Hey there, Cinemaheads!
At Ragtag Film Society, the rhythms of our year are very cyclical. Post-True/False we slow down a bit and set our sights on CoMo Famous, The Boone Dawdle, and even the next iteration of the Fest. But the cinema never stops, and in this little break from all-out T/F we still have creative nonfiction on the brain.
On Friday, we are honored to partner with Stephens College in their Citizen Jane Masterclass series, an echo of the beloved women’s film festival that took place every fall in Columbia until 2018. As a Stephens alum and former Janie, the sense of nostalgia for the festival is enough to draw me to the masterclass… But wait. It gets cooler! Filmmakers Jessica Kingdon and Nathan Truesdell are bringing their Oscar-nominated documentary Ascension. Kingdon is an alum of our Prism mentorship program. Nate has been a longtime friend of the Fest—he’s had shorts in our program, and also created a bumper and the Picturehouse Portraits. They brought the film to our Rough Cut Retreat in 2020. I personally watched it without reading anything about it beforehand and it was a really impactful way to experience the film, so no spoilers from me!
On Saturday, Charlie Shackleton returns to Columbia with his 35mm film The Afterlight. He was here for the 2022 Fest with his VR performance film As Mine Exactly, which was performed individually and uniquely for each audience member. Now he’s touring the U.S. and Canada with the only existing reels of The Afterlight. If there was ever a film you urgently need to see, it’s this one.
On Tuesday we’ll continue our Science on Screen® Series with In Silico, a documentary about a brilliant scientist working to simulate the entire human brain on supercomputers. Then on Wednesday we have a special Early Access screening of Downton Abbey: A New Era. That’s two days before the film releases, so if you’re a Downton fan this screening is a must!
Eroding like celluloid,
LeeAnne
