Campus plans summer film festival
For the first time, Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, will hold a summer film festival. The festival, “Breezy Laughs for Summer Nights,” will feature comedies both older and contemporary during the event, which begins Wednesday.
Films will be shown every Wednesday through Aug. 17.
John Riddle, head librarian and film festival coordinator, said the idea for a summer festival came after successful fall and spring festivals.
“We had a lot of good feedback and people were asking us to do another festival,” he said. “Lots of places do summer film festivals, but we thought we would experiment and see if people like it.”
He said comedies have been shown in previous years, but never as the theme for the festival.
“It’s hot during the summer, so we thought we’d have some fun,” Riddle said.
The first films, “The Kid” and “Seven Chances,” will offer movie fans a chance to decide whether Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin was a better comedic actor, he said.
The following week features the classic Hollywood madcap comedy, “Bringing Up Baby,” starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant “at their absolute funniest,” according to Riddle.
Other films planned during the festival are “Some Like it Hot,” starring Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis, a film that Riddle called “the definitive American comedy,” and “The Big Lebowski” with Jeff Bridges, directed by the Coen brothers.
Riddle will introduce each picture and will then lead the audience in discussion once the lights are raised.
“I don’t know of any other festival like this in Fayette County. We’re the only show in town doing this,” he said. “We’ll have a lot of laughs, plus we’ll get out of the summer heat.”
The schedule for the summer film festival is as follows:
– July 27, “The Kid” and “Seven Chances,” 7 p.m., Swimmer Hall, Williams Building.
– Aug. 3, “Bringing Up Baby,” 7 p.m., Swimmer Hall .
– Aug. 10, “Some Like it Hot,” 7 p.m., Swimmer Hall.
– Aug. 17, “The Big Lebowski,” 7 p.m., Corporate Training Center, Eberly Building.
Riddle said plans are under way for the fall 2005 and spring 2006 film festivals. The fall festival will focus on Native American films, as a tie-in to other events on campus, while the spring films will deal with the complexities of war.
For more information, call 724-430-4211 or 724-430-4152.