David PesciEvery Tuesday night this July is a Cary Grant night at Wesleyan, though he'll be joined by some very attractive company. “Cary Grant and his Leading Ladies” is the title and theme of this year's installment of Wesleyan University's annual Wesleyan Summer Film Series. The free series held at the Goldsmith Family Cinema will feature a classic, fully-restored Cary Grant film each Tuesday night in July, with an introductory talk beginning at 7:30 p.m. The screenings star on Tuesday, July 6, with “To Catch a Thief” featuring Grant and Grace Kelly. On Tuesday, July 13, Connecticut’s own Katherine Hepburn and…
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The Wesleyan Film Studies Department and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are hosting the 2010 Independent Filmmaker Series through April 29. The series features a different film and guest speaker every week. The program consists of a diverse array of films and speakers which showcase the very best in contemporary independent cinema. All shows in the series begin at 8 p.m. in the Center for Film Studies' Goldsmith Family Cinema. They are free of charge and open to the public. April 8: Writer/director Courtney Hunt will speak after a viewing of her film, Frozen River. April 15:…
When college students Chris and Robby woke up outside after their 21st birthday bash, they assumed their night included dancing, girls and a fist fight. But a friend later confirms the intoxicated duo spent the entire party outside lying on top of their cars. "What were we even doing out there, man," Chris asks a hung-over Robby. The characters "Chris" and "Robby," played by Christopher Correa '10 and Robby Hardesty '11 are two of four main characters in the new FutureHouse Pictures Enrolled web series. To date, the FutureHouse Pictures staff has created two episodes, screened exclusively through YouTube. Correa…
The new film, Songs of a Sorrowful Man, directed by Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology, emeritus, and edited by film major Joe Sousa ’03, began its journey debuting at the biennial Royal Anthropological Film Festival, held at Leeds University in July. The film was then shown at the the American Anthropological Association meeting in Philadelphia, Pa. Dec. 2-6. It also was screened recently at at Brown where it was featured as the lead event in Brown's "Year of India" celebrations (2009-10). The “sorrowful man,” Dukhushyam Chitrakar is a charismatic figure who encourages women to take up the traditional craft of scroll painting and musical composition pursued…
Joss Whedon ’87 will be honored by the Producers Guild of America with its Vanguard Award, which recognizes achievements in new media and technology. He will receive the award at the 21st Annual PGA Awards ceremony on Jan. 24 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Previous Vanguard Award recipients include George Lucas, James Cameron, John Lasseter, MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe and president and co-founder Tom Anderson, and YouTube founders Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Will Wright. Whedon is a producer, writer, director, and creator for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse. He…
Brooklyn, N.Y. resident Bridget Palardy ’05 has received the inaugural JT3 Artist Award of Distinction for emerging filmmakers for her short film Middletown B-Boys, a compelling dance-filled documentary that was shot in Middletown, Conn. Palardy and four other innovative young filmmakers from Brooklyn were honored at the first-ever JT3 Artist Awards at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Oct. 22 in a celebration with director Adam Brooks (Definitely, Maybe) and hosted by Tony-award nominated actor Brandon Victor Dixon. A nonprofit foundation created in memory of the dynamic young writer/director/producer Jesse Thompkins III, who died in a tragic traffic accident last year,…
A film directed by Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology, emeritus, and edited by film major Joe Sousa ’03, explores the life of a painter, composer and singer living in West Bengal, India. The 35-minute film, Songs of a Sorrowful Man, was screened Oct. 29 in the Powell Family Cinema inside the Center for Film Studies. The "sorrowful man," Dukhushyam Chitrakar is a charismatic figure who encourages women to take up the traditional craft of scroll painting and musical composition pursued almost exclusively by men before. In a series of edited sequences, the film chronicles Dukhushyam's vision of the decline and rebirth…
For 15 days, Nathaniel Draper ’12 mingled with top filmmakers at the Cannes Film Festival while participating in educational workshops, seminars, pitch sessions, roundtable discussions and screenings. He also happened to pick up an award for a film of his own while he was there. As a student intern at the 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival, held May 13-24 in southern France, Draper had a hands-on opportunity to explore the film industry through the prism of perhaps it most prestigious international event. "It was, to put it lightly, a surreal experience," Draper recalls. "I was able to meet iconic directors…
If you want to study the life and work of Elia Kazan, "you come to Wesleyan." That's what Jeanine Basinger, chair and the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, curator of the Cinema Archives, suggests to students or film fanatics in the community. For more than two decades, screenwriter/director Kazan (1909-2003) had ties with Wesleyan, and donated photographs, scripts, personal letters, and other life documents to the university. To celebrate and honor Kazan on what would be his 100th birthday, the Film Studies Department is hosting the Elia Kazan Centennial. The semester-long retrospective includes 11 Kazan film screenings with introductions, a…
Garfield Lindsay Miller '99 is featured in a July 29 article titled "Dramatic Choices," published by the BC Local News North Shore Outlook section. Miller's filmmaking resume includes co-writing and producing the award-winning and Gemini-nominated documentary The Fires that Burn about Sister Elaine MacInnes and co-writing Stone’s Throw, an award-winning dramatic feature film set in Nova Scotia – among many other film credits. Most recently, Miller, who is back living in British Columbia, was voted one of the top 20 Top Canadian Film Makers by a jury of his peers. Miller’s new feature film, The Last New Year, which recently debuted…