Thursday, October 9th at 7pm

The Fall Film Series gets off to a horrifying start with this screening of the 1925 silent film horror classic The Phantom of the Opera, featuring live accompaniment by Matt Marshall.

The Phantom of the Opera stars the legendary Lon Chaney, Sr., “Man of a Thousand Faces,” in a career-defining role. His groundbreaking, self-applied make-up shocked 1920’s audiences, reportedly causing them to scream or faint at the moment of the Phantom’s unmasking. This highly influential film paved the way for the great Universal Horror films of the 1930’s, and is a well-respected horror classic in it’s own right; it’s the perfect way to kick-off the Halloween season.

The film will have a live score performed by Matt Marshall, renowned for his regular performances at the Scottsville Victory Hall Theater; Marshall also teaches Film and Music courses for UVA’s Continuing Education School, and is the founder of the Reel Music Ensemble.

Please remember that our Fall screenings begin at 7pm rather than at 8:00; admission remains a $5 suggested donation.

Thursday, November 6 at 7pm

In a screening co-sponsored by the Charlottesville-Albemarle Health Department, The Bridge PAI will screen a segment of the documentary Unnatural Causes this November, as part of a community awareness campaign regarding health disparities.

Unnatural Causes was produced by California Newsreel in order to draw attention to the root causes of health and illness and to help reframe the debate about health in America, particularly with regard to economic and racial issues. The seven-part documentary series criss-crosses the country, investigating findings that are shaking up our conventional understanding of health. In particular, Episode 2: When the Bough Breaks, specifically addresses how racial disparities affect birth outcomes, which is clearly relevant given recent data on racial health issues here in Charlottesville, especially concerning infant mortality.

The 30-minute video will be followed by an informative discussion, accompanied by handouts and relevant information. This event is free and open to the public.

Thursday, August 28 at 6pm

Bring the kids, or embrace your own inner child, for our screening of kid-friendly short films on August 28th! We’ll enjoy classic Fleischer Brothers cartoons from the golden age of 1930’s animation, films made specifically for children by two of our favorite experimental filmmakers Rudy Burckhardt and Robert Breer, as well as animation by local youth from the Lighthouse Studio… and a few other surprises.

In addition to the films, Shaun Cullen, a Charlottesville folk singer and songwriter, will be performing a selection of new and classic rock songs for kids.

PLEASE NOTE that this screening will begin at 6pm, rather than 8:00pm. We’re trying not to keep anyone out past their bedtime.

Thursday, July 31st at 8pm

The Bridge Summer Film Series starts off with a special guest this year: puppet-master and Charlottesville ex-patriot BenJones. In 2005, Jones was living in New York City running a comic-book store called Jigsaw. He created two puppets as a promotional device for the store: Dr. Kranium, the stodgy, humorless mad scientist; and Milton, his long-suffering, wisecracking robot servant; The Jigsaw Video Show was born. Three years and two cities later, the comic store has closed down, but the puppet show lives on! Milton and Kranium have re-located to Charlottesville and are still producing short, internet-distrubuted episodes on a weekly basis.

Informed by an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure British sitcoms, a comprehensive understanding of time-tested vaudeville gags, years of stage experience, and a lifelong obession with the Muppets, Jones has infused The Jigsaw Show Thing with sharp wit, crack comic timing, memorable original music, and a confounding ability to portray multiple puppet-characters simultaneously. Over the course of the show’s 35+ episodes, extended plot-lines have slowly developed, memorable bit characters have become full cast members, and show has taken on a humorously self-referential and self-depricatingly autobiographical tone. To read more about the The Jigsaw Puppet Thing, check out this article in the C-Ville Weekly.

Weekly episodes of Jigsaw are available online, but the show best appreciated in large doses with a crowd of friends; that’s precisely what we’ll do on July 31st, as we gather at The Bridge for an evening of Jigsaw’s finest episodes, hosted by Jones and Milton themselves, who will provide snarky introductions, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and witty commentary. It starts at 8pm sharp, with a suggested donation of $5.

Thursday, August 14 at 8pm

This Summer, local filmmakers Riley Duncan and Caleb Plutzer will present the newest version of Pid Geon Babylon, the acclaimed video documenting the exploits of the local skateboarding crew The Argyle Team. Pid Geon Babylon screened at The Bridge in it’s original form last summer, and the new improved version of the video contains new titles, different music (possibly with live accompaniment — details TBA), and new footage including skating in NYC, as well as a short VA-based super-8 exploration film.

We expect a healthy audience of local skateboarders, but would also like to extend the invitation to those members of the community who may not be directly involved with or aware of Charlottesville’s healthy skating community; skateboard culture is a fascinating American subculture and a valuable folk-art tradition, and skate videos contain many aspects which may be fascinating and enjoyable even for those who have never skated themselves.

There is a suggested donation of $5 at the door, and the screening begins at 8pm.

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Important Scheduling Change

This screening will now take place on Thursday, June 5 (rather than Friday, May 23 as originally scheduled.) Click here for info about part one of our May ‘68 screenings.

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To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the May 1968 Protests, The Bridge will be holding a special two-part film screening this Spring; the films will deal both directly with the events of May ‘68, as well as with the larger theme of leftist political and social struggles in France, the USA, and around the world.

For the second part of our screening Thursday, June 5, we’ll check out Jean Genet in Chicago, Frédéric Moffat’s queer re-writing of the events surrounding the 1968 National Democratic Convention, followed by The Whole World is Watching, Raymond Pettibon’s feature-length 1988 video, created for the 20th anniversary of May ‘68. Referred to as the west coast’s “dubious homage” to the 60’s radical underground, it was produced with a dry apocalyptic crudity and starts a cast of notable musicians and art-punk figures such as Kim Gordon and Mike Watt.

Friday, October 24

The multimedia dance duo Hooliganship will be presenting the freshest incarnation of Cartune Xprez, a 70-minute program of short animated videos that celebrates the wilderness of imagination through motion pictures. Featured artists include Bruce Bickford, Eric Dyer, Shana Moulton, Takeshi Murata, and more. Alongside this cartoon theater they will be performing their most recent piece entitled Realer in which audiences strap on a pair of 3D glasses to bear witness to a televised parade gone awry.

This touring program, which roughly mirrors an upcoming Cartune Xprez DVD publication, will provide a rare opportunity to see videos by emerging artists as well as internationally known artists. Collectively, their resume includes collaborations with Frank Zappa and major exhibitions at the Whitney Biennial, the MOMA in New York, the Sundance Film Festival, and many other institutions throughout the world.

Thursday, May 22 at 8pm

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the May 1968 Protests, The Bridge will be holding a special two-part film screening this Spring; the films will deal both directly with the events of May ‘68, as well as with the larger theme of leftist political and social struggles in France and the US.

On Thursday, May 22nd, we’ll watch Can Dialectics Break Bricks?, the classic situationist film by René Viénet in which a martial-arts film has been re-dubbed with dialogue reflecting radical social and political concerns. We’ll also screen Pig Power, an impressionistic document in which members of the Black Panther party discuss their conflicts with the police, and New Left Note, Saul Levine’s frenetic kaleidoscopic portrait of women’s liberation and the antiwar movement.

Important Scheduling Change

Please note that the second part of this screening has been postponed; these videos will now show on Thursday, June 5. Click here for information about Ni Dieu ni maître, Part 2.

Thursday, May 8th at 8pm

The Spring Film Series continues with a set of poetry-themed films; films made by poets, filmed interpretations of poems, and attempts at representing poetry through film language. Included are Last Clean Shirt by Alfred Leslie and Frank O’Hara, Four in the Afternoon by James Broughton, Visions of a City by Lawrence Jordan, and In Bed by Rudy Burckhardt.And as the film reels get rewind, we’ll also get the chance to hear readings by local high school ingenue Hannah Webster, the bard of Ghosttown Mia Noffsinger and the “Poet Laureate of Athens”, Jeff Fallis.

Thursday, April 24, 8PM

The Bridge and the Virginia Film Society are pleased to welcome visiting artist and film-maker Jeanne Liotta, who will present a program entitled Thursday Evening in the Universe: Hymns to the void, the stars in their courses, the earth under your feet wobbles and drifts. She’ll present a constellation of works by herself and others, a selection of made, found, and borrowed volumes in various projection formats on the material subjects of landscape, science, and natural philosophy.

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