The Echo Chamber was in sunny Providence, Rhode Island this weekend for Brown University's Ivy Film Festival. Evangeleo was among the films screening at the fest, but the real treat was a terrific hour long masterclass given by Martin Scorsese, who is currently shooting his Denis Lehane adaptation Shutter Island just a hour up I-95 in Boston. The auteur talked with his ex-agent and current Paramount Vantage chief John Lesher for almost two hours, the session squeezed between local screenings of his recently released Rolling Stones documentary, Shine A Light. That picture leaves much to be desired in some respects (Godard's Sympathy For The Devil it is not and despite Albert Maysles participation, Gimme Shelter seems altogether more relevant), but the 65 year old director's reflections on a bold and fascinating career were a real treat.On Thursday night, 85 year old director Arthur Penn was on hand at MOMA to present a screening of his fourth feature Mickey One, the notoriously hard to see American answer to French new wave stylishness, a slick, incoherent Warren Beatty comedian on the run vehicle from 1965. Penn's best work would unfurl over the next decade (1966's The Chase, 19968's Bonnie and Clyde, 1969's Alice's Restaurant and 1975's Night Moves) but Mickey One demonstrates the director coming into his own. It's playing through the 23rd as the opening selection of MOMA's ambitious Jazz Score series, a five month long, fifty film retrospective that details the various intersections between Jazz and post-war cinema. Don't miss it - even if Columbia's long awaited DVD restoration is soon to hit stores.
One other quick note - the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina wrapped up last week and the fellas at UnionDocs, in association with IndiePix, put together some terrific video coverage, including an interview with the aforementioned Mr. Maysles. Check them out here.
