Film Noir Fest!

The Film Noir Fest will take place at ArtYard on May 18th, 19th, and 20th. An exhibition of artwork of the genre will be on display as well.

ArtYard is pleased to present Noir Fest, a weekend-long festival celebrating the classic genre known as Film Noir. Curated by producer William Horberg and hosted by Hollywood screenwriter Howard Rodman, and actor, singer, writer, director, Vondie Curtis-Hall. The festival will take a fresh look at a genre that resonates in today’s world, as it did in the post-World War II era in which it flourished.

Hard-boiled men, femmes fatales, eat-nickels-and-spit-dimes dialogue, all of those noir conventions seem quaint if not dated as we make our way through the 21st century: imagine a lone corner payphone on Infinite Loop Drive in Silicon Valley. Yet in the ways that matter, the classic traditions of film noir could not be more contemporary. We live in a doomstruck world, with annihilation just around the next bend, and the possibilities for grace all too rare and fleeting. The odd, unexpected comradeship; the adherence to a moral code even (perhaps especially) among thieves; the possibility of love as a bulwark against injustice and cynicism– All of these speak very loudly now, and in a voice we need to hear.

Rarely projected films such as Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, Detour, directed by Edgar Ulmer and starring the unforgettable Anne Savage, fan-favorite Out of The Past starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, and the ultimate French gangster drama Le Samourai starring Alain Delon and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville will be screened.

Even rarer, episodes from the early 1990’s anthology television series Fallen Angels which premiered on Showtime, produced by Horberg and written by Rodman, will be screened. Join us for a conversation after the screening with actor, director, and writer Vondie Curtis- Hall who starred in the episode Dead End For Delia along with Gary Oldman.