My Summer 2016 Film Festival

I’ve seen a lot of wonderful cinema this Summer, as usual.  I watch a lot of animation, documentaries, silent films and avant-garde/ experimental films.

Thanks to the Detroit Film Theatre, Cinema Detroit, the Detroit Public Library, Netflix and too, to the library where I work.

The Summer included the Cinetopia film festival, in early June.  I got to 4 or 5 films there, all documentaries I think.  I saw Leonard Maltin introduce an animation program at the Redford Theatre.

Special studies included the silent social drama films of Cecil B. Demille.

I saw a lot of films directed by John Cassavetes. Favorites included Shadows, Faces and Love  Streams.  I also saw Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky, which is “related material.”  I also saw a good group of films by Norman McLaren, and Robert Bresson.

I caught documentary films about Sebastião Salgado, Miles Davis, Harvey Milk, Al Green, Eva Hesse and Ousmane Sembène.  I also enjoyed The New Rijksmuseum, a 2014 film about the decade long renovations at Amsterdam’s great art museum.

I also saw some films about the Holocaust including A Film Unfinished and Night and Fog.

I visited the work of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Luis Buñuel, Busby Berkeley, James Cagney, Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Fairbanks, Mack Sennett and others

Then there are the short films of Charles and Ray Eames.  Most of these were new to me. Some of them are very interesting and even amazing.

I also caught a good group of early Fritz Lang films.  I saw mostly silent works including Spies, Destiny (the restored version was screened at the  Detroit Film Theatre) and the Dr. Mabuse films.