Our film screenings highlight underground, avant-garde and independent cinema. When we can, we host the filmmaker for an introduction and post screening Q&A. We have shown thousands of films ranging from structural classics like Tony Conrad's "The Flicker" on 16mm, to music films such as Bjork's "Biophilia Live" and Sigur Ros' "Heima". We strive to bring classic films to be screened on 16mm but also new films by emerging independent filmmakers.
DATE: Sunday September 25, 2016
VENUE: Midtown Cinema
A Film by Sean Dunne (Oxyana, American Juggalo)
Admission: $5
Starts At 7:30pm
Cam Girlz is a documentary film that enters the world of internet sex
workers who find economic freedom, empowerment, intimacy and creative self
expression from the comfort of their own homes.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/116893900
DATE: Sunday, August 28 at 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
VENUE: Midtown Cinema
Admission = $5
Introduced by 2016 Directors Choice Award Winner James Hollenbaugh
Come see this years Black Maria Film Festival Touring Program! Here is what we will be showing!
Set against the backdrop of the ancient Khmer temple Angkor Wat, “Seeing Siem Reap” chronicles a group of Cambodian street kids with the unique opportunity to participate in a one-week intensive photography and dance workshop. These children of landmine victims and HIV positive parents support their families by begging and selling wares to tourists. The chance to cultivate artistic expression is a stark contrast to their regular lives on the streets of the Siem Reap and motivates them to pursue education. “Seeing Siem Reap” explores this amalgam of ancient culture, poverty, global tourism and creative expression for social change through the lives of the children.
Poetry watches film. Film reads poetry. Paolo Javier’s text is a catalyst for the digital sculpting of an 8mm Kodachrome canvas. Syntactical ruptures and the celebration of nouns illuminate twenty-five years of rediscovered film journeys.
NYC poet Paolo Javier invited filmmaker Lynne Sachs to create a film that would speak to one of his poems from his newly published book “Court of the Dragon.” She asked film artist Sean Hanley to collaborate with her in the editing of the film. Together, they traveled through 25 years of the unsplit Regular 8 mm film that Sachs had shot - including footage of the A.I.D.S. Quilt from the late 1980s, a drive from Florida to San Francisco, and a journey into a very “un-touristic” part of Puerto Rico.
Susan Lowe is most well known as an actress in the early films of Baltimore native and filmmaker John Waters. This portrait focuses on Susan’s life as an artist, and in particular her works known as the “Nuthouse Drawings”. Sometimes thought of as paintings of her friends, she actually started creating these pieces while residing in a mental hospital. Serving as a way to battle her depression, fear, and loneliness her “nuthouse drawings” serve as a look into the mind of one of Baltimore’s most imaginative visual artists.
A look inside the life of a family of deaf parents, their hearing kids, and the music that unites them.
Things of worth are often neglected in favor of that which might be more immediately gratifying. Unfortunately, the things that are neglected are often lost forever, irreplaceable. This is the story of a man with a misguided and intense focus – one that started in his youth and carried on to old age. His life events are chronicled through the loss of his teeth – and how his obsessive efforts to amend what was damaged bring on further destruction.
The metaphorical examination of an essential part of the human body is considered within the context of the temporal measurement of film.
Oneka, a former 12-year-old child soldier escapes into his own fantasy, a world far away from his nightmarish present. The life he seeks fades the tighter he grips. He must choose his path, no matter how painful and difficult, between life and death and family.
Over the past decade, American schools have become concerned with protecting their students from the threat of an armed gunman. In the aftermath of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, most elementary schools are now conducting safety drills that will prepare teachers and students for such a threat. “Lockdown” explores this chilling new reality through the voices of students, a teacher, and a parent. It provokes us to contemplate the emotional weight of this new normal.
“Flower of a Thousand Colours” is an intimate portrait of Emiliana, a single mother who tries to survive in a remote Bolivian mining camp at 4,897 meters above sea level. Emiliana lives with her children in the middle of the paradise-like mountains of Mina Argentina. But appearances are deceptive: life in the camp is fierce. Those who find work eat, those who don’t, don’t eat. Because of the excessive alcohol consumption in the camp, Emiliana has to be constantly aware of the dangers surrounding her family.
The films that become the centerpiece of the Black Maria Film Festival honor the vision of Thomas Edison, New Jersey inventor and creator of the motion picture. It was his New Jersey studio, the world’s first, which he called the “black maria” from which we take our name. The Festival reaches out to diverse audiences in diverse settings including universities, museums, libraries, community organizations, and arts venues. The cutting edge, cross-genre work that makes up the Festival’s touring program, has been traveling across the country every year for decades.
We focus on short films – narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary - including those, which address issues and struggles within contemporary society such as the environment, public health, race and class, family, sustainability, and much more. These exceptional works range from animation, comedy, and drama to the exploration of pure form in film and video and are the heart and soul of the festival.
DATE: Sunday, July 24 at 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
VENUE: Midtown Cinema
Great french art film from 1966:
"TRANS-EUROP-EXPRESS" by Alain Robbe-Grillet!
shown on 16mm film (Not a video, very rare screening)
-anonymous plot summary from imdb: A film director, Jean, his producer, Marc, and his assistant, Lucette, board the Trans-Europ-Express in Paris bound for Antwerp. Once in their compartment it occurs to them that the drama of life aboard the train presents possibilities for a film, and they begin to write a script about dope smuggling.
DATE: Sunday June 26th, 7PM, $5 donation
VENUE: Midtown Cinema
About the Haverhill Experimental Film Festival: "We are the only experimental film festival in New England catering to a blue-collar city that saw its heyday in the early 1900s. Forty to ninety people pile in for each screening; half of the audience have never seen an experimental film in their life. That excites us. The six screenings encapsulate the idea of a personal journey, not unlike the monomyth described by Joseph Campbell. As programmers, we hope to rope the attendees into this narrative to give them a better grasp on the unconventional nature of experimental cinema. The hero starts off in her world how she has learned to perceive it, ventures into a subjective reality she creates herself, begins to project that reality upon others, turns inward-reflecting upon her true self, swells up into a transcendental universe, and finally returns back to a new reality grounded in a transformative wisdom. The eleven videos found on this DVD capture the essence of this journey."
"Prospector" by Talena Sanders
"Under the Atmosphere" by Mike Stoltz
"Night Noon" by Shambhavi Kaul
"Bunte Kuh" by Parastoo & Faraz Anoushahpour and Ryan Ferko
"Her Silent Seaming" by Nazli Dincel
"A Symptom" by Ben Balcom
"Portrait of Cecilia" by Maura Wendelken
"The Turning of the Year" by Richard Fedorchak
"Afterlight" by Timothy David Orme
"Listen" by Monteith Mccollum
"FROM ALLY TO ACCOMPLICE" by Kelly Gallagher
Total Program Runtime: 100 minutes
Excerpt from "Under the Atmosphere" https://vimeo.com/98284940
Date:
04.26.2016 7:00pm
Venue/Location:
BERKS FILMMAKERS at ALBRIGHT COLLEGE
To celebrate 19 years of bringing underground/avant-garde/independent film and music to the Harrisburg area, MOVIATE is welcoming Berks Filmmakers members Jerry Orr and Gary Adlestein to Harrisburg on Sunday April 24th.
BERKS has invited MOVIATE to do a show at Albright College in Reading PA, on Tuesday April 26th, 7PM in KLEIN HALL.
Films by JOSH DRAKE, JEREMY MOSS, JIM HOLLENBAUGH, MICHAEL ROBINSON, and CALEB SMITH
Come join us!
Date:
04.24.2016 7:00pm
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
SUNDAY APRIL 24th, 2016
Founders of Berks Filmmakers:
GARY ADELSTEIN and JERRY ORR, Filmmakers In-Person.
rare screening of a 16mm print of "READING 1974" documentary.
If it weren't for Berks Filmmakers and founders Gary Adelstein and Jerry Orr, Moviate would not exist. Since 1974, they have been bringing avant-garde, independent, underground, and personal cinema to Reading Pennsylvania. Accomplished filmmakers themselves, Gary and Jerry have made hundreds of Super-8, 16mm, and digital movies.
Gary and Jerry will show a new collaborative piece as well as individual short films.
Come on out!
Complete inspiration.
Date:
03.06.2016 7:00pm
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
confirmed new date: March 6th.
Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 1 is a newly curated series of films that pulls together an eclectic mix of shorts all made by Chicago-based filmmakers. The films range from original narratives to real stories, from animations to found footage pieces (those made using pre-existing film or photographs). These filmmakers, and hence their films, emerge from a number of different racial and sexual backgrounds. Because of this Chicagoland Shorts represents a great number of viewpoints on the city and the cultural space the filmmakers occupy.
Curated by Eugene Sun Park (official selectee 2015 Moviate Underground Film Festival) and Kayla Ginsburg (with the aid of Beckie Stocchetti).
FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/913513085401051/
midtown cinema, 7pm, $5.
Date:
12.20.2015 (All day)
HOLLY JOLLY!
16mm vintage films! details to come!
Date:
11.22.2015 (All day)
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 22nd, 2015, 7:30PM, $5 at the Midtown Cinema.
MOVIATE PRESENTS....16MM SHORT FILM NIGHT!
We are pulling a rare and unseen selection of Vintage Unkowns for our film vault and presenting them together in an exclusive 16MM Grab-Bag Event!
Sunday, November 22, 2015
At THE MIDTOWN CINEMA
Admission = $5
Start Time = 7:30 pm (NOTE NEW TIME)
We are showing a short documentary about Ansel Adams, a classic Russian tale called "Zlateh - The Goat", a short documentary on LSD (come determine if it is good or bad?) - plus a special surprise duel projection as our grand finale - mixing a serious film about the pork industry along with BAKERY BEAT - a cooking film with a rippin' jazz soundtrack!!! Come out and have fun and experience film on REAL FILM!!!! 16mm lives on in Harrisburg! Don't miss out on this crazy grabbag night!!!
Date:
10.25.2015 (All day)
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
Produced by Michael Raso
Written & Directed by Tim O'Rawe
Trailer -
Date:
10.14.2015 (All day)
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
Moviate has had the privledge and honor to host in-person shows with the legendary filmmaker for over 10 years now. It's a rare appearance, as Mike usually only does a few shows on the east coast per year, traveling from California to share his newest works.
If you haven't seen his films, check out this doc about he and his brothers' influence on underground and independent filmmaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjRVtnP4FTw
His pictures are sincere, stunning, at times funny and deeply poetic.
Don't miss Mike this year, as we are sure his new works will please the crowd.
$5, 8PM, Midtown Cinema, 250 Reilly Street, Harrisburg
Date:
09.27.2015 (All day)
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
THE FILMS OF DAVID FINKELSTEIN
With David Finkelstein In Person! Also presenting a rare Mike Kuchar movie "Primordial Neverland" (2013, rt= 8:34)
Sunday September 27, 2015
At The Midtown Cinema
7pm
Admission = $5
Director David Finkelstein characterizes his film as a 'landscape.' Words, images, and music are all used to evoke a series of changing textures and an evolving inner landscape, which the viewer is free to enjoy in the same way one enjoys a captivating view: by savoring the spatial and color relationships, and becoming immersed in the mood and emotional flavor of each scene, without necessarily expecting the experience to make statements or tell a story. The words, all improvised by Finkelstein and actress Cassie Terman, become physical objects in the scene, where they literally create the landscape and generate the volatile, changing moods of the piece. 'Gertrude Stein was the first one to suggest that language could be used to create a landscape, rather than tell a story,' says Finkelstein, 'and her idea is still proving to be a fruitful way to make performances and films.'
Despite the abstract nature of the film, many viewers will still see implicit meanings in the imagery. The image of the labyrinth and multiple references to the myth of the Minotaur call to mind the Jungian notion of the need we have to confront the monster within us, in order to embrace our whole nature and become free.
THE FILMS OF DAVID FINKELSTEIN
With David Finkelstein In Person!
Sunday September 27, 2015
At The Midtown Cinema
7pm
Admission = $5
SUGGESTIVE GESTURES
Traveling along the path of a labyrinth, the viewer passes through a series of extremely diverse landscapes, which are created through lush animation, evocative orchestral music, and rich dialog, in which words are used as much for rhythm and texture as they are for meaning. A man and woman guide us on this trip, taking us past gently falling Mondrian paintings, violent car crashes and bombing raids, and a pair of dancing, multicolored boxes, among many other settings. Based on an improvised performance, 'Suggestive Gestures' leads us gradually and indirectly towards a mysterious animal, hiding in the center of the maze.
DAVID FINKELSTEIN's video work has been featured in numerous film festivals around the world and has won awards at thirteen of them. In 2013, he was an invited artist at the Traverse Video Festival in Toulouse, France. His first feature film premiered at New Filmmakers in New York. He has had solo screenings of his films in New York, Chicago, Portland, Austin, North Carolina, Minnesota, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. His work has been funded by The Fund for Creative Communities, The Field, Movement Research, Meet the Composer, The Brooklyn Arts Exchange, BACA, and other sources.
Date: 07.26.2015 7:00pm
Venue/Location: Midtown Cinema
"THE PUNK SYNDROME" -is a film about Finland's most kick-ass punk rock band, PerttiKurikanNimipäivät. The band mentally handicapped members, Pertti, Kari, Toni and Sami, play their music with a lot of attitude and pride. We follow these professional musicians on their journey from obscurity to popularity. We watch them fight, fall in love and witness long days in the recording studio and on tour. It's a film about the essence of punk - it's a story of handicapped people rebelling against the mainstream.
Sunday July 26th, 2015 at 7PM, $5
Date: "VALEDICTORIAN" is the story of Ben, an outsider who walks away from the modern New York lifestyle to live as a vagabond on the streets of Brooklyn.
DIRECTOR - Matt Yeager - IN-PERSON.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - Miguel Drake-McLaughlin In-Person.
LEAD ACTOR (Ben) - Brian Dell, In-Person.
BUY TICKETS ONLINE HERE: https://ticketing.us.veezi.com/purchase/876?siteToken=ejszoR7aA022mjIyUWrZqQ%3D%3D
Recently premiered at the 2015 Rotterdam International Film Festival and the 2015 Brooklyn Film Festival.
Original Score by Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear.
78 minutes.
7PM, $5
Date:
05.03.2015 7:00pm
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
A 90 minute program of shorts from around the world, including the Harrisburg premier of "Self Portrait Portrait" by James Hollenbaugh (STELLAR JURY AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY) who will introduce the program, in-person.
Self Portrait Portrait (2014) (Excerpt) - a film by James Hollenbaugh from James Hollenbaugh on Vimeo.
Date:
04.26.2015 7:00pm
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
OXYANA - a documentary film by Sean Dunne
Presented by MOVIATE at The Midtown Cinema Harrisburg, PA
Sunday April 26, 2015
Starts promptly at 7:00pm
Admission = $5
http://oxyana.com/trailer.html
TRAILER:
A PORTRAIT OF OCEANA, WV, AN OLD COAL MINING TOWN THAT HAS BECOME THE EPICENTER OF THE OXYCONTIN EPIDEMIC, EARNING THE NICKNAME OXYANA.
Tucked in the Appalachian mountains of Southern West Virginia, Oceana, is a small, once thriving coal-mining town that has fallen victim to the fast spreading scourge of prescription painkiller Oxycontin. As the coal industry slowly declined and times got tough, a black market for the drug sprung up and along with it a rash of prostitution, theft and murder. Soon its own residents had nicknamed the town Oxyana and it began to live up to its reputation as abuse, addiction and overdoses became commonplace. Oxyana is a harrowing front line account of a community in the grips of an epidemic, told through the voices of the addicts, the dealers and all those affected. It is a haunting glimpse into an American nightmare unfolding before our eyes, a cautionary tale told with raw and unflinching honesty.
Date:
03.22.2015 7:30pm
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
MOVIATE PRESENTS....
MORRIS COUNTY - A Film by Matt Garrett
In Person Film Event - One Night Only
This special night will start out with a screening of Garrett's Award-Winning short film BEATING HEARTS. This will be followed by Garrett's bizarre horror anthology film - MORRIS COUNTY. Director Matt Garrett will be attending the screening - introducing the event, and conducting a Q&A afterwards!
"...these dark stories are like a Norman Rockwell painting made from raw meat..."
- Scott Johnston, Cinefest
Check out the trailer here -
At The Midtown Cinema
250 Reily Street
Harrisburg, PA
$5 Admission
Starts Promptly at 7:30pm
Date:
02.15.2015 8:40pm
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
“Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)” is a documentary film that examines the early DIY punk scene in the Nation’s Capital. It was a decade when seminal bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Void, Faith, Rites of Spring, Marginal Man, Fugazi, and others released their own records and booked their own shows—without major record label constraints or mainstream media scrutiny. Contextually, it was a cultural watershed that predated the alternative music explosion of the 1990s (and the industry’s subsequent implosion). Thirty years later, DC’s original DIY punk spirit serves as a reminder of the hopefulness of youth, the power of community and the strength of conviction..
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/107053757
TICKETS: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?ticketing=mtcma
(midtowncinema.com click on box office)
we suggest getting them beforehand.
$5, 7PM, Midtown Cinema. All-Ages.
Date:
11.23.2014 7:30pm
Venue/Location:
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg
"FLY COLT FLY: The Legend of the Barefoot Bandit"
7:30PM, Sunday November 23rd, 2014, MIDTOWN CINEMA, 250 Reily St. Harrisburg.
Date:
11.04.2014 8:29pm
Venue/Location:
moviate at THE MAKESPACE
THOLLEM live music to films: "SILVER OCHRE"
The nomadic videos of ACVilla take us through doorways in the Rustbelt, into a spider’s life at a rest stop, past murals in the
Southwest, among other visions she’s found along her peripatetic life. Thollem provides electric eclectic sonic interpretations
with the one of its kind AO 44 made of re-purposed Hammond M3 organs.
www.thollem.com/silver-ochre
Thollem (US) has been traveling perpetually throughout North America and Europe for 7 years, collaborating with perhaps thousands of diverse artists in this period; a random selection includes Nels Cline, Ava Mendoza, Brian Chase, Sara Lund, Damo Suzuki, Jad Fair, Mike Watt, Greg Saunier, John Dieterich, William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Martha Colburn, Matthew Barney. Signal to Noise magazine marvels, "It seems beyond the capacity of one human being to contain so much densely-packed creative energy".
ACVilla has been traveling perpetually for many years now throughout North America and Europe documenting artists work and captivating scenes, seeing and listening to Life in new and unique ways.
7:30pm, $8. location to be confirmed.
"Moviate is a volunteer operated, not for profit organization, dedicated to bringing independent, underground, and avant-garde Cinema and Sound events to the Harrisburg, PA area."
