Film
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ESSAY: Why Alfred Hitchcock Still Matters Today
Sam Shapiro taught film courses on Alfred Hitchcock at UNC Charlotte for 30 years and worked as a film archivist, among other film-related roles, at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. He’s also co-curator of The Anticipation of Fear: Alfred Hitchcock’s Essentials, a film series that starts tomorrow at Independent Picture House. Below,…
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Having Coffee with Sam Shapiro, Charlotte’s Hitchcock Expert
Alfred Hitchcock once remarked that his films were “intended to make people scream and yell and so forth, but no more than screaming and yelling on a rollercoaster … So, you mustn’t go too far because you want them to get off the ride giggling with pleasure.” For Sam Shapiro,…
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How to Catch 10 Classic Black Films Screening This Month at Charlotte’s Indie Theaters
Ben Klein tells a story about two Black women, a mother-daughter duo, who came to Carolina Theatre in Uptown for a screening of Selma, the 2014 drama about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s heroic campaign for civil rights, in January. Despite using a walker, the mother had purchased tickets in…
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‘Small Vices’ Depicts a Dystopian Mental Health Epidemic
“In 2035, everything is going to continue to get worse and the national crisis there is just like a suicide epidemic because things are so bad.” Musician, digital marketing specialist and filmmaker Joshiah Blevins is not forecasting the future with this statement, though it seems plausible, but encapsulating the premise…
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A Guide to the 2025 Ayrsley Retro Horror Series
Beginning today for its 12th running year, Ayrsley Grand Cinemas will host its annual Retro Horror film series, showing a slate of classic slashers and frightening flicks … and this year is stacked. From Sept. 26 to Nov. 6, you can watch Retro Horror films on any day of the…
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Ten Movies To See at the Charlotte Film Festival
The 17th edition of the Charlotte Film Festival (CFF) kicks off on Tuesday, running for six days through Sunday, Sept. 28. The event kicks off with a premiere screening of Roofman at Carolina Theatre in Uptown, followed by a week of screenings at Independent Picture House (IPH). A celebration for…
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1CLT Film Festival Unites the Silos of Charlotte’s Film Scene
After its inaugural 2020 event saw success only to sputter out in the succeeding years, The Independent Picture House (IPH) this August is bringing back the 1CLT Film Festival, conjoining the silos of Charlotte’s film scene to create a united front in celebrating the spirit of local cinema. Returning five…
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Greg Sestero Discusses ‘The Room’ Before IPH Double Feature
What’s it like when your claim to fame was starring in a film widely beloved for being bad? Greg Sestero is one of the rare people who can speak to that experience, having been the leading man in Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film The Room, which over the last 22 years…
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The True Charlotte Crime Story Behind Channing Tatum’s New ‘Roofman’ Movie
Paramount and Miramax on Wednesday released a trailer for Channing Tatum’s latest movie, Roofman, which was shot in Charlotte last fall and is based on the true local exploits of an infamous but benevolent burglar who operated in the area after escaping from prison in 2004. It was filmed on…
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Low Groves Doc Kicks Off ‘Wish You Were Here’ Event Series
An impressive crowd packed into the Evening Muse on a rainy Sunday evening for the start of something special. They broke into applause following a screening of Nick Will’s new music documentary, The 10,000 Hours of Low Groves, before the subject of the film, local alt-folk singer/songwriter Adam Naliwajko, who…
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Sifting Through Meaninglessness and Grief with ‘The Monkey’
Why does anything happen, really? Director Osgood Perkins has certainly wrestled with this question at times, if not all the time, given the untimely passing of his iconic father Anthony Perkins due to AIDS-related complications in 1992 and mother Marisa “Berry” Berenson as a passenger on a flight that was…
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‘Long December’ Director Talks Film, Local Music and Chasing the Dream
When you hear that a new movie is a musical, what comes to mind? Members of the Sharks and Jets aggressively snapping at one another? The Von Trapps frolicking in a meadow while lip syncing? Thomas Torrey’s new movie Long December is a far cry from either. It’s certainly a…
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Clint Eastwood’s ‘Juror #2’ and the Decay of the Movie Studio
There’s a thing about the icons Americans look up to, the ones who are sent abroad as symbols of our culture: John Wayne, Elvis, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Clint Eastwood, for example. Eventually they just become empty idols, devoid of context and meaning. We stop seeing them as artists or even…
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Jeff Jackson’s Wavelengths Defies Assumptions About Local Film
“I can’t tell you how many curators I’ve talked to who try to protect their patrons from art that they think they won’t understand. Their curatorial method is protecting people from their own enthusiasm.” And so Jeff Jackson — experimental musician, novelist, playwright and all-around wizard of avant-garde production in…
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Ayrsley Grand’s Retro Horror Series Continues Into 11th Year
In a world surrounded by chains and mega-conglomerates, independence is a rare thing, and that is nowhere more true than with movie theaters. This year we’ve seen Alamo Drafthouse, a national cinema chain, announce bankruptcy, and while it was brought back from the brink of death by Sony Pictures, we’ve…
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Marking Two Years at Independent Picture House with ‘The Bikeriders’
As you turn right onto Greensboro Street off of Sugar Creek Road, you’re met with the juxtaposition of an old version of Charlotte that seems to be actively fading as a new city takes its place. An abandoned lot that was once home to a supermarket seemingly now only houses…
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