Academy Museum Launches ‘Branch Selects’ Screening Series, With Weekly Movies Honoring Each Branch
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans EditorLast month, the Academy Museum launched “Branch Selects,” a series that screens every Tuesday night at the museum with the chosen film highlighting a distinct area of filmmaking.Bernardo Rondeau, the museum’s senior director of film programs, says the idea came from receiving a lot of recommendations and feedback across the board from its members. “We were trying to figure out a way that we could harness this amazing knowledge and passion for cinema into a program; into a series.
The fairest way to do it would be to do what we ended up calling ‘Branch Selects,’” explains Rondeau.Each branch will select three titles, with one screening each week. “Battleship Potemkin” was the first film to screen at the beginning of the year, and was chosen by the film editors branch.
On Tuesday night, the 1941 Orson Welles classic “Citizen Kane,” will screen, chosen by the visual effects branch. Other films coming up are “The Graduate,” “101 Dalmatians,” “King Kong” and “Bonnie and Clyde.” Each week, the series highlights a movie — presented chronologically from silent cinema to contemporary films — that represents a major achievement in the evolution of cinema and its unique crafts.
Says Rondeau, “We try to select three titles that are representative of a key breakthrough in the evolution of their craft, or that are exemplary works for their craft.”Rondeau works with branch task forces, with whom he gets to brainstorm.
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