Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Check out our weekly e-newsletter, now posted on blogger courtesy of our resident Little film geek, Kelly Foster

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Artists in the Cafe July 24-August 20

A trio of artists will be showing their work in the cafe: Katherine Weston, Richard Harvey and Michael Harris.

Katherine Weston is a mixed media artist who combines printmaking with painting and collage. Her work teeters between representation and abstraction--graphic form and organic movement. The mysterious quality of her work pulls the viewer in to take a closer look at the subtle nuances she has created by sanding and wiping layers of paint and the inclusion of fabric and other objects in her work.

She is on the steering committee of the Arena Art Group, a member of the Rochester Art Club and a member of the Print Club of Rochester. Her work has been shown in National shows in New York, Chicago, Toledo, Harrisburg, Baton Rouge, Estes Park, Tallahassee, and Rochester. She has won numerous awards for both her printmaking and mixed media art.

In February of this year she took on a new project that consists of the complete renovation of an old building in Brockport. When completed later this year, the 2-story building with it’s new name, A Different Path Gallery, will house an art gallery, a retail shop and her private studio on the first floor. The second floor will consist of 4 or 5 studio spaces to be rented out to professional artists in the area. For more information visit the website: www.DifferentPathGallery.com.

Richard Harvey earned a BFA in Communication Design with a Fine Art Minor from RIT in 1972 and later took graduate work in fine art digital imaging. His fine art pursuits continued alongside a career in graphic design during which he enjoyed a twenty year representation by the Austin-Harvard Gallery in Pittsford NY. The interplay of graphics and fine art remain very evident in much of his work.

The subject matter of Richard Harvey's mixed media work is predominantly human faces or full figures that tend to portray deeply expressive, even haunting, emotional imagery. This quality is also evident in his ruggedly carved, contemporary primal sculpture, which is inspired by tribal masks, rituals and ancient artifacts.

Though the human figure is a constant theme, experimentation in process is a driving force in his work and he thrives on trying a variety of approaches, including the use of encaustic wax, metal sculpture, and imported digital images such as graffiti.

Michael Harris
ARTIST STATEMENT

While leaving the door open to the expressive possibilities of abstraction, my current work seeks to reintroduce imagery into painting. Found images and an attraction to less than conscious ideas begin the process, which is also informed by past experience with printmaking, a love of the paper surface and working methods. Perception of contrasts or dualities in the field of time (peace/turmoil, light/dark, expansive/constricted, rough/smooth, ancient/modern, etc.), provide fuel as the formal elements are explored and balance is sought. Process and search for artistic quality are uppermost concerns in what is sensed as a healing enterprise.

One night only-Herb and Dorothy!

Wednesday, July 21st at 6:30 pm • Tickets $8.00
Followed by a talkback discussion with Deborah Ronnen (Deborah Ronnen Fine Art) and Douglas Dreishpoon (Chief Curator, Albright Knox Art Gallery). The Little Talkback Series is made possible through support from the New York State Council on the Arts.

About the film

HERB and DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.

After thirty years of meticulous collecting and buying, the Vogels managed to accumulate over 2,000 pieces, filling every corner of their tiny one bedroom apartment. "Not even a toothpick could be squeezed into the apartment," recalls Dorothy. In 1992, the Vogels decided to move their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The vast majority of their collection was given as a gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired appreciated so significantly over the years that their collection today is worth millions of dollars. Still, the Vogels never sold a single piece. Today Herb and Dorothy still live in the same apartment in New York with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They've refilled it with piles of new art they've acquired.

HERB and DOROTHY is directed by first time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. The film received the Golden Starfish Award for the Best Documentary Film and Audience Award from the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival. It has also received Audience Awards from the 2008 SILVERDOCS Film Festival and the 2009 Philadelphia Cinefest. Palm Springs International Film Festival named HERB and DOROTHY one of their "Best of Fest" films in 2009.

Watch a PBS clip as Herb and Dorothy Vogel travel the festival circuit with filmmaker Megumi Sasaki, sharing their passion for art and the story of their extraordinary lives. At museums and theaters across the country they are feted by crowds of artists, collectors and admirers.

Take the Collector Challenge at PBS.

Bios.
Deborah Ronnen is a private art dealer and curator,focusing on modern and contemporary art ,with special expertise in fine art print-making, and contemporary photography. Through Deborah Ronnen Fine Art, she has curated exhibitions of work by Pablo Picasso,Vik Muniz , Alison Saar, Robert Motherwell and Jasper Johns, to name just a few.

She is a Trustee of the Albright Knox Art Gallery where she serves on the Acquisition Committee, and a past Trustee of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, where she also served on its art committtee.

She is a Member of the New York State Council on the Arts, and Chair of its Visual Arts Committtee. She also serves as a Member of the Empire State Plaza Art Commission.

Douglas Dreishpoon is Chief Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. He has worked in museums for more than nineteen years, as curator of collections at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1995 to 1998, and as curator of contemporary art at the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida from 1991 to 1995. His essays, interviews, and reviews have been published in numerous catalogues, magazines and journals, including Art in America, Art Journal, Art News, and Sculpture. His essay, “Sculptors and Critics, Arenas and Complaints,” was published in Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940 – 1976 (Yale University Press, 2008). Other recent publications include The Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2007) and Petah Coyne: Above and Beneath the Skin (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2005). In 2009 he organized for the Albright Knox Robert Mangold: Beyond the Line, Paintings and Project 2000-2008.
He also organized the currently traveling exhibition: Everything: Guillermo Kuitca, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980 – 2008 (Miami Art Museum, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Walker Art Center, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2009-2011) . A former board member of the American Section of the International Association of Art Critics, Dreishpoon holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of the City University of New York

Marlene Logory displays her art in the Cafe through July 23rd

Marlene Logory has been an active watercolorist for more than 10 years. Her works span reality to abstraction. Drawing and painting were childhood loves. They grew to telling stories while drawing to her own children and those at St. Joseph's Villa, on to grandchildren. Her works have been in several local galleries and she has conducted workshops. She feels her works are a latent enthusiastic display of childhood joy.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Opens July 7

"Joan Rivers — where have you been all my life?"—from the NYTimes Review

From the AV Club Interview:

AVC: There’s some conventional wisdom that good comedians tend to come from troubled and angry backgrounds. Do you think this is true across the board?

JR: I think it’s very true across the board. I think anyone who’s perfectly happy isn’t particularly funny. And when you’re very, very happy, you’re not very funny. You’re just happy. I’d rather be damaged and funny because I’ve been laughing for 76 years.

AVC: Some of the funniest jokes in the film are when you’re talking about trying to get out there more often, and not getting the bookings you want.

JR: Again, if it’s a fact of life and you laugh about it, it’s okay. Everything is okay if you laugh about it. And that’s a great weapon. That’s a cliché, but clichés come out of truth. The glass is always half-empty for me, because I say it’s filled with poison. Even now, as everyone is adoring this movie and loving this movie, I keep saying to Ricki, “Yeah, but we’ll see, well see.” But I’m also not stupid. I’m delighted and savoring the moment, too.

AVC: A lot of people are fascinated by the movie, but also wary of seeing it, because they have a very negative image of you going in.

JR: I worked at The Bitter End years ago, owned by a man named Freddie Weintraub, and we all came out of there—Woody [Allen], Bill Cosby, and George Carlin. There was a whole group that was going through there. Peter, Paul & Mary, The Mamas & The Papas; we were all mixed up together. Freddie would stand at the door after the shows and he would listen to the comments, and if people loved the act or hated the act, he brought them back. He said, “That means they have a quality people watch.” When people hate me, that’s good. They know I’m there. You’re not a chorus kid. Remember in A Chorus Line, she’s having trouble and he keeps saying, “You’re standing out,” and she’s trying not to? They hate me? That’s good.

Read the whole interview here.

Exit Through the Gift Shop Sepcial Event-Tues. June 29

The Little Theatre is excited to screen Exit Through the Gift Shop for Rochester audiences beginning on Friday, June 25th. An exclusive talkback event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 29th, following the 6:30 PM screening. Tickets are $8. The film will have a full theatrical run.

Talkback guests include: The Sweet Meat Co., Artist Collective comprised of Sarah Rutherford, St. Monci, Mr. Prvrt, Lea Rizzo, and Erich Lehman. They will also be holding a free, one night artshow in the downstairs lounge of the Little 1.

“We hope to explore some of the conspiracy theories about the flick and people's reactions—there's so much to talk about in this film; the audience I saw it with earlier this year was definitely buzzing afterwards,” said Erich Lehman, owner of 1975 Gallery and talkback discussion moderator.

About Exit Through The Gift Shop
Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, "It's basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed."

About the speakers:
Erich Lehman, Owner/Curator, 1975 Gallery
http://www.1975ish.com

Building on over 14 years of art collecting experience, owner/curator Erich Lehman started 1975 as a means of sharing his love of art and helping others learn how to build their own collections while exposing the countless gifted artists he has become friends with over the years to an audience that might otherwise not encounter them.

1975 Gallery
1975 is a mobile gallery living in a semi-permanent space within SURFACE salon in the South Wedge neighborhood in Rochester, NY. We are dedicated to exposing talented artists to a community that might otherwise overlook them and facilitating the would-be collector. 1975 is born of a labor of love. As with all great love, it needs to be shared.

The Sweet Meat Co., Artist Collective
http://www.sweetmeatco.com

The Sweet Meat Co. is an art collective out of Rochester, NY. We have come together, young artists all navigating our ways through our chosen creative paths, dealing with the distractions of everyday life, of the jobs that pay our way, and feed off each other’s struggle, passion and talent. We seek to celebrate the artistic heartbeat of Rochester and expose its beautiful, raw potential. Together, we play off our mutual loves and skills and grow through exposure to each others' unique specialties.

Micmacs-opens Friday-from the director of Amelie!

Whimsical Comedy 'Micmacs' is like Spy Vs. Spy on film

“Jeunet has many talents, including a James Cameron-like knack for intricate devices. But he lacks the gift for laugh-out loud humor. Like Amélie, Micmacs is less a comedy than, say, a charmedy.”

Jeunet begins Micmacs with the kind of somber intensity of imagery that distinguished his World War I movie, A Very Long Engagement. In a bravura wordless opening, a French soldier in Africa steps on a land mine; then, thirty years later, his orphaned son, Bazil (comedian Dany Boon, looking like David Niven on a bender) is a video store clerk. While happily watching The Big Sleep, he is accidentally shot in the head by a criminal on the street.

With the bullet still lodged in his brain, Bazil is eventually released from the hospital to earn his meager living as a street mime. According to Anatole France, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread,” but that’s what this little tramp is reduced to. He decides to take revenge on the CEOs of the two weapons manufacturers who ruined his life. Conveniently, their grand offices are located right across the street from each other.

This sounds grim, but the tone of Micmacs rapidly lightens, becoming more Amélie-like. Jeunet tries to resist creeping Amélization by setting much of the film in a junkyard, where Bazil finds refuge with a quirky fellowship of stereotypical Parisian misfits (including a goateed artist, a contortionist, and a human cannonball). Because this is a Jeunet movie, however, it’s a fabulously French-looking junkyard, the dump of Baron Haussmann’s dreams. Bazil conspires—aided by his ex-video clerk’s grasp of plot twists and his new friends’ reconfigured equipment—to bloodlessly goad the two merchants of death into ruining each other. Countless sight gags ensue—all clever, some astonishing—as multinational corporate technology is outfoxed by old-fashioned French miserliness.

Read the full review here.

Beat the heat Card Locations!

Our popular summer discount card is back again! It's wallet-sized and loaded with discounts. Plus, you can use it to earn a free movie ticket.

Pick them up at great places all over town:

Right here at The Little!
Great Harvest Bread Co. (Brighton)
B. Younique
Bagel Land
Great Northern Pizza Kitchens (Brighton)
Eleventh Hour Gift Shop
AE SPA
Play Better Golf
Yarn Boutique
Max Market
Murphy’s Law
Boulder Coffee
MuCcc
Geva
Stereo Shop (Henrietta)
Four Walls Art Gallery
Starry Nites
Orange Glory
Gates Public Library
Pagano’s Visual Perceptions
Veneto
Monroe YMCA
Theresa Zink, LMT
Guido’s Pasta Villa
Matthews
DFC
Fratelli’s
Java’s
Spot Coffee
Rochester Contemporary Art Center
East Ave Deli & Market
Havana Moe's
Java's (on Gibbs St.)
Temple Bar & Grille
Metro Salon
Visit Rochester
Wallace Library (RIT)
Eye Candy
Parkleigh
Jines
Camille's
Color Me Mine
Pontillo's
Pita Pit
Jim's Restaurants
Tru Salon
Aladdin's

Help 4D Films!

Hey everyone, remember 4D4 films that we covered back in January? They are using a crowd-sourcing tool to help finance their next film. Check it out & help them out. Here's the link!

Margaret Lejeune & Jason Flack in the Little Cafe Gallery

About the Cafe Show
The body of the work at the Little is a collaboration with artist Jason Flack (www.jason flack.com). As photographers living in vastly different landscapes, rural vs. urban, we decided to respond to the imagery that we created photographically 1200 miles apart. The result is a variety of diptychs paired thematically based on texture, color, subject or composition.

About Margaret Lejeune
Margaret LeJeune is an image-maker from Rochester, New York. Working predominately in photographic-based mediums, LeJeune explores issues of constructed gender, sexism, power dynamics and stereotypes. Her work has been exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, ARC Gallery, Woman Made Gallery and in numerous national invitational and juried exhibitions. Recently Ms. LeJeune was awarded third prize by Roxana Marcoci (Curator of Photographs, MOMA) in the 2010 Curator’s Choice Award at Center for her series The Modern Day Diana. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Art and the Director of the Kresge Art Gallery at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas.

Springsteen, Rush and The Doors Films Highlight “Rock Week” at The Little in June

Join us for three top-notch rock films from June 10th-17th!

The Little Theatre has created a cinematic rock festival in June, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Rush and The Doors.

Also, to reward music lovers, The Little will be offering a Rock Week Pass. Once you purchase your first Rock Week Film ticket, you will be given a Rock Week Pass. If you see all three films and have the card punched, you’ll be awarded a free movie ticket to use in the future. Four films for the price of three—the opposite of ticket scalping!

About the films:
RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Opens Thursday, June 10 at 8:00
2010 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Choice Award Winner

For fans of the legendary Canadian band RUSH, this is the documentary to experience. It’s a comprehensive exploration of this extraordinary power trio, from their early days growing up in Toronto, through each of their landmark albums, to the present day. Sit back and revel in the words, music, and wonder of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart.
Runtime: 106 minutes

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park

Three Shows Only!

Friday, June 11, Saturday, June 12, Wednesday, June 16 at 7:00pm

Tickets are $15 each with 100% of the proceeds going to support The Little Theatre

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's concert film, was captured in London at the Hard Rock Calling Festival on June 28, 2009 in HD. Watch The Boss spontaneously directing the E Street Band and shaping the show as it evolves in front of an enthusiastic festival crowd.
Runtime: 90 minutes

When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors
Opens Friday, June 11

Historic and previously unseen footage of the illustrious rock quartet provides new insight into the revolutionary impact of its music and legacy. The film is a riveting account of the band's history and the first feature documentary about them. Using footage shot between the band's 1965 formation and Morrison's 1971 death, When You're Strange follows the band from the corridors of UCLA's film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.
Runtime: 89 minutes

Schedule
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (106min.)
Thursday, June 10 - 8:00pm
Friday, June 11 - 9:10
Saturday, June 12 - 1:00, 3:10 & 9:10
Sunday, June 13 - 1:00, 3:10, 7:00 & 9:10
Monday, June 14 - 7:00 & 9:10
Tuesday, June 15 - 7:00 & 9:10
Wednesday, June 16 - 9:10
Thursday, June 17 - 7:00 & 9:10
*Regular ticket prices

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park (90min.)
Friday, June 11 – 7:00
Saturday, June 12 – 7:00
Wednesday, June 16 – 7:00
*$15-100% of proceeds support The Little (no discounts available)

When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors
Showtimes for Friday, June 11 - Thursday, June 17
Evenings: 7:10 & 9:40
Weekend Matinees: 1:10 & 3:40
*Regular ticket prices

Throwback Thursday is this week!

Throwback Thursday is a benefit for The Roc City Park: A group of involved citizens and small business owners are working with the City of Rochester’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Human Services and the New York State Department of Transportation to build and maintain a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders. The Roc City Park (RCP) will be a world-class, public cement skate park located in the city.

About the Event:
We'll be showing a double-header of great skate and speed films that will take you back!
The fundraiser is presented by KRUDCO Skateshop, Etiket Clothing, Thread, The A-List and The Little Theatre. Proceeds benefit the Roc City Park project.

Tickets are $10 each or $15 for both movies and are available at Krudco, Thread and The Little Theatre box office.

Thursday, June 3
6:30pm: Quicksilver
8:45pm: Gleaming the Cube

The Films:
Quicksilver
Jack Casey (Kevin Bacon) is a brash yuppie broker who ends up losing his and his parents' wealth playing the stock market. What's Jack's next move? To drop out of the corporate rat race and become a bike messenger. Jack finds his new "free-wheeling" co-workers to be a diverse bunch, and he especially likes the down-and-out, sensitive Terri (Jami Gertz). But Jack also discovers that Terri and other messengers have an illegal and lucrative sideline delivering drugs for the nefarious drug dealer Gypsy. Can Jack rescue Terri from Gypsy's dangerous grip?

Gleaming the Cube
To 16-year-old Brian, life is an empty pool and a skateboard, until his brother is found dead and it's declared a suicide. Determined to uncover the truth, Brian risks all as he crosses into a world of deceit, contraband, and murder. Christian Slater impresses in one of his first leading roles.

Artist Martin Rogers-in the Cafe through 05/28/10

Artist Statement
I find it easy to be creative.
However, the only thing I cannot create is....
....INSPIRATION.

From where does it come?
Why does it arrive when it does?
Where does it go?

There.... for but a moment, the image captured, then gone.

Like a gentle breeze, taken back into it's home; the roiling, eternal cosmic storm of all life, creation and thought.

It is far greater than me, the source of this breeze.
For, it is the source of ALL.

Am I using this inspiration, or it, me?
The question hangs, bloated and waiting.

As I use the brush to create, I ponder the concept of myself, perhaps being an instrument in the hand of the true, only, MASTER artist. For, is it not God?

Martin J. Rogers 5-10'

Robin Hood Opens, Friday May 14

Russell Crowe Interview

A new book published this month claims that Crowe threatened to kill “with [his] bare hands” an elderly producer of Gladiator, whom he felt was underpaying his staff. The book, by Nicole Laporte, also reveals Crowe’s reluctance to deliver the film’s most famous line – “And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next” – telling Scott he thought it to be “s---” before adding, “but I’m the greatest actor in the world and I can make even [that] sound good”.

Today, Crowe is in a rather mellower mood. “As many times as Ridley and I have disagreed on things, we don’t yell at each other; there’s no need,” he says. “We just discuss things and we understand we might not see each other’s point of view all the time, but ultimately by the time we’re standing in front of the camera we’ve collaborated on the decision that we’ve made and what we’re doing.”

Crowe, as always, threw himself into the role of Robin Hood, losing the weight he’d packed on for Body of Lies, learning about English folklore and taking archery lessons. “I had to be able to do the things that he did,” he says. “And obviously his principal skill was with a bow and arrow.”

Read the full interview here.

Letters to Juliet opens Friday, May 14

Amanda Seyfried's star continues to rise with the release of this week's romantic dramedy 'Letters to Juliet,' co-starring Christopher Egan, Gael Garcia Bernal and real-life couple Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave.

In the film (in theaters Friday), Seyfried plays Sophie, a fact checker for the New Yorker who travels to Verona, Italy (aka the city where Romeo met Juliet) with her fiance (Gael Garcia Bernal) for a romantic pre-honeymoon getaway. But when he ignores her, Sophie is left to wander the city on her own, during which she discovers a wall where people write letters to Juliet asking for her advice about love. To her surprise, Sophie finds a letter dating back to 1957, which leads her on a life-changing journey across Tuscany to reunite its author (Redgrave) with her long-lost love, Lorenzo. But when chemistry blossoms with Claire's grandson (Egan), Sophie is forced to reevaluate her own love life and wonder if he's her true Romeo after all.

See the video interviews here.

The Secret of Kells opens Friday

Cool fan art page!

Excerpt from an interview with filmmaker Tomm Moore
Moore first had the idea of a Kells-inspired film about a decade ago out of Ballyfermot College in Dublin, as he and a friend formed Cartoon Saloon, their animation company in Kilkenny. Some five years later, "Kells" began to become real when the animated film "The Triplets of Bellville" received an Oscar nod -- and its European producers backed Moore's project. "We kind of got the financing from that Oscar nomination," Moore says. "That was a big boost for us because they signed us as the follow-up."

Another boost was getting acclaimed Irish actor Brendan Gleeson to do voicework -- the filmmakers' first choice. "Brendan was a really early supporter," Moore says. "He'd agreed years ago -- he was making 'Gangs of New York' at the time -- and he probably thought it was never going to happen. But then we went back to him and he said yes."

Read the full article here.

Opening Friday-Babies

About the Film Babies
A nature film about humans, "Babies" is devoid of political agenda, philosophizing or, for that matter, commentary of any kind.

Visiting with four babies during the first two years of their lives, the documentary tracks their physical development, the blossoming of personality and the ways their cultures socialize them. As a portrait of children who are wanted and loved, it's intimate and often delightful.

Article/interview with the director

360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival opens Wed., May 5th

360 | 365 interactively engages filmmakers and our audiences in education, discovery, and celebration through the medium of film in all aspects and directions, 365 days a year.

Live. Breathe. Film.

360 | 365 grew out of the very successful Rochester/High Falls International Film Festival. Honoring the past, the 360 | 365 Film Festival focuses a portion of its programming on the achievements of women in all roles of filmmaking. However, the new Festival expands its programming with a wide range of films appealing to both sexes, all age ranges, and all personal tastes. Beyond the Festival, 360 | 365 is a year round conversation that includes short and feature length emerging filmmakers.

Coverage in City Newspaper

Coverage in the Democrat & Chronicle

Schedule & Tickets

Opening Friday-City Island

About the Film:

Andy Garcia’s Career High Turn as a Family Man with Secrets Makes City Island the Year’s Best Acted Film

By Lee Shoquist

City Island, the new family comedy starring Andy Garcia as the patriarch of a Bronx family wrestling with long-buried secrets, is the best family movie in ages and a labor of love for the star, who also produced the low-budget, independent feature.

As Vinnie Rizzo, a prison guard who secretly dreams of being an actor and undergoes a chance encounter with a son he abandoned, the actor deftly balances comedy and pathos as he comes to terms with the responsibilities of an adult man—to others and to himself.

Vinnie Rizzo is as complex a character as Garcia has played, which is really saying something considering my favorites on his resume—Oscar-nominated, hair-trigger Vincent Corleone in The Godfather III, husband to alcoholic Meg Ryan in When a Man Loves a Woman, cop crusading for justice in Internal Affairs and wet behind the ears journalist chasing a serial killer in The Mean Season. Expert, each of them. Yet in City Island, which may just be his best, the actor is perfectly pitched in a performance that is symphonic in its notes and dimensions of fatherhood and manhood. To say the character resonates deeply by the film’s climactic street corner blow-out between all parties is an understatement.

Read the full article here.

An Interview with Andy Garcia
How did you get involved with the movie in the first place?

Ray [De Felitta, the director] had it before me, trying to get it made, and he was having difficulties. It came to me through our mutual PR agency... someone suggested, 'Hey, what about Andy?' and he said, 'Why not?' At least I hope that's what he said. You'd have to ask Ray about whether he really wanted me or not. Regardless, I fell in love with the script, and I told him that I'd help him produce it, too.

What was it like playing prison guard Vince?

I loved Vince Rizzo. I love the fact that this character was put in these farcical situations, but they were all based in a very real, human emotional reality. You'll note that there are no jokes in the movie, it's all behaviour and situational. He has this private, deep-rooted painful dream of being an actor, and he's so embarrassed by it. His obsession with [Marlon] Brando too, which is something I brought to the script, is very charming. It's easy to fall in love with him.

Read the full interview here.