Author Brian Darr

Imagine that every time you went to the movies you had a chance to see your favorite short film, right after the upcoming attractions trailers and before the start of the feature film. For some of us that short...

Hideko Takamine lined up with her uncle at the Shochiku studio for an audition for the Hotei Nomura film Haha (Mother, 1929). Already adorable at the age of five, she got the part, the film became a hit, and a ...

Tod Browning is simultaneously one of the most compelling and neglected figures of Hollywood’s silent film era. Such a statement may seem paradoxical considering that much has been written on the director known...

Wild Night in El Reno (1977 USA 6 mins) Filmmaker: George Kuchar Storms have been a motif found throughout filmmaker George Kuchar’s work. Whether manifested in the cumulonimbus and nimbostratus cloud...

April 21–May 5, 2005 Film societies must remain at least one step ahead of their audiences and must not permit themselves to be pulled down to the level of the lowest common denominator in the audience, ...

On February 27, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave an introductory address during the radio broadcast of the 13th annual Academy Awards ceremony. His prologue noted the cinema's ability to show “the truths of...

An international film festival can be likened to an airplane trip around the world, only instead of stopping to get out of the cabin and sightsee, passengers stay in their seats watching the in-flight enter...

Five Star Final (1931 USA 86 mins) Source: NLA/ACMI Prod Co: First National/Vitaphone (Warner Bros.) Prod: Hal B. Wallis Dir: Mervyn LeRoy Scr: Byron Morgan, Robert Lord, based on Louis Weitzenkorn's pl...

The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950 USA 7 mins) Source: NLA/ACMI Prod Co: Warner Bros. Prod: Leon Schlesinger Dir: Charles M. Jones Scr: Michael Maltese Anim: Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Phil Monro...