In 1927, Germany saw the release of a dystopian, effects-driven, sci-fi drama that would quickly be butchered from its original running time of well over two hours to a 90 minute version to be distributed to the rest of the world. Even in its fragmented form, Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece has ... more »
Opening in the CinemaSalem screening room this week is, I Am Love, an Italian drama that explores the inner workings of the Recchi family, an aristocratic power whose fortune was made in the industrial age. As the family lurches toward collapse in the information age, so too do the individual ... more »
The Oath is a difficult film. Winner of Best Documentary at the Boston International Film Festival, The Oath looks at two men close to Osama bin-Laden prior to the attacks on September 11th. On one level the film is a criticism of the Bush administration's use of executive power to ... more »
On Thursday, April 8, Salem State College will be showing an excellent documentary called The Trashfinder's Ball. I attended the premiere back in August because I was graciously invited by my friends, the documentarians, Sean Devlin and Kevin Carey. Both are Beverly writers. Kevin's ... more »
Severe Clear, the uncompromising new documentary film from Sirk Producions, came to be in 2004 when a young Marine, newly returned from combat, walked into NYU’s Tisch School of Film one fateful day. Heavy with a bag of DV tapes under his arm, the young Lieutenant had but one simple ... more »
With over three dozen documentaries being shown throughout the week, I assumed that the overly excited crowd would have a lot to say…I was right. Most responses came from JUNIOR which screened on Thursday night and proved to be a crowd favorite. The audience was intrigued by the festival and ... more »
Severe Clear won the 2010 Salem Film Festival Jury Prize. The prize was announced at last night's Wrap Party, sponsored by Art Throb. The film will soon be shown in New York and L.A. and Salem is proud to have had the film here first. Severe Clear features video shot by First Lieutenant ... more »
There's no better way to spend a snowy evening than looking at artwork inspired by summer, watching lush filmmaking and sipping wine. Tonight, join the Salem Arts Association for their opening reception of Seeds of Summer from 6:30 to 8:30 at SATV (285 Derby St.) and then head over to the ... more »
Art Throb is contributing to the Salem Film Festival blog. There, you can currently learn about two filmmakers -- one from Canada and one in New Mexico -- who are making preparations for coming to the festival, which begins Feb. 26. Check out the festival blog to read a Q and A with the ... more »
Most of us know by now that the Salem Film Festival begins Feb. 26. If you can't wait that long to begin the film fest experience, on Wednesday, Feb. 17, you can catch a free screening of 13 short films at Marblehead's Winter Film Festival. The Marblehead Festival of Arts invites the ... more »
The selection committee has made final decision on the films for this third Salem Film Fest, which will warm us all in the late winter. A favorite will, no doubt, be BUDDHA'S LOST CHILDREN REVISITED. European producer Ton Okkerse sent a videoed THANK YOU in 2008 from Logan Airport, upon news ... more »
Award-winning director, producer, & cinematographer Les Blank has been making independent films for well over four decades. He continues to explore the passion, perils and peculiarities of our shared human experience with his own unique vision in films such as "The Blues According to ... more »
By Bill Humphreys I sat in a cozy restaurant watching David Mauriello stir his soup with a fork ... It was one of those elongated, heavily silent moments before epiphany strikes. We had spent the past hour degrading the film industry, for its lack of imagination in effectively ... more »
Song Credit: Fix You by Coldplay Read Art Throb's interview with film student, Melanie Carr, by clicking here! more »
Gloucester is welcoming a new arts venue to the Main Street neighborhood. The Cape Ann Community Cinema held their grand opening on September 29th. To kick off the festivities in a creative fashion, they are offering 32 days of documentary films, aptly nicknamed, ... more »
Local photographer Kiki Larouge and Sixty2 on Wharf restaurant in Salem will host a fundraiser that includes an auction and raffle on Monday, Oct. 12 to benefit Maiti Nepal ("mother's house"), a Nepali-run organization that combats the trafficking of women and girls from Nepal to India for ... more »
Melanie Carr, 19 years old, has certainly grown from a little girl obsessed with the Lion King to the aspiring filmmaker we see in the video above. "I've always loved watching movies," she says, "and when I was younger I wanted to be a part of them. It just looked like so much fun. I guess ... more »
CinemaSalem co-owner Paul Van Ness has worked in film and video production for 25 years, creating commercials, corporate videos, and documentaries like the one that sent him to South Africa this spring to interview anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. ... more »
All summer long, across the world, Joss Whedon fans have packed movie houses to catch charity screenings of his 2005 film Serenity and his 2008 short film created exclusively for the web, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Screenings, organized locally by fans and facilitated and ... more »
They are Italians in their 70s and 80s who still live in the neighborhood. They are newcomers to Salem who love art. The fight to save St. Mary's Church and turn it into an arts center has piqued the interest of a diverse crowd. They recently turned up to a free screening at CinemaSalem of Salem ... more »
She's not a household name, but you've seen her in "30 Rock," "Pink Panther 2," "Gone, Baby, Gone," "Evening," "The Women," "21," "The Great Debaters," and more than 35 other films, television shows, and commercials. She's played a beautician, a flirt, a legislator, a drunk, a ... more »
We fell in love with the short films made by students at RAW ART WORKS when we stumbled upon their low-lit, cozy screening room at their fundraiser last month in Lynn and slumped into an overstuffed couch to be mesmerized by their head-on view of reality and playful approach to ... more »
Eighteen million Americans "do it"...Some say it's over 5,000 years old...Others even say it's better than sex...Yoga is certainly a topic near and dear to the hearts of many living on the North Shore. Is it a path to enlightenment, better health, or not a path at all? These are just ... more »
A couple months back I had the pleasure of watching a screener of Tulpan, the first narrative feature directed by Kazakh documentary filmmaker Sergei Dvortsevoy. Upon finishing the film, I knew I had to bring it to Salem. I've not seen any of Dvortsevoy's documentaries, but his pedigree in ... more »
Angels and Demons Summer blockbuster season is underway with two smash hits, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Star Trek already racking up box office big bucks. This week, the film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons hits the big screen. Tom Hanks as Harvard symbologist Robert ... more »
The Documentary Film, "ANVIL: The Story of Anvil," made its Boston debut at the Salem Film Fest back in March of this year. Since then, the movie has gone on to major theatrical release. "ANVIL: The Story of Anvil" is the true story of the heavy metal rock band of the same name. ... more »
Just as we at Art Throb have recently gathered to unite cultural organizations and artists under one roof, so, literally, has a huge cross-section of the arts community of Salem. Call it serendipity or great minds thinking collectively or timing, but Joe Cultrera's championing of St. ... more »
Thonah Ep's earliest memories involve learning the traumatic history of his country through his father's drawings. Upon arriving in the US from Cambodia in 1991 at the age of five, Thonah grew up in Lynn amid gang pressure and threats of violence. Art is what saved him. Nearly ten ... more »
I first saw Elayne McCabe in yoga class at the Y, but didn't get to know her until we worked together on the Salem Film Fest. That's when I learned that Elayne, 24, is an independent filmmaker. The Fulbright Scholar lived in Kashmir for half of 2008 on an Asian Cultural Council Artist ... more »