by | 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.
Continue reading ‘"Golda" Screening Seeks Resilience, Survival, Hope Amid Israeli Wars’
by | 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.
Continue reading ‘Best Video Scares Up Spooky Movie Screenings’
by | 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.
by | Sep 26, 2023 5:01 pm | Comments (24)
Thomas Breen photo
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.
by | Sep 20, 2023 5:04 pm | Comments (9)
Lisa Reisman file photo
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.
Continue reading ‘Black Western Star Hasn't Given Up On Studio Plan’
by | Sep 7, 2023 8:28 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
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.
Continue reading ‘NHFPL Whets Appetite For Free Film Series’
by | Sep 6, 2023 8:30 am | Comments (0)
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.
Continue reading ‘Best Video Film Series Spotlights Modern Master’
by | Sep 1, 2023 9:47 am | Comments (8)
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.
Continue reading ‘Film Catalyzes Conversations About Black Maternal Health’
by | Aug 11, 2023 9:30 am | Comments (25)
Thomas Breen photo
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.
Continue reading ‘Porn Stays In The Picture At The Fairmount’
by | Aug 7, 2023 8:27 am | Comments (0)
Eleanor Polak Photos
The Art School, flooded, as shown in Unfinished Spaces.
The Cuban Revolution ended in the year 1959, leaving Fidel Castro as the country’s prime minister and Cuba itself poised for a time of questioning the old ways, and opening up new avenues of living.
In the spirit of change and innovation, Castro commissioned three architects — Ricardo Porro, Roberto Gottardi, and Vittorio Garatti — to build an art school on the location of an old golf course.
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s 2011 documentary, Unfinished Spaces, tells the story of that art school: its triumphs, its failures, and the ways in which it represents the triumphs and failures of Castro’s regime.
Continue reading ‘Art School Doc Uncovers Cuba's Unfinished Spaces’
by | Aug 2, 2023 4:50 pm | Comments (38)
Thomas Breen photo
The Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas at 80 Temple St.
New Haven could lose its last remaining movie theater, as the company that runs the Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas on Temple Street downtown has concluded that “a movie theatre in its current configuration is not a viable business model in the future” at that space.
Continue reading ‘Bow Tie Movie Theater's Future Looks Dark’
by | Aug 2, 2023 8:59 am | Comments (1)
Cillian Murphy (center) in the title role of Nolan's Oppenheimer.
Christopher Nolan’s new big-screen biopic Oppenheimer is something of a circle, like the eye, like the bomb, like the world. It’s an ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail, where all progress eventually leads to tragedy of seismic proportions.
by | Jul 26, 2023 11:17 am | Comments (0)
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Barbie promotional poster.
Greta Gerwig’s movie of the summer, Barbie, hit theaters this week in an explosion of pink, sparkles, and unexpected profundity.
I walked into Bow Tie Cinemas at 86 Temple St. at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, proudly sporting the only pink top I own, and I thought I was ready for anything. Turns out, I wasn’t ready for Barbie.
by | Jul 12, 2023 9:45 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Michel doing his best Bogey in a scene from "Breathless"
A swipe of a lip, a cigarette lighting another cigarette, a woman running in a striped dress: these iconic moments and more defined Breathless, the first feature of Best Video Film and Cultural Center’s July film series that spotlights essential French New Wave cinema.
Continue reading ‘Best Video Film Series Leaves Audience "Breathless"’
by | Jun 23, 2023 4:01 pm | Comments (1)
Don Harvey and Michael Rooker as 1919 Sox players in John Sayles' 8 Men Out.
Sayles, before the screening: "I'm interested in how we get to be where we are."
If you try for, say, ten or even 20 years and can’t get that movie script financed, just turn the tale into a novel.
Continue reading ‘Sayles Pitches Persistence & History At Film "Treasure" Screening’
by | Jun 20, 2023 8:57 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
The dancers in the circle were lifting up their own spirits and the spirits of those around them. They were participating in a culture that was now in its third generation of practitioners. And, as was explained, they were helping strengthen and preserve it; if they didn’t, they could lose it.
Continue reading ‘Conference Gives Master Class In Hip Hop History’
by | Jun 7, 2023 8:56 am | Comments (1)
Lisa Reisman photos
In the ex-theater's, future childcare center's front lobby ...
... and refurbished screening room.
Voices lifted in exuberant song outside a movie theater overlooking Middletown Avenue?
Just a few years ago, a scene like that might have been unthinkable at the scruffy but beloved Cine 4 theater that closed last year after 51 years in operation.
The occasion was a sneak peek of Friends Center Flint Street — named for the pitted drive that leads up to the familiar flat-top white building where a local childcare nonprofit plans to build a new early education campus.
by | May 24, 2023 8:34 am | Comments (2)
Nicky (John Cassavetes) is squirreled away in a seedy hotel. He’s sure that the mob has a contract out on his life. He calls Mikey (Peter Falk) his childhood friend and the only ally he thinks he has left in the world. Mikey arrives to tell Nicky that he’s just being paranoid; everything’s going to be fine. The problem is, Nicky’s right. And Mikey just might be in on it.
by | Apr 11, 2023 8:16 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
Townwide Tyler and DJ B to the T Jr. strike a pose.
Jazz floated in the air between whispers and animated conversations as people sipped wine and coffee and munched on pita chips and popcorn this past Thursday at Best Video. It was another installment of Lounge Night — a monthly event at the film and cultural center where, over the course of four hours, patrons are treated to movies, music, and conversations about both. On this night, the crowd was treated to three short films from the New Haven 48 Hour Film Project as well as music from DJs Townwide Tyler and B to the T Jr.
by | Mar 23, 2023 2:08 pm | Comments (6)
Rendering of proposed new childcare campus at ex-Cine 4 site.
Allan Appel photo
David Symond, Jr., Allyx Schiavone, Margo Early, and Karin Patriquin on Wednesday.
The corn will keeping popping at the central ticketing-and-candy counter of the old Cine 4 movie theater — even as that entryway fixture is converted into a reception desk for a planned new early education campus now in the works on Middletown Avenue.
by | Mar 23, 2023 10:00 am | Comments (0)
If you attended an HBCU — or want to learn more about the past 150 years of historically Black colleges and universities in this country — come out to the Q House on Friday for a screening of the documentary Tell Them We Are Rising.
Continue reading ‘HBCU Documentary To Screen At Q House Friday At 5 P.M.’
by | Mar 22, 2023 8:56 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
Andrianna Campbell-LaFleur introduces "Through A Glass Darkly"
Best Video went big with its newest film series Tuesday night, bringing the first of three films by legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman to a welcoming crowd. The series opened with Through A Glass Darkly, the 1961 film that is considered the first in a trilogy of Bergman films that explore similar themes of God and spirituality. The next two films, The Silence and Winter Light, will be shown on March 28 and April 4, respectively. According to event coordinator Teo Hernandez, it was something he has wanted to do for a while.
by | Mar 15, 2023 6:47 pm | Comments (8)
Paul Bass Photos
Crew prepares to start shooting scene.
The star pooch.
Wooster Square became Brooklyn Wednesday as a film crew took over a block of Chapel Street.
by | Mar 13, 2023 1:00 pm | Comments (3)
Danielle Deadwyler and Jalyn Hall in Till.
Arnold Gorlick saw one of the best leading-actress performances on the screen — then was outraged not to see it acknowledged Sunday night at the Oscars.
Continue reading ‘Till Omission "Crime" Committed At Oscars’
by | Feb 23, 2023 9:43 am | Comments (2)
Still from What Could Have Been: America's First HBCU.
On Wednesday night at the New Haven Museum, New Haveners had a chance to learn, together, about an uncomfortable truth: that, in 1831, New Haven’s white community leaders overwhelming rejected a serious proposal to found what would have been the first U.S. Black college, on the land where the interchange of I‑95 and I‑91 now exists.
Continue reading ‘Doc Reveals The New Haven HBCU That Could Have Been’
