[Frameworks] Screening possibilities in Rochester NY

[Pip Chodorov]

I wish it were the case when I was a student there, mid 1980s.
I never went to the Visual Studies Workshop because it was downtown, 
far from campus.
Although the University was heavily sponsored by George Eastman (and 
he founded the Eastman School of Music to teach film scoring), film 
studies was part of the English department and was not a serious 
major.
I did take a class at George Eastman House and got to see some 
nitrate prints the last time they were ever projected.
The Film Studies Center had 16mm prints of some experimental films 
(Meshes of the Afternoon, Spacy, Wavelength...) but you could only 
see them by booking time in a small viewing room that seated 3 or 4 
people.
Constance Penley's avant-garde film class was a breakthrough. She 
rented a lot of prints from NYFMC and MoMA.
The Cinema Group did show of a lot of great films but only mainstream 
films (with a few bizarre exceptions such as Cafe Flesh). I see from 
their website that it's the same today. It's great that they still 
project 35mm in double system. They never took the initiative to 
start an experimental screening series. However we did establish our 
own Filmmaking Club at that time to create super-8 experiments, and 
we had a good turnout to our screenings.
Pip




At 18:32 -0500 18/12/14, Tara wrote:
>I agree with Jason!  University of Rochester has a fantastic 
>screening series and a very nice auditorium for showing films.  We 
>really enjoy working together.
>As I said, this is a great town for experimental filmmakers.
>Tara
>