Like any right-minded individual, I rejoiced in the return of baseball to the Nation’s Capital in 2005 and have certainly reveled in the Washington Nationals’ fabulous 2014 season. Exciting as it has been (the post All-Star Game surge, Jordan Zimmermann’s no-hitter on the last day of the season, the eager anticipation of post-season glory), I […]
Thursday, October 2 (7:30 p.m.) National Newspaper Week Double Feature Five Star Final (Warner Bros., 1931) Edward G. Robinson stars as a corrupt newspaper editor who uses exploitation to bolster the paper’s circulation. Nominated for an Oscar as the year’s best film, Five Star Final was a condemnation of yellow journalism. This archetypal newspaper movie […]
Earlier this month we celebrated the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key’s writing the “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1814. For much of our nation’s history since then, “The Star Spangled Banner” was not officially designated as the national anthem, but shared its position with a handful of other popular patriotic songs. In fact, as reported […]
This is the story of a film about a radio show, produced by a sponsor hoping that people who saw the film would be encouraged to listen to the radio show, and then after hearing the commercials on the radio show be encouraged to patronize the gas stations owned by the sponsor. One only has […]
Thursday, September 25 (7:30 p.m.) Gattaca (Columbia, 1997) Set in a future where the wealthy can choose the genetic makeup of their descendants, the genetically perfect “Valids” dominate the natural born “In-Valids.” Vincent Freeman, who was conceived outside the eugenics program, struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of traveling into space. Andrew […]
This guest post was written by Dan Streible, Director of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at New York University, and James Irsay, host of “Morning Irsay” on WBAI-FM in New York City. Dan Streible: While chopping down trees in Kentucky recently, I was enjoying the benefits of twenty-first century living, listening to music […]
Thursday, September 18 (7:30 p.m.) Raintree County (MGM, 1957) Elizabeth Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of a spoiled Southern belle in this Civil War epic. As Susanna Drake, she lures the pacifist abolitionist John Shawnessy away from his high-school sweetheart and into an unhappy marriage. Frustrated, John […]
This week we’re celebrating the bicentennial of The Star Spangled Banner, which originated as a poem written by Francis Scott Key after he witnessed the unsuccessful bombardment of Ft. McHenry by the British Navy on 14 September 1814. Although The Star Spangled Banner wasn’t adopted officially as our National Anthem until 1931, its repeated use […]
The following is a guest post by Film Preservation Specialist Carol Galbraith, who programmed the Packard Campus Theater September schedule. It’s not as easy as you’d think to program a theater schedule, even for just one month. I wanted to please a lot of people. Everyone had an idea of what to show, and all […]
The following is a guest post by Donna Ross, Assistant to the National Film Preservation Board. Yesterday, as we enjoyed our last barbecue or beach party of the summer, work was probably the last thing on our minds. Who wants to think about labor on Labor Day? But if you had thought about the principles […]