Hudson Valley Crucial Viewing January 31-February 13

Hello subscribers! Bel here. Wanna start this off with a belated rest in peace to the beloved director David Lynch. I’ll be talking about him a lot more below, but it felt strange not making a note of it at the top. Our last newsletter went out the day he passed away, before the news broke. It’s been amazing to see the collective outpouring of grief and appreciation for him over the last few weeks. It’s easy to feel like films can be frivolous sometimes, but I think if anything the last couple of weeks have been a powerful reminder that cinema has the ability to really, truly change people’s lives (sorry if that sounds trite). Anyway, we’ve got a lot of great movies to recommend this week (including our first screening of the year at Cut Teeth in Kingston)! We’ll have a lot more exciting things to announce in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes out. 2025 is going to be a big year for us, and we couldn’t do it without you all. Support from folks like you help us continue to show movies that you love. Nonprofit organizations like us need your support now more than ever.

Nagisa Oshima’s DEATH BY HANGING
Time & Space Ltd, Hudson – Saturday, February 1, 4:30pm

Something that’s been coming up in conversations for me lately is the best angle to take when it comes to repertory programming. We live in an era where choice paralysis reigns supreme, whether it’s when we’re scrolling at home looking for something to watch at the end of the day, or when we’re planning our schedules. Which event should I attend? What am I willing to miss? We’re certainly spoiled for choice in the Hudson Valley these days, and it can be hard to make a decision when it comes to going out and doing something. With repertory film programming you’re always thinking about so many factors; popularity, accessibility, community need, personal relationship, the list goes on and on. It can be hard to figure out what films to show. Something I really appreciate about TSL is that they have a real knack and dedication to showing interesting, challenging, academic films. They’re the theater that often appeals to the Film School Alum in me. Death by Hanging is a perfect example of this. This movie is a fascinating example of international experimentation in cinema after WWII. It’s a Japanese film about tensions between Korea and Japan that borrows its structure and themes from the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. It’s a fusion of theatricality and politics that thrives in the medium. It shows us the potential cinema has for expanding our ability to tell stories. I hope I’m not getting too nerdy to convince you to try to catch one of these screenings. I doubt you’ll have many other chances. (1968, 118min)

David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET
Story Screen, Hudson – Monday, February 3, 8:30pm

Okay, now we get to talk about David Lynch. In many ways all the films we’re shouting out this week feel in line with Lynch, in spirit and otherwise. It’s hard for me to really begin to explain the impact seeing Blue Velvet had on me the first time I watched it. I’ve talked about David Lynch in this newsletter before, and I often find he can be a hard filmmaker to write about. His films inspire such intense, personal reactions that it can be challenging to try and come to them with an objective eye. I’m not really going to try to be objective here. I hope you won’t mind. I love the colors in this film. I love Kyle McLachlan and Laura Dern’s all-American suburbia, their timeless teenaged innocence. I love the way that shadows encroach from the beginning, and then begin to clear away towards the end, lingering in the corners of the frame. I love Isabella Rossellini, who was a huge style icon for me when I was a teenager, and whose performance wows me every time I revisit this film. I love its sensuality. I love that it is frightening. I think that there is so much to be said about how it wanders through the anxieties of emerging sexuality in young people, and it does so by pushing to the darkest corners of it. I think that Frank is one of the scariest characters ever put to film. I could go on about this movie for pages and pages and still feel like I haven’t told you enough about it. I remember watching it for the first time at 15 or 16, huddled in the dark over my first laptop. It only worked if it stayed plugged in at all times, and it ran so hot that the giant fan inside would hum and buzz and shudder along at max capacity anytime I tried to watch something on it. I’ve never seen Blue Velvet on a big screen, and I’m excited to get the chance. I think you should be, too. (1986, 120min)

David Lynch’s WILD AT HEART
w/ pre-show by Sleepover Trading Co.
WTF Wednesdays @ Rosendale Theater, Rosendale – Wednesday, February 5, 7:00pm

Here’s the thing about Wild at Heart… I can’t say much about it here! You guys know by now that we love Rosendale Theater, and we especially love Rob’s series, WTF Wednesdays. I had the privilege of getting to work with him directly for the first time at their screening of Big Trouble in Little China a few months ago. Rob reached out to me after Lynch’s death to ask if I would come back to the theater to introduce this screening, and I can’t begin to tell you how much it meant to me. But that’s the thing, I don’t want to spoil my introduction for you guys if you’re going to come. Here’s what I will say about it though. This film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1990. If you’ve seen it, you know how crazy that seems. All of Lynch’s films are dark, they often heavily feature sexuality and sexual violence. They can be intense. He is not above critiques about his relationship to putting women into terrifying situations. This movie is more than a part of that tradition. It’s also an amazing road movie, a bonkers love story, and a true culmination of some Lynch’s easiest to track obsessions. There’s a documentary that came out in 2023 called Lynch/Oz that I think everyone should watch, and it hinges deeply on a lot of the allusions to The Wizard of Oz in this film. There’s an amazing moment in that documentary about the scene in Wild at Heart when Nicolas Cage gets a metal band to play a perfect cover of “Love Me” by Elvis Presley. They rightly point out that there might not be anything more Lynch than that. If I haven’t done enough to convince you to come, I’ll be honest in saying I will probably cry when I give my introduction. It would mean the world to me if we could sell out the theater and have the memorial I think Lynch deserves. I hope you come.  (1990, 124min)

Silents Synced: Buster Keaton’s SHERLOCK JR. w/ R.E.M.
Orpheum, Saugerties – Sunday, February 9, 7:00pm

I was looking for other things to do on Super Bowl Sunday since the Bills lost (devastating) and when Brian sent me this screening I was elated. I can’t imagine a more perfect combination of two of my niche interests: the discography of the alt-rock band R.E.M. and silent movies. I don’t know who tapped into my brain and decided to do this but I’m so glad they did. I’ve talked a lot in this newsletter about how much I love Buster Keaton specifically, and this film is no exception. I love how sensitive and intimate his character work is, without forgoing the comedy he is known for. It seems perfect to me to match that up with Michael Stipe’s lyricism and vocals. If you’re not familiar with how the Silents Synced series works, it’s pretty much exactly as stated. Classic rock paired with silent films, so that the beats of the contemporary music match up with the film scene to scene. This edition will feature music from Monster (1994) and New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996). The first edition of the series was Nosferatu with music from Radiohead. I’m just extremely charmed by this concept, and am extremely excited to get to go experience it (especially because I, sadly, missed the last one). If you are a part of the population who will not be watching the Super Bowl this year, I couldn’t more strongly recommend this as an alternative if I tried. (1924, 72min)

Skate Punk Double Feature: DEATHBOWL TO DOWNTOWN and BEAUTIFUL FRENZY
Cut Teeth, Kingston – Monday, February 10, 7:00pm

Alright! Our first screening of 2025! If you’re at all familiar with the history of this organization, it started as an individual project by Brian, where he would show movies in a pop-up capacity in and around Kingston. The first screening he ever did was at Monument, the gallery that formerly occupied the space that is now Cut Teeth. I love a neat, full circle, and it feels fitting to be returning to the start of this organization for the first screening of our second year as an official organization (our birthday is in February!). It’s also a double feature, so get cozy! Deathbowl to Downtown is a 2008 documentary about the evolution of skate culture in New York City. It explores the transition of skate culture from parks to the street skating that we’re probably all more familiar with today. It’s a great portrait of a subculture that’s interested in its history and not just the images we associate with it. Plus, Chloe Sevigny narrates! This is the kind of movie that you’d usually just watch clips of on youtube, if you’re into that sort of thing. I love that we have the opportunity to show that kind of filmmaking in a more traditional format. Filmmaking focused on subcultures often gets relegated to internet rabbit holes, but there’s a lot of love that goes into them, and they deserve their laurels. Beautiful Frenzy is a music documentary about the Dutch punk band The Ex. It’s an amazing document of the fortitude of independent musicians. If you’re not familiar with The Ex, I’d strongly recommend you rectify that, and watching this movie might be a great place to start. Similar to Deathbowl, these sorts of films, with their extremely specific subject matter and cultural relevance, often get forgotten in the annals of time. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to dust them off and expose more people to them.  (2008, 77min; 2004, 54min; total runtime 135min)