by | Nov 14, 2022 11:30 am | Comments (0)
Lindsey Skedgell photo
Skater / moviemaker Thomas Purtell at Plush screening Saturday.
Skaters rolled down the blacktop of a partially closed Orange Street, gathering in a large group. They were there Saturday night to see the premiere of Sucker, a new skate film by Thomas Purtell.
by | Nov 4, 2022 9:11 am | Comments (0)
Films and filmmakers from Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, among other places, are coming to New Haven next week as the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale — known to all as LIFFY — returns for its 13th year of free and open-to-the-public films and events, in person with an online component after being virtual only for the past two years. No one could be happier about that than its founder and executive director Margherita Tortora, senior lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese at Yale, who is looking forward to the return of in-person events, but has also kept the online opportunities available due to audience demand.
Continue reading ‘Latino & Iberian Film Fest Returns In-Person’
by | Oct 7, 2022 9:07 am | Comments (2)
Official Trailer - Greatest Radio Station in the World from Cob Carlson on Vimeo.
The broadcaster the New Yorker called “the greatest radio station in the world.” A musician who sounds like three musicians. The history of a certain bivalve in New Haven. The trial of a Black Panther. Climate change and air guitar. Films about all these and more will be finding their way to screens for 10 days this month as the New Haven Documentary Film Festival, now in its ninth year, returns to the Elm City from Oct. 13 to 23, screening feature films and shorts, hosting several musical performances, and featuring a student film competition — 116 films in all.
Continue reading ‘Film Festival Keeps Documentaries In Focus’
by | Sep 7, 2022 9:31 am | Comments (0)
Vivian is a literature professor from New York who has come to Reno to sort a few things out. It’s the 1950s. Her marriage, though amicable, has faded away on her. She yearns for something more, though she’s not sure what. It’s how she finds herself on a ranch, where she crosses paths with Cay, a woman 10 years younger than her who works at a casino and is not afraid to be who she is — defiant, unapologetic, walking the tightrope of living how she wants, and sleeping with who she wants, without getting into too much social trouble. There’s a connection between the two women, undeniably. But what does it mean for both of them, from such different worlds that neither wants to leave?
Continue reading ‘At Best Video Film Series, Women Work It Out’
by | Aug 11, 2022 1:44 pm | Comments (29)
Thomas Breen Photo
Farewell, flicks: Middletown Ave.'s Ciné 4, now shuttered.
Start the early ed: Friends Center's Schiavone, who plans to convert cinema into childcare campus.
The lights are off and the popcorn’s all gone from a decades-old independent movie theater on Middletown Avenue — which new nonprofit owners aim to convert to a bustling campus for affordable early childhood education.
by | Jul 11, 2022 12:25 pm | Comments (5)
Brian Slattery Photo
Julie Smith: "Fingers crossed" on open-air concerts resuming.
A new executive has taken over at Best Video — just in time to work with her former colleagues in Hamden city government to enable one of the town’s cultural gems to resume popular outdoor concerts.
Continue reading ‘New Best Video Chief Saving Outdoor Music’
by | Jul 11, 2022 8:52 am | Comments (0)
Photos by Northern Shade Production Team
Northern Shade
A homegrown writer and director came home from Hollywood to show what he’s been up to — and what the world is about to see.
Continue reading ‘It's A Wrap: From Quinnipiac Marina To The Silver Screen’
by | Jul 6, 2022 8:50 am | Comments (0)
A boat carrying two young families — one, a wife and husband, the other, a wife, husband, and child — steers slowly across a mist-covered expanse of river water. The woman doing the navigating sings an eerie song. The two men are talking about the fortune they expect to make. “You and I will be rich men, and our wives will be wealthy women,” one says to the other. The women, however, have more immediate concerns. “It’s good we went by boat,” one says to the other. “On foot, we’d probably be dead by now.”
by | Jun 20, 2022 8:25 am | Comments (2)
Yale Repertory Theatre was the setting on a chillier than typical Saturday in June for a cool combination of events presented by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, both featuring local designer and cool cat himself, Neville Wisdom.
by | May 18, 2022 9:03 am | Comments (0)
A man, Osamu, and a boy, Shota, enter a grocery store. The man is shopping casually, the boy following a pace or two behind. They give a quick fist bump, and split up. The boy approaches a rack of goods. It becomes clear the man is positioning himself to be the boy’s looking. He flashes a couple meaningful hand gestures, and the kid slips goods into his backpack — ramen and other packaged food. They leave together, heading home to feed their family. Instead, however, they find a new family member.
Continue reading ‘Best Video Screens Japanese Modern Classic’
by | Feb 28, 2022 8:35 am | Comments (1)
A walk along the water with your dog on a lovely late summer day: does anything sound better than that right now? The fun and vibrant new single by the New Haven-based band Big Sigh captures that vibe both visually and musically in “Dog Boy,” a meditation with a chorus — “we walk around and he goes wild listening to Arcade Fire” — that catches after one listen.
Continue reading ‘On New EP, Big Sigh Breaks Out Of Hibernation’
by | Feb 22, 2022 9:09 am | Comments (0)
Falconeer Productions Photo
Brian Ember
“In my aspiration to be famous the one thing I’m looking forward to the most is press junkets,” said Brian Ember (a.k.a. Brian Robinson. More about that later). “I want to do them so bad. Please put me in front of a scrim and just let me talk, please, for the love of God.”
by | Feb 10, 2022 8:47 am | Comments (1)
Courtesy Octavia E. Butler Estate
Butler.
A new art exhibit, and a panel on migration facilitated by Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS). The screening and discussion of the “first-ever ethnographic acid Western.” A Sun Ra tribute concert.
All these events and more, happening between now and the middle of May, are organized around a single novel by a science-fiction visionary that is the focus of this year’s One City: One Read, a campaign organized by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, in partnership with Yale’s Schwarzman Center, the New Haven Free Public Library, Artspace, and Best Video.
by | Jan 24, 2022 11:45 am | Comments (6)
Raizine Bruton Photo
Hank Hoffman
It is hard to imagine Hamden’s beloved Best Video without Hank Hoffman, its current executive director, who has been an integral part of that institution since 1994. But in June he will retire to a life beyond the walls of DVDs and the wildly unique series of shows and programs he helped bring to life at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Thornton Street.
Continue reading ‘Hank Hoffman Plans For A Future Beyond Best Video’
by | Nov 15, 2021 9:22 am | Comments (0)
New Haven-based rockers Chaser Eight premiered a new music video that tackled a serious subject at The State House on Friday night while also giving live music fans a serious dose of hard hitting rock ‘n’ roll as they headlined a three-band bill that also included the fast and furious trio The Problem With Kids Today and the dreamy pop rock group The Sparkle and Fade.
Continue reading ‘Chaser Eight Premieres Video With a Message’
by | Nov 4, 2021 10:41 am | Comments (6)
When we argue about statues and historic monuments, what fundamental questions are we discussing —or not discussing?
by | Nov 1, 2021 10:17 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Light Upon Blight
Best Video brought back one of its most anticipated annual events on Saturday night: the Light Upon Blight live scoring of a horror film, and this year’s choice — the 1932 classic Vampyr — provided ample spooky and surreal images to inspire four musicians to create a matching soundtrack that suited the mood.
by | Oct 19, 2021 8:22 am | Comments (0)
“Exquisitely crafted and exquisitely boring.” “Disgusting.” A source of motion sickness. And for one fan, revelatory.
Such were the reactions of the participants in the New Haven Free Public Library’s ongoing Animation Celebration series to four short works by the Quay Brothers — one of the most influential and also most divisive teams in animation history, whose works are perhaps uniquely suited to the run-up to Halloween.
Continue reading ‘Animation Celebration Contends With The Quay Brothers’
by | Sep 20, 2021 8:08 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Still from “Skin.”
Black Haven Film Festival returned on Saturday for its second year, with five new filmmakers ready to share their vision via spoken word, song, dance, and animation — both in person and online.
by | Aug 19, 2021 3:40 pm | Comments (0)
The New Yorker has a new 20-minute documentary out about celebrated Westville-based Syrian artist Mohammad Hafez (who also owns the Pistachio coffee shop).
Continue reading ‘Documentary Features Mohammed Hafez’s Story’
by | Aug 16, 2021 8:25 am | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photos
Dan Heaton (above) picking up pre-movie-watching essentials at newly reopened Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas (below).
For the first time in a year and a half, I sat in a dark, air-conditioned theater with my friend Dan Heaton and a trough-sized serving of popcorn and — just as I’ve done hundreds of times in pre-pandemic times — watched a movie at the Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas.
by | Aug 13, 2021 8:00 am | Comments (0)
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time.
The New Haven Documentary Film Festival ends on Sunday with two films about two women with musical careers that have left a lasting impression.
Continue reading ‘Two Voices Unleashed In Final Day Of NHDocs’
by | Aug 12, 2021 3:49 pm | Comments (1)
Guinea Pig Diaries
Saturday’s offerings from the New Haven Documentary Film Festival begin and end with two different films about two different animals, each with their own loyal followers.
by | Aug 12, 2021 9:04 am | Comments (21)
Natalie Kainz Photo
Mayne Berke and Donovan De Boer lay out vision for soundstages at 46 to 56 River St.
Promoters led a tour of an abandoned industrial stretch of Fair Haven to push a vision for a new “creator studio district.”
by | Aug 11, 2021 9:43 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Loralee and Bruce Crowder.
A new documentary from Gorman Bechard, the New Haven Documentary Film Festival’s executive director, sparked a gathering of New Haven musicians who came together to pay tribute to a departed rock icon at Cafe Nine Tuesday night.