Establishing Shot

April is an incredibly busy month in the Browning Cinema with 30 different titles screening. Ted and Ricky do a rundown of some options for indoor fun if the month makes good on its rainy persona.  There’s a handful of film directors and writers visiting with their films during the month, including aerospace engineer and filmmaker Silvia Casalino and journalist Alice Coffin, who came for the April 6 screening of the film No Gravity; Helen Young, who is the director of the documentary The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs, came to campus with one of the film’s subjects Sister Megan Rice; mononymic director Huey is in from Maine with his biodocumentary entitled Henry David Thoreau: Surveyor of the Soul, on which Professor Laura Walls of the Notre Dame English Department served as Lead Senior Consultant; the author of the book on which Annihilation was based, Jeff VanderMeer, will be on campus to discuss the adaption; and the month closes with a visit from Volker Schlöndorff, a towering figure in the German New Wave, with his film Young Törless from 1966.

Along with those special events, ongoing semester-long series are coming to a close. The Learning Beyond the Classics class on 1968 closes with Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Faces, and Night of the Living Dead. The Gender and Rock series closes with Detroit Rock City and Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains. The run of Sunday Family Films has a broad mix with the Western mashup Rango, WALL-E on Earth Day, and Rain Man meets Nintendo with The Wizard. Lastly, a mini-series on Joan of Arc and Africa hits in the middle of April with Bruno Dumont’s new heavy metal musical about a young Joan of Arc entitled Jeanette; Mali Blues, a documentary on the busy and world-famous music scene arising from Mali in West Africa; and ends with a performer featured in Mali Blues live-scoring Carl Dreyer’s 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc with other Malian musicians and Notre Dame students. Outside of those series, there are many, many more new and classic films available during April.

This episode of Establishing Shot closes with Ted and Ricky celebrating the uptick of animals in prestige films, from Isle of Dogs to the upcoming Show Dogs. With a nod to those, they run down their Top 3 favorite films involving animals. This Top 3 menagerie is filled with dogs, cats, rats, turkeys, and even a home-security-system mongoose.

It’s Raining Film at the Browning Cinema!

Establishing Shot Podcast

March is the midpoint of the Spring semester, often cleaved by Spring Break. Further, it stands at an interesting juncture of the cinema world. Sundance, Berlinale, the BAFTAs and the Oscars have just wrapped up. In their wake, the summer blockbusters have started appearing, heralding the warmer months and, also, different conversations about movies.

In the Browning Cinema, March is a busy month with screenings running during Spring Break. (Come check out The Post over break if you’re getting your slice of Daytona Beach locally on the shores of the St. Joseph River!) Outside of that, fellow Oscar nominees I, Tonya and Faces Places have a run during the month in our New at the Browning series, alongside two new music-related films: Song of Granite (co-sponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies) and Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. Classic cinema is represented by Stop Making Sense, in the Gender and Rock series, and Medium Cool and In the Year of the Pig from the Learning Beyond the Classics series on the year 1968. Keeping the music in film banner high, a documentary about Itzhak Perlman entitled, directly, Itzhak will be used to herald his return performance on campus as well as launch the lineup of the 2018 Michiana Jewish Film Festival (film titles TBD).

In the Top 3 (trademark (rejected by the USPTO)) portion of the podcast, Ted and Ricky lament the hour that slips silently and immediately through the hourglass when Daylight Saving Time ends come March 11. As a requiem for that lost time, Ted and Ricky run through films you can enjoy when you don’t have that much time (i.e., really good short feature films (i.e., films under 90 minutes)). In Ted’s mix are a French New Wave classic by Agnès Varda (who will be seen in the upcoming Faces Places in the Browning Cinema), a mockumentary urtext, and one of Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s shorter offerings. Ricky puts forward an upcoming Learning Beyond the Classics film from the Czech New Wave, an anti-nuke narrative from before Dr. Strangelove, and a Christmas classic just in time for the summertime.

In Like a Lion: March at the Browning Cinema

Establishing Shot Podcast

Ted and Ricky are back in the warm confines of the Browning Cinema to discuss the full slate of films February has in place.  February is one of the busier months here in the Browning with no planned breaks or holidays. Further, the American film awards season crescendos during the month giving arthouses both more supply and demand. Of note, the Browning will be showing multiple films nominated for Oscars, including The Florida Project, The Square, and a weekend full of short films nominated for Oscars in three categories: live action, documentary (program A and program B), and animated. An annual audience favorite, the Oscar Shorts allow the completists out there (audiences who want to see any and all films nominated for Oscars) their shot at ticking off the entire list.

This month also sees the continuation of a three-semester-long series as well as a film festival. Sunday Family Films has a diverse offering, including the rarely exhibited Polly and the just-in-time-for-the-Olympics Cool Runnings. Gender and Rock keeps the volume up with This is Spinal Tap, The Decline of Western Civilization, and School of Rock. Lastly, the Learning Beyond the Classics series featuring films form 1968 has Memories of Underdevelopment from Cuba, the spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West, and Kill! from Japan. Complementing those is the weekend-long ScreenPeace Film Festival, an annual collaboration with the Kroc Institute, that showcases global cinema and films that address peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

In the soon-to-be-trademarked Top 3 portion of the podcast, Ted and Ricky honor Groundhog Day by discussing films they can watch over and over and over (and over (and over))—films that just passing by the TV and seeing them can trap you for the next 90 minutes—and what about those movies makes them such enjoyable (or dutiful) experiences.

Wind It Back + Start Again

Establishing Shot Podcast

Ted and Ricky ring in the new year and the new semester with the Browning Cinema’s exciting offerings starting in January. Those include a new film education opportunity available to the public via the new Learning Beyond the Classics Series, which expands a film series with academic articles, pre-recorded introductions, and post-film discussions. The series showcases films of 1968, a year when the world changed movies and movies changed the world, and is tied to a course being offered by Professor Susan Ohmer of the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre. Another film series beginning this semester is the Gender and Rock series offered on Tuesday nights in conjunction with a film studies course led by Professor Mary Kearney.

After briefly discussing what’s happening at the Browning Cinema, Ted and Ricky close the books on 2017 with two (count ’em two!!) separate Top 3 Lists (patent-pending). The first is the more traditional Top 3 films released during 2017, which sees Ted endorsing a string of documentaries and Ricky potentially fudging the rules by including a film from 2016. The second Top 3 List may be sparking a new tradition with Ted and Ricky discussing the best films (or filmgoing experiences) they saw during 2017 that were released from many moons ago, which allows a light to be shined on films of the past that may be relevant or downright fun for today.

Ted and Ricky’s Best of 2017

Ted’s PicksRicky’s PicksFaces Places (2017)Zama (2017)Ex Libris (2017)The Death of Louis XIV (2016)Dawson City: Frozen Time (2017)It (2017)

Ted and Ricky’s Throwbacks Revisited in 2017

Ted’s PicksRicky’s Picks8 Hours Don’t Make a Day (1972-1973)Batman Returns (1992)Brighter Summer Day (1991)Salt of the Earth (1954)I Walked with a Zombie (1943)The Pit (1981)

New and Fresh at the Browning Cinema

Establishing Shot Podcast

With the close of the Fall 2017 semester, so too comes the Winter Break. And each Winter Break is observed with solemnity by the Browning Cinema as it goes dark for roughly one month until Notre Dame returns to session.

Two films will be slipping in prior to that hiatus, though. The first is Frederick Wiseman’s enrapturing three hour (and then some) documentary Ex Libris: The New York Public Library. Wiseman’s films are rather recognizable, in part, for his let’s-coolly-observe-institutions-and-bureaucratic-processes style, which is detached yet engaging. His career spans 50 years, and what is likely his best-known film, which examines daily life in a high school and is rather directly titled High School, will be part of the 1968 Film Series next semester.

The second film before the holidays is also a New York City joint. The last of the semester’s Sunday Family Film Series will be Miracle on 34th Street, the holiday classic from now 70 years ago wherein Kris Kringle (played by Edmund Gwenn in an Oscar-winning role) goes before the New York City bench to prove he is, indeed, Santa Claus. A note that the success and support for the Sunday Family Film Series, which happens every Sunday at noon with kids 12 and under receiving free admission, will continue into next semester. Be on the lookout for the Spring semester offerings in the near future.

The episode wraps up with Ted and Ricky engaging the recent thought experiment about which director had the greatest run of three straight films.  For example, a common answer offered online, which neither Ted nor Ricky support, was Stephen Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan (1998), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and Minority Report (2002). Ted and Ricky both discuss the merits (and detriments) of such a thought experiment and present their top three directors each with their run of three films, which makes for a 3^3 cube and a bunch of binge-worthy options as the break approaches.

Cassavetes – Faces, Husbands, Minnie & Moskowitz-Ted Barron (@tedbarronND) November 24, 2017

Ted and Ricky’s Director Trifecta

Establishing Shot Podcast

The turn from October to November brings with it chillier air and darker evenings, both very conducive to filmgoing. Ted and Ricky are on hand to run through the various options the Browning Cinema is offering to fill the hunger left by your Halloween binging. November brings a mix of performances from National Theatre Live, including the family-friendly stage version Peter Pan, the classic chamber play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? revived with Imelda Staunton as Martha (the role Elizabeth Taylor made famous), and the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies. Ted’s RKO Classics class continues as the studio transitions into and out of the Howard Hughes’s years with The Best Years of Our Lives, Stromboli, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Capping a successful run of visiting artists, three films will have directors visiting the Browning Cinema to discuss their films, including Donkeyote (Chico Pereira), More Than a Word (Ken and John Little), and Chosen: Custody of the Eyes (Abbie Reese). Fans of international cinema can look forward to Albert Serra’s The Death of Louis XIV from France about the gangrenous king, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry from Chile about mid-century surrealism in Chile, and Petra Volpe’s The Divine Order from Switzerland about women fighting to receive the right to vote in 1971 Switzerland. Two other films of note include Waiting for Guffman, which will be Rocky-Horror-icized by the South Bend Blaine-iacs, and The Last Waltz, which is a documentary about The Band’s last performance together on Thanksgiving 1976.

To note the time of year when families often join to celebrate (and watch movies), Ted and Ricky close by running through their top three holiday family films, which is to say the films they watched in familial community during holidays that stuck with them (for better or for worse) and analyze the ties that bind both families together and families to the same screen.

Sweater Weather Cinema

Establishing Shot Podcast

Ted and Ricky discuss what films and frights are coming to the Browning Cinema this October. The RKO Series stays in the 1940s with Orson Welles’s Hoosier film The Magnificent Ambersons, the noir Murder, My Sweet, and a creature double feature with Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie. Sunday Family Films include the Studio Ghibli classic My Neighbor Totoro, the Disney nature documentary Bears, and two Halloween-related films to round out the month: Frankenweenie and Hocus Pocus.

Switching from upcoming films, Ricky and Ted discuss their time at the Toronto International Film Festival and offer their gold, silver, and bronze medals from the Big Smoke.

See what’s on at the Browning Cinema.

Film and Frights

Establishing Shot Podcast

This month, Ted and Ricky catch up on festivals they attended, Ted having recently returned from Munich International Film Festival and Ricky having not yet caught up on his time at the Tribeca Film Festival.  They then lay out the films scheduled at the Browning Cinema over the summer.  First is the Summer Classics Series, made possible by the Meg and John P. Brogan Endowment for Classic Cinema. Starting in July, the Browning will be showing a classic film every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. ending with the 80’s fan-favorite Big on August 9. Through a partnership with La Casa de Amistad, all films will be presented in English with Spanish subtitles. Lastly, Ricky and Ted run through what kids and kids-at-heart can expect at the 2017 ANDkids World Film Festival, which runs from August 3 to 5 and includes films from 31 different countries.

See what’s on at the Browning Cinema.

Film Festivus for the Rest of Us

Establishing Shot Podcast

The 7th Annual Michiana Jewish Film Festival is coming to the Browning Cinema May 15–18. Dr. Ilene Sheffer, Vice Chancellor Emerita at Indiana University South Bend and currently the Chief Campaign Strategist for the Ronald McDonald House of Michiana, served as a committee member selecting films for the 2017 festival. She joins Ted and Ricky on the podcast to discuss the eight films in this year’s lineup and major sponsor, the South Bend Cubs.

This year’s slate of films is a mix of narrative and documentaries hitting both historical and current stories in the Jewish community. The films this year include Fanny’s Journey, an uplifting period piece about children escaping Nazi-occupied France; The Last Laugh, a documentary interviewing comedians and Holocaust survivors about the use of humor to discuss the Holocaust; On the Map, a documentary about Maccabi Tel Aviv’s run to the 1977 European Basketball Championship; Fever at Dawn, a period drama about a Hungarian Holocaust survivor’s attempt to marry after being displaced to Sweden; In Search of Israeli Cuisine, a documentary about the varied influences on the nation’s food culture; Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?, a documentary about a gay man’s reconciliation with his Israeli family; Big Sonia, a documentary about a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Kansas City who manages a business on her own and now faces eviction; and The Women’s Balcony, a comedy about gender and cultural differences within an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem.

One particular highlight of the 2017 Michiana Jewish Film Festival includes Digger Phelps, former head coach of the Notre Dame Men’s Basketball team from 1971–1991 and former ESPN analyst from 1993–2014, appearing to offer his reflections before the screening of On the Map.

2017 Michiana Jewish Film Festival

Establishing Shot Podcast

Ricky and Ted discuss what you’ll find on the Browning Cinema’s April schedule. The 1980s series takes a colorful turn with Purple Rain, Pretty in Pink, and Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red In It on tap. The Global Cinema series enters into the 1980s and 1990s with Close-up from Iran, Rebels of the Neon God from Taiwan, Sweetie from Australia, and Do the Right Thing from Brooklyn.

The April Rundown — Prince, Rebels & “Paterson”

Establishing Shot Podcast