Episode 109: Norman Weissman / Griggs Collection

The title sequence from Norman Weissman's 1968 film, THE LANGUAGE THEY SPEAK.

Description

On the first segment of today's show, host Tom Breen talks with Yale film archivist Brian Meacham and documentary filmmaker Norman Weissman about an upcoming screening of Weissman's eclectic industrial and educational films from the 1950s through 1970s.

On the second segment of the show, Breen and Meacham talk about the 50-year anniversary of Yale's acquisition of the John Griggs Collection, which marked the beginning of the Yale Film Archive as we know it today.

Links

An Evening with Norman Weissman—Treasures from the YFA: https://www.facebook.com/events/371080160030135/ 

Yale Collection of Classic Films: 50th Anniversary Celebration: https://www.facebook.com/events/1941302269466810/

Episode 104: African American Cinema / The Post

Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones (1933)

Description

On the first segment of today’s show, host Tom Breen is joined by New Haven film critic and lecturer Steve Fortes to talk about the history of African American cinema.

In the early 1990s, Steve taught two seminars at Yale University about the history of African American film and television. On today’s show we’ll talk with Steve about the films that he covered in those two seminars, what he saw as some of the prevailing themes and trends of in the first century of African American cinema, and about which movies and filmmakers he would include today if he were teaching the same course in 2018.

On the second segment of the show, Breen is joined by New Haven Independent staff writer Allan Appel for a review of THE POST, Steven Spielberg’s new movie about the 1971 debate within the editorial ranks of The Washington Post about whether or not to publish Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers, classified documents that revealed decades of executive branch deceit and cynicism that prolonged America’s disastrous involvement in the Vietnam War. We’ll talk about how this movie resonates in 2018 as a celebration of the free press, and as an indictment of the hypermasculine industries of newspapers and politics in the early 1970s.

Episode 73: Robert Frank Movies

Still from Laura Israel's DON'T BLINK - ROBERT FRANK

Description

Today’s interview-only episode of the show is all about the movies of Robert Frank, the Swiss-born photographer who captured the odd, overlooked, simmering contours of roadside America with his 1958 book The Americans, and then promptly left the field of still photography to become a pioneering figure in the development of post-war American independent cinema. There are two Robert Frank-related movie screenings happening in New Haven this upcoming weekend, and host Tom Breen is joined by the folks who organized and are participating in those events to talk about Frank as a filmmaker, a photographer, and a dedicated, complicated, American observer.

The guests on today's show are Brian Meacham, Laura Israel, and Nicholas Dawidoff. Brian is the archive and special collections manager at the Yale Film Archive, and a regular guest on this show. Laura is an editor, a longtime filmmaking collaborator of Robert Frank’s, and the director of a new feature-length documentary called Don’t Blink - Robert Frank. And Nicholas is a journalist and author of a number of books that explore American culture, sports, and identity, including 2013’s Collision Low Crossers. He is the author of a 2015 profile of Robert Frank for the New York Times Magazine called The Man Who Saw America, and is also a New Haven native and a fellow at Yale’s Branford College.

Links

https://www.facebook.com/events/759586187531706/

http://www.dontblinkrobertfrank.com/

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.html?_r=0

Episode 57: In Search of Lost Films / Loving

Description

On today's episode of Deep Focus on WNHH Community Radio, host Tom Breen talks with film journalist Phil Hall about his new book, "In Search of Lost Films," which explores the many influential and intriguing movies that have disappeared over the course of the past century. For the second segment of the show, Breen is joined by WNHH Station Manager Lucy Gellman and New Haven Independent reporter Allan Appel for a review of the new movie, Loving.

Other Links

https://soundcloud.com/onlinemovieshow
http://cinema-crazed.com/blog/author/philhall/
http://filmsnobbery.com/author/phil-hall/
https://www.amazon.com/Search-Lost-Films-Phil-Hall/dp/1593939388
https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/pub158.final_version_sept_2013.pdf
 

Episode 54: Frank and Caroline Mouris / The Handmaiden

Excerpt from FRANK FILM (1973) by Frank and Caroline Mouris

Description

On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen welcomes experimental animators and filmmakers Frank and Caroline Mouris and film archivist Brian Meacham to the show to talk about the Mouris' careers making movies, some reflections on the mesmerizing world of experimental animation, and upcoming screenings of their films at the Whitney Humanities center. For the second segment of the show, Breen, Allan Appel, and Lucy Gellman review the new movie The Handmaiden.

Timeline

00:00 - 43:02 -- interview with filmmakers Frank and Caroline Mouris and Yale film archivist Brian Meacham
44:00 - 59: 38 -- review of The Handmaiden

Other Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZm67rgUAfQ
https://www.facebook.com/events/964252377030216/

Episode 52: Mark Schenker / American Honey

Mark Schenker (Thomas Breen photo)

Timeline

00:00 - 37:20 -- interview with Mark Schenker about his new series on John Huston
40:25 - 59:44 -- review of American Honey

Description

On this episode, host Tom Breen talks all about the movies of John Huston with Yale dean and lecturer Mark Schenker, who will be hosting a 4-part series on Huston's movies at Best Video Film & Cultural Center in Hamden starting Sunday Oct. 23. For the second segment of the show, Breen is joined by Allan Appel and Lucy Gellman for a review of the new movie American Honey. Independent's website.

Other Links

http://www.bestvideo.com/prof-mark-schenker-returns-for-new-lecture-series-starting-sun-oct-23-how-to-read-a-film-subject-is-films-of-john-huston/

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/kubrick_lectures_at_best_video/

Episode 51: Home Movie Day 2016 / 13th

Molly Wheeler (Lucy Gellman photo)

Timeline

00:00 - 31:20 -- interview about Home Movie Day
34:40 - 55:38 -- review of 13TH with Babz Rawls Ivy

Description

On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks to Brian Meacham, Molly Wheeler, and David Pilot about Home Movie Day New Haven 2016, hosted Saturday 10/15 at the New Haven Museum. During the second half of the show Breen welcomes fellow WNHH host and Inner City News CT editor Babz Rawls Ivy for a review of Ava Duvernay's new Netflix documentary, 13TH.

Other Links

http://www.centerforhomemovies.org/hmd/

Episode 38: Jordan Brower / The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby (2013)

How to Listen

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First Segment

Guest: Jordan Brower
0:00 - 52:02 - discussion of the Hollywood studio system's influence on early 20th century American lit with Jordan Brower, followed by a discussion of the THE GREAT GATSBY and its various movie adaptations.

Description

On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks about literature and the movies with Jordan Brower, a recent Yale PhD whose dissertation looks at the profound influence of the Hollywood studio system on the development of American literature in the early 20th century. Breen and Brower focus on one particular work of American modernist fiction, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, and discuss style and impact of the text side by side with its 1974 and 2013 movie adaptations.

Video Links

The Great Gatsby 2013 Scene - Gatsby & Daisy Meeting

Screne from the 1974 version of THE GREAT GATSBY

Episode 33: BODY DOUBLES / Terror on Tape

Laura Marsh (Lucy Gellman photo)

How to Listen

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First Segment

Guests: Selby Nimrod, Sarah Lasley, Laura Marsh
0:00 - 40:11 - interview about BODY DOUBLES

Second Segment

Guests: David Gary, Nicholas Forster
41:52 - 55:33 - interview about the Terror on Tape symposium

Description

On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks with curator Selby Nimrod, filmmaker Sarah Lasley, and No Pop gallery co-director Laura Marsh about BODY DOUBLES, a one-night screening series of short, experimental movies about the body: the body as an idea, a physical reality, a venue for political debate and artistic exploration. For the second segment of the show, Tom talks with Yale librarian David Gary and grad student Nicholas Forster about the Terror on Tape symposium, an academic conference dedicated to VHS.

Video Links

Trailer for Eve by Sarah Lasley

The Observatory by Doreen Garner

Trailer for Truth or Dare: A Critical Madness (1986)

Episode 31: Latin American Cinema / Class Pictures

How to Listen

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First Segment

Guests: Margherita Tortora
0:00 - 29:39 - interview with Margherita Tortora about Latin American filmmaker series

Second Segment

Guests: Brian Meacham, Carolyn Jacobs, Andrew Vielkind
29:40 - 1:04:34 - interview about the role of the film archive, and about the Class Pictures screening night

Description

On this week's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks with Yale Spanish teacher Margherita Tortora about her new series that brings filmmakers from Latin America to the Elm City for post-screening discussions with students and the general public alike. The series concludes this weekend with a 5-film tribute to Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, one of the founding fathers of post-revolutionary Cuban cinema. For the second segment of the show, Tom talks with Yale film archivist Brian Meacham and graduate students Andrew Vielkind and Carolyn Jacobs about a night of screenings that focuses on the history and practice of the film archive.

Video Links

Clip from Strawberry & Chocolate (1994) by Tomas Gutierrez Alea. 

Episode 9: Home Movie Day / VHS

Molly Wheeler (Lucy Gellman photo)

How to Listen

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First Segment

Guests: Brian Meacham, Molly Wheeler
0:00 - 27:01 - interview with local film archivists Brian Meacham and Molly Wheeler about Home Movie Day at the New Haven Museum

Second Segment

Guests: David Gary, Joe Fay
27:02 - 52:53 - discussion of the Yale library's new VHS collection and a VHS swap at Lyric Hall

Description

For the first segment of today's show, Tom Breen talks with film archivists Brian Meacham and Molly Wheeler about Home Movie Day at the New Haven Museum. For the second segment, he talks about the cultural and historical importance of the VHS with Yale librarian David Gary and Lyric Hall movie programmer Joe Fay.

Video Links

Trailer for the VHS documentary REWIND THIS

Episode 8: Film Masterpieces / Black Mass

How to Listen

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First Segment

Guests: Dudley Andrew, David Bromwich
0:00 - 43:39 - interview with Yale professors Dudley Andrew and David Bromwich about the Film Masterpieces screening series

Second Segment

Guests: Allan Appel
43:40 - 54:09 - review of BLACK MASS

Description

Tom Breen talks with Professors Dudley Andrew and David Bromwich about how to classify a film masterpiece, and then reviews BLACK MASS with Allan Appel.

Video Links

Trailer for BLACK MASS (2015)