Special Events

From our Archives

2012

JOHN HODGMAN, celebrity guest, and BILL DWIGHT, emcee, host SCREEN TEST:  MARCH MOVIE MADNESS, a benefit movie trivia bee for Amherst Cinema & Pleasant Street Theater.

 

Joy of Sax Film Series (Spring)

Documentaries and feature films that celebrate and illuminate the jazz life, with expert commentary by New England Public Radio Jazz à la Mode host Tom Reney, and live jazz  performances before the films.  Presented by Amherst Cinema in collaboration with NEPR and the Fine Arts Center, UMass Amherst.

IN GOOD TIME:  THE PIANO JAZZ OF MARIAN MCPARTLAND (Huey, 2011).  Jazz legend Marian McPartland is documented in this new film that explores her life and career as a pioneering female jazz musician, composer and host of NPR’s Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz.  Special Guest:  Filmmaker Huey in person!

JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY (1959).  Filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, this documentary is a hands-down classic, featuring performances by many jazz greats.

 

Science on Screen (Spring)

Unexpected pairings of film with experts in science, technology and medicine.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Gondry, 2004).  An off-the wall romantic science fiction film about an estranged couple who have each other erased from their memories.
Speaker:  Dr. Mary Harrington, Life Sciences, Smith College, and Neuroscience and Behavior Program, UMass Amherst.
Topic:   How is memory represented in our brains:  Can scientists erase specific memories?  Is there something special about the dream state that alters memories?

 

WHEN WE WERE KINGS (Gast, 1966).  In 1974, boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman came to the still-emerging and politically unstable African nation of Zaire for the “Rumble in the Jungle.”  In this Oscar-winning film, Gast tells the story of the charismatic and controversial Ali, now one of the world’s cultural icons.
Speaker:  Dr. Zachary Marowitz, Baystate Medical Center Sports Concussion Clinic, and Tufts University School of Medicine
Topic:  Sports-related concussions:  Current definition, management and treatment, long-term consequences, and why all of this is a big deal.

 

BEST IN SHOW (Guest, 2000).  The dippy madness in this mockumentary expertly skewers a complete range of pet obsessions.
Speaker:  Dr. Donald Joralemon, Smith College Dept. of Anthropology.
Topic:  what differentiates animals treated as beasts of burden or sources of protein from those we invite into our houses and consider as family members?  What motivates us to project human characteristics onto specific creatures and why do some humans spend exorbitant amounts of money to enter their pets into beauty contests and sporting trials?

 

Art on Screen (Spring)

LEONARDO LIVE.  The U.K. National Gallery’s sold-out, once-in-a-lifetime exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci:  Painter at the Court of Milan”.

CREATING BUDDHAS:  THE MAKING AND MEANING OF FABRIC THANGKAS (Leidenfrost, 2008).  The story of a Western woman who became a fabric thangka maker.  With Filmmaker Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost in person.

ANDREI ROUBLEV (Tarkovsky, 1966).  The film classic restored. Based on the life of fifteenth century Russian monk and icon painter Andrei Roublev, the film follows his experiences in a country ravaged by Tartar invaders.  Introduced by teacher of art history, Alicia Morton.

WASTELAND(Walker, Harley, 2010).  An uplifting documentary based around the lives of garbage pickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as the renowned artist Vik Muniz creates art out of recycled material.

 

Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival (Spring)

DAVID (Fendelman, 2011).

FOREIGN LETTERS (Their, 2011).

 

Friday Midnights at Pleasant Street Theater (Winter, Spring)

MEAN GIRLS, THE ROOM, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, TIM & ERIC’S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE, ROBOCOP, JURASSIC PARK, THE BEYOND

 

2011

LOUDER THAN A BOMB (Jacobs & Siskel, directors, 2010) with ADAM GOTTLIEB and NOVA VENERABLE, student poets featured in the film about a youth poetry slam involving more than 600 teenagers from over 60 Chicago-area schools.

ALEX GIBNEY, Academy Award®–winning documentarian, our honored guest at OPENING NIGHT! , a benefit for Amherst Cinema & Pleasant Street Theater. 

QUEEN OF THE SUN (Taggart Siegel, director of photography, 2010), with beekeeper DAN CONLON and poet JOHN BERKOWITZ introducing the film.

THE DESERT OF FORBIDDEN ART (Tchavdar Georgiev and Amanda Pope, directors, 2010), with a panel discussion moderated by Professor Catherine Ciepiela of Amherst College.

Gypsy jazz violinist JASON ANICK, featured artist in the 2011 DJANGO IN JUNE! Festival, giving a live performance.

 

 

Science on Screen Series (Summer and Fall)

Unexpected pairings of film with experts in science, technology and medicine.

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT(Patricio Guzmán, director, 2010), with Associate  Professor and astronomer Dr. Salman Hameed of Hampshire College speaking. The film travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars.  Dr. Hameed works on issues related to science and religion, including analyzing reconciliation efforts between astronomers and native Hawaiians over telescopes on top of sacred Mauna Kea in Hawaii.  He spoke to our audiences about the interaction of science, culture and politics at some of the best observatory locations in the world.

THE BIRDS(Alfred Hitchcock, director, 1963), with Professor and avian biologist  Dr. Jeff Podos, UMass Amherst Biology Department, speaking on birdsong as a signal of communication, and how the diversity of physical features in bird species is linked to song structure and learning.  In THE BIRDS, Hitchcock capitalizes on a process that really does occur in nature – mobbing – and takes it to an extreme.  Observed in birds and other animals, mobbing is a form of anti-predatory behavior where individuals of a species cooperatively harass or attach a potential or supposed enemy.

THE FLY(David Cronenberg, director, 1986), with cell biologist Dr. Amie McClellan of the Bennington College Biology Department speaking on mutation, and why, because all life on Earth utilizes the same genetic code, the ability of one organism to express genes of another is more science fact than science fiction.  The film follows a self-involved research scientist who finds his experiment in teleporting himself goes horribly wrong.

GREY GARDENS (Albert and David Maysles, 1975), with Dr. Randy Frost of the Smith College Department of Psychology speaking on compulsive hoarding, the acquisition of and failure to discard possessions that appear to be either useless or of limited value.  This documentary depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale who lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion in the wealthy neighborhood of East Hampton, New York.

 

 

Essential Cinema Series (Spring)

Film masterpieces that changed the way films were made and watched.

8 ½ (Frederico Fellini, Italy, 1963).

MAMMA ROMA(Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy, 1962).

LE AMICHE(Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1955).

 

 

Films That Slipped Through the Cracks (Spring)

Recent best-reviewed, least-distributed films.

MARWENCOL(Jeff Malmberg, 2010).

DOGTOOTH(Yorgos Lanthimos, 2009).

MESRINE:  KILLER INSTINCT(Jean-François Richet, 2008).

MESRINE:  PUBLIC ENEMY No. 1(Jean-François Richet, 2009).

THE HOUSEMAID(Sang-soo Im, 2010).

 

 

From Broadway, Captured Live (Summer)

Productions and special events and exhibitions captured live and broadcast onto cinema screens around the globe.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.  Oscar Wilde’s comedic masterpiece about class, courtship and good old-fashioned name dropping.  Tony Award-winner Brian Bedford directed and starred as Lady Bracknell. 

 

 

National Theatre Live (2011 – 2012 Season)

Plays from the London stage and partner theater companies, captured live and broadcast onto cinema screens around the globe.

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS,based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, with songs by Grant Olding.  Directed by Nicolas Hytner.

THE KITCHEN, Arnold Wesker’s play set in 1950s London, in the kitchen of an enormous West End restaurant.  Thrown together by their work, chefs, waitresses and porters from across Europe argue and flirt as they race to keep up.

COLLABORATORS, a new play by John Hodge, inspired by historical fact.  Mikhail Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita) is offered a poisoned chalice:  a commission to write a play celebrating Stalin’s his 60^th birthday.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. One of Shakespeare’s great bawdy, physical comedies, given a knockout production with a contemporary and youthful urban edge.

TRAVELLING LIGHT,a heartwarming new play by Nicholas Wright about a community of Eastern European Jews at the turn of the century who are discovering how to make movies – a delightful story about the early days of cinema.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER, by Oliver Goldsmith.  One of the great, generous-hearted and ingenious comedies of the English language, a play that offers a celebration of chaos, courtship and the dysfunctional family.

 

 

Joy of Sax Film Series 2011 - 2012

Documentaries and feature films that celebrate and illuminate the jazz life, with expert commentary by NEPR radio Jazz àla Mode host Tom Reney, and live jazz   performances before the films.  In collaboration with NEPR and the Fine Arts Center, UMass.

TEXAS TENOR:  THE ILLINOIS JACQUET STORY, (Arthur Elgort, director, 1992), a short film in which several prominent jazz musicians got together for a rare filmed jam session, and documentary profiling the legendary tenor saxophonist.

DOUBLE BILL:  JAMMIN’ THE BLUES(Gjon Mili, 1944), a short film in which several prominent jazz musicians got together for a rare filming of a jam session, paired with A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM (Jean Bach, 1995), an Academy Award-nominated documentary featuring many of the surviving jazz greats who gathered one morning in 1958 for the legendary photograph taken by Art Kane.

 

 

National Theatre Live (2010 – 2011 Season)

Plays from the London stage and partner theater companies, captured live and broadcast onto cinema screens around the globe.

A DISAPPEARING NUMBER.  From the theatre company Complicite.  Directed by Simon McBurney.

HAMLET (Shakespeare).  Directed by Nicholas Hytner.

FELA!   The world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.  Bill T Jones’s 2010 Tony Award-winning choreography.  Cast led by Sahr Ngaujah.

KING LEAR (Shakespeare).  Donmar Warehouse production.  Artistic director Michael Grange directed Derek Jacobi in the title role.

FRANKENSTEIN (Mary Shelley).  Script written by Nick Dear, directed by Danny Boyle, with Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD(Chekhov).  Directed by Howard Davies, with Zoë Wanamaker as Madam Ranevskaya.

 

DEFA Film Library UMass Amherst Presents

ROLF LANSKY, with introduction from Professor Benita Blessing.  In German and English with subtitles.

 

Seeing Sound Music Film Series (Fall)

A series offering American music on film in a powerful range of style and form. 

BLANK CITY (2010). With Thurston Moore, founding member of Sonic Youth, introducing the film.

MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER(2007).  New tankas by Byron Coley read before the film.

LES BLANK MASTERWORKS NIGHT(Double bill):  THE BLUES ACCORDIN’ TO LIGHTNIN’ (1969) and ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE (1978).  With musician and composer Jake Meginsky introducing the film.

REJOICE AND SHOUT(2010).  With musician, artist and performer Moonlight Davis introducing the film.

 

 

Spanish Women and Film (Fall)

Films offered as part of the first Spanish Women and Film Conference at UMass Amherst.

MIGUEL Y WILLIAM(Directed by Inéz Paris)

ELISA K (Directed by Jordi Cadena and Judith Colell)

LA VIDA EMPIEZA HOY (LIFE BEGINS TODAY) (Directed by Laura Mañá and written by Alicia Luna).

TRES DIAS CON LA FAMILIA (THREE DAYS WITH THE FAMILY) (Directed and written by Mar Coll).

 

 

Friday Midnights At Pleasant Street Theater (Fall)

TROLL HUNTER, HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL, THE PERFECT HOST, THEY LIVE, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMENT HIGH, GREMLINS, WAYNE’S WORLD.

 

 

Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival (Spring)

Selections from the PVJFF.

FOR MY FATHER(Dror Zahavi, 2008).

ELI AND BEN (Ori Ravid, 2008).

THE YANKLES (David R. Brooks, 2009).

 

 

2010

 

KEN BURNS, Academy Award®–winning documentarian, historian and Hampshire College graduate, our honored guest at OPENING NIGHT!, a benefit for Amherst Cinema & Pleasant Street Theater our honored guest.

 

Live guitar performance by French gypsy AURÉLIEN BOULY (and friends), featured artist in this year’s DJANGO IN JUNE! Festival.

    

SIDE OF TOASTpresenting “The Blue State Special:  An Evening of Original Peanut-Free Sketch Comedy,” a benefit for Amherst Cinema & Pleasant Street Theater, with Kelsey Flynn, KATHERINE GLATTER, Mosie McNally, Paul Ita, Pam Victor, Cathy McNally, Christine Stevensand other favorite performers from the Pioneer Valley. 

 

MIGHTY UKE,a documentary about the global resurgence of the ukulele, with pre-show live performance by musicians JOE BLUMENTHAL (bass), JEANETTE MUZIMA (guitar and ukulele) and FRANCES BLASQUE (ukulele).

 

Essential Cinema Series (Spring)

Film masterpieces that changed the way films were made and watched.

SMALL CHANGE (Francois Truffaut, France, 1976).

STRAY DOG (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1949).

THE BICYCLE THIEF(Vittorio De Sica, Italy, 1948).

Z (Costa-Gavras, France, 1969).

HIDDEN FORTRESS(Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1960).

THE RED SHOES (Michael Powell, England, 1948).

BREATHLESS (Jean Luc Goddard, France, 1960).

METROPOLIS (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927 masterpiece restored).

 

 

National Theatre Live (2009 – 2010 Season)

Plays from the London stage and partner theater companies, captured live and broadcast onto cinema screens around the globe.

THE HABIT OF ART.  A new play by Alan Bennett.  Benjamin Britten seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden.

NATION.   Terry Pratchett’s play, adapted by Mark Ravenhill and directed by Melly Still.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (Shakespeare).  Directed by Marianne Elliott.

LONDON ASSURANCE.  Originally  written in 1841 by Dion Boucicault, the Irish genius of London theatre in the age of Dickens.

 

 

WFCR Jazz à la Mode Film Series (Fall)

Documentaries and movies that celebrate and illuminate the jazz life, with expert commentary by WFCR’s Jazz Host, TOM RENEY.

A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM (Jean Bach, 1995) and JAMMIN’ THE BLUES (Gjon Mili, 1944).

ROUND MIDNIGHT (Bertrand Tavernier,1986).

THE JAZZ BARONESS(Hannah Rothchild, 2009).

 

 

Tournée French Film Festival (Fall)

Contemporary French film presented with Holyoke Community College.

THE GROCER’S SON (Dric Guirado, 2007).

THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN (Abdellatif Kechicke, 2007).

THE BEACHES OF AGNES (Agnès Varda, 2008).

 

 

Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival (Spring)

Selections in the PVJFF.

AJAMI (Yaaron Shani & Scandar Copti, 2009).

THE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD (Regev Contes, 2009). 

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG (Aviva Kempner, 1998). 

FOUR SEASONS LODGE (Andrew Jacobs, 2008).

 

 

Chaplin Film Festival (Fall)

THE CIRCUS, THE GOLD RUSH, CITY LIGHTS and, THE KID, THE IDLE CLASS, MODERN TIMES, THE GREAT DICTATOR.

 

 

Hitchcock  Film Festival (Summer)

THE 39 STEPS, REBECCA, NOTORIOUS, ROPE, DIAL M FOR MURDER, REAR WINDOW, TO CATCH A THIEF, VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO.

 

 

2009

 

Academy Award®–nominee and Broadway stage star KATHLEEN TURNER our honored guest at OPENING NIGHT!, a benefit for Amherst Cinema & Pleasant Street Theater.

 

Hollywood and Broadway star PAUL SORVINO headlining a live staged reading of STELLA IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE, a new dramatic work which highlights the historic conflict between Stella Adler and the artistic director Lee Strasberg.  A production of MIFA, the MASSACHUSETTS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS, the event was a part of the 2009 PIONEER VALLEY JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL.

 

BLUE STRAW HAT, a new one-act, one-woman play by versatile Pioneer Valley-based writer and Mount Holyoke College Professor CORINNE DEMAS, performed on our stage, with SARAH WILSON in the solo role as Beryl.

 

MASSACHUSETTS POETRY FESTIVALcelebrated in our theater with an evening of readings by JAMES TATE, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and readings by ELLEN DORÉ WATSON and JAMES HAUG.

 

MARTÍN ESPADA , called “the Latino poet of his generation” and “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors,”reading from his recent work, to commemorate the 250^th Anniversary of the Town of Amherst.

 

 

Essential Cinema Series (Spring)

Film masterpieces that changed the way films were made and watched.

LOLA MONTES (Max Ophuls, France, 1955).

DAY OF WRATH (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark, 1943).

VIVRE SA VIE (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1962).

ELEVATOR TO GALLOWS (Louise Malle, France, 1957).

AMARCORD (Frederico Fellini, Italy, 1974).

SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (Francois Truffaut, France, 1960).

 

 

WFCR Jazz à la Mode Film Series

Documentaries and movies that celebrate and illuminate the jazz life, with expert commentary by WFCR’s Jazz Host, TOM RENEY.

ANITA O’DAY – THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER (Robbie Carolina, Ian McCrudden, 2007).

THELONIOUS MONK:  STRAIGHT, NO CHASER (Charlotte Zwerin, 1988).

THE LAST OF THE BLUE DEVILS – THE KANSAS CITY JAZZ STORY (Bruce Ricker, 1979).

 

 

Shakespeare Film Festival

Presented with the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at The University of Massachusetts Amherst.

THRONE OF BLOOD (Akira Kurosawa, 1957).

HENRY V(Kenneth Branagh, 1989).

ROMEO & JULIET(Franco Zeffirelli, 1968).

OTHELLO(Oliver Parker, 1995).

 

 

1950s:  Cold War Culture & The Birth of the Cool

In collaboration with Hampshire College.

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (Nicholas Ray, 1955).

WEST SIDE STORY (Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, 1961).

JAILHOUSE ROCK (Richard Thorpe, 1957).

 

 

Defa (UMass Amherst) Summer Institute – The Fifth Biennial East German Film Summer Institute

ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD (Horst Bonnet, 1974).

ROSES FOR THE STATE’S ATTORNEY.

 

 

 

2008

 

Essential Cinema Series (Spring)

Film masterpieces that changed the way films were made and watched.

LOVES OF A BLONDE (Milos Forman, 1965).

THE FIREMAN’S BALL (Milos Forman, 1967).

BLACK ORPHEU (Marcel Camus, 1959).

HIGH AND LOW (Akira Kurosawa, 1963).

WR:  MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM (Dusan Makavejev, 1971).

FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS (Roberto Rossellini, 1950).

UGETSU (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953).

PIERROT LE FOU (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965).

PICKPOCKET (Robert Bresson, 1959).

THE LADY VANISHES (Hitchcock, 1938).

DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE (Pietro Germi, 1961).

PLAYTIME (Jacques Tati, 1967).

 

 

Film and 1968:  Hot and Cool

In cooperation with the film studies seminar on 1968 and the Social Change Colloquium:  1968 at UMass Amherst

2001:  A SPACE ODYSSEY (Stanley Kubrick, 1968).

LA CHINOISE (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968.)

PERFORMANCE (Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg, 1970).

ZABRISKIE POINT (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970).

HEARTS AND MINDS (Peter Davis, 1975).

SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM:  TAKE ONE (William Greaves, 1968).

PROFIT MOTIVE AND THE WHISPERING WIND (John Gianvito, 2007).

 

 

2007

 

Essential Cinema Series (Spring)

Film masterpieces that changed the way films were made and watched.

THE RULES OF THE GAME (Jean Renoir, 1939)

LA STRADA (Frederico Fellini, 1954).

VIRIDIANA (Luis Buñuel, 1961).

WILD STRAWBERRIES (Ingmar Bergman, 1957).

WALKABOUT (Nicolas Roeg, 1971).

CHILDREN OF PARADISE (Marcel Carné, 1945).

THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE (Max Ophüls, 1953).

THE CRANES ARE FLYING (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957).

THE 400 BLOWS (Francois Truffaut, 1959).

THE SEVENTH SEAL (Ingmar Bergman, 1957).

CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7 (Agnès Varda, 2008).

ZERO FOR CONDUCT (Yannis Filippou, Minallis Gaziadis, 1949).

KNIFE IN THE WATER (Roman Polanski, 1962).

JULES AND JIM (Francois Truffaut, 1962).

SEVEN SAMURAI (Akira Kurosawa, 1954).

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Jean Cocteau, 1946).

 

 

Updated as of March 29th, 2012 (Not represented as a complete list)