Classic films attract new audience

Bring on the popcorn.

For classic movie enthusiasts, the hub of downtown Buffalo offers the chance to view and discuss films of all genres, from foreign to silent, to the vibrant musical.

Each Tuesday, for the fifth year in a row, UB professors Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson hold the Buffalo Film Seminars at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center in downtown Buffalo. UB students can receive credit for attending as a section of ENG 411, Contemporary Cinema, but the seminars are open to the public, offering diverse conversation about the films shown.

The seminars are held during the fall and spring semesters at 7 p.m., with around 14 film viewings per series. The first seminar was held in Jan. 2000.

"The city of Buffalo asked us if we would teach a Buffalo class downtown, because they hoped it would bring people downtown," said Jackson, a professor in the American Studies department.

The seminars began in the Market Arcade's smallest room, a tiny theater with a capacity of 154. By the fifth week, the class's popularity forced it to move to the theater's largest room, with a capacity of 324. The films have played to packed houses ever since.

"We sold out for our opening a week ago, and there are very few things that sell out downtown," Jackson said.

The film series is sponsored by Jackson, who is the Capen Professor of American Culture, the Department of English, and the Market Arcade, which is the only eight-screen publicly owned film theater in the United States.

The seminars are held the same way each week. Christian and Jackson introduce the film, the film is viewed, then there is a five-minute break followed by an open discussion, where half the audience usually participates, according to Jackson.

"We decided it would be most useful to view classic films, there is nothing like it in Buffalo," Jackson said. "We try to do classic films that you wouldn't have seen otherwise."

"Movies are meant to be seen big, without interruption," he said. "They're better in a theater with other people. You see things big that you don't see small."

The films for this semester's series include, "Bringing up Baby" with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant from 1938, "Gone with the Wind" with Vivien Leigh from 1939, "Annie Hall" directed by Woody Allen from 1977, and an Italian film called "The Leopard" from 1963.

Most films are viewed on 16 mm or 35 mm film, unless the reels are not available. The films for each series are shown in chronological order, with the exception of the series' finale.

"We always get good crowds for silent films, curiously enough," Jackson said. The silent films are accompanied by a live piano player, as they were originally experienced.

The Buffalo Film Seminars have been a hit among audience members, with individuals who have seen every screening in their six-year run.

Claude Welch, a political science professor at UB, has a standing appointment with his wife.

"I didn't really see many films when I was young, and Professors Christian and Jackson always show challenging and interesting films," he said. "Their introductions and post-film comments are always enlightening."

The seminars saved one regular audience member's life on Sept. 11, 2001, when he cancelled an appointment in New York City in one of the World Trade Towers so that he could attend that evening's screening of "Little Caesar."

The seminars are so successful that one year, when Christian and Jackson took a sabbatical and did not hold the seminars, Jackson said he was approached by angry audience members when he was shopping at Wegmans, demanding explanation. In addition, Jackson said that some professors have built their schedules around the seminars.

According to Jackson, the discussions are one of the main attractions, providing the opportunity for audience members to learn more about the films.

"People will talk about anything: characters, camera work, historical significance," Jackson said. "We've found that people go home and continue to talk about them."

Before the viewing of each film, Christian and Jackson create the infamous goldenrod-colored handouts about the film, six pages with production details, anecdotes, critical comments and quotations from directors, critics and historians, to help facilitate discussions.

At the first film of the series in August, audiences watched the 1915 classic, "Birth of a Nation," which inspired a discussion about the Ku Klux Klan.

Tickets are $6 for students, $8 for adults. For more information visit the Web site at www.buffalofilmseminars.com.

Jackson said he could guess at one reason the seminars are so popular: "Movies are the major narrative mode of our time."