Film Screenings

In Memoriam: Doris Day. Jazz singer Ruth Etting is brought gloriously to life by Doris Day in this biopic.

Labor Film Series. Ermanno Olmi, one of Italy’s most prolific directors but underappreciated in the United States, reflects his deep understanding of the rhythms of life and labor of northern Italy’s peasants and his commitment to them.

The Canon. Judy Garland gives an endearing performance as the young Dorothy Gale, who is swept away by a tornado to the Land of Oz.

Silent Tuesdays. This program explores the elusive nature of documentary films in the silent period, including a surrealist look at a remote region of Spain, an atypical travelogue of the southern coast of France, and two city symphonies, one of Berlin and one of New York City.

In Memoriam: Doris Day | Free Member Movie.  This movie musical is also a rare Hollywood foray into a labor milieu, with factory scenes shot on the premises of the Weldon Pajama Co. and Doris Day heading up a grievance committee to petition for better working conditions and higher pay.

Pasolini. Anna Magnani plays a middle-aged prostitute determined to give her son the bourgeois life she never had, until a figure from the past returns to threaten her dreams.

Labor Film Series | Rochester Premiere | Discussion. Unlike labor films that depict class struggles on the shop floor or the picket line, At War shows the struggle waged at the bargaining table, involving management’s decision to close an auto parts plant despite wage concessions made by the workers to keep it open.

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.  Archival Screening Night has been the centerpiece of every Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) conference since 1991. Composed of 22 films and videos from archives ranging from Rochester to Alaska, Hawaii, Israel, the Netherlands, and back, this program has something for everyone.

Silent Tuesdays | Halloween. F. W. Murnau, an undisputed master of German expressionist cinema, mounts the screen’s first feature-length adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Polish Film Festival | Halloween. Poland’s most prominent filmmaker, Andrzej Wajda adapts a turn-of-the-century play that deals with Poland’s troublesome past and the perils of its drive toward self-determination.

Labor Film Series | Alloy Orchestra. The Alloy Orchestra returns to the Dryden Theatre with this silent film, director Dziga Vertov’s lasting contribution to world cinema.

Rochester Premiere. Far removed from Eugene O’Neill’s play of the same title, this noir-tinged stunner is about a lost soul, Hongwu Luo (Huang Jue), on a quest to find a missing woman from his past, Wan Qiwen (Tang Wei, Lust, Caution).

The Canon. Bursting with iconic imagery, Charlie Chaplin’s first starring vehicle for United Artists was a blockbuster hit.

Polish Film Festival | Silent Tuesdays | Q&A. One of the earliest extant films from Polish screen siren Pola Negri, here playing a rebellious teenager.

In Memoriam: Agnès Varda. Agnès Varda (1928–2019) studied art history at university, intending to seek a career as a museum curator, but turned to photography as a means of expression and a source of income.

Lena Herzog | Special Introduction | Free Member Movie. Last Whispers is an elegy about the mass extinction of languages. Multimedia artist Lena Herzog has collected samples of extinct and endangered idioms.

Labor Film Series | Rochester Premiere. With thirty credits to his name—all of them dealing with the oppression of workers by their bosses, their government, or even their unions—Ken Loach has become “Filmmaker to the Working Class.”