There have been a lack of movies, especially documentary films, to see in Pittsburgh this summer. With the Regent Square theater closed for repairs (does anyone know if/when it will reopen?), there have been even fewer options.
The 1st annual Pittsburgh Underground Film Festival #reelqPUFF is happening this weekend and has a line up of several interesting documentaries.
The film festival starts on Friday with a screening of the documentary Ovarian Psycos. Ovarian Psycos is a bicycle brigade in Los Angeles that supports women of color. The brigade started in 2010 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood and the documentary premiered at SXSW in 2016.
The trailer is included below and is available online here. Sue from the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondent’s blog has posted an interview with Maryann ‘Sunhands’ who is one of the members of of the Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade. Maryann will be in Pittsburgh for the screening on Friday.
Today’s blog post is a double header, I guess I should say double feature, of historic preservation information. Just in time for preservation month, the new documentary about Jane Jacobs opens in Pittsburgh this weekend and it is screening at one of Pittsburgh’s oldest neighborhood movie theaters.
Last Saturday was the annual Jane’s Walk, a community walk celebrating the work of Jane Jacobs in advocating for walkable communities. Jane Jacobs is the author of the book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” (Amazon affiliate link). The book was first published in 1961 as a response to the 1950s urban planning policies of urban renewal. Many cities took on massive urban renewal projects which dramatically reshaped the urban landscape. The effects of urban renewal are still felt today across the country and right here in Pittsburgh.
Urban Renewal in Pittsburgh
Urban renewal and its impact on both the North Side and East Liberty was the topic of a panel discussion hosted by Preservation Pittsburgh in March. Past Tense | Future Perfect was moderated by Don Carter who is the director of the Remaking Cities Institute at the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture and provided an interesting discussion of how preservationists could think about urban renewal and the impact on these neighborhoods today. Yesterday, I wrote about the memorial that Andrew Carnegie erected for Colonel James Anderson. I was surprised to learn that the memorial was moved from it’s original location as part of the urban renewal plan which demolished over 500 buildings to create the Allegheny Center mall and apartments. The mall closed in the 1990s, the mall building has been used as office space and has recently been rebranded as Nova Place. And today, The Atlantic’s CityLab blog published a post about the response to a proposed fried chicken restaurant in East Liberty, The New Urban Fried-Chicken Crisis. Author Brentin Mock provides some historical context around the fried chicken crisis, explaining that East Liberty was and continues to be impacted by the urban renewal policies:
At one point in the early 20th century, East Liberty was one of the largest commercial corridors in the Allegheny Valley region—a third downtown for Pittsburgh. Then urban planners got all bright-eyed and decided to experiment with the street layout and ended up choking East Liberty off from the rest of the city, killing most of its commercial enterprises off in the process.
Even if you don’t care about what restaurants are coming or going, the CityLab article is worth a read, I think Brentin Mock does a good job of explaining what is happening in East Liberty today.
Jane Jacob’s book continues to be one of the key texts around urban planning and creating vibrant communities. I was first introduced to the book in one of my urban planning courses in college. If I had known that after college I would spend years writing about the city of Pittsburgh, I would have majored in city planning. I went to college at a time when email was so new that we had to take an introduction to email class the first week of school. This was back in the days before cell phones, Facebook and blogging.
Jane Jacobs Documentary Screening in Pittsburgh
The city lovers and urban planners that I know are quite excited that the new documentary about Jane Jacob, “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City“. Pittsburgh Filmmakers will be showing the documentary at the Regent Square Theater May 12-18, 2017.
You can read Al Hoff’s review of “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City” in this weeks Pittsburgh City Paper.
It seems fitting that a documentary about Jane Jacobs is screening at a neighborhood theater. The Regent Square Theater has been around since 1938 and is one of the last single screen theaters left in the area. The theater was purchased by the nonprofit Pittsburgh Filmmakers in 1998 and continues to operate as a movie theater screening movies 7 days a week. I was hoping to find out some more history about this building. If you know more about the history of the Regent Square Theater, please share.
I know the tickets for the premier are expensive but I wanted to share this because this film was made by a Pittsburgh resident and I know there will be more screenings of the film to come.
Check out the trailer and be sure to follow @wgfpa for updates.
‘Madame Presidenta: Why Not U.S.?’, a documentary exploring the role of women in global politics, was inspired by Arnet’s grandmother, the late Vivian Goldstein, whose own mother marched as a suffragette advocating for women to achieve the right to vote. As the film shows, Goldstein had hoped to live long enough to see a woman elected president of the United States. Sadly, she was not able to see her dream come true.
Inspired by Vivian’s resolve, Heather traveled to Brazil to ask women from different regions and socio-economic backgrounds to share their perspective on the dynamic shifts that have occurred in Brazilian politics over the course of just one generation.
Why Brazil? Presidenta Dilma Rousseff leads one of the most rapidly developing nations on earth, having surpassed the United Kingdom to become the world’s sixth-largest economy. The film debuts as Brazil prepares to host the World Cup in June of this year, as Rousseff faces re-election in October, and as the nation prepares to host the Summer Olympics in 2016.
Through the production of this film, Heather uncovered powerful new findings connecting female economic security, political participation, and new democracies in fostering the advancement of women.
The Women and Girls Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania invites you to join us for the premiere, leading the way for women in shaping the world through advocacy and civic involvement.
International Premiere of ‘Madame Presidenta: Why Not U.S.?’
March 8, 2014
8:00pm
Carnegie Museum of Art Theater Dessert reception and Q&A with director Heather Arnet to follow
Tickets are $50.TICKETS AVAILABLE AT:www.madamepresidenta.com
While you know that some big blockbuster movies are shot in Pittsburgh, there are quite a few Pittsburghers who are working on their own film project. The Sprout Fund has put together a special round of grants to help some of these local filmmakers finish and promote their films.
The public is invited to watch the trailers here and vote for your favorite films. The deadline for public voting is December 2, 2013. (Take a minute to watch the intro video that The Sprout Fund put together for this project. They filmed this intro at the Hollywood Theater in Dorming and it provides a nice overview of the project) Continue reading →
Just in time for the family fun of the holidays! Cold Turkey is a film about families and Thanksgiving. With an all star cast, including Peter Bogdanovich and Cheryl Hines, this looks like a promising film.
You can watch Cold Turkey online at Amazon and Google Play. If you would like to catch this film on the big screen, Cold Turkey will be showing at The Hollywood Theater in Dormont this Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 7:30pm. Tickets are available online via Gathr.
A friend of mine sent me the preview to this film last week and I thought this was worth sharing. Here is your opportunity to check out a Thanksgiving film a week before Turkey day and an excuse to visit one of Pittsburgh’s independent movie theaters. (Check out the IheartPGH guide to independent movie theaters in Pittsburgh here).
Looking for more holiday movies on the big screen? The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will be screening Planes, Trains and Automobiles and It’s a Wonderful Life this weekend – check out the November schedule here.
