05 Dec Philadelphia Monthly Arts Round-Up: December 2022
BY ARTA BARZANJI
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The bad news is that the film festival season is largely behind us, but the good news is that means we should expect the latest and greatest festival hits to slowly trickle down to our local arthouse cinemas anytime now. While I’m usually catching up with such new festival releases in December in preparation for the best-films-of-the-year lists, this December is a little different: the new Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Poll (the most well-respected poll of its kind) will be published this month, giving some renewed impetus to cinephiles to catch up on blind spots, revisit (and maybe revise) their personal canon, and discover new gems from the history of cinema.
With that in mind, Philadelphia cinemas have both new festival releases and classics to keep us busy throughout the month of December, with highlights including Lightbox’s screening of Hong Sangsoo’s lovely new work, conversations between filmmakers Phil Bertelsen and Lise Yasui at Scribe Video Center, and plenty of Christmas classics from the Philadelphia Film Society.
Monday, December 5, 2022 at 7:30 PM
Imagining Abolitionist Futures: The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
Imagining Abolitionist Futures is a year-long initiative hosted by Haverford College’s Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities aiming to explore how art and artists can play a role in dismantling the carceral state and building restorative practices in its place. For this screening, Haverford has partnered with Lightbox and cinéSPEAK. The first screening in this series, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, is about how the mechanisms of capitalism use the correctional system and incarcerated people as convenient no-cost labor. The film depicts a variety of issues relating to labor practices in prisons, from incarcerated women who fight raging wildfires in California, to how prison jobs have affected the local economy of an Appalachian coal town. Director Brett Story will be there in person.
Cost: Free
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 7 PM
Expo ‘58: A More Humane Art
Nightletter, Philadelphia’s only exclusively experimental film screening series, is back with their first screening since June, and it’s an exciting program of shorts drawn from the Brussels World’s Fair of 1958, which includes masters of the avant garde Maya Deren, Peter Kubelka, Len Lye, Agnes Varda, Robert Breer, and Stan Brakhage.
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Student/Artist/In need
University Lutheran Church — 3637 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 7:30 PM
The Grapes of Wrath
John Ford’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel remains both one of the most successful screen adaptations of important works of literature as well as one of the best films of American cinema in response to the Great Depression. The expressive eyes of Henry Fonda contain the pains of the entirety of the working class, and the light touch with which Ford directs the dance scene effortlessly conveys the small joys that are to be found in the course of the long and difficult class struggle. And the film has renewed resonance with the reawakening of the labor movement around the country, and in Philadelphia. In solidarity with the PMA workers, Starbucks (and other coffee shop) workers, Temple Nurses, and Temple Graduate Student workers!
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Student, $12 Senior, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Thursday, December 8, at 7 PM
Meet Me in St. Louis
No Holiday season would be complete without a screening of Vincente Minnelli’s Christmas musical, Meet Me in St. Louis. The technicolor cinematography perfectly compliments the heightened emotions, stylized mise en scene, and larger-than-life characters, which include what is probably Judy Garland’s best performance, and her most-remembered one after The Wizard of Oz. (Also screens on December 10th and 13th, both at 1 PM).
Cost: Admission: $13.50, $8 BMFI members, $11 seniors/students, $9 children
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA
Friday, December 9, 2022 at 7:30 PM
Holiday Horrors!
So Halloween has passed, but you’re still in the mood for spooky films? You’re in luck, as Lightbox has partnered with Exhumed Films to present a double bill of 80’s Christmas horror films for those who have a preference for the red of blood over the red of Santa’s suit. Chances are, you are familiar with a film like Black Christmas, but Exhumed Films is exhuming two rarities you are much less likely to have heard of: Don’t Open till Christmas (Edmund Purdom, UK, 1984) and To All a Goodnight (David Hess, USA, 1980), both presented on 35mm film.
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, December 14, at 7 PM
Producers’ Forum With Phil Bertelsen and Lise Yasui: “The Picture Taker”
The Picture Taker is a new documentary about Ernest Withers, a celebrated photo-journalist and civil rights activist, whose shocking secret double life as an FBI informant was only revealed after his death. A conversation between director Phil Bertelsen (Through the Fire, School of the Future) and producer Lise Yasui (Family Gathering) will follow.
Cost: $7.50 General Admission, $5 Students/Seniors, $4 Scribe Members
Scribe Video Center — 3908 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Thursday, December 15, at 7:30 PM
Big Picture Alliance: Fund Film Futures
Fund Film Futures is a screening and fundraiser supporting Big Picture Alliance’s pathways of school, summer, and workforce programs that mentor Philly youth from script-to-screen and from curiosity-to-career. This event brings together a network of supporters, alumni, community leaders, and industry professionals to celebrate the work of young filmmakers and ensure all youth have access to digital media education and career paths. The evening will kick off with a mixer followed by a screening & presentation featuring Big Picture Alliance alumni and special guests.
Cost: $25 General Admission, $50 VIP (Mixer and Screening)
World Cafe Live — 3025 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
MORE EVENTS:
Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at 7 PM
Live in Concert: Patrick Shiroishi, Che Chen, Alex Zhang Hungtai
Cost: $10
Asian Arts Initiative – 1219 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at 7 PM
Cost: $7
Ritz 5 — 214 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Thursday, December 7, 2022, at 7:15 PM
Cost: Admission: $13.50, $8.00 BMFI members, $11.00 seniors/students, $9.00 children
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA
Thursday, December 8, 2022, at 7 PM
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, December 15, at 7 PM
Special Learning Session With Phil Bertelsen – “To the Finish Line”
Cost: $12, free for Scribe members
Scribe Video Center — 3908 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104
*Featured Image: Image of filmmakers at The Big Picture Alliance. Courtesy of The Big Picture Alliance.
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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, 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 was a 2022 participant of the Young Critics Workshop, and his critical writings and translations have appeared both in Farsi and English.
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