At the top of the Rafael’s summer quarter, we are pleased to welcome modern dance legend Anna Halprin back to our stage to present and discuss her new collaboration with Swiss filmmaker Ruedi Gerber. For someone who has marked many milestones throughout her career in dance, Anna is about to achieve yet another one, as she turns 95 and is still going strong.

 

 

Performance and the lives of performers are strands that run through the Rafael’s upcoming programs, from the Grateful Dead concert film and Les Blank’s “lost” film about Leon Russell, to the remarkable new documentary Listen to Me Marlon, in which the acting legend Brando speaks to us intimately about his life and work. Perhaps performance is not an unusual theme for us, given the number of music films and documentaries we show in the first place, as well as our keen interest in the personalities that populate our screens.

 

Extraordinary numbers of personalities and screens were on display recently at the Cannes Film Festival, the biggest such event in the world. For us it represents going into high gear for the upcoming Mill Valley Film Festival, since some of the films and makers will likely figure in our 38^th edition this October.

 

But Cannes is quite a spectacle in itself. More than 30,000 accredited professionals descend on Cannes for the duration of the festival. The most ubiquitous images that reach us from Festival de Cannes are the shots from the red carpet that leads to the 2,300 seat Lumi`ere, but there are screenings of all sizes and various importance taking place throughout the city all the time.

 

The official Cannes poster memorialized Ingrid Bergman, who, like Orson Welles, would have turned 100 this year. Like last year’s poster portrait of Marcello Mastroianni, the Bergman image represents the two pillars of what Cannes has come to symbolize: art and glamour. While we assume the casual fan is dazzled by the glamour, we “professionals” are expected to concentrate on the art. But no one is immune from being dazzled now and again, and Cannes is an appropriate place for that to happen.

 

 

 

– Richard Peterson
Director of Programming, Smith Rafael Film Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the past several years, January has been a special month for us- not only for the annual Sundance Film Festival, but also for the Art House Convergence, a conference of theatrical exhibitors and likeminded souls gathered in Utah a few days before Sundance. Primarily consisting of people who run independent, community-based, mission-driven film theaters (nonprofits but also for-profits), the conference also attracts distributors, equipment suppliers and even some filmmakers interested in making new contacts.

The Art House Convergence is a valuable networking opportunity for its participants. Through panels, talks and discussions (both formal and informal), movie exhibitors can exchange information about challenges, opportunities and successes in the theatrical field. As you must be aware, films are being released on more platforms than ever before- it’s a veritable jungle out there- and the professionals who attend the Art House Convergence are passionate about preserving and nurturing the big-screen, communal experience of going out to the movies. From customer service and concessions to navigating the digital transition and its constant, often confusing evolution, the Art House Convergence offers time well spent.

The Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and California Film Institute have had representatives every year at the Art House Convergence. Mark Fishkin, CFI executive director and founder, and Jan Klingelhofer of Pacific Film Resources, who consults and books for the Rafael, both serve on its Leadership Committee, along with colleagues from around the U.S., including Russ Collins, executive director of the Michigan Theater, who carries the torch as Conference Director.

Why am I writing about this conference? Because in July the Rafael hosts the second “regional” Art House Convergence, a one-day, mid-year event that was initiated last year at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, New York. While the regional edition is smaller than the annual conference in Utah, it provides another occasion for veterans and novices of theatrical exhibition to meet and exchange ideas, another opportunity to attracts regional participants and perhaps another reminder for all of us to “keep the faith.”

These are challenging times for theatrical exhibition, especially for independent theaters like the Rafael that don’t show the mainstream titles that garner all the media attention and box office. The costs of digital presentation are extraordinary, and the theatrical experience is just one of many options that audiences have for entertainment these days. Every year it seems as if the poor little art house must carry a bigger and bigger drum in order to be heard. But the people who will attend the Art House Convergence believe in the communal experience of film and are dedicated to keeping it alive.