47:00.001-07:00

The Bryn Mawr Film Club screening and discussion this Thursday Sep 29th is The Guard, "an acid-sharp comedy starring Brendan Gleeson. With the humour as black as a pint of Guinness and just as Irish."

Directed by Irish filmmaker John Michael McDonagh with photography directed by Larry Smith (cinematographer for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut), the film is McDonagh's directing debut and in the spirit of his brother Martin McDonagh's In Bruges(2008). To date The Guard is the most successful Irish independent film of all time according to the box office.

(R) 1 hr 36 min - in English
2011 Starring Don Cheadle, Brendan Gleeson

"A small-town Irish policeman (Brendan Gleeson) reluctantly teams up with a straight-laced FBI agent (Don Cheadle) to investigate a drug case in this wry crime comedy from Irish filmmaker John Michael McDonagh."

Thursday, September 29, 2011
5:30 PM
Admission: $7.00 for students with valid I.D.
Discussion: 7:10 - 8 PM Community Room (just off the arcade, across from MilkBoy)

Bryn Mawr Film Institute
824 W. Lancaster Avenue
PO Box 1058
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
www.BrynMawrFilm.org

The Bryn Mawr Film Club meets bimonthly for screening and discussion of movies currently in theaters. Stay tuned for updates!

Philadelphia Film Festival 2011 Schedule!

2011-09-28T10:23:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

The schedule for the Philadelphia film festival schedule is now online!

There is a downloadable copy on the website and we will have a downloadable version on the blog soon.

There are many different genres and films this year that are being showcased at the festival with a few specifics standing out for landmark directors.

Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" is premiering at the festival on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 2:20 PM at the Prince Music Theater. As many have read, his Nazi-ist remarks that he made at the Cannes film festival earlier this year have put him on the map for being a truly controversial director. However, the controversy between that, and his last bleak drama "Antichrist" have made him a director to keep an eye on at the festival this year.

"Melancholia" stars Kirsten Dunst stars as a young woman named Justine, who on the night of her marriage finds out that a planet named Melancholia is heading on a collision course with Earth. This sci-fi drama is a strange direction for the genre, but not for Von Trier who is familiar to the abstract craft.

The film is facing comparisons toward Malick's acclaimed film from earlier this year, "The Tree of Life", as both are taking unfamiliar views on the creation and destruction of life as we know it. Both use less dialogue and more vivid imagery helping ramp up the viewers ability to interpret a scene rather than have a theme imposed on them. Melancholia should prove to be an interesting view nonetheless.

Also premiering at the festival is Cronenberg's new film "A Dangerous Method", starring Viggo Mortenson, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley. The film follows Dr. Jung (Fassbender), who teams with Sigmund Freud (Mortenson) to diagnose and help an extremely unstable patient named Sabina (Knightley). The film follows both of the doctors sexual desires and how they lead to methods never before performed on patients.

The film follows some factual basis, but also takes many liberties and Cronenberg with his signature dark style, helps to add sexuality in a glorious amount to the content. His last film 2007 "Eastern Promises", was notorious for Mortenson's full frontal nude fight scene, both for it's use of the naked body as well as the gratuitous violence. However, his films always have excellent commentary on the desensitization of today's audiences towards violence in cinema.

Another film worth mentioning in Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous" starring Rhys Ifans. It follows the story of the controversy over who actually compiled William Shakespeare's work. As it has plagues the minds of countless philosophers for centuries, the film partly grounded in facts expriements in a art house format to bring the time period to life.

This film is a real step back for Emmerich, who's directed the blockbusters Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. His first full fledged drama ever put on screen will be an interesting watch, and based on preliminary reports by critics, is his "best film yet". (Honeycutt)

So the Philly film fest is shaping up to be a great one this year with plenty of other films that I have yet to even mention! So check out the website attached and find out more synopsis' to see what you are interested in!

Bruce Conner Retrospective

2011-09-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

(from Report)

This weekend is a Bruce Conner retrospective at the International House, cosponsored by Bryn Mawr's Film Studies program and introduced by film scholar Bruce Jenkins. It's a terrific opportunity to see Conner's work, famous both for its early exploration of the possibilities of found-footage filmmaking and for its accessible, humorous avant-garde ethos.

Program I
Friday, September 23 at 7:30pm

COSMIC RAY
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1961, 16mm, 4 mins, b/w

A MOVIE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1958, 16mm, 12 mins, b/w

THE WHITE ROSE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1967, 16mm, 7 mins, b/w

MARILYN TIMES FIVE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1968-73, 16mm, 13 mins, b/w

VIVIAN
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1964, 16mm, 4 mins, b/w

TEN SECOND FILM
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1965, 16mm, 10 sec, b/w

BREAKAWAY
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1966, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w

MEA CULPA
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1981, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w

TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1977, 16mm, 5 mins, color

VALSE TRISTE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1979, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w

HIS EYE ON THE SPARROW
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 2006, video, 4 mins, b/w and color

EASTER MORNING
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 2008, 16mm, 10 mins, color

Program II
Saturday, September 24 at 7pm

MONGOLOID
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1978, 16mm, 3 mins, b/w

AMERICA IS WAITING
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1981, 16mm, 4 mins, b/w

REPORT
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1963-67, 16mm, 13 mins, b/w

CROSSROADS
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1976, 35mm, 36 mins, b/w

LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1996, 16mm, 14 mins, b/w

Full descriptions available at the I-House site.

Scribe events with Kevin Jerome Everson

2011-09-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, Scribe is bring Kevin Jerome Everson to the International House to screen his work Erie, a series of one-take black and white 16mm shots filmed near Lake Erie. Thematically the work connects the Great Migration to the contemporary experience of African-Americans.

Having seen some of Everson's work, I can recommend it for its formal rigor and an evocative approach to experimental narrative.

Full Exposure: An Evening with Kevin Jerome Everson:

Erie

Sep 21, 07:00 PM at the International House
Presented as part of Scribe Video Center’s Producers’ Forum series.

Q+A with Kevin Jerome Everson following the film.

Reception/Presentation:

"Materials, Process, Procedure and Subject"

Sep 22, 07:00 PM at Scribe Video Center (6PM reception)

Admission: $15. Free for Scribe, PIFVA and Reelblack members, Temple and University of Penn students, faculty and staff. (Everson in person)

In this special topic lecture, Everson discusses how he creates his works that document and reflect on the "gestures or tasks caused by certain conditions in the lives of working class African Americans." Everson will screen a selection of his recent short films. Films courtesy of the artist and Picture Palace Pictures.

(Erie still: Video Data Bank)

Philadelphia Film Festival Schedule

2011-09-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

The Philadelphia Film Festival

The schedule for the upcoming Philly film fest is going on sale on September 28th! Remember, you need to be a member of the Philadelphia Film Society to buy discount tickets! All-Access Passes start at $300 for members and $350 for non-members, giving you admission to any film playing at the event! Stay tuned for the schedule release.

The festival runs from October 20th-November 3rd!

Temple's Urban Archives screening at The Piazza

2011-09-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, Sept. 13) at 7:30PM, the Piazza at Schmidts in Northern Liberties will be hosting a reprise of a program of nontheatrical films from Temple University's Urban Archives. Called "Sound and Vision" the program highlights recent preservation and digitization work done on the archive's film and video holdings; it is curated by John Pettit and Kathryn Gronsbell. Some contents:

David Bowie visiting Veterans Stadium
free-jazz performer Sun Ra and his Arkestra
synthesizer expert Gerson Rosenbloom
Philadelphia International soul legends McFadden & Whitehead
punk/...new wave stalwart Ken Kweeder
the organist at the Spectrum
jazz-vibraphonist Khan Jamal
The Mummers string band
the original Electric Factory concert venue

I take it the screening will be in video projection. The event is free and open to the general public.

Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

2011-09-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend the International House is showing the premiere of a local documentary, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, about the cryptic tiles appearing on city streets in Philadelphia and other cities. Philadelphian Jon Foy won an award for Best Documentary Director at Sundance 2011 for the film. (dir. Jon Foy, US, 2011, HD, 85 mins, color)

Showing:
Saturday, September 10 at 7pm and 9:30pm
Sunday, September 11 at 7pm
Monday, September 12 at 7pm

Each screening features the West Philadelphia director, producers, and cast members in person, answering questions as well as providing surprises including live music, tile-making demonstrations, photography exhibitions and more.

AV Club review

UPDATE: Because of the sell-out crowds so far, the I-House is adding an extra screening on Tuesday evening at 7pm. Having seen the film, I can say that it's a gripping experience, in part because of the invocation of the paradoxical publicity and anonymity of the subject matter and the insight into a previous period of history.

NYT on Microcinemas

2011-09-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

Via the Cinemathèque Internationale of Philadelphia, I see that Dennis Lim has a writeup on microcinemas in the New York Times. It diagnoses the bourgeoning cinematheque scene in New York (Brooklyn especially):

Throwbacks to the folding-chair cinematheques of yesteryear, many microcinemas — to use a term often applied to these intimate spaces — are also very much of this long-tail moment, content to stay small and specialized, and quick to respond to an artistic landscape that is changing with ever greater speed.

The most enterprising microcinemas promise not just a film that isn’t showing anywhere else but also an experience tailored around it.

I think the latter sentence gets to the heart of what distinguishes microcinemas from their antecedents, film societies. I don't think the difference is a bad one, but it's notable that the cinematic experience has changed enough that people feel the need to self-consciously recreate the aura around it.

Music-Themed Secret Cinema

2011-08-03T12:57:00.001-07:00

There are two Secret Cinema events this week. First, tonight (Wednesday, Aug 3) is a Velvet Undergound themed screening, Sister Ray Slam, at the Institute of Contemporary Art (118 S. 36th St.). It features rare Andy Warhol short films, including his Screen Tests, accompanied by live bands performing "Sister Ray." 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm. Admission free.

Friday is a fund-raising screening of Paul Anka films at The William Way Center to benefit the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. Food and drink start at 6:00 pm. At 7:30 pm: Screening of Look in Any Window (1961), plus bonus short Lonely Boy, introduced by Richard Barrios. Admission: minimum tax-deductible donation of $20 advance at the AIDS Law Project site, $25 at the door. All funds raised will go to the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, a non-profit, public interest law firm that provides free legal services to people with HIV/AIDS and others affected by the epidemic.

Fuller descriptions of the films and bands available at the Secret Cinema website.

Underground Cinema and Apes

2011-07-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

The International House is having a mini-series of films with/by Underground Cinema actor Pierre Clementi.

Friday, July 29 at 7pm

Pierre Clémenti: Unreleased Reels
with live musical accompaniment from David First, Chris Forsyth and Koen Holtkamp

Featuring Pierre Clémenti, Philippe Garrel, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Viva, Catherine Deneuve, Nico, Tina Aumont, Frédéric Pardo, and many more, these rarely seen and newly restored films by French actor Pierre Clémenti constitute a major period of creative expression and experimentation. Akin to the works of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger, Clémenti’s films are lyrical and hypnotic and function both as portraits of those closest to him and distinctive visions from the mind of a world famous actor, poet and free spirit.

Souvenir souvenir …(Reel 27)
dir Pierre Clémenti, France, 1967-78, 16mm, 27 mins, color, silent

Positano (reel 30B01: soleil)
dir Pierre Clémenti, France, c. 1968, 16mm, 28 mins, color, silent

La Deuxième femme (reel J)
dir Pierre Clémenti, France, 1967-78, 16mm, 48 mins, color, silent

Saturday, July 30 at 7pm

Wheel of Ashes
dir. Peter Emanuel Goldman, France, 1968, digital transfer from 16mm, 95 mins, b/w

American filmmaker Peter Goldman made his second feature film in France with Pierre Clémenti in the leading role. Poetry and promiscuity merge as young Pierre searches for meaning in his tormented world. Goldman is an under-recognized auteur whose unique films serve as excellent example of American independent filmmaking during a defining era.

Saturday, July 30 at 9pm

Necropolis
dir. Franco Brocani, Italy/UK, 1970, 16mm, 92 mins, color

A surreal and disturbing distillation of Western Civilization, Necropolis is the unhinged vision of Italian director Franco Brocani. Pierre Clémenti is Attila the Hun, naked and on horseback, while Warhol superstar Viva is a drunken and abusive Countess Bathory. A pop pastiche for the psychedelic generation, Necropolis features a soundtrack by Gavin Bryars.

Also, Sunday from 11:00 AM—11:00 PM they are running a Planet of the Apes marathon. $20 gets you entrance to any or all of the 5 films. Matt Prigge has the round up.

Man Who Fell To Earth

2011-07-22T13:37:00.001-07:00

I've been traveling and otherwise estivating over the summer break so far, but I hope to pick up more postings here. All this next week, the Ritz Bourse is showing Nicholas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, perhaps most famous for starring David Bowie. Matt Prigge has a write-up, with the pithy summation, "It’s a mess, but the kind of mess that goes to unexplored areas, and is open to odd touches..."

Showtimes: 1:00, 4:00, 6:50, 9:40

Secret Cinema: Top Secret Films

2011-04-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design presents

TOP SECRET: FILMS YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO SEE

Friday, April 29, 2011
8:00 pm
Admission: $8.00

Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099

On Friday, April 29, 2011, the Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design will present a program of short films never intended for viewing by the general public.

TOP SECRET: FILMS YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO SEE includes films produced to convey private information from the government, the military and big business, instructional or motivational in nature, to carefully targeted audiences of battle forces in the field, farmers, middle management and wholesale buyers of products. Spanning from World War II through the 1960s, these forgotten reels reveal long hidden and often surprising views of mid-century America. At least one of these films was originally marked as containing "Restricted" information (and for all we know it is still officially restricted!).

There will be one complete program, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $8.00.

As always with Secret Cinema events, the films will be shown using real film (not video) projected on a giant screen.

Just a few highlights of TOP SECRET: FILMS YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO SEE are:

ARMY-AIR FORCE COMBAT DIGEST #53 (1944) - A weekly newsreel made just for soldiers, bringing news, developments in the war, and aerial footage of bombing missions right to the barracks via portable 16mm projectors. This episode is from October 4, 1944.

CULL FOR PROFIT (1951) - Made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this color educational film argues in favor of eugenics in egg farming, advising farmers to carefully remove from their coops hens that are lower egg producers. It might have just as easily been called KILL FOR PROFIT.

INSIDE TEST CITY U.S.A. (1953) - A promotional film from Readers Digest magazine that declares "Industry has discovered that what happens in Columbus (Ohio) today will be happening all over America tomorrow." The filmmakers interview local businessmen and consumers, all of whom are loyal Reader's Digest readers. Two comment that "most people read the Bible and the Digest." The narrator points out with pride that the Reader's Digest has greater market penetration in affluent areas than in poorer ones.

RECOGNITION OF AFV'S (1943) - Adapted by the U.S. Signal Corps from a British training film, this short aims to teach soldiers a valuable lesson: how to distinguish Allied tanks (or Armored Fighting Vehicles) from those of the enemy.

1104 SUTTON ROAD (1958) - Motivational dramatization shows the story of a dissatisfied factory worker who imagines what it would be like to become foreman or the company president. He learns that every employee must be productive to succeed. Sponsored by the Champion Paper and Fibre Company, with blazing Technicolor views of home and workplace life.

Plus an in-house training film from Bell Telephone, NAVAL AIRCRAFT WORKERS' DIGEST, THE DELCO 12-VOLT SYSTEM, and much more!

Pop Cinema series

2011-04-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

A terrific series tomorrow and Friday at the International House:

Pop Cinema: Art and Film in the UK and US, 1950s – 1970s

Thursday, April 28 at 7pm
UK Pop

O, Dreamland
dir. Lindsay Anderson, 1953, 16mm, 12 mins, b/w
Mama Don’t Allow
dir. Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson, 1956, 16mm, 22 mins, b/w
Pop Goes the Easel
dir. Ken Russell, 1962, video transfer from 16mm, 45 mins, b/w
When I Was Young
dir. Peter Whitehead, 1965, video, 4 mins, color
Trilogy: Cineblatz; White Lite; Marvo Movie
dir. Jeff Keen, 1967-68, 16mm, 9 mins, color
Richard Hamilton
dir. James Scott, 1969, 16mm, 24 mins, color

Friday, April 29 at 7pm
US Pop

Jamestown Baloos
dir. Robert Breer, 1957, 16mm, 6 mins, color
Broadway by Light
dir. William Klein, 1958, 35mm, 12 mins, color
Achoo Mr. Karoochev
dir. Stan VanDerBeek, 1960, 16mm, 2 mins, color
I Was A Teenage Rumpot
George and Mike Kuchar, 1960, 16mm, 12 mins, color
COSMIC RAY
dir. Bruce Conner, 1962, 16mm, 4 mins, color
Wrestling
dir. Marie Menken, 1964, 16mm, 8 mins, color
Kustom Kar Kommandos
dir. Kenneth Anger 1965, 16mm, 3 mins, color
Oh Dem Watermelons
dir. Robert Nelson, 1965, 16mm, 11 mins, color
— —— (aka Short Line Long Line)
dir. Thom Andersen and Malcolm Brodwick, 1966-67, 16mm, 11 mins, color
Superartist
dir. Juan Drago, 1967, 16mm, 21 mins, color
American Time Capsule
dir. Chuck Braverman, 1968, 16mm, 3 mins, color
Rockflow
dir. Bob Cowan, 1968, 16mm, 9 mins, color
Airborn
dir. Chas Wyndham, 1969, 16mm, 3 mins, color
Up Against the Wall Miss America!
dir. Newsreel Group, 1968, video transfer from 16mm, 6 mins, b/w

Saturday, April 30 at 2pm
Pop Art and Cinema panel discussion with:

Derek Boshier, Artist and Filmmaker
William Kaizen, Assistant Professor of Aesthetics and Critical Studies, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Kalliopi Minioudaki, Art Historian
Jacob Proctor, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

Saturday, April 30 at 7pm

Link
dir. Derek Boshier, 1970, video transfer from 16mm, 14 mins, color
Daddy
dir. Peter Whitehead and Niki de Saint Phalle, 1973, video, 90 mins, color

The curators may be taking a little bit of license in tying all of these films to Pop Art (then again I've not seen the majority of these), but with a screening of such hard to see experimental and documentary work from the 60s and 70s, who's quibbling? Having recently screened Momma Don't Allow, I was struck by how palpable the sense of a new cinematic vocabulary and a new postwar consumer prosperity was.

Temple Cinematheque: City Documentaries

2011-04-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

This Friday, Temple Cinematheque pairs two influential but often overlooked documentary shorts that aim to give a snapshot of a city subculture. Both will be screened in 16mm.

In the Street

(1948, US, James Agee, Helen Levitt, and Janice Loeb, 16m)

A silent short using hidden cameras to document Harlem street life in New York in the 1940s. The work continues photography Helen Levitt's interest in street photography, especially portraits of children, and Agee's interest in social documentation.

Momma Don't Allow

(1955, UK, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson, 22m)
Pioneering documentary of the Free Cinema movement, documenting one evening at a North London jazz club in the 1950s. The film influenced the soon-to-emerge British New Wave, and both Reisz and Richardson went on to become key figures in that movement.

The program screens this Friday, April 22, at 3 PM in Annenberg Hall (Room 3), 13th and Norris St.

John Akomfrah at Scribe

2011-04-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

Tonight, at Scribe Video Center:

Father of Black British Cinema, John Akomfrah, Comes to Scribe, 7PM for an in-person conversation with Louis Messiah.

In Conversation with John Akomfrah (in-person)

April 18

7PM

at Scribe Video Center

Please join us Monday April 18, 7PM at Scribe for an in-person conversation between acclaimed British filmmaker John Akomfrah and Scribe's executive director Louis Massiah. Considered one of the founding fathers of Black British Cinema, Akomfrah will screen excerpts from his new works and the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Presented in partnership with Temple University's Department of Film and Media Studies and the University of Pennsylvania's Program in Cinema Studies, Center for Africana Studies, and the English Department - Latitudes Reading Group. $5, free for Scribe members, Temple University and University of Pennsylvania students and faculty. Seating is first-come first-serve. Attendees may also pre-register for this event by calling 215-222-4201.

Peter Rose film screening

2011-04-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Language, Time, and Fiction - Six works by Peter Rose

Peter Rose will show six works that propose sly philosophical questions about consciousness and language, time and space, and appearance and reality. The screening will conclude with the Philadelphia premiere of a new work that presents a luminous nocturnal portrait of a vanished culture.

University of Pennsylvania
Van Pelt Film Studies Center
Room 425 Van Pelt Library

Thursday, April 14, 2011
5:00pm

Works on video format.

Weekend of Avant-Garde and Science Films

2011-04-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, the International House will screen three programs of science and experimental films, very few of which are easily seen. For full descriptions of the films, consult the I-House website.

Saturday (Apr 16) 2:00pm

Secret Cinema and Cinema Studies at UPenn present

Cinema/Science

A program of some of the oldest surviving educational films about science and nature and features an assortment of fascinating “popular science” shorts. These ultra-rare reels, many of which haven’t been seen in eight or nine decades, are still potent in their powers to entertain, amuse, and educate modern-day viewers about a variety of subjects. Many of the films have never been shown by Secret Cinema or anyone else since the 1920s! Introduced by science film scholar Oliver Gaycken. Highlights include:

Honey Makers
Pathe Screen Studies, UK, circa 1920s, 16mm

Trip to the Sky
prod Jean Painlevé, France 1937, 16mm

The Battle of the Plants
British Instructional Films, Ltd., UK, circa 1920s, 16mm

Laws of Motion
Encyclopedia Brittanica Films, UK, 1952, 16mm

The Science of Life
Bray Educational Films, US, circa 1920s, 16mm

Saturday (Apr 16) 5:00pm

Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts:

Independent Artist Movement in Cinematography (shorts)

Rien que les heures (Nothing but Time)
dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, France, 1926, 16mm, 45 mins, b/w, silent

Amor Pedestre (Love a Foot)
dir. Marcel Fabre, Italy, 1914, 16mm, 10 mins, b/w, silent

Ritimi di Stazione, Impressioni di Vita N.1 Rhythms (Impressions of Life # 1: Railway Station)
dir. Corrado D’Errico, Italy, 1933, video, 10 mins, b/w, silent

Rennsymphonie (Race Symphony)
dir. Hans Richter, Germany, 1928, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w, silent

La Marche des Machines (The March of the Machines)
dir. Eugene Deslaw, France, 1929, 16mm, 9 mins, b/w, silent

Life and Death of 9413 – A Hollywood Extra
dir. Robert Florey, US, 1928, 16mm, 11 mins, b/w, silent

L’Histoire Du Soldat Inconnu (The History of the Unknown Soldier)
dir. Henri Storck, Belgium, 1931, 16mm, 10 mins, b/w, silent

Saturday (Apr 16) 7:30pm

Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts:

Independent Artist Movement in Cinematography

Limite
Mario Peixoto’s visually entrancing Brazilian classic is a stunning silent poem inspired by a photograph by Andre Kertesz. Described by Peixoto as ‘a tuning fork’ to capture the pitch of a moment in time, it recounts a simple story of three people adrift on a boating trip.

Spring calendar update

2011-04-08T05:51:00.000-07:00

I have updated the Philly film calendar, including among other things the Cinefest screenings. Download and import into your Google calendar or iCal for a handy reference.

Flaherty Seminar shorts

2011-04-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 6, the International House is programming shorts from this past year's Flaherty Film Seminar, on the topic of "work." Screening is at 7PM.

Haiku
dir. Michael Glawogger, Austria, 1987, BetaSP, 3 mins, color

Haiku uses the clang of metal forming as the basis for an earsplitting rhythm that mirrors the repetition of life structured by the factory’s whistle.

Cheese
dir. Mika Rottenberg, US, 2008, BetaSP, 16 mins, color

Cheese conflates farm-girl imagery with the fairy tale Rapunzel into a story loosely based on the Sutherland Sisters, renowned for their extremely long hair. Floating through a pastoral yet mazelike setting of raw wooden debris cobbled together into a benign shantytown, six longhaired women in flowing white nightgowns ‘milk’ both their locks and their goats to generate cheese. As nurturing caretakers, these women represent maternal aspects of Mother Nature.

Me Broni Ba
dir. Akosua Adoma Owusu, US/Ghana, 2008, BetaSP, 22 mins, color, Twi and English w/ English subtitles

Who dictates the whims of fashion and what can these whims tell us? Me Broni Ba remixes the traditional anthropological documentary (including the classic story about Euro-colonialism) into a mad and inventive fusion of both forms and formats. Titled for an Akan term of endearment (me broni ba or my white baby), Me Broni Ba is a lyrical and impressionistic portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana, combining images of Ghanaian women who practice braiding on discarded white baby dolls with a child’s story of migrating from Ghana to the United States.

The Pottery Maker
dir. Robert Flaherty, US, 1925, BetaSP, 14 mins, b/w, silent

A humble experiment using the new Mazda incandescent lamps instead of mercury vapor lights, The Pottery Maker was shot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s basement in collaboration with the Arts and Crafts Department and proved to be important as a preliminary study for the pottery-making sequence in Industrial Britain.

The Sixth Section
dir. Alex Rivera, US/Mexico, 2003, BetaSP, 26 mins, color, Spanish and English w/ English subtitles

The Sixth Section is a portrait of a Mexican migrant community inhabiting a transnational space between the village of Boquerón, Puebla and Newburgh, NY, where they formed a niche enclave, ready to supply their labor in menial occupations. Having come north with the intent of supporting families back home, Newburgh’s Poblanos shrewdly consolidate their efforts into Grupo Unión, a benevolent society (headquartered in a backyard tent) dedicated to public-welfare projects in Boquerón. Rivera leafs through Grupo Unión’s jaw-dropping portfolio: the construction of a 2,000-seat baseball stadium; purchase and delivery of an ambulance for the village clinic; instruments for a marching band; completion of an abandoned, half-dug well; and more — all done from upstate New York.

The Way
dir. Uruphong Raksasad, Thailand, 2006, BetaSP, 6 mins, color, Thai w/ English subtitles

A man with a young boy on his shoulders maneuvers through a tall thicket. “This is the old way,” he says, reassuring the boy that they have not much farther to go.

Temple Cinematheque: Experimental Shorts

2011-04-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

The next screening in the Temple Cinematheque series will be a program of experimental shorts from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. All of the titles will be screened in 16mm:

Styx

Director: Jan Krawitz

16mm, b/w, 10 minutes, 1976

Jan Krawitz has been making documentary films for 35 years. Her work has been exhibited and awarded at film festivals in the United States and abroad, among them: In Harm's Way, Mirror Mirror, Drive-In Blues, Little People, Cotton Candy and Elephant Stuff, Afterimage, and Styx. Her film Styx is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is a Professor in the Graduate Program in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University. She has a B.A. from Cornell and a Master of Fine Arts in Film from Temple University.

"...it quickly establishes a tempo, a rhythm, and an almost symphonic kind of form that brings the everyday into a superbly balanced conjunction with the realm of the extraordinary suggested by the title..." San Francisco Chronicle

Necrology

Director: Standish Lawder

16mm, b/w, 11 minutes, 1969

An underground classic, cited by Richard Linklater (SLACKER, A SCANNER DARKLY), as one of his favorite shorts, NECROLOGY is an anthropological film about life and death in New York City - a roll call of the recently deceased. Shot in Grand Central Station, director Standish Lawder, who is best known for his photography, captured 12 minutes of anonymous commuters in their daily routine. The finished film shows lines of people ascending and disappearing into a shadowy abyss with the haunting suggestion of people on their eventless way to hell. Lawder added a lengthy list of bogus credits to the end for a touch of morbid humour that leaves viewers to ponder their own fate.

"The film is one of the strongest and grimmest comments upon the contemporary society that cinema has produced." Jonas Mekas, The Village Voice

Life is a Bitch and Then You Die
Director: Nina Gilberti

16mm, b/w, 5 minutes, 1985

Re-editing film footage from Joris Ivens’ 1928 silent film, THE BRIDGE, Nina Gilberti added music and narration to create a completely new work that is different in mood and meaning from what Ivens’ intended. The individual shots have been re-assembled to work more closely with the narrative content. Flipping shots and screen direction, combined with rapid editing and a frenetic score, the filmmaker offers us a humorous glimpse into the narrator’s thoughts and feelings.

Last Movement of a New World Symphony

Director: Nikola Kulish

16mm, color, 11 minutes, 1974

Using the music from the last movement of Dvorak’s New World symphony as a foundation, Kulish directed this harried tale of a man on a seemingly desperate mission. With a montage that rises and subsides in conjunction with the protagonist’s energy and resolve, the film compels us to empathize with the hero until he confronts what ultimately awaits him.

The program screens this Friday, April 8, at 3 PM in Annenberg Hall (Room 3), 13th and Norris St.

El General at Haverford

2011-03-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

A screening at Haverford this week, with the director in person:

EL GENERAL
directed by Natalia Almada 2009

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
7:00 pm
Sharpless Auditorium
Haverford College

Filmmaker Natalia Almada will be present to introduce and discuss the film.

In 1910 a revolution erupted in Mexico. Among its rallying cries was "the right to vote." Nearly a century later this same cry is heard as thousands take to the streets during a hotly contested presidential campaign. Through the legacy that filmmaker Natalia Almada inherited as the great-granddaughter of Mexican president Plutarco Elias Calles (1924-1928), one of Mexico's most controversial revolutionary figures, accused of having been a dictator, an "Iron Man" and a "Nun-Burner," yet also acclaimed as the "father of modern Mexico," El General is a portrait of a family and a country under the shadow of the past.

Natlaia Almada was the recipient of the 2009 Sundance Documentary Directing Award for El General; her previous credits include All Water Has a Perfect Memory, an experimental short film that received international recognition, and Al Otro Lado, her award-winning debut feature documentary about immigration, drug trafficking and corrido music. Almada’s films have screened at The Sundance Film Festival, The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum and The Whitney Biennial and have been broadcast on the PBS series P.O.V., The Sundance Channel, ARTE, VPRO and others.

Ed Halter at Temple

2011-03-22T05:14:00.000-07:00

The Visiting Filmmakers series continues at Temple, with a speaker known more for his curatorial work. Ed Halter is curator of the New York Underground Film Festival and founder and director of Light Industry, a venus of film and electronic art in Brooklyn.

The event takes place tomorrow, Wednesday, March 23, and starts at 5:15 in Temple's Annenberg Hall (13th and Norris), room 3.

Cheryl Dunye at Swarthmore

2011-03-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

This, Friday, filmmaker Cheryl Dunye will be at Swarthmore in person with her latest feature film The Owls.

Friday, March 25
7pm
Science Center 101
Swarthmore College

Opening the 2011 Queer and Trans Conference, “Queer Futures”

Written by Dunye, the Philadelphia-raised director of such acclaimed films as The Watermelon Woman and Stranger Inside, and novelist and playwright Sarah Schulman, The Owls reunites the stars of the lesbian classic Go Fish in a humorous generational anthem for “Older, Wiser Lesbians.” Raised in the shadow of “pathological lesbian” films like The Fox, The Children’s Hour and The Killing of Sister George, these women embraced the utopian vision of a Lesbian Nation. Now, approaching middle age, they are caught between a mainstream culture that still has no place for them, and a younger generation of queers who are indifferent to their contributions. In this low-budget, collectively produced film, Dunye returns to the signature style of her “Dunye-mentaries”--hybrids of fiction and interview footage capturing lesbian communities in all their intrigue. Murder! Infidelity! Dinner parties! The Owls premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and was produced by feminist film scholar and video activist Alexandra Juhasz.

Mizoguchi tonight

2011-03-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Image from Ferdy on Films' review

Tonight the International House will be screening Sansho the Bailiff (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1954, 35mm, 124 mins, b/w, Japanese w/ English subtitles).

When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi’s dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces: a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil.

Film starts at 7:00pm. All Proceeds Donated to Philadelphia – Japan Disaster Relief Fund.

Kiss Me Deadly

2011-03-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Image: DVD Beaver

Tonight (Thursday, March 17), the International House is screening Aldrich's baroque noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955) in all it's 35mm sumptuousness. It's a cult classic that's about... well, I won't spoil the ending for those who don't already know. I'll just say it's an over-the-top and remarkable narrative.

As a bonus, Village Voice critic J Hoberman will be in person to discuss the film and to promote more generally his new book, An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War. Screening starts at 7:00pm, with book signing to follow.

Scribe screenings at I-House

2011-03-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

The International House continues to host screenings by the Scribe Video Center.

Tonight, March 15, they will be showing Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 (dir. Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson, US, 2009, video, 57 mins). Director Judy Richardson will be there in person.

"On February 8, 1968, eight seconds of police gunfire left three young men dying and at least 27 wounded on the campus of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, SC. All of the police were white and all of the students African-American. This powerful yet disturbing documentary film explores the eye-witness accounts of student protesters and police officer participants."

Tuesday, April 5 they will screen When the Spirits Dance Mambo (dir. Dr Marta Moreno Vega and Robert Shepard, US, 2002, video, 90 mins). Director Robert Shepard will be there in person.

"Tracing the role of sacred African thought and practices in the formation of Cuban society, culture and music, Cuando los Espíritus Bailan Mambo (When the Spirits Dance Mambo) is a tribute to the spiritual energy that traveled from West Africa to Cuba and New York."

Both screenings begin at 7:00pm.

Calendar Spring update

2011-03-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

I have updated the iCal calendar.

Any suggestions on how to make this a helpful feature are welcome.

Temple Cinematheque: Trader Horn

2011-03-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

Temple University Cinematheque Presents:

Trader Horn

1931, W.S. Van Dyke, 122m

Time: 3 PM, March 18, 2011
Location: Annenberg Hall (Room 3 - Basement), 13th and Norris St., Philadelphia, PA

"While on safari in an unexplored area of Africa, Trader Horn and Peru find missionary Edith Trent killed by natives. They decide to carry on her quest for her lost daughter Nina. They find her as the queen of a particularly savage tribe, and try to bring her back to civilization."

This pre-code era film is the first non-documentary shot in Africa and was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Picture) in 1931. Most of the crew contracted Malaria, including Director W.S. Van Dyke and actress Edwina Booth. An African crewman fell into a river and was eaten by a crocodile. Another was killed by a charging rhino (which was captured on film and used in the movie). The film will be shown on 16mm.

This screening is being programmed by Temple University Film & Media Arts ungraduate Katy Gronsbell.

Director Alison Kobayashi in person

2011-02-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

At the International House tomorrow, Feb. 24, 7:00pm, performance and video artist Alison Kobayashi will be presenting her work.

Kobayashi’s pieces address the migration of desires, alongside the transmission of ideas and memory across distances and time. In other words, the works function as mediation through migration. Kobayashi is captivated by found objects that contain traces of private experiences.

Films with artist's notes below.

Dan Carter
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2006, Canada, video, 15 mins, color
Dan Carter donated his answering machine to a secondhand store. Dan Carter did not remove the cassette tape. So I took it. This film is based on the messages.

From: Alex To: Alex
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 200,6 Canada , video, 6 mins, color
In the fall of 2003 I found a letter on the Winston Churchill Blvd QEW overpass. It was labeled From: Alex To: Alex. This is a film based on the contents of that letter.

DO GOOD
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2009, Canada, video, 11 mins, color
I catalogued my family’s home video collection. I came across videos of my sister and I in Brownie and Girl Guide ceremonies. It made me want to DO GOOD. It made me want to invite others to DO GOOD too. Five Brownies created new badges. Each Brownie made a video that ex¬plained what was required to earn her badge. You are invited to participate in DO GOOD.

PERIOD 4L
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2011, Canada , video, work in process, color
John Massier found a letter at a bus stop outside of Dickie’s Dounuts in Buffalo, New York. He gave me the letter.

Pleasure Dome
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2010, Canada, video, 12 mins, color
Very little is publicly known about what is inside Pleasure Dome. We sought to learn more about Pleasure Dome by closely examining its characters. The goal was to create an objective look at a very singular place. This video is a sample of those findings.

Visiting Filmmaker: Kathryn Ramey

2011-02-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

Fall (Kathryn Ramey, 2006)

As part of the Visiting Filmmaker Series sponsored by Temple's Film and Media Arts department, filmmaker Kathryn Ramey will be discussing her work, which uses experimental film techniques to address anthropological and socio-cultural research.

The event starts at 5:15 in Temple's Annenberg Hall (13th and Norris), room 3.

Temple Cinematheque: 60s/70s Animation

2011-02-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

The next screening in the Temple Cinematheque series will be a program of Academy Award-winning animation shorts from the 1960s and 1970s. All of the titles will be screened in 16mm:

Pas de Deux (Norman McLaren, 1968, 13m)
Closed Mondays (Bob Gardiner and Will Vinton, 1974, 11m)
Special Delivery (Eunice Macauley and John Weldon, 1977, 7m)
Afterlife (Ishu Patel, 1978, 7min)
The Critic ( Ernest Pintoff, Mel Brooks and Bob Heath, 1963, 4m)
Frank Film (Frank and Caroline Mouris, 1973, 9m)

The program screens next Friday, February 18, at 3 PM in Annenberg Hall (Room 3), 13th and Norris St.

Calendar winter update

2011-02-09T18:33:00.001-08:00

The Philly Repertory Film Calendar is now updated. An iCal download, it can be saved then imported into your iCal or Google calendar. It's a handy way to keep up with local screenings and events.

Look out for another update in mid-March.

Stan Douglas in conversation

2011-02-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

Stan Douglas in conversation with Diedrich Diederichsen and Nora Alter

Monday, February 14, 2011
6:30 pm
Slought Foundation (4017 Walnut)
Free; reservation not required

Slought Foundation and the Temple University Department of Film and Media Arts are pleased to present artist Stan Douglas in conversation with Diedrich Diederichsen and Nora Alter on Monday, February 14, 2011 from 6:30-8:30pm at Slought Foundation. This program has been organized by Nora Alter, Chair of Film and Media Arts at Temple University. The conversation will engage Douglas’ Vidéo (2007), an audio-visual meditation on Samuel Beckett’s Film (1965), as well as the artist’s more recent public art project Abbott and Cordova (2009), a photo reenactment of the Gastown riot of 1971. The event will begin with a special screening of Vidéo (35 min; 2007).

"I'm always looking for this nexus point, the middle ground of some kind of transformation. I guess this accounts for the embarrassingly consistent binary constructions in my work. Almost all of the works, especially the ones that look at specific historical events, address moments when history could have gone one way or another. We live in the residue of such moments and for better or worse their potential is not yet spent."
-- Stan Douglas in conversation with Diana Thater (London: Phaidon Press, 1998).

Stan Douglas was born in 1960 and attended the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. His film and video installations, photography, and work in television address the history of literature, cinema and music, the technical and social aspects of mass media, and modernism in terms of its failures as a theoretical utopian concept and its manifestation in present day urbanism. His work frequently engages in subtle societal criticisms and investigations of authorship and subjectivity, and has often been imbued with tropes associated with Blues and Jazz. They are media machines, Automats of a sort, which involve the viewer in their mechanics; they reflect an era of transition from literally mechanical reproduction to electronic saturation. Douglas's widely appreciated work has appeared in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and three Venice Biennales; at Documenta 9, 10 and 11; at the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao; and at the Museums of Modern Art in San Francisco and New York. He has had solo exhibitions at the Dia Foundation for the Arts in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others. His work has also been shown in New York at The Studio Museum, Harlem, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Dia Center for the Arts.

Diedrich Diederichsen was editor of two music magazines in the 1980s (Sounds, Hamburg; Spex, Cologne) and taught at several academies in the 1990s in Germany, Austria, and the U.S. in the fields of art history, musicology, theater studies, and cultural studies. He was Professor for Cultural Theory at Merz Academy, Stuttgart from 1998 to 2006, and is currently Professor of Theory, Practice, and Communication of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna. Recent Publications include Psicodela y ready-made, Buenos Aires 2010; Utopia of Sound, Vienna 2010 (co-edited with Constanze Ruhm); Rock, Paper, Scissor—Pop-Music/Fine Arts, Graz 2009 (co-edited with Peter Pakesch); On Surplus Value (of Art), Rotterdam/New York 2008; Eigenblutdoping, Cologne 2008; Kritik des Auges, Hamburg 2008; Argument Son, Dijon 2007; Personas en loop, Buenos Aires 2006; Musikzimmer, Cologne 2005.

Video Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

2011-02-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

Will Schmenner, a Penn grad student who is bringing his film programming experience to our benefit, is curating a series of artists' films and videos at The Museum of Art. The first screening in the series is this Sunday, February 13:

Kiss (Robert Bowers, 1971, 6 minutes)

True/False (Colin Campbell, 1972, 9 minutes)
This Is My Mouth (John Watt, 1973, 10 minutes)

Birthday Suit with Scars and Defects (Lisa Steele, 1974, 13 minutes)

Semiotics of the Kitchen (Martha Rosler, 1975, 6 minutes)

My Rectum Is Not a Grave (To a Film Industry in Crisis) (Steve Reinke, 2007, 7 minutes)

Screening starts at 2:00pm.
Film at Perelman

Location: Perelman Media Room

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Perelman building

Single ticket: $8 (members and students with ID $6), includes Perelman building admission
Series ticket: $38 (members and students with ID $30), includes Perelman building admission

Series details here.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival selections

2011-02-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

This week, the International House is presenting selections from the 9th Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Wed, Feb. 9
Iran: Voices of the Unheard
The untold story of Iranian secularists through three fascinating characters – each from a distinct social, economic and educational background – but all sharing a love for their motherland and in need of a country free from political repression and theocracy. (dir. Davoud Geramifard, Canada, 2009, BetaSP, 68 mins, color, Farsi w/ English subtitles)

Thurs, Feb. 10
In the Land of the Free…
Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King – aka The Angola 3 – have spent a combined century in solitary confinement in Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Targeted by prison officials for being members of the Black Panther Party and for fighting against terrible prison conditions, they were convicted of the murder of a prison guard. New evidence continues to emerge as they continue to challenge the verdict. Narrated by Samuel L Jackson, In the Land of the Free… presents the ongoing story as dramatic events continue to unfold. (dir. Vadim Jean, UK/US, 2009, BetaSP, 84 mins, color)

Fri, Feb. 11
Pushing the Elephant
An intimate family drama set against the backdrop of the 1998 conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pushing the Elephant tells the story of Rose Mapendo, who was separated from her five-year-old daughter Nangabire. Rose survived the atrocities of those years and eventually resettled in Phoenix, Arizona with her other children. Now, after 12 years apart, Rose and her daughter Nangabire are reunited in the US. Through the story of their reunion, we come to understand the excruciating decisions Rose made in order to survive and the complex difficulties Nangabire faces as a refugee in the US, torn between her painful past and a hopeful future. (dir. Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel, US, 2010, BetaSP, 84 mins, color, English, Kinyamulenge and Swahili w/ English subtitles.)

Sat, Feb. 12

Youth Producing Change

Young people are on the frontlines of many of the world’s human rights crises, but we rarely get to hear their points of view. The third edition of Youth Producing Change shares powerful stories from young filmmakers across the globe as they turn the camera on their own lives and share their visions of change. Youth Producing Change Short Film Program was founded by Adobe Youth Voices. Full list of titles available at the International House website.

All films begin at 7:00 pm and are presented in video projection.

Companion Blog

2011-02-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

For those interested in the more academic side of film studies, I have a separate blog run for the Philadelphia Cinema and Media Seminar. The seminar itself is a monthly meeting organized around the presentation of academic papers. The weblog will list events in the series and any other talks in the field taking place in the Philadelphia area.

1960s Omnibus Art Film

2011-02-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

One of the semi-forgotten genres of the 1960s wave of international/European art cinema is the omnibus film. Producers would package feature length compilations of short films by New Wave and art cinema directors, often around an organizing theme. The practice would help market the work of lesser known directors and could take advantage of coproduction-oriented film policy.

This Thursday (Feb. 3), Secret Cinema is screening The Oldest Profession, an omnibus film about prostitution, featuring leading female stars of the decade (Raquel Welch, Jeanne Moreau, and Elsa Martinelli) and auteur directors, including Jean-Luc Godard and Philippe de Broca. The print is a dye-transfer 35mm print, including the Technicolor sequences of the American print. That means, too, it is dubbed in English, but it's worth noting that all versions of films like this were post-dubbed, since they had international casts.

Screening takes place at 7:00pm at the International House's cinema. Admission: $8.00 ($5.00-$6.00 for members, students & seniors)

Sam Green at Temple

2011-01-31T10:58:00.001-08:00

Weather permitting, this Wednesday evening (Feb. 2) documentary filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground, Utopia in Four Movements) will be presenting and discussing his work at Temple University's Film and Media Arts department. The event starts at 5:15 in Temple's Annenberg Hall (13th and Norris), room 3.

This is the first in a series of visiting filmmakers, so stay tuned for future announcements.

Temple Cinematheque

2011-01-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

Temple Cinematheque is beginning a semester of (mostly 16mm) Friday afternoon screenings. First up is a pair of Student Academy Award-winning documentary films made by students in Temple's Film and Media Arts (nee Radio Film and Television) program in the 1970s. The films screen this Friday, February 4th, at 3 PM in Annenberg Hall (Room 3), 13th and Norris St.

You See I've Had a Life

1972, B/W - a film by Ben Levin

- A 13-year-old boy does his best to live a normal life despite the fact that he has been diagnosed with leukemia.

Ben Levin was born in Joliet, Illinois. After attending the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, he served in the United States Marine Band in Washington D.C. He then entered Temple University to pursue an MFA with an emphasis in documentary production -- the start of a 17-year relationship with that institution -- culminating in his directing the MFA program there for seven years. Levin is currently Film Professor at the University of North Texas

Through Adam's Eyes

1978, B/W - a film by Bob Saget

- A portrait of a young boy with a facial birth defect. Narrated by Adam, it deals with corrective surgery performed on him and his post--surgical social adjustment.

Bob Saget - TV actor, writer, director, and producer - was born in Philadelphia. His father, Benjamin, was a supermarket executive, and his mother, Rosalyn, was a hospital administrator. Saget lived in Norfolk, Virginia, and Encino, California, before moving back to Philadelphia and graduating from Abington Senior High School. Saget originally intended to become a doctor, but his Honors English teacher saw his creative potential and urged him to seek a career in films. He attended Temple University's film school, where he created Through Adam's Eyes, a black-and-white film about a boy who received reconstructive facial surgery, and was honored with an award of merit in the Student Academy Awards. He graduated with a B.A. in 1978.

Atom Egoyan retrospective

2011-01-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

I am working on updating the repertory film calendar for the winter. In the meantime, I wanted to flag an Atom Egoyan retrospective series going on this weekend at the International House. It kicks off tonight:

Thurs 1/20. Next of Kin (1984, 72m) 7pm
Fri 1/21. Family Viewing (1987, 96m) 7pm
Sat 1/22. Speaking Parts (1989, 92m) 5pm
Sat 1/22. Calendar (1993, 75m) 7pm

All screenings in 16mm.

The image above from Calendar - Jonathan Rosenbaum's review is a good orientation to the Armenian-Canadian director's work.

Antonioni, Ford, and more

2010-12-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

The International House has their winter lineup announced. There are a few enticing films this week:

Tonight (Wed, 12/15)

Le Amiche/The Girlfriends (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955)

Tomorrow (Thurs, 12/16)

The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

Saturday, 12/18

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (Brian Forbes, 1964)

All are on 35mm and begin at 7:00pm.

Troupe de Fetishe

2010-10-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

Just a note that I will be moderating a panel tomorrow at the closing reception of Troupe de Fetishe, an large-scale video installation currently showing at the Crane Arts space. It should particularly appeal to those with an interest in the technology and conceptual possibilities of large-scale video projection. From the artists' description:

Troupe de Fetishe is a large scale video piece co-directed by Lisa Marie Patzer (MFA candidate), Ian Markiewicz (MFA '08) and Doris Chia-Ching Lin (MFA candidate) with sound design by David Miranda Hardy (MFA candidate).

Troupe de Fetishe tells the story of Oskar Vanderwold, an eccentric “tinkerer” who manipulates and cares for a troupe of flea circus performers. His ornate flea circus is a hand constructed miniature model that fits inside an antique cigar box. It is a macabre world of surreal spectacle, adorned with a series of miniature circus attractions complete with chariots, a trapeze swing, a high dive, and ring of fire.

The project was custom designed for the new video projection system in the Ice Box Project Space, equipped with four synchronized video projectors that create one seamless, 100 ft. wide by 25 ft. tall or 3646 x 768 pixel composition.

Panel discussion to take place tomorrow, Friday, October 29 at Crane Arts (1400 N. American St) from 5:30-6:30pm.

Cabiria

2010-10-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

If repertory cinema can be thin on the ground at times, silent film gets downright neglected. Thankfully, this Thursday, the International House is showing (on 16mm) Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914), an Italian epic that's been on my list of shame for a while. Notably, the film is famous for its spectacular sets, setting off a vogue for epic films in the teens, and for its introduction of the emphatic tracking shot to narrative film. Thursday, October 28 at 7pm.

Leighton Pierce

2010-10-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

Still from Number One (2007)

Next Tuesday, the Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College will be hosting an evening with film and video artist Leighton Pierce.

Tuesday, October 26, 7pm
Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema, Swarthmore College (Directions)

One of the most acclaimed and prolific experimental moving image artists working in the U.S. today, Leighton Pierce uses film, video, photography, and sound to create experiences in transformative time, executing all aspects of his works himself –conceptualization, cinematography, editing, sound design and composition. Pierce will present an hour-long program of his work including the area premieres of Retrograde Premonition and Sharp Edge Blunt, followed by Q&A. Pierce’s early interest in music, especially jazz and electronic music, and the construction of emotional experiences in time continue to guide his work. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Whitney Biennial. He teaches in the prestigious film program of the University of Iowa, where he has influenced many important experimental artists.

Ulrike Ottinger

2010-10-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Next Tuesday, October 19, the Slought Foundation is hosting a day-long retrospective of Ulrike Ottinger's work. Ottinger's work has ranged from narrative work on the more avant-garde side of the New German Cinema to experimental documentaries, including the 8- hour Taiga, about Mongolia (see this NYT review). Even including the couple of films to be distributed by Women Make Movies to educational and repertory audiences, very little of Ottinger's work has been available in the US.

I do wish for a proper theatrical screening of some of it, but short of that, gallery exhibitions like at the Slought may be the only way to watch it easily. They will have simulatenous video projection of her longer works throughout the day (9am-5pm): Twelve Chairs (198 minutes, 2004), The Korean Wedding Chest (82 minutes, 2008), Taiga: A Journey to Northern Mongolia (501 minutes, 1991/2), and Exil Shanghai (275 minutes, 1997)

From 5-7pm, there will be an evening screening of Still Moving (29 minutes, 2009) and Prater (104 minutes, 2007).

The main event (7-8:30pm), is a presentation by Ottinger herself, followed by public conversation with Kaja Silverman (University of Pennsylvania), Patricia White (Swarthmore College), and Homay King (Bryn Mawr College), moderated by Nora Alter (Temple University).

19th Philadelphia Film Festival

2010-10-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

Still from Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio, 2009)

This Friday marks the start of the 10-day Philadelphia Film Festival. This year marks a transition year for the Festival, after a change in management, a divorce from TLA, and a shift to October rather than April. And the changes are not merely behind the scenes reshuffling, but a renewed and changed focus. First, there is more dovetailing with the fare of international film festivals like Toronto. Second, there is the inclusion of crowd-pleasing events like the Stieg Larsson film adaptations. Either of these could elicit cries of commercialization of the film festival, but frankly, I'm impressed with the range and quantity of offerings in this year's festival. It's an embarrassment of riches, since I know I will only be able to scratch the surface.

I'll not be able to do justice to the full line up, but some highlights for me are the auteur showings from Denis, Weerasethakul, and Assayas; the retrospective of a 1960 Korean film The Housemaid; the documentaries Garbo and Boxing Gym; and the recent films from various Latin American new waves.

I have created an iCal version of the festival (download) so you can add to your computer or online calendar. I've kept the festival separate from the regular blog calendar (here), in order to signal the event status and advanced ticketing. If the past is prologue, you may want to get your tickets in advance.

Women Directors from North Africa and the Middle East

2010-10-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

La Nouba des Femmes du Mont-Chenoua

This week the International House is screening a series of films by women directors from North Africa and the Middle East. Organized by Patricia White (Swarthmore) and Suzanne Gauch (Temple), the series complicates the vision the West and in particular American cinema often has of Middle-Eastern societies and women's role in them. And, in the process, we get to see work that's otherwise tough to see. I have seen A Door to the Sky, a lyrical and avowedly spiritual film, the only one here to be screened on 35mm. At first it resists the narrative and aesthetic expectations I had brought from both conventional narrative and art cinema, but ultimately I valued the challenging aesthetic voice. I am eager to see other work in the series.

All screenings introduced by Patricia White. Full descriptions at the International House site.

Thursday, October 7 at 7pm

Passage (Shirin Neshat, US/Iran, 2001, 12 mins)

A Door to the Sky (Farida Ben Lyazid, Morocco, 1989, 107 mins)

Friday, October 8 at 7pm
Brick Sellers of Kabul (Lida Abdul, US/Afghanistan, 2006, 6 mins)
La Nouba des femmes de Mont-Chenoua (Assia Djebar, Algeria, 1977, 115 mins)

Saturday, October 9 at 2pm
Souha (Randa Chahal Sabbag, Lebanon, 2001, 57 mins)

Our Heedless Wars (Randa Chahal Sabbag, France/Lebanon, 1995, 61 mins)

Saturday, October 9 at 5pm
Measures of Distance (Mona Hatoum, UK, 1988, 16 mins)

Women Without Men (Shirin Neshat in collaboration with Shoja Azari, France/Germany, 2009, 95 mins)

Top Secret Rosies

2010-09-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

My colleague LeAnn Erickson has just completed her documentary on the women who worked as mathematicians for the US Army and later programmed for ENIAC, the first electronic computer. Titled Top Secret Rosies, it covers a fascinating subject, with a local angle, shot with engaging interviews from the women involved.

The film has a couple of screenings, in HD video, in the coming weeks:

County Theater

Monday, October 4, 7:00 pm

Ambler Theater
Wednesday, October 13, 7:00 pm

Running time is 60 minutes. For more information, you can visit the film's website.

Week 5 September 2010

2010-09-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Big event this week is the series of Michael Snow and John Oswald events:

Wednesday, September 29 at 8pm
6:30pm by Opening Reception of Many Moving and Still Works by Two Torontonians at Slought Foundation

*Corpus Callosum
dir. Michael Snow, Canada, 2002, video, 91 mins, color

International House

Thursday, September 30 at 8pm
Michael Snow and John Oswald Duo

International House

Other screenings for the week:

Tuesday, 9/28

Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

Bryn Mawr Film Institute

7:30 pm

Wednesday, 9/29
Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963)
Ambler Theater

7:00 pm

Thursday, 9/30
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Ambler Theater

7:00 pm

Sunday, 10/3

Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Colonial Theater

2:00 pm

Farocki (and more)

2010-09-14T11:26:00.001-07:00

This week in area showings:

Thursday (9/16) Harun Farocki shows his Immersion (2009) at the Slought Foundation. The video installation concerns the connection between virtual reality and the military. The showing will be part of a dialogue between Farocki and Antje Ehmann on "The Image in Question: War – Media – Art." 4017 Walnut Street. 6:30-8:30 pm.

Earlier that day, Farocki will be presenting Peter Nestler’s film, Death and Devil, which concerns Nestler’s grandfather Rosen in Sweden who participated in expeditions before WWI in South America and Africa. The film examines the links between ethnography and colonialism and is part of the rare genre of photo-films. Temple University, Annenberg Hall room 3, 2020 N. 13th, 11:00-12:30.

W 9/15. Metropolis. Ambler Theater. 7pm

Th 9/16. Rashomon. County Theater. 7pm

Sun 9/19. The Hidden Fortress. Colonial Theater. 2pm

Sun 9/19. Yojimbo. Colonial Theater. 4:30pm

For an ongoing film calendar, get the PRFB listings in iCal format.

Utopia in Four Movements

2010-09-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

The film programming at the International House continues to expand into more performance-based directions, this weekend with Utopia in Four Movements, a "live documentary" narrated in person by filmmaker Sam Green and accompanied by a live band (the Quavers) as the film screens. Conceptually, the piece explores the role and future of utopian thought in the 21st century.

Utopia in Four Movements

dir. Sam Green and Dave Cerf, US, 2010, video, 80 mins, color

Saturday, September 11 at 7pm

Ibrahim Theater @ the International House

There's an App for That

2010-09-05T15:42:00.001-07:00

Well, not exactly, but I have compiled a super handy iCal calendar with all of the planned screenings from the major repertory film programmers in the area. You can download it and import into iCal, either as a separate calendar as part of an existing one. iCal will let you set alarms to remind you of films coming up that you don't want to forget.

Currently the calendar covers the Fall programming season. I will do another version for the Spring. I may make additional updates if it makes sense. Do note that week runs of major repertory releases and some one-off events (notably some of the Scribe Video and Secret Cinema screenings) won't be covered here as they are not planned that far in advance.

Week 1 September 2010

2010-08-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

A film that's just not the same on a mobile device...

Tues 8/31
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
County Theater
7:00 PM

Tues 8/31
Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
Akira Kurosawa Retrospective
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Tues 8/31
Scribe Video Center
Community Visions Premiere
Ibrahim Theater @ International House
7:00 PM
free admission

Wed 9/1
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
Ambler Theater
7:00 PM

Thurs 9/2
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Sun 9/5
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Colonial Theater
4:30 PM

Week 4 August 2010

2010-08-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Tues 8/24
Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Wed 8/25
The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Wed 8/25
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
County Theater
7:00 PM

Fri 8/27
Fear No Evil (Frank LaLoggia, 198,)/Tower of Evil (Jim O'Connolly, 1972)
Exhumed Films series
Ibrahim Theater @ International House
8:00 PM

Sun 8/29
Wattstax (Mel Stuart, 1973)
Colonial Theater
2:00 PM

Sun 8/29
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
County Theater
7:00 PM

Week 3 August 2010

2010-08-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tues 8/17
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
County Theater
7:00 PM

Tues 8/17
Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM
(special seminar starts at 6PM - $25)

Wed 8/18
A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Thurs 8/19
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
Ambler
7:00 PM

Sat 8/21
Close Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
Bastille Day themed screening
Ibrahim Theater @ International House
7:00 PM

Sun 8/22
Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1972)
County Theater
7:00 PM

Weeks 3-4 July 2010 - Metropolis and more

2010-07-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Big news this week is the Metropolis revival at the Ritz. (The Inquirer's blurb | website on film's restoration)

Fri 7/23-Th 7/29
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
New 35-mm restored print, with lost footage, 1-week run only
Ritz Bourse
(12:50 3:40) 6:30 9:20

Thurs 7/22
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
Ambler
7:00 9:35

Tues 7/27
Trafic (Jacques Tati, 1953)
Tati comedy series
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Tues 7/27
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
County Theater
7:00 PM

Thurs 7/29
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
Ambler
7:00 PM

Week 2 July 2010 - QFest and more

2010-07-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

All week
Q Fest queer film festival
See the festival website for films and listings. Also note the Secret Cinema events below.

Tues 7/13
Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
Tati comedy series
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Wed 7/14
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Wed 7/14
Screened Out: Gay Images On Film
author and film historian Richard Barrios in person
a talk and presentation of 16mm clips from the Secret Cinema collection
William Way Center (1315 Spruce St)
7:00 PM

Fri 7/16
Madame X (David Lowell Rich, 1960)

technicolor 16mm print from the Secret Cinema collection
Benefit screening for AIDS Law Project
John Wanamaker Building, 100 Penn Square East
Benefit start at 6:00 pm. The film begins at 7:30
$20 minimum donation

Fri 7/16
The Best of the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival
Ibrahim Theater @ International House
7:00 PM

Sat 7/17
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
Bastille Day themed screening
Ibrahim Theater @ International House
7:00 PM

Week 1 July 2010

2010-06-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay on the weekly screening post. The screenings for the long weekend and next week:

Thurs 7/1
Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
New 35-mm restored print, last day of a 3-week run
Ritz Bourse
(1:00 3:20) 5:30 7:40 9:50

Thurs 7/1
Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Classic cross-dressing comedy
Ambler

7:00 PM

Tues 7/6
M. Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953)
Tati comedy series

Bryn Mawr Film Institute

7:00 PM

Wed 7/7
The King and I (Walter Lang, 1956)

Bryn Mawr Film Institute

7:00 PM

Wed 7/7
The Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)

Ambler

7:00 PM

Thurs 7/8
An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)

Ambler

7:00 PM

Thurs 7/9
An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)

County

7:00 PM

Prince Goes First Run

2010-06-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

Big news that the Prince has made a decision to show movies on a more regular basis. It's a move that seems a while in the making as they've been a venue for film festivals and have been doing more film programming over the last year or so, including partnership with the Philadelphia Cinema Alliance. Now, they promise a regular first-run schedule, with additional indie and repertory screenings (in their smaller upstairs theater).

UPDATE (6/29): This does not look good.

June 2010 Week 4

2010-06-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

Screenings this week:

thru Thurs 6/24

Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
New 35-mm restored print, continues on for another week
Ritz Bourse
(1:00 3:20) 5:30 7:40 9:50

Tues 6/22

Sixteen Candles (John Hughes, 1984)

Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Tues 6/22

Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)

County Theater

7:00 PM

Wed 6/23

Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)

British Hitchcock, from a series on the director's political films

Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Wed 6/23

Jaws (Stephen Spielberg, 1975)

35th anniversary of the first summer blockbuster

County Theater

7:00 PM

Thurs 6/24

Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)

Ambler Theater

7:00 PM

Sun 6/27
The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)
Colonial Theater
2:00 PM

The Evil Dead

2010-06-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Midnight Movie screenings aren't always the first thing that come to mind when one thinks of repertory cinema: they tend to be more crowd-pleasing than arty and of course have limited playtimes too late for the less nocturnal among us. Still, midnight movies can be a good occasion to see an older movie on the big screen. Tomorrow evening (midnight), the Ritz East shows The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1981), the horror classic. I've not yet seen word that they're continuing the midnight movies into the summer, so this may be your last chance to catch one for a while.

Cineaste Roundtable on Repertory Film

2010-06-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

A recent issue of Cineaste (35, no.2) has a roundtable symposium on the state of repertory cinema today. For those without a copy, there are web-only outtakes available online, including a response from the International House program curator, Robert Cargni-Mitchell. The participants were asked to answer the following questions:

1) Is there a future to repertory programming, given the momentous changes over the last decade in technology and viewing habits? How would you characterize the impact on theatrical exhibition of home video, Internet streaming, downloading, etc.? Are the consequences entirely negative, or are there collateral benefits (i.e., new prints struck for video releases, more informed audiences, etc.)?

2) How would you characterize your programming philosophy, with regard to the variety of films selected, preferred formats (retrospectives, thematic series, national surveys, double features, etc.), your attitude toward audience expectation, or other considerations?

3) Do you find that good quality prints continue to be available? Do you think film prints will continue to be struck and distributed, or is this a dying exhibition format? And if projecting from film is destined to become obsolete, how great a loss do you think this is? Are you open to screening video or digital formats?

4) How have your audiences changed over the years? Are they increasing or decreasing? Have their demographics changed, in terms of age or background? Have they become more or less receptive to challenging and innovative programs?

5) What are some of your formative memories of repertory filmgoing? Do you have stories of particularly unforgettable experiences, inspiring series, or legendary venues?

What surprised me is that in addition to the expected pessimism (competition and cultural changes haven't always been kind to movie theaters) the responses show some optimism and enthusiasm for the future. Worth a read.

June 2010 Week 3

2010-06-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

For this week:

thru Thurs 6/17

Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

A new 35-mm restored print has its week-long run

Ritz Bourse

(1:00 3:20) 5:30 7:40 9:50

Tues 6/15
American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Tues 6/15
Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1955)
County Theater
7:00 PM

Wed 6/16
Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus, 1959)
Janus Films series

Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Thurs 6/17

Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1955)
Ambler Theater

7:00 PM

Sat 6/19
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
Janus Films series
Ibrahim Theater @ International House

7:00 PM

Sun 6/20
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
The original buddy-film western-comedy
Colonial Theater
2:00 PM

Breathless

2010-06-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

All this week the Ritz Bourse is running a 50th-anniversary revival of Breathless (Godard, 1960). I have to say I'm not invested in the anniversary occasion, since the film has been kept in the canonical eye so consistently, it lacks the full sense of rediscovery and retrospection. But whatever: any occasion for a new screening of the film is welcome. The Ritz website promises that this is the first 35mm restoration of the print. Given that previous versions I've seen (granted, some years ago) were grainy, washed out and with ssubtitles hard to read, I'm curious to see how much of this raw quality will be in the restoration.

June 2010 Week 2 Screenings

2010-06-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

I will not have time or energy to write up every older film playing in town. Even with the limitations of repertory film in Philadelphia, I am not able to blog about everything we do have, much less attend everything. So I hope to provide some weekly summaries of what's playing. On 35mm or HD projection this week:

Tues 6/8
Daddy Long Legs (Jean Negulesco, 1955)
Classical Hollywood musical
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Wed 6/9
You'll Never Get Rich (Sidney Lanfield, 1941)
Classical Hollywood musical
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
7:00 PM

Fri 6/11
Road Games + Patrick (Richard Franklin, 1981/78)
Australian cult double-feature
Ibrahim Theater @ International House
8:00 PM

Sat 6/12
Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöstrom, 1921)
Silent classic, new 35mm print
Ibrahim Theater @ International House
7:00 PM

Sun 6/13
Funny Girl (William Wyler, 1968)
Streisand musical biopic
Colonial Theater
2:00 PM

Also, Fri 6/11, Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard) begins a week-long run at the Ritz Bourse.

Movie Palace Renovation

2010-06-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

The Philadelphia Inquirer's architecture critic, Inga Saffron, gives news that the Uptown Theater in North Philadelphia is receiving a renovation. It's thrilling because so much of the city's movie palace history has been destroyed and the remaining buildings lie in languish. Center City's Boyd Theater remains in limbo.

I started researching the exhibition history of the city from the classical studio period. There were upwards of 250 movie theaters in the city limits during the studios' heyday. Though unfinished, you can see my map of these at my regular blog.

Rea Tajiri Retrospective

2010-06-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow evening (Jun 6) at the Prince Theater, Scribe Video Center will be hosting a screening of my colleague Rea Tajiri's work. Tajiri's work straddles documentary, experimental, and narrative - ranging from her personal documentary, History and Memory, about her family's experience in internment during World War II, to her fictional drama Strawbery Fields (excerpts will be shown). Also showing will be a new work, (Bridge) River is Remembering and Little Murders, a "darkly comic musical." Screening begins at 7pm - 10$ with discounts for students and Scribe Center members.

Oklahoma!

2010-06-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night (Wed Jun 2), the Bryn Mawr Film Institute will be showing the musical Oklahoma! (1955) in a special sing-along screening. The festivities start at 7:30.

The Valley of Gangwi

2010-05-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

For its next screening, on Wednesday, May 26, Jay Schwartz's Secret Cinema returns to the American Philosophical Museum (104 S. Fifth Street) for a 16mm screening of a science-fiction "dinosaur western" The Valley of Gangwi (1969, Jim O'Connolly). A Technicolor film, it features the work of noted stop-action animator Ray Harryhausen. Admission is free, and the film screens at 7pm. (The Museum's Dialogues with Darwin exhibit will be open beforehand.)

I Fidanzati

2010-05-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

This Saturday (May 15, 7PM), the International House (3701 Chestnut) will be screening as part of their Janus Film series Ermanno Olmi's second film, I Fidanzati. I've not seen this one yet, but am a big fan of Olmi's Il Posto, so I eagerly await the chance to see the follow up on film. Olmi has a knack for observed, documentary-like social realism combined with amazing formal rigor and composition. Not cheery films, but ultimately they have a humanist redemption.

Program notes available at the I-House website.

Robin Hood (1938)

2010-05-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

For some reason - I suspect a free print lent out to promote the upcoming Russell Crowe film - the Roxy (2023 Sansom) has been running a two-week engagement of the 1938 Warner Bros. Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn. That's right: a decent 35mm Technicolor print (if not perfect: the first reel has a scratch) of a film that really shines on the screen. When I went I was the only person in the cinema, so had what amounted to a private screening.

It's a famous film that probably does not need me talking it up, but if you're wondering why you should care about a fluffy classic adventure film, I'd say two reasons. One, the film does give a fun fairy-tale account but yokes it with a political message that clearly speaks to the Depression yet raises more questions than it answers (New Dealism as monarchism?). Two, the color scheme helped expand the expressive possibilities of Technicolor. As film historian Scott Higgins notes, previously Hollywood cinematographers had argued between flamboyant, thematic color (red = passion, etc) and a realistic, muted color palette. What Robin Hood does is combine them both, muting backgrounds and keeping palettes relatively controlled, but also using bright, saturated color for specific characters and thematic effects.

As a bonus, the Bugs Bunny "Rabbit Hood" screens beforehand.

Whither Foreign Films?

2010-05-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

An interesting article this weekend in the Inquirer on the dearth of foreign films hitting American (and local) screens. What struck me is the debate over whether the Ritz's declining foreign offerings are the result of Landmark ownership (a commonly held belief - I've heard it myself) or of the broader market trends.

Promoting Repertory Film

2010-05-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia has a repertory film problem. Not enough old movies screen here, and the ones that do have a hard time gaining an audience. For many, these two go together: we do not have more of a film culture because there is no demand. However, it may be more of a matter of a vicious circle, so I hope to promote local screenings with the hope of encouraging both demand and supply. At the very least, there are currently exciting events across the city worth paying attention to.

If you have an event you want me to be aware of, drop me a line at ccagle AT temple DOT edu. I will tend to reserve space here for screenings of older films or harder-to-see foreign or independent work, and I will prioritize films projected on celluloid or high-quality format. The exception will be work originally produced for video or other non-film formats.

And if you have any suggestions for what would make this a better blog, let me know.