Monday Night Series Offers Provocative Films and Film Talk

By Francesca Turchiano
The third season of documentary films at the Norfolk Library kicked off at 7 p.m. on September 27, when Sam Messer, artist and Associate Dean of the Yale School of Art, introduced “Dead Birds,” a groundbreaking 1965 portrait of the Dani people of New Guinea. The film was arguably the starting point for the sea change in non-fiction film making that followed.
The series continues on Monday evenings at 7 p.m., through November 29, with all films introduced by either the filmmaker or a Norfolk community member with perspective on the film subject. A question and answer period follows each showing, and it is not uncommon for the conversation to continue informally over dinner or a drink at either Wood Creek Bar and Grill or Infinity Hall. The showings are free, with expenses generously underwritten by the Library Associates.

Showing on October 4, “In Search of Pitt Street” is a gifted daughter’s tribute to her father, reflecting the long road of his life.

This season’s series offers eight additional independent, interesting, and sometimes quirky experiences. Happily, not one resembles a major motion picture. On October 4, the film subject is the life and work of Norfolk summer resident, legendary photographer Walter Rosenblum (“In Search of Pitt Street”) with an introduction by his daughter, award-winning documentarian, Nina Rosenblum.
Each succeeding screening promises to be as compelling. On October 18, Heidi Dinsmore and Bill O’Meara will set the stage for “I Like Killing Flies,” an astonishing tale about New York’s astounding philosopher/semi-chef, Kenny Shopsin, and on October 25, trial lawyer Mike Sconyers will introduce the nail-biting, Oscar-winning French film “Murder on a Sunday Morning.”
For those interested in advance details, most films are described and critiqued on Amazon. The full schedule of films is available at the library, on the town’s events calendar and in the region’s weekly newspapers.
This gem of a series is the work of six arts-centric residents, all advocates of the documentary form, including two professional documentarians. Meeting on Tuesday mornings at Station Place Cafe, the group’s six members, Linda Bell, Mark Erder, Holly Gill, Chris Hanley, Christopher Little and Wiley Wood, engage in shop talk, reviews new ideas, think through marketing tactics, dole out administrative responsibilities, and share their independent thinking on each of the films they have viewed, in advance of deciding which to include in the series. Healthy debate is not unknown to these volunteers. In fact, it’s part of their pleasure.
The documentary master Albert Maysles forecasts,”it is inevitable that people will come to find the documentary a more compelling and more important kind of film than fiction. Just as in literature…as taste has moved from fiction to nonfiction…it’s going to happen in film. In a way you’re on a serendipitous journey, a journey which is much more akin to the life experience. When you see somebody on the screen in a documentary, you’re really engaged with a person going through real life experience. What a privilege to have that experience.” For eight more weeks you can enjoy that privilege in the Great Room of your great town library.