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Establishing Shot Indiana University

Medicine for Melancholy and the Intimacies of Black Lives

Posted on by Establishing Shot

Still image from Medicine for Melancholy
Still image from Medicine for Melancholy

Guest contributor Nzingha Kendall reflects on Barry Jenkins’s Medicine for Melancholy in anticipation of IU Cinema’s screenings of Jenkins’s acclaimed new feature film Moonlight later this week.

Barry Jenkins’s first feature Medicine for Melancholy: two gorgeous black people embarking on a love story, one that’s doomed from the start. Perhaps these kinds of love stories are the most interesting, precisely because they don’t last. There’s the attraction, fleeting, but fiercely palpable. Medicine for Melancholy is a snapshot, a slow burn of 24 hours condensed into an hour-and-a-half movie.

At once a commentary on gentrification and the ever-decreasing population of African Americans in the city of San Francisco, as well as a study of two 20-somethings getting to know each other following an unexpected one-night stand, Medicine for Melancholy is also about connections. It asks how black folks connect. What do we reveal about ourselves in order to get to know each other? Does talking limit our ability to really know someone? How are connections forged through touch, through series of exchanged glances? (more…)

Three Things to Keep In Mind When Watching a Kelly Reichardt Film

Posted on by Katherine Johnson

Filmmaker Kelly Reichardt speaks during a Q & A as part of the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series at IU Cinema on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016.
Filmmaker Kelly Reichardt at IU Cinema for the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to introduce Kelly Reichardt to the IU Cinema stage for her Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture. It was a wonderful experience, but getting the chance to hear Kelly speak about filmmaking made the whole thing even more rewarding. In fact, it changed the way I viewed her newest film, Certain Women, later that weekend. Here are a few things I learned from her interview, and how it has impacted the way I watch her films. (more…)

IU Cinema and the National Film Registry

Posted on by Barbara Ann O'Leary

2016 additions to the National Film Registry that have screened at IU Cinema.
2016 additions to the National Film Registry that have screened at IU Cinema.

Earlier this week The Library of Congress announced this year’s additions to the National Film Registry, “showcasing the range and diversity of American film heritage.” Starting in 1989 each year the National Film Registry has identified 25 “works of enduring importance to American culture,” earmarking them for preservation. The registry contains a remarkable range of films, including feature narratives, documentaries, experimental shorts, home movies, trailers, and more.  From Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz to Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon to the Zapruder film to the 1957 movie theatre trailer “Let’s All Go to the Lobby!” and on and on.  Check out the complete list here. (more…)

Manny Knowles: “The Last Link in the Filmmaking Chain”

Posted on by Jon Vickers

Manny Knowles at work in the IU Cinema Booth
Manny Knowles at work in the IU Cinema Booth

Well, the day is here—we knew it would eventually come. The day when an organization loses one of its key members, one who has been there from the beginning, shaping what would follow. What followed was the building and opening of the IU Cinema, in all of its glory. The key member is Manny Knowles, whose last day at Indiana University is today. Manny’s last day as ‘Founding Technical Director,’ though official titles have ebbed and flowed. He leaves us for an amazing opportunity outside of academia, as Director of Operations for a company that installs new motion picture/audio systems in theatres around the country. We wish him well, but …

HE WILL BE GREATLY MISSED! (more…)

Holiday Favorites

Posted on by Establishing Shot

A collage of Holiday Favorites

IU Cinema is wrapping up its Fall 2016 season on December 13 and 14 with two films that have become holiday favorites: Die Hard and Gremlins! It’s going to be a lot of fun, but also a little bittersweet as we say farewell to Manny Knowles, the Cinema’s outgoing technical director. Manny will be introducing both of these holiday films, so don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy some “holiday mayhem” and to let Manny know how much you’ve appreciated all he’s contributed to making the Cinema an amazing place for film, and to wish him well in his new job.

IU Cinema will be dark for a few weeks during Winter Break, but we wanted to send you off with even more Holiday Favorites to help keep the film love burning bright until the Cinema swings back into action in January. Presented below — in chronological order by release date — we share a cavalcade of holiday favorites with brief commentary offered by A Place for Film‘s blog team as well as IU Cinema staff Members and volunteer ambassadors. We hope you’ll enjoy our selections and then share your holiday favorites via social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Happy Holidays! (more…)

Crimson Film Festival 2016

Posted on by Jesse Pasternack

crimson

I am the Co-President of the Indiana Student Cinema Guild. Our biggest event of the fall semester is the Crimson Film Festival.  Crimson takes place on Monday, December 12 at 7:00 p.m at Indiana University Cinema. It is the largest festival of student content at Indiana University, aside from Campus Moviefest in the spring. Crimson was created in 2013 by then president Jacob Gabbard to celebrate the vivid and diverse nature of IU’s filmmaker community. (more…)

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