The Arts Fuse Newsletter, October 23
Reviews of SpeakEasy Stage's "Pru Payne," the Terry Gibbs Dream Band, Netflix's "A Virtuous Business", Music Worcester's Complete Bach, and the Wayback Machine is Hacked
From The Editor's Desk:
The month’s screenings of the Boston Jewish Film Festival and the Boston Palestine Film Festival have been proceeding smoothly. The terror attack in Israel on October 7 caused a number of problems at this time last year. Israeli filmmaker Hilla Medalia’s powerful documentary Mourning in Lod was scheduled to appear at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, but the organization’s board of directors withdrew the film because of the crisis. Ironically, this even-handed doc looks at how both sides in the West Bank conflict have embraced humanity — and dehumanization. (The film can be streamed on Paramount +.) The Boston Palestine Film Festival cancelled the in-person portion of its program, while ArtsEmerson postponed the Bright Lights Cinema series screening of the film Israelism from November 9 to February 1.
But the fallout from October 7 on our culture may not be over yet. The Bright Lights Cinema series at Emerson College has been shut down after 12 years, its curator, Anna Feder, head of Film Exhibition and Festival Programs at the college and part-time faculty in the Department of Visual and Media Arts, sacked. She was one of ten employees laid off in early August. The only union member to be let go, Feder has filed a grievance. The college’s announcement cited “budget challenges created by the decline in enrollment and the need for the College to focus resources on mission-critical academic programs.” During a phone call with me, Feder argued that the Bright Lights series was an enormously successful program that was economical to run. Feder suspects that she has been ousted because of her outspoken support of Palestinian rights, making her position clear, including her sympathy for the campus protests, in editorials in the college newspaper.
For me, a particularly chilling aspect of the demise of the Bright Lights Cinema series is that Feder says the Emerson College is cooking up rules and regulations to curtail academic freedom, setting up an oversight mechanism for college events — particularly those that might have a public component. Feder is skeptical that any independent-minded curator will accept higher-up dictating the programming of Bright Lights Cinema — once the juice is turned back on. (Emerson College declined to comment for this column.)
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Archive: From the Editor's Desk
Jazz Album Review: Terry Gibbs’ Slam-Bang Big Band, Vol. 7
By Michael Ullman
This 65-year-old recording features some of the best players in L.A. and it is bright, sharp, and revealing. There’s plenty to marvel at here even if I would have wished for more ballads and fewer Stan Kenton-like brass fanfares.
Theater Review: “Pru Payne” — Critical Condition
By Robert Israel
This is a well-honed, mostly successful script about the difficulties of making human connections — a drama about seizing the day.
Television Review: From South Korea with Love, “A Virtuous Business” — Sex Toys “R” Us
By Sarah Osman
The enormously entertaining A Virtuous Business also offers a lesson in nerve and resilience that women everywhere should learn from.
Book Review: Tamas Dobozy’s “Stasio” — Noir Fiction That is Haunted and Haunting
By Vincent Czyz
Stasio is an exercise in noir fiction with the intellectual depth we expect from our best writers, compounded by the lyricism of Tamas Dobozy’s style, crisp dialogue, wit and humor, and well-drawn characters.
Classical Concert Preview: Music Worcester’s The Complete Bach
By Jonathan Blumhofer
“The more you listen to Bach, the more the synapses fire and you just have to take hold of the reins and let the Bach horse take you wherever it will.”
Film Interview: Steven Ascher on “Looking Forward” — An Essay into the Future
By Glenn Rifkin
“The film is constantly vacillating between the things that give you hope and the things that give you despair.”
Arts Commentary: Internet Archive Under Attack — Cultural History Under Threat
By Jeremy Ray Jewell
The Internet Archive’s struggles highlight the challenges faced by nonprofit organizations operating in a digital world dominated by commercial and geopolitical interests.
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Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
