Vol. 38, No. 18

1-18-2006
By: Susan Wittstock Dalzell

University films showcased for week of screenings

Film buffs at Ohio State should be looking forward to Jan. 30. That's the day Hopkins Hall Gallery transforms into Hopkins Hall Movie Theater. A large screen will occupy one wall, 50 seats will be lined up and a popcorn machine will be kept popping, providing visitors with a welcoming environment to slip in and view - for free - any of the continuously running films.

Through Feb. 3, A Week at the Movies will provide a glimpse into the thousands of titles housed in several collections at the university. Times and dates for the screenings can be found at http://arts.osu.edu/weekatthemovies.

"There are more than 6,000 videos and DVDs available through Classroom Services alone," said Prudence Gill, curator of the Hopkins Hall Gallery and Corridor, referring to the Media Library operated by the Office of Information Technology. "We wanted to pull a few of those out, shake the dust off of them and let people enjoy films that rarely get shown."

Gill enlisted the help of faculty associated with the university's film studies program. "I asked them if they'd like to screen their favorite films or teach one of their classes in the Hopkins Hall Movie Theater," Gill said.

Participating faculty have written a short paragraph about his or her particular film, available for moviegoers to pick up and read. Faculty were given free rein to determine how they wanted to show a film: Some may lecture through it; others may start and stop to discuss specific points; and others may provide an introduction and then let it roll. Only films for which the university has the public performance rights will be screened.

John Davidson, associate professor of Germanic languages and literatures and director of the film studies program, will screen
M (Fritz Lang, 1931). "It's one of the classics of German cinema from between the wars," he said. "It was the director's first sound film. He was known for great silent classics and this was something quite new for him."

Ron Green, professor of history of art and film studies, plans to show Buster Keaton's film The General. "I'll lecture through it and have an ongoing discussion," he said. He'll also screen an avant garde film from the 1970s, Paul Sharits' T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G.
Green's films will be shown in 16mm format and are from the original film studies collection, compiled by the Department of Photography and Cinema with a $65,000 grant in the early 1980s. Much of that original collection - 50 to 75 films - is now stored in Green's office, since Classroom Services can no longer afford to maintain the obsolete 16mm technology. Film studies is working on collecting the university's old film projectors.
For A Week at the Movies, participating faculty and their film choices include: Robert Derr, Art, La Jetee (The Pier) (Chris Marker, 1962); Jon Erickson, English, Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948); Mark Svede, History of Art, Daisies (Vera Chytilova, 1966); Laura Podalsky, Spanish and Portuguese, Hour of the Furnaces (Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, 1968); Linda Mizejewski, Women's Studies, The Cheat (1915); and Judith Mayne, French and Italian, Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Akerman, 1975).

Clay Lowe, emeritus faculty and co-host of WCBE's It's Movie Time, plans to show several cutting-edge videos during his time slot, including possibly Battleground OSU: The Campus Unrest of 1970 (1970).

Maria Palazzi, director of ACCAD, has selected animated pieces created by students and faculty. Videos from the Ohio Historical Society's Artists on Art series - which presents interviews with Ohio artists, including many Department of Art emeritus faculty - also will be screened.

There should be a broad audience for the films. Film studies is undergoing a rebirth at Ohio State. The original Department of Photography and Cinema was dismantled in the 1980s, but thanks to the efforts of an interdisciplinary film studies committee, a minor in film studies was created three years ago. A major may soon be available too: the Council on Academic Affairs is expected to vote on the issue by the end of February.
Davidson anticipates film studies will be a popular major.

"I have 30 to 35 students interested in declaring the major and many more who have expressed serious interest," he said.

Finding the films

Faculty on campus use a number of resources to obtain films for their courses. The film studies collection, housed in 11 Lord Hall in Classroom Services' Media Library, includes not only DVD versions of original 16mm films but $20,000 worth of videos purchased when the Short North's Aardvark Video store closed in the late 1990s. The selection continues to grow as faculty make requests for specific films. Many individual departments, particularly in the foreign languages, have small collections. The Thompson Main Library and the Columbus Metropolitan Library have large selections, with the latter earning especially high marks from faculty for the depth and breadth of its offerings. And there's always the option of ordering online from www.facets.org or www.netflix.com.

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