The SeriesSeries offered under the Deep Focus umbrella will use different lenses to examine a variety of film genres while also creating opportunities for sustained conversations built around certain topics and themes. We will offer several thematic series, each consisting of four different events led by expert speakers, ranging from professors, to film critics, to members of the industry.
Hollywood Classics Music in Movies: Jazz AnimationTCM writer Hannah Jack will continue leading our Classic Hollywood series this fall, aiming to build on the success of the conversations she has already brought to our community. While all of the talks in this category will be about movies considered “classics”, they will range from those extremely widely known and well-received to hidden gems whose critical reputation has changed over time.
Winner of five Oscars including Best Picture, this landmark film stars the legendary Sidney Poitier as an African-American homicide detective from Philadelphia, who gets involved with a murder investigation while passing through a small town in Mississippi in 1966. Expertly acted, Poitier’s groundbreaking performance earned him his fourth Best Actor nomination in seven years.
Watch at Home Paramount +, Tubi, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play
In this technicolor melodrama from auteur Douglas Sirk, a wealthy oil tycoon’s dynasty is destroyed by the reckless behavior of his grown children. Rock Hudson stars in his seventh collaboration with Sirk as the grounded family friend who is usually a level-headed outlier to the children’s dramatic antics, suddenly thrown into the middle of a love triangle. Featuring an incredible supporting cast including Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone, and Robert Stack.
Watch at Home TCM on Saturday February 10th
A sinister boss of a South American casino finds out that his right-hand man, Johnny, and his sensuous new wife, Gilda, already know each other, and their steamy love triangle threatens to wreck all of their lives. Rita Hayworth stars in an iconic role along with Glenn Ford and George Macready.
Watch at Home Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube, Google Play
In Dorothy Arzner’s backstage melodrama, Maureen O’Hara and Lucille Ball play two midwestern dancers who dream of becoming stars in the big city. One struggles to pursue a life in the ballet, while the other relies on her sex appeal to conquer the world of Burlesque. The creative team behind DANCE GIRL DANCE is composed of director Arzner and co-writer Tess Slesinger and is based on a story by novelist Vicki Baum – which elevates this B-musical into a compelling story where the experience of the women takes center stage.
Watch at Home Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube, Google Play
In our first seminar series centered on music in movies, we will be focusing on jazz. Jazz permeates these films in a variety of ways, ranging from musicians playing the music in character to non-diegetic soundtrack. Starting off with titles scored by Sonny Rollins and Duke Ellington, we will dig deeper into features and artists patrons may already be familiar with, introducing them to new features and musicians along the way.
Last year, in his acceptance speech for Best Animated Film at the BAFTAs, Guillermo Del Toro stated, "animation is not a genre for kids. It's a medium for art, it's a medium for film, and I think animation should stay in the conversation." In this series, animation is the conversation, as we cast an eye toward the history and diversity of animated film, including features and shorts driven by puppetry, stop-motion, hand-drawing, 3D printing, and computer graphics. Embracing films across decades and languages, this series will provide a detailed cross-section of this vital and vibrant storytelling medium.
These three shorts illustrate a more daring Walt Disney than the sanitized version of him widely known today. Disney displays his visual wit and inventiveness in the shorts, playing with and subverting viewers' expectations. Two of these adventures show Mickey Mouse’s foiled plans, while a third, non-narrative short showcases some graveyard fancy footwork, impressively synchronized to a musical score.
The Skeleton Dance
1929 - USA - Walt Disney - 6 min
Steamboat Willie
1928 - USA - Walt Disney - 6 min
Plane Crazy
1928 - USA - Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks- 8 min
Watch at Home YouTube
Madame Souza takes care of her orphan grandson Champion and strives to help him find something he is passionate about, which turns out to be cycling. Champion makes it all the way to the Tour de France, where he is unexpectedly kidnapped. Madame Souza then goes on a journey to find him with the help of The Triplets of Belleville, an elderly trio of singers, and her faithful dog of course. The distinctive animation style and catchy tunes of The Triplets of Belleville add to the film’s enchanting atmosphere.
Watch at Home Apple TV, Amazon
Only Miyazaki could convincingly fill the role of the classic Hollywood leading man with an anthropomorphic pig. Set in 1930’s Italy, Porco Rosso focuses on the titular swine, an ex-WWI flying ace who now spends his time as a bounty hunter chasing down “sky pirates.” With he seems to have little faith left in the world after his experiences in the war, we watch as his tough facade begins to crack through friendship with a young mechanic Fio.
Watch at Home Max, Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube, Google Play
Mima, a former teen pop idol turned actress, is not only trying to forge her own identity, but also to hold onto it. As she questions herself about her career choices, deals with a stalker, and discovers a blog impersonating her, she starts to lose her grip on reality and begins to see things that may not be there. While created at the dawn of the internet age, Satoshi Kon's classic exhibits prescient warnings about the dark side of fan worship. This psychological thriller will leave you asking: who is the real Mima?
Watch at Home Shudder, Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube, Google Play
Renew Theaters operates four Pennsylvania/New Jersey movie theaters: the County Theater in Doylestown, PA, the Ambler Theater in Ambler, PA, the Hiway Theater in Jenkintown, PA, and the Princeton Garden Theatre in Princeton, NJ. Renew manages each theater according to each individual mission to: Exhibit art, independent and world films that offer the community an opportunity to experience a broad range of artistic and alternative expressions; Educate the community about the film and media arts through a diverse program of educational activities that seek to develop a lifelong involvement with the arts; Serve as a community and charitable resource for the arts, and to promote and effect access to the arts for all members of the community; and Preserve the theaters as cultural resources.
Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater at the LeVan Performing Arts Center features an 800-seat theater, two cinemas with stadium seating, an art gallery, café, and a 20,000-square-foot backstage production facility with dressing rooms and rehearsal hall. The theater is open 358 days annually with daily programming including live performances of Broadway shows, classical and popular music, dance, comedy, children’s shows, first-run independent films and cinema classics. The center serves as the rehearsal and performance venue for Gettysburg College’s Sunderman Conservatory of Music.
Deep Focus is supported by a generous grant from the Vesta Fund. The series develops further on earlier Renew Theaters initiatives like “Film 101” and “Prof. Picks." Majestic Theater in Gettysburg is our first regional collaborator Looking forward to the spring and beyond, we plan to make even more offerings available, including a crash-course on film appreciation.