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Karen Ponzio |
Mar 4, 2024 9:20 am
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Ira Sachs and Brian Meacham in conversation at Yale.
“My husband doesn’t want to dance with me,” filmmaker Tomas says to Agathe, who’s fresh off a breakup with her boyfriend. “I’ll dance with you,” she says. She does. What comes after is a sort of dance between Tomas, Agathe, and Tomas’s husband Martin in Passages, the latest film from acclaimed writer and director Ira Sachs that was screened as part of the Yale Film Archive’s Treasures From the Archive series this past Friday night.
It was another special occasion there for two reasons: One being that the film was shown in 35 mm — the only copy of it in existence, made especially for YFA — and two being that Sachs himself, a 1988 graduate of Yale, would be there for the screening and participating in a Q&A afterward.
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Karen Ponzio |
Feb 26, 2024 8:58 am
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Alvin Carter, Sr. speaks during Part One: The Drummer's Path portion of Diaspora Stories: Hartford at Best Video.
The Hartford-based Afro-funk fusion ensemble The Lost Tribe returned to Best Video on Saturday to screen the completed three-part series Diaspora Stories: Hartford a year and a half after sharing a preview of the project at the venue during a performance in 2022. This time, in addition to showing the completed version, the band would also be adding to the soundtrack during the film, as well as performing before, after, and in between.
The band described Diaspora Stories: Hartford as “highlighting the history and intergenerational nature of Hartford’s African and African Diasporic arts community.” It consists of three parts. Part One, The Drummer’s Path, features “Abu” Alvin Carter, Sr., Alvin Carter, Jr., Inara Ramin, Assad Jackson, and Jocelyn Pleasant. The second part, Is It Hip Hop?, features Jolet Creary and Studio 860. Part Three, La Source, features Damian Curtis with The Lost Tribe.
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Karen Ponzio |
Feb 12, 2024 9:05 am
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James Ivory and Brian Meacham
Friday night’s installment of Yale Film Archive’s The World of James Ivory series offered another type of double feature: a viewing of the 1965 film Shakespeare Wallah, followed by a Q&A with the series’ namesake, James Ivory. Fans of the legendary director, who gifted the Archive with selections from his personal film collection in 2023, were treated to the 35mm version of Shakespeare in all of its black and white glory, in the presence of Ivory himself. Afterward, they had the opportunity to hear Ivory discuss the film with managing archivist Brian Meacham, and ask him questions of their own.
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Karen Ponzio |
Feb 7, 2024 9:00 am
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Kathleen Turner in a scene from Serial Mom.
In a scene early in the film Serial Mom, Beverly Sutphin (played with deadly perfection by Kathleen Turner) kills a fly that has intruded upon her loving family’s breakfast. The dead bug is then shown close-up in all its sticky, gory glory, insides exposed to the world. That scene sums up the 1994 John Waters cult classic shown last night as the first entry in Best Video’s February film series, which follows the theme “Til Death Do Us Part,” highlighting four movies that explore dysfunctional relationships.
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Karen Ponzio |
Feb 5, 2024 9:21 am
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A scene from "Queen of Katwe."
How does a young girl from Uganda go from beginning chess player to champion? Disney’s Queen of Katwe documents the journey from one to the other as well as the struggles and triumphs in between. The 2016 film was the first entry in this month’s “Free Film Fridays: From Stage to Screen: Celebrating Black Yale School of Drama Alumni” at the Ives branch of the New Haven Free Public Library.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jan 26, 2024 9:34 am
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Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove.
The return of Yale students to campus for spring semester means a new class schedule for them, but it also means a new spring screening schedule for the Yale Film Archive, one that is free and open not only to those students, but to the general public.
This week the first two films of their “Treasures from the Yale Archive” series — Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on Tuesday and Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb on Thursday — were screened to full rooms of film fans in all of their 35 mm glory. And according to managing archivist Brian Meacham, this is only the beginning. The Treasures series is one of three film series the Archive presents each semester.
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Lisa Reisman |
Jan 11, 2024 10:29 am
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Executive producer Jeff Bell with actors Ethan Timothy and Ernest Richard.
Jeff Bell wanted animosity.
“I want to feel it,” he told actor Ernest Richard. “I want it coming out of your pores. I want you to be showing him ‘I can’t stand you. You’re just a social media punk out for likes and girls.’”
The scene was a clandestine meeting in a dank, dimly lit basement reached by a flight of rickety stairs from Madeline’s Empanaderia on Spring Street. Ernest Richard was District Attorney Calvin Tubbs. His object of scorn: Tim the Truthteller, the social media influencer played by Ethan Timothy.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jan 10, 2024 8:52 am
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Parker Posey as Meg Swan in Best in Show (and Beatrice, too).
Meg Swan is all sharp angles and biting retorts as she attempts to maneuver her dog into becoming a prizewinner in the film Best in Show, the first in Best Video’s January film series celebrating the work of actor Parker Posey, who plays Swan. Though definitively part of Christopher Guest’s stellar ensemble that finds the laughter in between — and, more often than not, within — the discomfort, Posey’s character stands out, as she has done in nearly every film role she has committed to since she first arrived on the movie scene in the 1990s.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 22, 2023 11:00 am
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Reel life in New Haven: The 2018 Black Panther opening became a festive community event for organizers like Paul Bryant Hudson, Jennifer Quaye Hudson, and Mercy A. Quaye (pictured).
Midnight showings of classics and new movies. Packed lobbies for James Bond films. A small screening room for arthouse flicks. The smell of popcorn. The collective laughter, sobbing, and gasping as an audience took a ride through a movie together.
When Bow Tie’s Criterion Cinemas closed its doors in October, New Haveners lost the ability to have those experiences — and now face the question about the future cultural place of movies in the Elm City.
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Lisa Reisman |
Nov 22, 2023 8:42 am
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"Marblehead" director-producer Darrell Bellamy Jr. and screenwriter Melo Ali El.
Exterior of Kennies Earl Kreative House on Shelton.
The scene was a bare-bones space with concrete walls in an industrial building on Shelton Avenue. Jeff Bell was pleading with Carter Goodrich not to hurt him.
“I have some money in my pocket and a watch worth five grand,” Bell told Goodrich, his voice quaking. “Just let me go. Please let me go.”
Off in the distance, a door slammed shut. A siren wailed.
“That’s a wrap,” said director and producer Darrell Bellamy.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 15, 2023 8:56 am
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Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress.
Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins is going through a hard patch. He’s just lost his job and he’s got bills to pay. He’s looking through the classified ads at the bar of a friend of his, Joppy, when a shifty-looking White man with a thin mustache comes in offering work. Easy asks him what kind of work he does.
“I do favors,” the man said. “I do favors for friends.”
Easy isn’t convinced. Joppy tries to be reassuring. “Ain’t nothing to worry about,” he said. That’s when Easy’s voiceover comes in, telling us how he feels. When someone tells me ain’t nothing to worry about, I usually look down to see if my fly’s open. But on the way home, all I could think about was the chance to make some money.
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Babz Rawls-Ivy |
Nov 7, 2023 11:20 am
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A scene from the new movie "Rustin."
At a time when civil rights are being challenged and some of the 60-year-old battles are being waged again, last Saturday night, Yale Schwarzman Center (YSC) presented an early screening of “Rustin,” a film about an often-forgotten civil rights leader.
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Maya McFadden |
Nov 3, 2023 8:49 am
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"Try to Survive" Movie Trailer
"From the Death" Movie Trailer
"Revenge" Movie Trailer
Despite New Haven having no more movie theaters, it isn’t lacking in young, creative, and spooky-loving moviemakers — particularly at John S. Martinez School.
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Karen Ponzio |
Oct 31, 2023 2:05 pm
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One of the photos of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo by Eduardo Longoni.
The Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale — a.k.a. LIFFY — commenced Monday night with a screening of the documentary film Una Mirada Honesta/An Honest Look, the story of Argentinian photographer Eduardo Longoni and his iconic images that changed history. It was a fitting way to begin the festival’s 14th year, as it has become known for its provocative and passionate presentation of films that open viewers’ eyes and hearts with stories often left untold elsewhere.
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Karen Ponzio |
Oct 31, 2023 11:06 am
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Klein watches her video premiere.
Volume Two and a crew of three local acts amped up their audience for Halloween on Sunday night with a spooky video release celebration and a selection of songs that got everyone in the holiday spirit.
Musician Laura Klein started working on the video for “Faux Départ” while recovering from surgery. She happened upon unreleased tracks from her band Western Estates, deciding “this song deserves more than just an internet blast.” After working on the video for over two years, she gave it its premiere in front of an enthusiastic crowd, some dressed in apropos Halloween attire, and all surrounded in the appropriate art of the most recent Volume Two art exhibition, titled “Volume Boo!”
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Allan Appel |
Oct 30, 2023 9:38 am
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Filmmaker Rushdi Sarraj.
Roughly 130 people from around the world tuned in to a virtual movie screening to get an on-the-ground view of the human suffering caused by bombs dropped on Gaza, past and present — and to vent their frustrations and fears of still more bloodshed to come amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
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Allan Appel |
Oct 30, 2023 9:37 am
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A colossal intelligence failure, an arrogance of power, followed by a surprise attack, on a major religious holiday, and of a scope and lethality adding up to the most serious national trauma inflicted on the Jews since the Holocaust.
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Karen Ponzio |
Oct 4, 2023 8:20 am
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Can she?
For some people October means autumn is here, bringing with it pumpkin everything, apple picking, and sweater weather. For other people October means only one thing: it’s time to celebrate Halloween. Best Video Film and Cultural Center’s monthly film series is honoring the latter (though you can definitely purchase the requisite seasonal beverages there) with four horror movies, ones specifically chosen by their members.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 28, 2023 7:59 am
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Still from Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection.
Black Barbie, and how that doll came to be. A queer Russian artist who protests the government in costumes made from junk and tape. A dive into the world of legendary jazz drummer Max Roach. Another look at music legend and New Haven native Karen Carpenter.
All of these subjects and more are featured in movies to be screened as part of the New Haven Documentary Film Festival, or NHDocs, which observes its 10th anniversary this year. The annual nonfiction film fest will screen over 100 movies in various locations across New Haven and Hamden, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 22.
It's official: Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas will permanently close next month.
New Haven’s last remaining commercial movie theater will go dark for good after Oct. 12, bringing to a close roughly two decades of screenings on Temple Street downtown.
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Lisa Reisman |
Sep 20, 2023 5:04 pm
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Michael Jai White: Movie studio is “definitely happening. We just have to regroup a bit.”
Movie poster for White's newly released movie, "Outlaw Johnny Black."
The scene: an out-of-the way mining town ruled by a notorious land baron. The situation: a cowboy-turned-outlaw seeking to avenge the death of his father with a bullet bearing the name of his nemesis. The upshot: posing as preacher, he learns the power of community.
It’s “Outlaw Johnny Black,” the latest release of action star Michael Jai White, otherwise known as the visionary behind Jaigantic Studios, the major movie studio seemingly poised to rise on a desolate stretch of River Street in Fair Haven before vanishing over the last year.
White’s message on “Outlaw Johnny Black,” which is now screening at Criterion Cinemas: tune in. On Jaigantic Studios: stay tuned.
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Karen Ponzio |
Sep 7, 2023 8:28 am
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David and Diego meet over ice cream in the film Strawberry & Chocolate.
Last Friday the New Haven Free Public Library decided to serve dessert first, as Strawberry & Chocolate was screened as the inaugural film in the Ives Branch’s September Free Friday film series. The 1993 Cuban film, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, was also the first of four films that will be screened every Friday in September at 2 p.m. in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 6, 2023 8:30 am
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Julie Smith, Best Video’s executive director, stood before the crowd of about 20 moviegoers who had assembled for the film and cultural center’s Tuesday night screening. “I know this film generally brings up a lot of conversation, so stick around,” she said. The film in question was Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, kicking off Best Video’s series of screenings of movies by the acclaimed director, that proceeds every Tuesday of the month through Sept. 26.
When a friend told me about a conversation sponsored by Community Action Agency of New Haven’s Black Maternal Health Project on Wednesday, I changed my plans for the night, hopped in my pickup truck, and headed to Southern Connecticut State University’s campus. I wanted to see the film Aftershock and hear the panel of Black women health providers talk about it and the stories it tells — true stories of two families that lost their wives, moms, and daughters due to preventable birthing complications.
Fairmount Theater owner Gilberto Gonzalez, Jr.: "I don't know how we're surviving, because we're not making any money."
Could this become New Haven's last remaining movie theater?
Gilberto Gonzalez, Jr. wants to sell the porno movie theater he owns in the Annex — but he can’t find any buyers.
He wants to spruce up the decaying commercial building into an adult cinema to be proud of — but he can’t find any lenders.
He wants to retire and move on from screening sexually explicit films he doesn’t particularly enjoy watching — but he’s still catching up on bills from the theater’s Covid-era closure.
So for now, as he’s done for the past 13 years, Gonzalez shows up to work at the Fairmount Theater on a near daily basis to keep one of New Haven’s last remaining movie houses chugging along. Until whatever happens next.
