NewEnglandFilm.com

Harvard Film Archive (HFA) in Cambridge is certainly not slowing down with age. March 16 marks the 20th anniversary of the HFA’s first official public screening. And since opening its doors to the public in 1979, the HFA has been one of New England’s premier venues for rarely screened films, both domestic and foreign, and one of the few places where movie enthusiasts can enjoy evenings with filmmakers, spotlights on underseen directors, and other special events.

Located just outside of Harvard Square, the HFA began in the early 70’s as the University Film Study Center, a shared resource for the collection and screening of movies in conjunction with the academic film programs of several New England colleges. In the following years, once-sporadic public screenings became more common, until, in the spring of 1979, the HFA officially opened to the public, and a monthly calendar of events began production. Twenty years later, the HFA now has the means to screen both 16mm and 35mm films, and is closed only rarely for student-only screenings.

Upcoming at the HFA in March

The following films, and their directors, will be at HFA in March. Check Events Listings for more information.

March 5: Allan Piper’s "Starving Artists," about a group of artists trying to create a film and a play, and looking for monkey… uh, money along the way.

March 6: Nick Kurzon’s documentary "Super Chief," the story of an election on a Native American reservation. This film won Best Documentary at the 1999 New England Film & Video Festival.

March 7: Bette Gordon’s mother-son road trip film "Luminous Motion."

March 18: Benefit screening/Boston Premiere of Clint Eastwood’s "True Crime."

March 19: Michelle LeBrun will be on hand for the screening of "Death: A Love Story," her documentary about her husband’s struggle with terminal liver cancer.

March 20-21, Celebrate the arrival of Spring with a Stan Brakhage weekend, including both Jim Shedden’s documentary "Brakhage," covering the life and times of the man often considered America’s foremost avant-gardist, and a night-long marathon retrospective of Brakhage’s works, including the complete "Dog Star Man" series.

True to its name, the Harvard Film Archive is in fact an archive, housing approximately 3,500 films. According to acting curator Gerald Peary, storage of the films runs to about $40,000 a year. Because of this expense, the further expansion of the HFA’s holdings is effectively curtailed until the funding is found. Peary says that endowment talks are ongoing with Harvard, which currently provides the theater with the space and other amenities, but until funding is found, the HFA is as box office-dependent as any other theater. And while there is still a large film-going audience in the greater Boston area, Peary feels that with all the entertainment options available today, it’s becoming more difficult to bring in the crowds, especially to see subtitled films whose directors may be obscure.

But under Peary’s watch, the HFA is not veering from its official mission "to collect and screen films which represent cinema as an art form, or which are essential to the educational goals of the University." Peary, a self- proclaimed film generalist who "never gets tired of good new movies," wants to show as many types of film as possible, as well as bring in a large number of their directors for personal appearances. He seeks out films that either lack a distributor, or ones that he feels deserve wider exposure, and finds hundreds of worthy films a year. He often sees something in a film festival that he then goes after.

Networking, too, plays a large part. In addition to his position at HFA, Peary has also written a number of books about film history. Locally, he is a film critic for the "Boston Phoenix," where his column "Film Culture" appears, as well as a professor at Suffolk University. Peary has been steeped in the industry on a professional basis since the early 1970’s, and often gets good word-of-mouth on a film. Additionally, he sometimes chooses films from those he receives from directors.

The films shown at the HFA are a wonderfully eclectic mix. In January and February, HFA had series on Paul Schrader (including "Affliction," "Mishima," "Comfort of Strangers"); the documentarian David Sutherland (including "Farmer’s Wife" and "High Energy"); new German cinema (including Herzog’s "Precautions Against Fanatics," Fassbinder’s "Love Is Colder Than Death"); and the local premieres of the aforementioned "Affliction" as well as cartoonist Bill Plympton’s "I Married a Strange Person." And although Peary was, as of this writing, knee-deep in scheduling for March, he was able to give a preview of some highlights. The weekend of March 5-7 gives us three local films, along with their directors (see sidebar for more details).

Of course, the films are the main attraction, but there’s an added bonus: the theater itself. According to HFA’s literature, "The distance between projectors and the screen in relation to the theater seats remains one of the best in the area, allowing for a perfect image size and clarity." But don’t just take their word for it; go see for yourself. For art film lovers tired of being squeezed into tiny theaters with screens literally not much larger than television monitors, the HFA is a breath of fresh air.

One final note for those who may be interested in following in at least some of curator Gerald Peary’s footsteps. "When asked by people how they should break into the business [of writing about films]," says Peary, "I think ["New York Daily News" film critic] David Kehr said it best: ‘See as many films as is humanly possible.’" And the Harvard Film Archive is the perfect place to get your start.

For more about the HFA (Harvard University Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge), including film screening, special series, and a full history, visit their web site at www.harvardfilmarchive.org.