To the Editor:
In the weeks since school has opened, there has been a spate of articles in the News lamenting the loss of York Square Cinema and scanning the campus for acceptable alternatives. Perhaps because of its relative newness, the Cinema at the Whitney has received little attention as a potentially valuable addition to the New Haven film community. Perhaps also as a result of its newness, a number of misconceptions about the cinema’s existence have circulated of late. The Cinema is honored to join the ranks of the Yale Film Society, Yale Medical School Film Society and Criterion Cinemas in helping to revitalize the local film scene — but it is in no way related to any of these venerable institutions, and would like to dispel such rumors here.
The Cinema at the Whitney is not the Yale Film Society. While in the past YFS had a regular schedule of film screenings, its current aims are to provide sneak previews of new films, to arrange for guest lectures from industry professionals, and to hold DVD screenings on an occasional basis. The Cinema at the Whitney is now the only student-run organization to offer weekly 35 mm film screenings on the central campus.
The Cinema at the Whitney is not the Yale Medical School Film Society. YMSFS projects recent releases from DVDs. The Cinema screens exclusively in the high-quality format of 35 mm film prints, and its programming encompasses a wide range of periods, nations and genres, from film classics (“Sunset Blvd.”) to cult favorites (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers”) to documentaries (“My Architect”) and more experimental films (“Sans Soleil”). The Cinema is also the only film organization on campus whose staff is a cooperative committee of undergraduate and graduate students.
The Cinema at the Whitney is also not Criterion Cinemas. Admission to our cinema is free, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Whitney Humanities Center.
The Cinema at the Whitney IS a coalition of students united in their commitment to creating a university-wide forum for the appreciation and discussion of film as both an entertainment and an art. We show two movies, in 35 mm, every Friday at 7:30 and 10 p.m. in the Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information, please visit our website at www.yale.edu/cinema.
Miye Bromberg ’05
Alice Lovejoy GRD ’10
Jeremi Szaniawski GRD ’10
Sept. 21, 2005
The writers are co-chairs of the Cinema at the Whitney.