Filmmaker Mike Gray died on April 30. I had met and worked with Mike a few years ago when Facets Multi-Media, my former employer, released two of his documentaries onto DVD.  Gray has been called an author, journalist, documentarian, screenwriter, television director, and activist—all of which accurately describe his life and career. Obituaries tended to […]

Once again, I attended the TCM Classic Film Festival as a civilian; that is, a regular fan who went for the movies, the stars, and the camaraderie. The festival was held at the end of April this year, which meant that it coincided with the end of the semester for me. I must have looked […]

Last week, actor Dylan McDermott dropped by Ringling College to mingle with students and to speak to an audience of students, staff, and local residents. The latter event was the last in Ringling’s Digital Filmmaking Lab Series, which is designed to give the filmmaking students exposure to real-world industry personnel. The event consisted of a […]

I saw three of the best narrative feature films I have seen all year at the Sarasota Film Festival, and two of them are getting a theatrical release, which means other viewers will be able to catch them, too. Coincidentally, all of them are about family and community ties. What movie lover doesn’t carry a […]

“Film festivals are the dominant way to see films like this,” noted documentary filmmaker A.J. Schnack , whose film We Always Lie to Strangers turned out to be my favorite doc of the recent Sarasota Film Festival. His comment was a response to an audience member who during the Q&A wanted to know where her […]

A perk to living in a small city populated by art lovers is a film festival with all the advantages that such an event offers with none of the disadvantages that plague big-city fests. The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) opened this past weekend, showcasing a variety of worthy foreign, indie, and documentary films in a […]

Who doesn’t love Pre-Code films? Those early sound films released between 1930, when the Production Code was adopted, and 1934, when it became mandatory, have been treated like a genre unto themselves in recent years. Movie lovers and scholars alike are attracted to the controversial content, casual references to sex and drugs, and independent female […]

Big, bright, and bold, movie posters were the dominant way to promote movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood. As important as TV trailers for films today, movie posters were designed to interpret the film in a single image, capture the star images of the principle leads, and lure movie-lovers to the theaters. Though 80 […]

Now that I live in Florida, this line of dialogue from Moon Over Miami passes across my mind from time to time. I have not seen any millionaires hanging from palm trees, but I do glance up from time to time. A colorful musical with a terrific cast, Moon Over Miami stars Betty Grable and […]