04 Apr Philadelphia Monthly Arts Round-Up: April 2023
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.
With the coming of spring and the renewal of life in nature, there also comes a renewed impetus for film screenings, art exhibits, and cultural events. And as we move past the cold of winter, the pleasant warmth of spring also allows for more outdoor events, gatherings, and collective activities and a renewed sense of community.
Highlights of this month include a series of Philly-based shorts from over the decades by The Secret Cinema, the Philadelphia premiere of Albert Serra’s award-winning new film Pacifiction at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, and a collection of shorts by the New Negress Film Society.
April 1 – April 23, 2023
PORTALS: Termite TV’s 31st Anniversary Exhibition
With works from more than 25 artists, including current and past members of the Termite TV Collective, this exhibit celebrates 31 years of creative exploration of political, social, and cultural life. Pondering questions of what a “return to normal” after the pandemic means, the PORTALS exhibit includes screenings, video sculptures, installations, workshops, and more in search of new means of collective exploration of political and artistic expression.
Cost: Free
Cherry Street Pier — 121 N Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 7:30 PM
From Philadelphia With Love (presented by The Secret Cinema)
Secret Cinema’s Jay Schwartz has been on a mission to preserve and showcase the history of Philadelphia through the medium of celluloid film for years through his ongoing programming series “From Philadelphia With Love.” Featuring a varied collection of amateur and non-theatrical productions, this unique program of 16 mm films will shed light on the history of Philly and is a program that you’re genuinely not going to be able to see elsewhere.
Cost: $13.50 General Admission, $8 BMFI Members, $11 Seniors/Students, $9 Children
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA
Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 7 PM
Stray Dog
This post-World War II gangster film is Akira Kurosawa’s most mature film from the 1940s. Kurosawa manages to move his social critique to the subtext of a genre film and the film’s extensive use of real locations makes it a “composite portrait” (per film scholar Stephen Prince) of postwar Japan, a kind of neorealist cop movie.
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 7 PM
New Negress Film Society Presents
Curated by members of The New Negress Film Society collective, filmmakers Yvonne Shirley and Stefani Saintonge, this program of shorts looks to put the spotlight on Black women and non-binary filmmakers. The films included in the program are Miasia: The Nature of Experience By Yvonne Michelle Shirley (USA, 2017, 30 min), Fucked Like a Star
By Stefani Saintonge (USA, 2018, 8 min), and Seventh Grade By Stefani Saintonge
(USA, 11 min, 2014).
Cost: $7.50 General Admission, $5 Students/Seniors, $4 Scribe Members
Scribe Video Center — 3908 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Sunday, April 22, 2023 at 5 PM
Earth Day on 52nd Street presented by Get Fresh Daily & cinéSPEAK!
cinéSPEAK and Get Fresh Daily’s 2023 season kick-off coincides with Earth Day and includes interactive garden experiences, live music, and a screening of Black Panther (2018).
Cost: Free
Freedom Greens + Gardens and Malcolm X Park — 52nd and Pine St, Phila. PA 19143
Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 6:15 PM
La Jetée & The Gleaners and I
An intriguing double-feature, this program puts two works from two of the most essential non-fiction post-World War II French filmmakers together. While Chris Marker and Agnes Varda are contemporaries, these two films came at opposite ends of their respective careers: La Jetée, Marker’s legendary science fiction photo-montage, was one of his early works and became a highly influential work of the 1960s. The Gleaners and I, on the other hand, was made in the last couple of decades of Varda’s life and remains one of the key texts of early digital filmmaking, and perhaps Varda’s most essential film.
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 4:00 PM
Pacifiction
Selected as the best film of 2022 by both Cahiers du Cinéma and Cinema Scope, controversial auteur Albert Serra’s latest film takes you on an oddly transfixing journey to the coast of Tahiti, where you are put in the shoes of Benoît Magimel’s French high commissioner. An obscure conspiracy might (or might not) be unfolding, and the paranoia, created by the constant sense of uncertainty, compliments the leisurely pace and engrossing visual design to create a film that invites you to stop fighting to understand what’s going on, and instead lose yourself in its entrancing atmosphere and sensuous world.
Cost: $13.50 General Admission, $8 BMFI Members, $11 Seniors/Students, $9 Children
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA
Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 6:15 PM
Andrei Rublev
Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinematic output might have been small numerically (he only made seven feature films) but it was, and remains, vast in its depth of insight into humanity and the aesthetics of cinema. Following the eponymous icon painter of the middle ages, Andrei Rublev was Tarkovsky’s most explicit inward reflection about his own existence as an artist, about faith (in politics, art, and religion), and the violent uncertainty of the times both he and Rublev lived in.
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
MORE EVENTS:
Friday, April 7, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 2 PM
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 5:00 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Cost: $13.50 General Admission, $8 BMFI Members, $11 Seniors/Students, $9 Children
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA
Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 7 PM
Storyville: Student Media Showcase
Cost: Suggested Donation $5
Scribe Video Center — 3908 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 7:15 PM
Cost: $13.50 General Admission, $8 BMFI Members, $11 Seniors/Students, $9 Children
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA
Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 8 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Friday, April 21, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 3:30 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 3:30 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Friday, April 28, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)
Philadelphia Film Center — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 7 PM
Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff
Lightbox Film Center — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
*Featured Image: Still from Sheet Music, to be featured in Storyville: Student Media Showcase. Image credit: Jaran Huggins.
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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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