03 Oct Philadelphia Monthly Arts Round-Up: October 2022
BY ARTA BARZANJI
Please refer to the official websites for events to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information about ticketing, reservations, delays, re-scheduling, cancellations, and other guest policies for venues, including relevant COVID-19 requirements.
They say first impressions last, and if your first impression of a city is that of empty streets, closed businesses, and a void of cultural/artistic events, it’s hard to get over the impression that you’ve entered a ghost town. Even when, consciously, you are well aware that this is more or less the situation in any other city due to the pandemic, the lasting image of the first impression, stamped on your unconscious, can be surprisingly difficult to change. With that said, I’m happy that more than two years after moving to Philadelphia, that image is changing, thanks in no small part to the reopening and resumption of activity in many of the city’s film and art venues.
Highlights of October’s screenings include Lightbox Film Center’s “Pioneers of Queer Cinema” program (in partnership with the UCLA Film & TV Archive), which kicks off with Cheryl Dunye’s Philly classic The Watermelon Woman and continues into next month with seven films. cinéSPEAK’s ongoing outdoor “Under the Stars” screening series features multiple Halloween specials, the highlight of which has to be the Halloween night screening Bill Gunn’s experiential horror flick, Ganja and Hess. Read on to plan your October activities.
Saturday, October 1, 2022 at 11 AM
PCAM FAM Reunion
PhillyCAM is hosting this special event to start their People Power Media Fest. You can get a brief tour of facility updates, explore tech demos and enjoy a casual friendly hang outdoors. There will be lawn games, food, media screenings, WPPM DJs, a headshot booth, karaoke, and opportunities to catch up and network under a shady tree canopy and enjoy reconnecting with the member community in the open outdoor air.
Cost: Free
Park next to PhillyCAM — 699 Ranstead St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Thursday, October 6, 2022 at 6 PM
Towards a Better Germany: Friends and Foes in Films from East Germany
This special program, co-curated by Berlin-based researchers Tobias Hering and Elizabeth Ward, takes a look at some outstanding films coming from the German Democratic Republic in the 1950s and 1960s, posing the questions of how East German filmmakers negotiated with the ideological narratives of the state.
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Student/Senior, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Thursday, October 6 to Sunday, October 9, 2022
“Love Park” Film Series: Park Chan-wook Mini Retrospective
To celebrate the release of acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook’s newest film (Decision to Leave) which won the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes film festival, Philadelphia Film Society is revisiting some of his older works. Over four consecutive days, you can see JSA: Joint Security Area and 35 mm prints of the (in)famous Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Old Boy, Lady Vengeance).
Cost: $38 for the Four-Film Package; Individual Tickets: $14 General Admission, $13 Student, $12 Senior, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Wednesday, October 15, 2022 at 7 PM
Special Live Cinema Event: 32 Sounds
This is an immersive feature documentary and profound sensory experience from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sam Green featuring original music by JD Samson (Le Tigre, MEN). The film explores the elemental phenomenon of sound by weaving together 32 sound explorations into a cinematic meditation on the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us.
Cost: $20 General Admission, $18 Student/Senior, $10 Members, Free for/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 at 8 PM
Pioneers of Queer Cinema: The Watermelon Woman
Kicking off Lightbox’s “Pioneers of Queer Cinema” program, Cheryl Dunye’s Philadelphia-set The Watermelon Woman is a fascinating work of docu-fiction that explores the limits of documentary cinema itself. The screening is preceded by Jan Oxenberg’s 27-minute A Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts.
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Student/Senior, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Thursday, October 20, 2022 at 7 PM
cinéSPEAK Under the Stars: Saloum
Jean Luc Herbulot’s Senegalese thriller follows a trio of mercenaries who become embroiled with malevolent supernatural forces in a unique mixture of genres and conventions ranging from spaghetti Western to monster movies.
Cost: $10 General Admission (No one will be turned away for lack of funds)
The Rotunda — 4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Friday, October 28, 2022 at 7 PM
cinéSPEAK Under the Stars: Teine Sā + Ourika!
An anthology of five short horror films, all by female filmmakers from New Zealand, is surely an intriguing prospect for both fans of the horror genre and those curious about national cinemas that are less known, such as New Zealand. Teine Sā is preceded by Ourika!, a short sci-fi film following a Senegalese girl enslaved by a French aristocrat.
Cost: $10 General Admission (No one will be turned away for lack of funds)
Pentridge Station Pop-up — 5110-5120 Pentridge St, Philadelphia, PA 19143
Saturday, October 29, 2022 at 7 PM
cinéSPEAK Under the Stars: Family Friendly Night
cinéSPEAK’s Family Night is more than a screening: there will be spooky stories, games, and of course, a costume contest starting at 6 PM. As a community event, the feature film will be voted on by the West Philadelphia community, and will be either Frankenweenie (1984) or Hocus Pocus (1993).
Cost: Free
Pentridge Station Pop-up — 5110-5120 Pentridge St, Philadelphia, PA 19143
Monday, October 31, 2022 at 7 PM
cinéSPEAK Under the Stars: Ganja and Hess
Bill Gunn’s highly stylized 1973 cult classic is a must-see for anyone interested in blaxploitation, horror, and independent cinema, or if I may say, for anyone interested in cinema at all! Q&A with composer Sam Waymon will follow after the screening.
Cost: $10 General Admission (No one will be turned away for lack of funds), West/Southwest Residents and SNAP Benefits holders: $2.
Bartram’s Garden — 5400 Lindbergh Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19143
MORE EVENTS:
October 1-31, 2022
Various locations + virtual events
Cost: Free
October 7-March 26, 2022
The Fabric Workshop and Museum — 1214 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Cost: Free
Saturday, October 15, 2022 at 12 PM
Founder’s Award Celebration Honoring Leticia Roa Nixon
Fleisher Art Memorial — 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Cost: $100 + tax
Thursday, October 27, 2022 at 6:30 PM
Movies By The River – Hocus Pocus – Glen Foerd on the Delaware
Glen Foerd on the Delaware — 5001 Grant Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Cost: Free
*Featured Image: Still from Hocus Pocus. Courtesy of IMDB.
Would you like your event to be featured in a future round-up? Please fill out the Philadelphia Monthly Arts Round-Up form at least one month prior to the event. Note: events shared less than a month ahead of time may not be able to make our publishing schedule. The cinéSPEAK Journal maintains sole discretion over the publishing of any information provided via the form. Questions: journal@cinespeak.org
Arta Barzanji is an Iranian cinephile, writer, filmmaker, and a current MFA candidate in Film and Media Arts at Temple University. His work, encompassing experimental, narrative, and documentary modes, always deals directly with the cinema itself, exploring the relationship between the viewer and the screen while engaging with the works of filmmakers as diverse as Stan Brakhage, Orson Welles, Kamran Shirdel, and Malcolm Le Grice. Arta’s critical writings and translations have appeared both in Farsi and English.
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