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    Cinema Revival Returns to the Wex

    It is time again to celebrate film, especially those films that could so easily be lost to us and those that might never have found their way to us in the first place. The Wexner Center for the Arts brings back Cinema Revival, a four-day program of film restoration.

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    More than anything, David Filipi, the Wex’s Director of Film/Video, is excited to again share these films with a live audience.

    The art center’s 2021 virtual program offered a lot of benefits, but according to Filipi, there’s nothing like sharing these films with a crowd.

    “I think it’s the experience of seeing it big, seeing it in a theater, being surrounded with other people, no distractions,” Filipi says of the draw of in-person screenings. “A film like Written on the Wind that’s this big technicolor, widescreen film — it’s a million times better seeing it the way we’re going to present it than watching it on your TV.”

    And while theatrical viewing is an important element of the festival, there’s far more to Cinema Revival than that.

    “We are committed to supporting the work to restore and preserve films by filmmakers that were not given the attention they were due,” Filipi says. “I would say that’s probably the main mission behind the film festival each year.”

    He believes deeply in the importance of the work being done in restoration.

    “There are so many individual countries that don’t have the resources to restore and preserve material in a proper way,” he says. “To work with individual countries, individual archives, to locate materials that are important to that country’s cultural memory and to bring it back to life and make it available again is huge.”

    Filipi points to screenings for Sarah Maldoror’s 1972 film Sambizanga and Govindan Aravindan’s 1979 film Kummatty.

    “Part of the Film Foundation’s World Project is to call attention to Pan African films, to locate them, to find the best materials, to restore them. Sambizanga is part of that,” he says. “These films help fill in our understanding of film, not just in our country but around the world.”

    Restored films also open up ways of understanding our own country’s cinematic history.

    “It’s essential,” Filipi says. “We have three independent films by Black directors, one from the ‘30s, one from the ‘40s, one from 1990. It shows that even though people of color were shut out of the Hollywood apparatus, here were filmmakers that took it upon themselves to create their own small industries.”

    He’s also programmed some mainstream, undeniable crowd pleasers.

    “People always ask what’s the one film that’s going to be most entertaining this year,” he says. “No one’s going to walk away from Mississippi Masala without being entertained. The chemistry between Denzel Washington an Sarita Choudhury — you are so won over. It’s such an entertaining film. And even though it was made roughly 30 years ago it, deals with issues we’re still dealing with. And it’s a timeless story. It totally charmed me again.”

    It’s hard to single out one favorite, but Filipi tries.

    “Everyone should give Chameleon Street a look,” he says. “I think people will be surprised. It’s funny, it’s creative, the acting is fantastic. And it is so on the money about issues that everyone has been talking about, especially in the last couple of years.”

    Along with the program’s 11 movies are introductions by those who worked to restore the films. Criterion Collection’s Lee Kline and Russell Smith, Cohen Film Collection’s Tim Lanza, and David Marriott from Arbelos Films will be on hand to introduce films, mingle during Saturday’s Cinema Revival reception and between films, and to participate in a round table discussion Saturday evening at 7 p.m.

    Cinema Revival Full lineup

    • Thursday, February 24, 5 p.m. – Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (Spencer Williams, 1946) – introduced by Ohio State Professor Ryan Friedman
    • Thursday, February 24, 7 p.m. – Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975) – introduced by Tim Lanza, Vice President and Archivist, the Cohen Film Collection
    • Friday, February 25, 4:30 p.m. – Murder in Harlem (Oscar Micheaux, 1935)
    • Friday, February 25, 7 p.m. – Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956) — introduced by Lee Kline, Technical Director, the Criterion Collection
    • Saturday, February 26, 1:30 p.m. – Miracle in Milan (Vittorio de Sica, 1951)
    • Saturday, February 26, 4 p.m. – Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, 1972)
    • Saturday, February 26, 6 p.m. – Cinema Revival Reception
    • Saturday, February 26, 7 p.m. – Restoration Roundtable: Lee Kline, Russell Smith, Tim Lanza, David Marriott
    • Saturday, February 26, 7:30 p.m. – Mississippi Masala (Mira Nair, 19910 — introduced by Russell Smith, Senior Restoration Artist, the Criterion Collection
    • Sunday, February 27, 12 p.m. – Kummatty (Govindan Aravindan, 1979)
    • Sunday, February 27, 2 p.m. – Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris, Jr., 1990) — introduced by David Marriott, Co-founder, Arbelos Films
    • Sunday, February 27, 4 p.m. – The Olive Trees of Justice (James Blue, 1962)
    • Monday, February 28, 4 p.m. – The Bloody Child (Nina Menkes, 1996)

    Passes for the full program are $25 for members, students and seniors; $30 for the general public. Buy passes or individual tickets for Cinema Revival at wexarts.org.

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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