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Film Forum is screening the new 4K restoration of Killer of Sheep from Friday, April 18 through Thursday, April 24.

Again this reinstates the one song they couldn't clear when the film had its belated theatrical debut in 2007 - up until now, it was replaced with "This Bitter Earth" which was already being used in one of the film's most famous scenes.

Charles Burnett himself will be there for three screenings. One of them has sold out, but there are still tickets left for the Q&A on Saturday evening and the intro on Sunday afternoon.

Wow, I was just wondering if the original tune would ever be restored. That's how I first saw it (that is, with the original soundtrack) and every subsequent restoration has seemed a bit amiss as a result.

May 16–25: Kira Muratova: A Retrospective at Lincoln Center. This is a big one; don't miss it if you are in NYC!

Don’t miss the Jamaa Fanaka films, either

Yakushima wrote: Wed Apr 16, 2025 4:45 am May 16–25: Kira Muratova: A Retrospective at Lincoln Center. This is a big one; don't miss it if you are in NYC!

Her life and work are completely new to me. Thanks.

ando wrote: Wed Apr 16, 2025 5:37 pm

Yakushima wrote: Wed Apr 16, 2025 4:45 am May 16–25: Kira Muratova: A Retrospective at Lincoln Center. This is a big one; don't miss it if you are in NYC!

Her life and work are completely new to me. Thanks.

Ando, you are most welcome!
A full lineup is now posted.
This is a rare opportunity to see such hard-to-find gems as Sentimental Policeman, Minor People and Two in One.
Muratova's masterpieces The Tuner and The Asthenic Syndrome are listed as new 4K restorations, which gives me hope that Criterion may release them on discs in the future.

A limited number of free tickets are available for Lincoln Center's screenings for the following:

Bless Their Little Hearts
TOMORROW/Thursday, May 1, 6:30 p.m., 35mm
With an introduction by NYU professor Josslyn Luckett, author of Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Media Activism Made in L.A.

Hanami
Friday, May 2, 9:00 p.m.
With a Q&A with director Denise Fernandes

Reserve them through the link above, they will come up as free ($0.00). Limit 2 per person, first-come, first-serve. Please don't take any if you're probably not going, again there's a limited number being given away.

I'm hearing that most of these screenings are having very low attendance, which is a shame. I haven't been able to make any, and wanted to see Bless Their Little Hearts tonight but I have to be home with the kid.

Also, nearly all of the films playing in the Jack Lemmon retro at Film Forum are DCP, but Glengarry Glenn Ross is playing on 35mm during Memorial Day Weekend, and Bob Odenkirk (currently starring in the Broadway performance) will be introducing it.

Drucker wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 1:43 pm Also, nearly all of the films playing in the Jack Lemmon retro at Film Forum are DCP, but Glengarry Glenn Ross is playing on 35mm during Memorial Day Weekend, and Bob Odenkirk (currently starring in the Broadway performance) will be introducing it.

Avanti in 35 is one I wouldn’t pass up. It’s probably the same Park Circus print that just screened in Los Angeles.

hearthesilence wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 3:42 am Bless Their Little Hearts
TOMORROW/Thursday, May 1, 6:30 p.m., 35mm
With an introduction by NYU professor Josslyn Luckett, author of Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Media Activism Made in L.A.

FWIW, this was an excellent print and they're playing it again on Sunday afternoon.

I saw this in 35mm before but it was many years ago, during the Burnett retrospective at MoMA. Even better the second time around, the acting by the children (Burnett's relatives) is especially good and heartbreaking. In the first close-ups filmed for two of them (occurring in different scenes), even though they were clearly children, the expression they gave seemed so aged, it was astonishing how well they drained any sense of youthfulness from themselves. This was apiece with the roles they played - from the very start, you see how these characters had to grow up fast and take on greater responsibilities than most children who are more fortunate, and it probably sticks out more this time having been around children of friends and family members who are better off. The children in this film rarely get to be kids, and very rarely do they crack a smile (a playful joke sticks out for that reason and even then, it's only one of them who's having fun).

hearthesilence wrote: Fri May 02, 2025 4:57 am

hearthesilence wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 3:42 am Bless Their Little Hearts
TOMORROW/Thursday, May 1, 6:30 p.m., 35mm
With an introduction by NYU professor Josslyn Luckett, author of Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Multiracial Media Activism Made in L.A.

FWIW, this was an excellent print and they're playing it again on Sunday afternoon.

I saw this in 35mm before but it was many years ago, during the Burnett retrospective at MoMA. Even better the second time around, the acting by the children (Burnett's relatives) is especially good and heartbreaking. In the first close-ups filmed for two of them (occurring in different scenes), even though they were clearly children, the expression they gave seemed so aged, it was astonishing how well they drained any sense of youthfulness from themselves. This was apiece with the roles they played - from the very start, you see how these characters had to grow up fast and take on greater responsibilities than most children who are more fortunate, and it probably sticks out more this time having been around children of friends and family members who are better off. The children in this film rarely get to be kids, and very rarely do they crack a smile (a playful joke sticks out for that reason and even then, it's only one of them who's having fun).

Was this a UCLA restoration print? I saw it a number of years back, and it indeed looks fantastic. Low turnout for it, too. Billy Woodberry and Charles Burnett both teach at Cal Arts, but neither were there

It was indeed the UCLA restoration - it wasn't a bad turnout (it was Lincoln Center's biggest theater, so it's possible it would've sold out at the other theaters and left a good number out of the screening), but given its stature, it's a shame it wasn't sold out all the same.

Last evening I went to see 8 1/2 at the Film Forum. it was a new 35mm print from the camera negative. It looked terrific. But the subs were white and got washed out against whites in the film. Being that I've seen the film multiple times it wasn't a problem. The following is an explanation from the Film Forum...

PROGRAMMING NOTE: This 35mm print was struck from the original camera negative at L'Immagine Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy, and subtitled at TITRAFILM in Paris, one of the world’s few surviving 35mm subtitling facilities. The print was created entirely photochemically, with no intermediary digital source or restoration. Lasers were used to etch the subtitles directly into the film emulsion, the only subtitling method possible for photochemically-created prints.

Some of the laser-etched titles will occasionally be partly or completely washed out against white backgrounds, making about 15% of the text unreadable or partly readable. Some extended passages of dialogue are affected. “White on white,” unavoidable and common in 35mm prints, once plagued black & white foreign language films. The problem has largely disappeared since the rise of digital projection. Despite this issue, we feel this is an extremely rare opportunity to experience Fellini’s extraordinary imagery in a newly-struck first generation 35mm print. We have added daily screenings of the digital 4K restoration with complete subtitles for those who prefer to see it this way. For more background on this and other subtitling challenges, we invite you to watch Founding Repertory Artistic Director of Film Forum and co-president of Rialto Pictures Bruce Goldstein’s short film, “The Art of Subtitlinmg", courtesy of Criterion.

Abderrahmane Sissako will be appearing at Quad Cinema this Friday and Saturday after the 7 pm screenings to discuss his new film Black Tea.

He will also participate in a Q&A for the film's New York premiere at the New York African Film Festival tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m. in the EBM Film Center at Lincoln Center.

As of this writing, tickets are available for all screenings. I've only seen two of his films, Bamako (at Lincoln Center for their retrospective on Danny Glover's production company) and Timbuktu (when it opened at Quad Cinema), but they were both excellent.

John Wilson opens a small 44-seat theater called Low Cinema in Ridgewood, Queens.

Right down the street from me (though I reside in Bushwick) and a block from a pub I like to frequent, so it is exciting.

aox wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 10:05 pm John Wilson opens a small 44-seat theater called Low Cinema in Ridgewood, Queens.

Right down the street from me (though I reside in Bushwick) and a block from a pub I like to frequent, so it is exciting.

My grandmother is in Elmhurst, Queens. Guess I’ll be popping by when I see her soon.

aox wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 10:05 pm John Wilson opens a small 44-seat theater called Low Cinema in Ridgewood, Queens.

Right down the street from me (though I reside in Bushwick) and a block from a pub I like to frequent, so it is exciting.

Is there a website/showings listing for this?

beamish14 wrote: Thu May 08, 2025 1:02 am

aox wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 10:05 pm John Wilson opens a small 44-seat theater called Low Cinema in Ridgewood, Queens.

Right down the street from me (though I reside in Bushwick) and a block from a pub I like to frequent, so it is exciting.

My grandmother is in Elmhurst, Queens. Guess I’ll be popping by when I see her soon.

Order a salted honey pie from Four and Twenty Blackbirds and pick it up on Fridays at Variety Coffee at 681 Grandview Ave in Ridgewood, Queens. Best pie EVER.

Never Cursed wrote: Thu May 08, 2025 1:08 am is there a website/showings listing for this?

Independently, it doesn't look like there is anything yet. Best I could do is this: https://www.screenslate.com/venues/low-cinema

Also, they have a very nascent IG account

Hatari! was recently released on UHD in a brand-new 4K restoration, so now's a good time to check out an IB Tech print to see how one holds up against the other. It will be screening Friday, May 30 and Sunday, June 1 at Roxy Cinema, courtesy of the Film Stage.

Hmm Metrograph showed a print a few years ago, advertised as an "IB Tech" print that didn't look very special at all to my eyes, for what it's worth.

IB Tech just means the color will be reference quality and as close to what it was when Technicolor processed the movie. I’ll add that some of the worst prints I’ve ever seen were IB Tech and were battered and damaged to all hell.

If any American film of the 1980s is in dire need of a restoration, it's Leon Ichaso's Crossover Dreams, a star vehicle for Rubén Blades who was arguably at his musical peak when the film was made. (His and Willie Colón's 1978 LP Siembra became a massively popular international phenomenon, but for my money 1984's Buscando América is even better and more adventurous.) The last time I saw it scheduled for a local screening, it was a 16mm print owned by producer and co-writer Manuel Arce, and it's possible that print is the only decent print in existence even though the film was originally shot and exhibited in 35mm. Unfortunately when they tried to screen it to close a months-long celebration of Rubén Blades, the sound kept dropping out - it's unknown how much of that is a problem with the print or the projector, but after several failed attempts to fix it, Lincoln Center wound up showing a crappy YouTube rip that was likely taken from the long out-of-print DVD. Arce apologized and also admitted that no 35mm print is known to circulate, joking if anyone had tens of thousands of dollars to donate, they'd gladly strike a new one. Unfortunately and surprisingly, Blades is pretty nonchalant about his film career - Arce said Blades never did PR for any of his films when they came out because promoting his film acting didn't interest him, singing and touring took greater priority, much to Robert Redford's frustration when they made The Milagro Beanfield War.