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When movies were just minutes long and seeing them cost only a nickel, theaters often named themselves after the French word for jewel: bijou (early cinemas often resembled the luxurious inside of a jewel box). As films evolved, large, multiplex theaters became king, leaving many of these intimate theaters behind.
Yesterday, students, faculty and community members gathered on the Ladd House patio for No Man’s Land Film Festival’s return to campus, marking the second consecutive year the organization has held a screening at Bowdoin. The event, co-hosted by the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) and the Sexuality, Women, and Gender Center (SWAG), consisted of a series of short films that focused on “un-defining the feminine” in athletics and outdoor adventure.
Although it’s not his first film that has screened at Bowdoin, “Palisadia” is Henry Spritz’s ’23 last before he graduates. The film, which premiered in Sills Hall last Friday, tells the story of an actress living in New York City as she navigates both the acting in a movie and her life outside her work, as the experiences begin to increasingly mirror one another.
Though the audience was familiar with the scenery of coastal Maine projected on screen, the black-and-white film, lack of dialogue and live piano music immersed the audience in a pastime seldom experienced since the early 20th century.
Brunswick has been home to a local cinema since 1908. The name and location of this theater have changed over the past century, but today, Eveningstar Cinema on Maine Street carries on the tradition as Brunswick’s go-to specialty box office.
On Wednesday night, two Bowdoin alumni returned to campus with a unique story rooted in the language of humor as a tool for decolonization and rewriting histories. Hannah Rafkin ’17 and Meg Robbins ’17 screened their documentary “In Stitches” and answered questions from students, faculty and community members.
Laurent Cantet’s 2001 prize-winning film, “Time Out,” opens with a shot of Vincent—the film’s protagonist—asleep in a car. The audience quickly learns that Vincent, portrayed by Aurélien Recoing, has lost his job and is lying to his family about having found a new one in Geneva.
Idriss Jebari, an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in History, understands the power of film to expose new perspectives. Now during his first year at Bowdoin, he has founded a Middle East film series, filled with narrative-driven movies that tell the story of individuals.
