by
Karen Ponzio |
Apr 5, 2024 11:25 am
|
Comments
(1)
Still from Within Our Gates.
As Yale Film Archive launches into the last quarter of its 2024 spring semester programming, it offered something a little different on Thursday evening: silent films that each had a special distinction.
The first, presented in conjunction with the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, was a selection of Solomon Sir Jones Films from 1924 to 1928 that are currently a part of the library’s holdings. The second was a showing of Within Our Gates, a 1920 film written, produced, and directed by Oscar Micheaux; it’s the oldest known surviving film with a Black director. One more bonus: both films on this evening were accompanied by live music, played by pianist Donald Sosin.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Mar 19, 2024 10:18 am
|
Comments
(4)
John McDonald Photo
Ball & Socket Arts front view.
When asked to name the cultural hubs of the Northeast, most people would not consider Cheshire, Connecticut a part of that list. A group of enthusiastic artists and supporters of the arts are hoping to change that over the next few years, as Ball & Socket Arts, a complex located on West Main Street right along the Farmington Canal Linear Path, continues its efforts to create a central location aimed at encouraging ongoing creativity and attracting New Haven County residents and beyond to its galleries, performance venue, art education center, and more.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Mar 11, 2024 10:23 am
|
Comments
(0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Love N' Co performing at Best Video as part of Spoken film.
On Saturday night Best Video presented an event that married two of its main enterprises: film and music. Local favorites Love N’ Co were there to premiere their movie Spoken: The Story of Unspoken and share a few tunes beforehand. The film, produced by Free Artist Productions, documents the making of their EPUnspoken, produced by Cliff Robbins-Sennewald, which they plan to release in May. The film documents their hopes, dreams, and desires as well as the struggles they went through both personally and professionally to get it just right, proving that the band accepts a challenge and rides it through with joy and grace.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Mar 8, 2024 9:50 am
|
Comments
(0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Alexis Krasilovsky.
Thursday night the Yale Film Archive added two new jewels to their Treasures series: a new 35 mm print of Daisies, the 1966 Czech New Wave film directed by Vera Chytilova, and a new 16 mm print of End of the Art World, the 1971 documentary made by Alexis Krasilovsky while she was a senior at Yale. Celebrated with a free screening at the Humanities Quadrangle, the event was made even more special by the presence of filmmaker and writer Krasilovsky, who introduced the films and participated in a Q&A afterward.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Mar 6, 2024 9:17 am
|
Comments
(0)
The Thing.
With a new month comes a new Best Video movie series, and the March madness at the film and cultural center in Hamden has everything to do with horror and nothing to do with sports.
Monster Madness, the brainchild of Best Video’s own Anthony Capasso, debuted to a crowd hungry for a good scare Tuesday night. The first film of the series was The Thing, the now classic 1982 version directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, which tells the story of a group of researchers in Antarctica dealing with an alien being that takes on the form of whatever it inhabits and wreaks havoc on the bodies and psyches of those who encounter it.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Mar 4, 2024 9:20 am
|
Comments
(0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Feb 26, 2024 8:58 am
|
Comments
(0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Feb 12, 2024 9:05 am
|
Comments
(2)
Karen Ponzio Photos
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Feb 7, 2024 9:00 am
|
Comments
(0)
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Feb 5, 2024 9:21 am
|
Comments
(0)
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Jan 26, 2024 9:34 am
|
Comments
(2)
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.
by
Lisa Reisman |
Jan 11, 2024 10:29 am
|
Comments
(1)
Lisa Reisman Photo
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Jan 10, 2024 8:52 am
|
Comments
(3)
Karen Ponzio Photo
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.
by
Brian Slattery |
Nov 22, 2023 11:00 am
|
Comments
(15)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
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.
by
Lisa Reisman |
Nov 22, 2023 8:42 am
|
Comments
(2)
Lisa Reisman photo
"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.
by
Brian Slattery |
Nov 15, 2023 8:56 am
|
Comments
(4)
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.
by
Babz Rawls-Ivy |
Nov 7, 2023 11:20 am
|
Comments
(2)
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.
by
Maya McFadden |
Nov 3, 2023 8:49 am
|
Comments
(0)
"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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Oct 31, 2023 2:05 pm
|
Comments
(0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Oct 31, 2023 11:06 am
|
Comments
(0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
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!”
by
Allan Appel |
Oct 30, 2023 9:38 am
|
Comments
(1)
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.
by
Allan Appel |
Oct 30, 2023 9:37 am
|
Comments
(1)
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.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Oct 4, 2023 8:20 am
|
Comments
(1)
Karen Ponzio Photo
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.
by
Brian Slattery |
Sep 28, 2023 7:59 am
|
Comments
(3)
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.
