26 Nov Philadelphia Monthly Cinema Arts Round-Up: December 2024
BY SOPHIA ABRAHAM-RAVESON
Please refer to the official websites for events to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information about ticketing, reservations, delays, rescheduling, cancellations, and other guest policies for venues, including relevant COVID-19 requirements. Inclusion in the Philadelphia Monthly Cinema Arts Round-Up does not signify cinéSPEAK’s endorsement of an event or organization’s mission or political affiliations.
At the end of December, many Philadelphia arts organizations will take a break to celebrate the winter holidays. But before they do, make sure to check out the many film programs happening locally this month. There are screenings of classic (and a little less classic) Christmas films, a Chanukah film screening, a Rocky movie marathon, and many independent film screenings and curated events.
Highlights this month include Scribe Video Center’s 2024 Documentary History Project For Youth screening, this month’s installment of the All About Love Film Series at the Barnes Foundation, and WHYY and Esperanza Arts Center’s screening of Mambo Legends: The Music Never Ends. There’s a lot of bad in this world, but the Philadelphia film community is still thriving and presenting beautiful events. Try to end 2024 in community, supporting local arts organizations, and watching a great movie.
Keep reading to learn more about the film events happening in the Philadelphia area in December.
Sunday, December 1, 2024 at 10 AM
Talk Cinema: The Brutalist
This screening is part of Bryn Mawr Film Institute’s sneak preview series Talk Cinema, curated by critic/industry veteran Harlan Jacobson. This is an opportunity to see the film The Brutalist before its official release on December 20. In The Brutalist, Adrien Brody is a war-scarred architect who has newly arrived in 1940s America. He gets drafted by a volatile tycoon (Guy Pearce) to build a vast arts complex outside of Philadelphia—a partnership that will bring power, money, and a grave personal toll. Having racked up accolades during its festival run, this epic historical drama is one of the season’s most anticipated films. The screening will be followed by a discussion, led by a distinguished moderator.
Cost: $10-$20
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 West Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at 7 PM
Narcisa Hirsch, In Memoriam (1928-2024)
Attend this screening of short films by the late filmmaker Narcisa Hirsch. Before her death earlier this year, Hirsch spent six decades at the cutting edge of filmmaking in Argentina. She used small gauge film to create poetic films that incorporated themes of myth, sexuality, dreams, and the everyday. Hirsch operated outside of the mainstream and remained virtually unknown outside of Argentina for most of her life. Finally, her work is getting the attention it deserves. This film program includes Manzanas, A-Dios, Canciones Napolitanas, Orfeo y Euridice, Taller, La Noche Bengali, Aleph, and Come Out.
Cost: $11.20-$13.24
Moore College of Art & Design — 1916 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 7 PM
Firebird: Built to Burn
Attend this screening of a Philadelphia-area documentary made by local filmmakers. In resurgent Phoenixville, PA, a tight-knit community gathers each December to ignite a new, giant, wooden phoenix, fueling the passions of local artists and rekindling a unifying, pre-rust belt spirit. Through intimate interviews, painfully relatable video calls, and fly-on-the-wall vérité, Firebird: Built to Burn chronicles the efforts of a diverse group of volunteers who persevere through pandemic restrictions, local government negotiations, and months of arduous construction to orchestrate the return of the cathartic annual festival following its 2020 cancellation. Stay after the screening for a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Cost: $11-$16
The Colonial Theatre — 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460
Friday, December 6 and Saturday, December 7, 2024
RockyFEST 2024
Celebrate Philadelphia’s most iconic film hero at the Rocky Movie Marathon, part of RockyFest 2024. This marathon showing of Sylvester Stallone’s blockbuster franchise includes Rocky 1 to Rocky 5 and Rocky Balboa. You can attend a single movie or stay for the full marathon. The Philadelphia Visitor Center will partner with the Philadelphia Film Society to activate the Film Society Center with pop up events, selfie spots, and Rocky-themed activities throughout the marathon weekend.
Cost: $9-$48
Film Society Center — 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Sunday, December 8, 2024 at 2 PM
Community Memory: Documentary History Project for Youth 2024
Join Scribe Video Center and the Institute of Contemporary Art at Penn to celebrate new works from Scribe’s 2024 Documentary History Project For Youth program. Each year, youth participants create short documentary films as a way to explore some aspect of the social, political, and cultural history of Philadelphia. This year’s films explore the theme “Community Memory.” Support local youth filmmakers and learn more about our city at this special screening.
Cost: $5 (suggested donation)
Institute of Contemporary Art — 118 South 36th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104
Friday, December 13, 2024 at 7 PM
Storyville: Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
Storyville is Scribe’s monthly screening series that focuses on new works produced by local film and video makers. This month features Sacha Jenkins, a New York-based filmmaker who typically makes music-based documentaries that meet at the intersection between the sounds and the climate that created the sounds. Jenkins’ film Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (2022) looks to reveal a different side of the showman using audio diaries recorded by Armstrong himself. The audio from those tapes and an array of archival footage are the driving forces in composing this complex portrait of the jazz musician. Sacha Jenkins will join the event via Zoom.
Cost: $5 (suggested donation)
Scribe Video Center — 3908 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Saturday, December 14, 2024 at 2 PM
All About Love Film Series: In the Morning
This film is part of a series, presented in conjunction with the current Barnes exhibition, Mickalene Thomas: All About Love. Curated by BlackStar Film Festival founder Maori Karmael Holmes, each screening explores a theme reflected in All About Love—kinship, femininity, and desire. Writer-director Nefertite Nguvu’s debut feature In the Morning relates to the theme of femininity and offers an exploration of love, infidelity, and friendship with a focus on the interiority of Black women. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Nguvu moderated by Holmes. This program includes access to the Barnes collection and the Mickalene Thomas: All About Love exhibit.
Cost: $0-$15
Barnes Foundation — 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130
Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 7 PM
Murdering the Devil
Check out this newly restored 1970 Czech film at the new Lightbox Film Center in the Bok building. In Murdering the Devil, dissatisfied with single life and eyeing marriage, an unnamed fortysomething bachelorette decides to rekindle a relationship with her old childhood friend. But when he arrives for an elaborately prepared dinner rendezvous, her suitor reveals himself to be a boorish, arrogant glutton. Undeterred, she pushes herself to increasingly absurd and surreal ends in romancing this nightmare date, who may just be the devil himself.
Cost: $13.24-$15.28
Bok Auditorium — 800 Mifflin Street, Philadelphia, PA 19148
Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 6 PM
Latin Rhythms & Reels Film Series: Mambo Legends: The Music Never Ends
This event is part of the WHYY and Esperanza Arts Center Latin Rhythm & Reels Miniseries. The event includes a screening of the music documentary Mambo Legends: The Music Never Ends, which follows the Mambo Legends Orchestra, a band committed to keeping the sounds of the great Afro Cuban bandleaders Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez alive for future generations. The Mambo Legends provide a link to the golden era of music in New York in the early 1940s, when the Machito Orchestra fused the big-band sound of popular music with the rhythms of Africa, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to create an enduring musical genre beloved around the world. Come to watch the film in community, enjoy latin food, live music, and a post-screening conversation.
Cost: Free
Esperanza Arts Center — 4261 North 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19140
Saturday, December 21 and Sunday, December 22, 2024 at 3:30 PM
Chez Jolie Coiffure
This film is part of the Philadelphia Film Society’s Echoes of the Land: Chronicles of West Africa series. In Chez Jolie Coiffure, a spirited Cameroonian hairdresser creates a sanctuary where the struggles, aspirations, and resilience of the West African immigrant community are free to roam. This 2018 documentary is in Cameroon Pidgin and French.
Cost: $11.50-$15.50
Film Society Center — 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
More Events:
Sunday, December 1, 2024 at 7 PM
Salad Days Director’s Cut 10th Anniversary Screening
Cost: $23.27
Underground Arts — 1200 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 6 PM
Cost: $300
The Switch House in Philadelphia — 1412 Mt. Vernon Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130
Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 7:30 PM
The Secret Cinema Presents: Creepy Christmas Films
Cost: $10.50-$15
Bryn Mawr Film Institute — 824 West Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Monday, December 9, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Cost: $14.93
PhilaMOCA — 531 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 7 PM
Cost: $13.24-$15.28
Bok Auditorium — 800 Mifflin Street, Philadelphia, PA 19148
Friday, December 13, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Exhumed Films Presents: Psycho Santa’s Holiday Horror Party
Cost: $24.87
PhilaMOCA — 531 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Saturday, December 14, 2024 at 4 PM
File/Life: We Remember Stories of Pennhurst
Cost: $5 (suggested donation)
Scribe Video Center — 3908 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Monday, December 16, 2024 at 5:30 PM
Cost: Free
Parkway Central Free Library — 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 7 PM
Eight Crazy Nights: Latkes & Vodkas Movie Night
Cost: $15
Khyber Pass Pub — 56 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA
Friday, December 20, 2024 at 8 PM
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
Cost: Pay What You Wish
The Rotunda — 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
*Featured Image: Still from The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Courtesy of Bowerbird.
Sophia Abraham-Raveson is the Managing Editor for the cinéSPEAK Journal. She has previously worked for several Philadelphia-based film festivals, including BlackStar and Tri-Co Film Festival.
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