Our friends at Kanopy and Docuseek2 provide access to some great documentaries, often ones with a socially conscious perspective. In time for Black History Month, both companies have collections dedicated to the American black experience – and they’re stories you probably haven’t heard before. First up is Kanopy’s African American History collection, a group of […]
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A salute to Jacques Rivette, craftsman of the French New Wave
Last week, we quietly lost Jacques Rivette, one of the original filmmakers of the original French New Wave movement. As a filmmaker and a critic, Rivette advocated for a more natural, improvised cinema that the New Wave aspired to. Godard and Truffaut captured the spotlight, but Rivette’s films are often considered some of the most […]
Continue readingNew Acquisitions – January 2016
Rub your weary eyes and put on non-sweatpants; DC has functionally recovered from the weekend’s massive snowstorm, and we’re back to work. Our first order of business is pushing out the next wave of new DVDs from this month. Big names from this month include the Melissa McCarthy comedy Spy, Marvel’s Ant-Man, and Sundance hit […]
Continue readingSnow approaches! Lock yourself in with the best movie blizzards
via Giphy Yes, a massive snowstorm will hit DC in about 24 hours. It will be big, possibly as large as if not larger than the Snowmageddon storm that locked down DC for a week in 2010 and caused some substantial damage on campus. If this is anywhere as bad as the experts predict, prepare […]
Continue readingRemembering Bowie on film
Like everyone, we’re shocked and saddened by the death of David Bowie, rock god extraordinaire and cultural icon. Bowie was a true renaissance man who dabbled in music, performance, games, and yes, film. Attempting to quantify all his contributions to the arts is a fool’s errand, but we want to at least acknowledge some of […]
Continue readingNew Acquisitions – December 2015
Oh, hello! You caught us right in the middle of turning off the lights and locking things up the library closes up for winter break. But before we speed off, we wanted to leave you with a big stack of DVDs you can look forward to checking out when you’re back. Everyone looking for new […]
Continue readingAlternative programming: Before he was Finn, John Boyega saved London
Much of the early coverage of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has focused on the likely career booms of Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, two actors thrown into the global spotlight by their starring roles. While we have almost nothing to go by for Ridley (a music video and some commercials, basically), we had a […]
Continue readingAlternative programming: Why run when you can ride?
Tonight is the library’s annual Final Perk study boost event, this year rechristened as the marathon-themed Final Lap. That’s a great metaphor, but we’ll admit that this is a difficult topic for our collection. Frankly, not many running or track movies exist, almost all of them besides Forrest Gump are about the Olympics or Steve […]
Continue readingNew Acquisitions – November 2015
Another month has passed, we’ve added another hundred titles to our collection. The obvious big highlight is the first season of Empire, the massively successful hip-hop drama that has been a boon to television in more than one way. You might also spot Going Clear, the famously damning exposé of the Church of Scientology, and […]
Continue readingYour new podcast recommendation: You Must Remember This
Via our collections coordinator Molly Hubbs, we have a podcast recommendation for wonky film history types. You Must Remember This is a weekly hour-long program about secret tales from the classic film era. Every season, host Karina Longworth covers one major topic of Hollywood history across a dozen or so episodes. Earlier this year she […]
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