Filmmaker Appearance and FIDDLER Sing-along: A Good Week for BMFI Special Events

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Thanks to everyone who has been coming out to attend special events at BMFI! Last Tuesday, May 18, we were honored to have filmmaker Tigre Hill join us for a screening of his documentary, The Barrel of a Gun, and last night, Wednesday, May 25, everyone had a great time at the Fiddler on the Roof Sing-along. There was singing, dancing, matchmaking (maybe). Below are a few photos from the events:

Filmmaker Tigre Hill at The Barrel of a Gun screening and Q&A

Rachel Hancock, Asher Hancock, and Levi Hancock with grandmother Sybil Terres Gilmar in costume! 

Bernie Brenner also in costume at the Fiddler on the Roof Sing-along

Dan Schwartz in the same costume that he wore when he played Tevye at St. Joseph's Prep!

Thanks again to everyone who came out and helped to make these events a success. If you missed out on the sing-along, don't fret. Check out our upcoming Singing in the Summer film series!

New Summer Programming and the Return of Summer Classics!

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Summer is almost here! Soon schools will be out, the beaches will be stormed, and the lines at Rita’s will stretch around the corner. Most importantly, the Summer Classics series begins at BMFI! The latest issue of Projections is at the printer as we speak, but you can check out the web version online now.

Summer Classics at BMFI will feature everything from thrills and chills to epic romances to campy 3-D extravaganzas. The series kicks off on Tuesday, June 14 with Arthur Penn’s The Chase. Here are some other highlights:

In a tribute to the last of the true Hollywood starlets, Elizabeth Taylor, BMFI will screen the two films for which she won Academy Awards, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and BUtterfield 8, and host a special dinner and presentation by film critic Carrie Rickey about Taylor’s life and work.

BMFI remembers Elizabeth Taylor

Other highlights include films by two iconic directors, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock, and fan-favorite sing-alongs to Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon, and The Music Man. There will also be summertime “thrills and chills,” including the film that defined the summer blockbuster, Jaws (which is all part of our evil plot to keep you out of the water and coming to BMFI instead, of course). Actually, there will be a one day Summer Classics Seminar held on Jaws, taught by BMFI Director of Education Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D.

Stay out of the water...

Lovers of all things camp, cult, and kitsch will be pleased to partake in the original 3-D experience with 1950s camp classics It Came From Outer Space and Creature From the Black Lagoon. After a whirlwind summer of classic films, the series will conclude with epic romances that must be seen on the big screen, Casablanca and Gone with the Wind.

See Creature From the Black Lagoon in spectacular 3-D!

Whew! That’s just the summary. Check out Projections for the full list of films. There’s no better way to spend a summer night than seeing your favorite films and stars on the big screen.

As always, there is a terrific crop of new releases including the latest from Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris, and Terrence Malick, Tree of Life, and this year’s Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Picture, the Danish drama In a Better World.

If that’s not enough to convince you to come out BMFI, remember that the one place that’s always air-conditioned in the summer is a movie theater.

After careful consideration, we have a winner!

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Congratulations to Erica Kleckner of Berwyn, the winner of our short video contest! Erica won a full scholarship to this year’s Summer Filmmaking Workshop at BMFI for her video about how she would spend her summer if she didn't take part in the workshop. See her winning video here:

Thanks to her short, Erica joins the rag-tag group of dreamers (also known as motivated high school students) who will spend six weeks this summer working with film professionals from Youth Media Interactive to learn the ins-and-outs of the filmmaking process. They will gain valuable experience (and have a lot of fun) as they write, direct, edit, and produce their own short film. Click here for more information about the annual Summer Filmmaking Workshop at BMFI.

On set at the 2009 Summer Filmmaking Workshop

Congratulations again to Erica Kleckner and to all of the 2011 SFW students. See you on June 27!