Movie fans can be a pasty bunch. Ducking out of the sun to catch a sparsely attended matinee is par for the course — those nearly empty mid-week shows are a welcome respite from the cellphones and chatter of weekend opening nights. Netflix, Vimeo, and the local library can eat up an awful lot of the remaining daytime hours for the diehards among us.
Luckily, film buffs in the Valley have the best of both worlds at our doorstep: a wonderfully diverse collection of film opportunities matched by an equally wide variety of natural wonders. At this time of year, especially, going to the movies can be a great reason to plan a trip out through the changing colors of New England. This week, a handful of special screenings in the northern Valley make it an easy decision to pack up the car and go.
Just over the border in Brattleboro, the Fourth Annual Brattleboro Film Festival (BFF) is now underway, bringing over 30 films to downtown Brattleboro over the course of 10 days. Running through Sunday and featuring shorts, documentaries, animation, and feature length films, the fest makes a point of seeking out stories and characters often overlooked by more mainstream flicks. As an added bonus, the festival organizers help grow the local film community by offering extras like post-screening discussions and free tickets for high school and middle school students.
On the big screen at the downtown Latchis Theatre, The Babushkas of Chernobyl shows Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. Anne Bogart and Holly Morris’s portrait of elderly Ukrainian women is a touching reflection on the powerful draw of homeland — these are women who, after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, defied authorities (and, some would say, common sense) to return to their homes and farm some of the planet’s most damaged earth. And on Friday at 6:30 p.m., Packed In a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson tells the life story of a remarkable woman and artist. Born in 1868 in West Virginia, she had moved to New York by the time she was 20 to study at the famed Art Students’ League. For the next few decades, Wilkinson traveled between Europe, New York, and Provincetown, while sharing a life with another woman. Then, in 1925, she was committed to a Baltimore sanitarium, possibly through the machinations of a family lawyer. Her years of paintings were shipped off to a distant relative, and Wilkinson was never heard from again. This film — spurred to life by Wilkinson’s great-niece Jane Anderson, an Emmy winning writer — is a bid to share a life that was unfairly shuttered.
And on Saturday, catch a special screening of Conducta, director Ernesto Daranas Serrano’s drama about Chala (Armando Valdés Freire), a Cuban schoolboy whose life is dedicated to sustaining himself and his mother as she struggles with addiction and poverty. To support them, Chala raises carrier pigeons and apprentices with a dogfight maestro with whom he has a mysterious relationship. But the best relationship in young Chala’s life is with Carmela, his aging, but spirited teacher who provides a strong, stabilizing force in the youngster’s life — until Chala is sent off to a “re-education” facility. When Carmela pushes to have him released, the system turns on her. The show will be followed with a Q&A with actress Idalmis Garcia.
Also this week: Shelburne Falls’ Pothole Pictures will host Friday and Saturday night screenings of John Hughes’ classic ’80s film The Breakfast Club, about a group of teenage archetypes (geek, jock, princess, punk, weirdo) who come together during a long detention. Local music act The Frost Heaves and Daniel Hales open the show. And in nearby Greenfield, a group of local filmmakers will have their work screened at the Greenfield Garden Cinemas on the 12th as part of the Greenfield Short Film Showcase. With most films clocking in at a half hour or less — and with enough graphic content that the presenters discourage the attendance of younger filmgoers — it makes for an easy way to see what area directors have been up to behind the lens. Get out and catch some local color.•
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
