David Denby reviews Detropia, which will be screened on Friday, 9/25, followed by commentary
and Q&A with director Rachel Grady.
"Detropia, a lyrical film about the destruction of a great American city, is the most moving documentary I’ve seen in years. The city is Detroit, and the film, made by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (who is a native), is both an ardent love letter to past vitality and a grateful salute to those who remain in place—the survivors, utterly without illusions, who refuse to leave. “Detropia” has its share of forlorn images: office buildings with empty eye sockets for windows; idle, rotting factories, with fantastic networks of chutes, pipes, and stacks; a lone lit tavern on a dark block. Yet the filmmakers are so attuned to color and to shape that I was amazed by the handsomeness of what I was seeing. I’m not being perverse: this is a beautiful film."
More in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/10/good-fights-3
More about the event: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/grady_rachel15.html
Friday, September 25, 2015
David Denby's Superlative Review of Detropia in the New Yorker
Monday, September 21, 2015
Detroit's Spectacular Decline on Film, Director Q&A
Film director Rachel Grady to speak following screening of her award-winning film DETROPIA, September 25, 2015
Documentary about Detroit was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
ALBANY, NY (09/10/2015)(readMedia)-- Rachel Grady, codirector of the award-winning film, DETROPIA (2012), a visually-stunning exploration of the disintegration of the city of Detroit that David Denby of the New Yorker called, "the most moving documentary I've seen in years," will speak following a screening of the film on Friday, September 25, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. [note early start time] in Page Hall on the University at Albany downtown campus, 135 Western Avenue, Albany. Free and open to the public, the event is sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute in conjunction with UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice's Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series.More: http://readme.readmedia.com/Film-director-Rachel-Grady-to-speak-following-screening-of-her-award-winning-film-DETROPIA-September-25-2015/11828634 Read More......
Thursday, February 5, 2015
A searing directorial debut-- Jason Osder
Jason Osder, who visits UAlbany on Friday, is profiled in Filmmaker magazine:
Osder’s searing directorial debut, Let the Fire Burn, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, is an archival footage marvel. With no narration and sparse title cards, it dives into the maelstrom that was the Philadelphia Police Department’s tragic raid on the black separatist group MOVE’s West Philadelphia compound in 1985, during which the home, where 13 men, women and children lived, was shot upon 10,000 times, doused with unspeakable amounts of water and then finally firebombed. Almost everyone inside died, and nearly 70 other homes in the surrounding working-class black community were destroyed.
More in Filmmaker magazine: http://filmmakermagazine.com/people/jason-osder/#.VNO-ll8o7s0
More about Osder's visit tomorrow: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/osder_jason15.html
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Sweet Dreams in the L. A. Times
Kenneth Turan reviews Sweet Dreams (to be screened Friday, followed by Q&A with actress and ice cream entrepreneur Jennie Dundas) in the L. A. Times:
'Sweet Dreams' is the story of the first ice cream shop in Rwanda and the remarkable group of female drummers who overcame incredible suffering to make it happen.... The most memorable thing about "Sweet Dreams" is that it allows us to experience the resilience, the capacity for happiness these women retain in spite of all they've been through. There's a lesson there for all of us.
More in the L. A. Times: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-sweet-dreams-20131129,0,180521.story#ixzz2zoKZuLut
More about Friday's event: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/dundas_jennifer14.html Read More......
Jennifer Dundas, Stage and Screen Credits
More about Friday's event: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/dundas_jennifer14.html
From Wikipedia:
Jennifer Dundas (born January 14, 1971 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American actress best known for her role as Chris Paradis, Diane Keaton's lesbian daughter, in The First Wives Club. Other selected films include Puccini for Beginners, Legal Eagles, The Beniker Gang and The Hotel New Hampshire. Dundas has guest starred in TV shows such as Desperate Housewives and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. She has also performed in the New York Theatre, including the play Arcadia. She won an Obie (Off-Broadway) Award for her performance in Good as New by Peter Hedges.
From IMDB:
In addition to her film credits, Jennifer Dundas has had a long and distinguished career in the New York theatre. She starred in the American premieres of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" opposite Billy Crudup on Broadway, "Iron" and "Further Than The Furthest Thing" at Manhattan Theatre Club. She created the role of Edie in the world premiere of Jules Feiffer's "Grownups" on Broadway, and she originated Maggie in Peter Hedges' "Good As New" opposite John Spencer at Manhattan Class Company, for which she received an OBIE Award. Her acclaimed New York performances include "The Little Foxes" opposite Stockard Channing, "Ah, Wilderness!" with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards, "As You Like It" (Shakespeare In The Park, directed by Mark Lamos), and "A Winter's Tale" with Christopher Reeve and Mandy Patinkin (Public Theatre, directed by James Lapine). Ms. Dundas' other notable performances include Laura in "The Glass Menagerie" opposite Sally Field at the Kennedy Center, Raina in "Arms and The Man" opposite Eric Stoltz at Williamstown, Hermia in Sir Peter Hall's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Ahmanson, and Dunyasha in "The Cherry Orchard" opposite Annette Bening and Alfred Molina at the Mark Taper Forum. She has played starring roles at Trinity Rep, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, American Repertory Theatre, South Coast Rep, Long Wharf Theater and many others.
In 1995, Ms. Dundas was honored by American Theatre Magazine as one of six New Faces of The Year. Featured on the cover with her were fellow honorees Billy Crudup, Megan Mullally, Justin Kirk, Rufus Sewell, and Jude Law.
Originally from Newton, MA, Ms. Dundas made her Broadway debut at age ten, and appeared in her first film at age eleven.
In summer '06 she went "home" to Boston to play Kate in "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company on Boston Common, which was estimated to have been viewed by over 75,000 people in a period of three weeks.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Howard Read More......
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Online Chat with the Central Park Five
Whether you missed or managed to attend our special advance screening of Central Park Five on April 5 at Page Hall with co-directors Sarah Burns and David McMahon, you may wish to pose your questions to "the five," as well as to David, Sarah and Sarah's father, Ken Burns.
City Room Blog link: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/.
You can still catch the film today-- its official national air date-- April 16 at 9PM, on PBS stations. WMHT will also air the film again today at 11PM, and on Wed. 4/17 at 2AM, Fri. 4/19 at 2AM, Sun. 4/21 at 3AM and Mon. 4/22 at 3AM.
Read More......
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Central Park Five in the Schenectady Gazette
"Sarah Burns learned about the case in 2003 while working as an intern for Jonathan Moore, one of the attorneys representing the five young men wrongfully convicted of the jogger’s rape and assault. Burns wrote her undergraduate thesis on the case, and followed it with a book titled “The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding.” But the project wasn’t over.... “I couldn’t let go of this story,” Burns said. “I was so curious about it.”
More in the Gazette: http://www.dailygazette.net/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=SCH/2013/04/04&ID=Ar03301&Section=Life_and_Arts
More about the event: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#central Read More......
Friday, March 29, 2013
Central Park Five Screening in Albany
Sarah Burns, daughter of major documentary filmmaker Ken Burns) and her husband David McMahon will present a Q&A following a screening of their new film, Central Park Five, winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award.
Sarah Burns and David McMahon codirected and cowrote the film with Ken Burns. Based on Sarah's book of the same name, the film documents a miscarriage of justice of epic proportions-- the wrongful conviction of five Harlem teenagers in the rape and beating of a white jogger in Central Park in 1989.
The event is cosponsored by UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice, PBS television station WMHT, and the New York State Writers Institute.
More about the event: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#central
More about the film on the PBS website: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/
Picture: Sarah Burns Read More......
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Criminal Justice Scholar to Moderate Film Discussion
A faculty member at the College of Saint Rose and alumna of the UAlbany School of Criminal Justice doctoral program, Professor Lane is a multiple year honoree in America’s Who’s Who Teachers of Excellence. She teaches courses in Criminal Justice, Behavior & Law, Forensic Psychology, and Forensic Science.
HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION
February 15 (Friday)Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Roberta Grossman
(United States, 2006, 88 minutes, color)
An artful and moving example of documentary filmmaking, HOMELAND follows the stories of Native American activists fighting to protect their lands against corporate exploitation and environmental destruction. Variety called the film, “Beautifully crafted...,” and said “Roberta Grossman skillfully intersperses vastly varied archival clips with quietly impassioned testimonials by tribal leaders and stunning lensing showcasing both the natural wonders and the man-made degradation of the landscape.”
More on the film series: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html
Read More......
Homeland Film Tomorrow: "Visually Stunning"
"Beautifully crafted... Roberta Grossman skillfully intersperses vastly varied archival clips with quietly impassioned testimonials by tribal leaders and stunning lensing showcasing both the natural wonders and the manmade degradation of the landscape... Homeland merits a wider audience than provided by scattershot PBS airings... At a time when 30 years of environmental protection laws are being rapidly dismantled, Homeland militantly proposes America's First Peoples as the vangaurd of resistence." -- Variety
"Visually stunning... [Homeland] is a perfect blend of visuals, words, musical background, and thought-provoking issues related not only to Native Americans but to the environmental crisis facing America. " -- School Library Journal
"The story of a U.S. tragedy -- multinational companies doing their deadly work in Native peoples' backyards -- and of the brave few who stand up to combat it." -- The Utne Reader Read More......
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Vivien Ng and James Acker at the Movies
Vivien Ng is chair of the UAlbany Women's Studies Department and the first president of the National Women's Studies Association (1993-4). More on Vivien: http://www.albany.edu/womensstudies/fac-ngv.shtml
James Acker is Distinguished Teaching Professor of the School of Criminal Justice and author of the standard textbook, Criminal Procedure: A Contemporary Perspective (1999, now in its 3rd edition, 2012). More on Acker: http://www.albany.edu/scj/james_acker.php Read More......
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Capital Punishment Documentary and Discussion Friday
October 19 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Liz Garbus
(United States, 2007, 94 minutes, color)
|
|
Monday, March 19, 2012
A Devilish and Dutiful Daughter
John Matteson, who visits Thursday, contributes a review of the PBS film, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women (2009) in the journal, Humanities.
Matteson received the Pulitzer for his dual biography, Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father (2008), about the father-daughter relationship between Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, and Bronson Alcott.
Clips of the film aired at the Writers Institute in October 2010 with a discussion by Nancy Porter, the film's director, and Harriet Reisen, the author of the biography upon which the film is based.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Slavery By Another Name on PBS Feb. 13th
Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, Slavery By Another Name will be broadcast nationally on PBS on February 13th.
It will also premiere locally tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 3rd at UAlbany, with a Q&A by book author Doug Blackmon and screenwriter Sheila Curran Bernard.
"For most Americans this is entirely new history. Slavery by Another Name gives voice to the largely forgotten victims and perpetrators of forced labor and features their descendants living today." Visit the film's PBS website here.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Wikileaks Lawyer vs. U.S. Attorney General
In a chance encounter at a Sundance screening of Slavery By Another Name (which will be shown 2/3 at UAlbany's Performing Arts Center) Jennifer Robinson, the attorney for Julian Assange of Wikileaks, ran into U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder and had a tense exchange.
Robinson writes about her experience today on Salon.com.
Doug Blackmon, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book upon which the film is based, and Sheila Curran Bernard who wrote the screenplay, will be on hand for you to encounter after the UAlbany screening.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Writing for Documentary Film
The UAlbany website has an interview with Sheila Curran Bernard about writing for documentary films, and on being one of a handful of filmmakers among thousands selected for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
"There are a lot of misconceptions about documentary writing. One is that documentaries aren’t written, because people tend to think of film writing in Hollywood terms, where a fictional screenplay is completed before the cameras start to roll. How do you script real life or real interviews? So there’s a notion that documentary filmmaking is about showing up and shooting, or perhaps finding visuals to go with information. If there’s a writing credit, people think it refers only to traditional narration."
More.
She speaks with Pulitzer winner Doug Blackmon about Slavery by Another Name, their new film, on Friday, 2/3.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Slavery Film at Ford's Theatre
Slavery by Another Name, written by Visiting Writer Douglas Blackmon, and written by UAlbany professor Sheila Curran Bernard, will be screened on January 30th at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC (where President Lincoln was assassinated).
Blackmon and Bernard join us for a talkback after the Albany premiere on Friday, February 3rd in the Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Clip
The Hollywood Reporter posts an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip about the making of Slavery By Another Name, which premieres at Sundance on 1/23, before coming to a theater near you (the UAlbany Performing Arts Center) on 2/3.
"The documentary Slavery by Another Name will have its premiere Monday, Jan. 23, at noon at the Temple Theatre as part of the official 2012 Sundance Film Festival competition program. Sam Pollard, who was a longtime editor on Spike Lee’s films, directed the project, which takes a hard look at the many ways involuntary servitude continued for African Americans long after the abolition of slavery."
"THR here hosts an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip that features Pollard, executive producer Douglas Blackmon and several of the descendants whose stories are told in the film."
See the clip.
Monday, November 21, 2011
In Case You Missed the Torrente Ballester Celebration....
Unbeknownst to most Albany residents, one of Spain's major writers lived among us from 1966 to 1972 (and, as it happens, spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out at Stuyvesant Plaza because he didn't own a car). In Spain, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester's image appears on postage stamps; while in the U.S., it is difficult even to find his literary works in English translation.