Virtual Program Highlights:
The Brattle Film Podcast
The official podcast of Boston’s unofficial film school: The Brattle Theatre. Since 1953 the Brattle has been a home for film lovers to gather and share great cinema; showing an eclectic mix of classic, cutting-edge, foreign, cult, and art-house movies on 35mm film, digital projection, and now virtually.
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1:26:24 • For our third and final episode looking at the way Boston is depicted in movies we look at the wave of independent pictures that began shooting in the city during the 1990s as well as some of the more outlandish genre pictures that have used (or destroyed) the city.
Programs Discussed: Boston on Film, Part 3
1:31:00 • For this second part of our Boston on Film series, we go beyond the crime movie to focus on how the institutions of Boston – educational, social, scientific, medical, legal, and the press – are depicted on screen. Because the focus of these pictures is not on the underground criminal element, they are more likely to feel like time capsules, giving us a glimpse into a Greater Boston that many of us have never seen.
Programs Discussed: Boston on Film, Part 2
1:28:10 • Inspired by our partnering with the Massachusetts Historical Society for a program focusing on the dichotomy of Boston’s image in Hollywood films, we begin a three part series with a selection of pictures that could be called “The Boston Crime Wave,” or, as Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr calls this subgenera, “Boston Triple Decker Films,” or, as Boston crime novelist Chuck Hogan refers to them, “Boston No-R movies.” We explore what these films get right and what they get wrong in how they depict and use our fair city in geographical, character, and thematic terms.
Programs Discussed: Boston on Film Part 1
1:07:14 • We catch up with our longest running virtual series; movies for kids, about kids, for families, and about families.
Programs Discussed: Y’Know, for the Kids
1:16:02 • We’re joined by Shawn Cotter, director of Wicked Queer, The Boston LGBT Film Festival to talk movies to watch while closing Pride Month – including the three Pioneers of Queer Cinema re-released by Kino Lorber that are featured in the Brattle’s Virtual Cinema.
Programs Discussed: Wicked Queer, Pioneers of Queer Cinema
41:43 • In a special interview episode, we talk with Lisa Simmons of the Roxbury International Film Festival, which had to postpone its 21st season due to COVID-19.
53:46 • We discuss films from our ongoing series that attempt to trick your streaming platforms (and your minds) into helping you discover a more eclectic mix of movies.
Programs Discussed: #BreakYourAlgorithm
59:56 • We discuss five films playing in our virtual cinema: The Ghost of Peter Sellers, Lucky Grandma, Vitalina Varela, Fourteen, and Thousand Pieces of Gold. Plus, we get a surprise visit from the editor of one of those films for an unplanned Q&A.
Programs Discussed: The Ghost of Peter Sellers, Lucky Grandma, Vitalina Varela, Fourteen, and Thousand Pieces of Gold
1:05:41 • For our annual Reunion Week, we take a look at some films from the classes of 1945, 1970, and 1995.
Programs Discussed: Reunion Week 2020
1:55:05 • We’re joined by our friends Alex and Kristen from Strictly Brohibited for a series of sci-fi films that have a significant creative contribution from women – either behind the camera or the page of the script.
Programs Discussed: Women of Sci-Fi
1:19:59 • In this episode, we explore some of the films recently run in our Virtual Screening Room as well as the #BreakYourAlgorithm series, and we read and play some more of our listener’s earliest cinema-going memories.
Programs Discussed: The Cordillera of Dreams, Deerskin, L’Innocente, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, #BreakYourAlgorithm
1:35:24 • In this episode, we spar over what exactly constitutes a screwball comedy and share our thoughts on some of our favorite examples of the genre as well as a few other films it inspired.
Programs Discussed: Screwball Comedy
1:28:29 • As we enter week six of COVID-19 lockdown we dive deep into the documentary Other Music, which tracks the last days of an indispensable institution and explore what made it special; and we talk about our favorite movies from all our virtual series so far: Music Matters, #BreakYourAlgorithm, “Y’Know, For The Kids,” and Take the Red Pill: The Pop-Art Sci-Fi of the Wachowskis.
Programs Discussed: Other Music, Music Matters, #BreakYourAlgorithm, “Y’Know, for the Kids,” and Take the Red Pill: The Pop-Art Sci-Fi of the Wachowskis.
1:29:14 • We travel the globe via movies that present international cities from insider and outsider perspectives; also we learn about the Brattle’s long legacy of bringing iconic foreign language films to American audiences.
Programs Discussed: Virtual Vacation International
Podcast – Episode 18: Behind the Scenes on Boston Movies
1:28:31 • As an addendum to our Boston on Film series we’re joined by Adam Roffman for a look behind the scenes of many of the films featured in our three previous episodes. Adam, an on-set dresser, documentarian, and former programmer of Independent Film Festival Boston, shares his stories of working on The Town, Little Women, American Hustle, Patriots Day, The Heat, and countless other Boston productions, as well as what the future of production looks like during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Programs Discussed: Boston on Film