Atlantic Film Festival at Dal

In collaboration with the Atlantic Film Festival, Dalhousie Art Gallery is presenting their annual program: their own film festival retrospective.

This year, the gallery is presenting five films from the early works of the Coen Brothers. The Coen Brothers’ films debuted in the mid-1980s.

At the time, they were considered “cult favourites” or “mass-audience avatars,” in the words of the Atlantic Film Festival. These unique and defiantly indie works have had a major impact on the motion picture scene.

Ron Foley MacDonald, an employee of the Dal Art Gallery, cites “the fact that Fargo is now a popular and acclaimed TV series” as proof of their remarkable impact.

MacDonald says the “curious and utterly original combination of black humour and genre film workouts” presented in Fargo can be attributed entirely to the Coen Brothers’ effect on film.

The films can be viewed as part of the Atlantic Film Festival at the Dal Art Gallery, 6101 University Ave., at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12. Admission is free, although seating is limited.

This event helps introduce new staff and students to the audience community. It also gives the art gallery team an opportunity to review themes, filmmakers and periods for future retrospectives.

This year’s retrospective will also feature a 75-year anniversary tribute to Canada’s National Film Board (NFB). Gaspereau Press author Binne Brennan will be reading from her book Like Any Other Monday as part of the tribute.

Some Buster Keaton films will also be playing to connect the reading the screenings. These will include the 1964 NFB film The Railrodder, where Buster Keaton travels across Canada on a rail car, and a documentary about the film’s making called Buster Keaton Rides Again.