A joint effort of the Dryden Theatre and the Rochester Labor Council, the Labor Film Series presents motion pictures celebrating workers of the world. The first film program of its kind in the US, the series includes dramas, comedies, and current documentaries on important issues relating to work and workers, especially aspects of work often marginalized or absent in dominant commercial media. Our films from around the globe are selected to inform, provoke, and inspire.
Inspired by the exhibition Anastasia Samoylova: FloodZone, on view at the museum through December 18, the Dryden offers four films that examine the anxieties we feel over a changing planet. Featuring both documentary and narrative films, the series is co-curated by Carter Soles, assistant professor at SUNY Brockport, who teaches, writes, and presents on ecological issues in cinema.
It's a Disaster! Spectacle Before CGI After a decade of disaster films dominating both the box office and year-end Top Ten lists, writers and directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker followed up their cult sketch film The Kentucky Fried Movie with a disaster spoof.
Labor Film Series Recounting the experience of women garment workers in Bangladesh, the film describes their efforts to form a union that will protect their rights.
Barrymore Family Album This 40th anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg’s most successful film is enhanced by the expertise of Lester Friedman, author of Citizen Spielberg, and Charity Lofthouse, professor of music at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. After the screening, the two will talk about the iconic film and its equally iconic John Williams score.
Silent Tuesdays The Eastman Theatre in downtown Rochester opened on September 4, 1922, with a screening of this Victorian adventure classic. A century later, the Dryden Theatre presents the best surviving film element of this title with live piano accompaniment.
Noir ’47: The Year Darkness Came to Light Deviant miscreants collide in this dark two-hander starring film noir veterans Claire Trevor and Lawrence Tierney. Violent drifter Sam Wilde (Tierney) discovers that Reno boarding house owner Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell) was just romancing him to make her boyfriend Danny (Tony Barrett) jealous. Post-screening discussion with Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case.
Rochester Premiere Drive-ins have been around for nearly 90 years. Though their popularity has waned and hundreds have closed around the country, the COVID-19 pandemic provided a brief boost to these classic cinema venues. Post-screening Q&A with Dwight and Leigh Grimm, owners of the Greenville Drive-in 32 in Greenville, NY, featured in the film.
Labor Film Series On September 9, 1971, the incarcerated individuals at Attica Correctional Facility, citing systemic abuse and human rights violations, took control of the prison and over thirty hostages. This searing new documentary uses rarely seen footage and new interviews with former inmates and family of the guards to take a new look at the events of that week. Introduction by Jon Garlock, labor historian. Post-screening discussion hosted by the Rochester Education Justice Initiative (REJI).
Dryden University The year is 1947 and A-list cartoon actor Roger Rabbit has been framed for murder. His boss has been killed, his wife blackmailed, and the future of his beloved Toontown placed in jeopardy. Introduction by Sidney Rosenzweig, faculty at SUNY Brockport. Followed by a Q&A with Rosenzweig and Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case.
