CITY Lights

As 7 p.m. approaches, the last few people straggle into screening room 251 of the TV and Radio Building and sit in the available seats. A man in a khaki coat approaches the audience and welcomes them to the weekly City Lights film series. He announces tonight's presentation is Robert Altman's 1975 film "Nashville" and discusses what films will screen in the weeks to come. The lights go down and clicking noises comes from the back of the room. It's coming from the projector and it's a noise today's moviegoers are no longer used to hearing. \nCity Lights is a weekly film series sponsored by the department of Communication and Culture. The screenings specialize in showing old classic Hollywood and foreign films. \n"We try to show films that might not be shown publicly otherwise," says Jasmine Trice, a PhD student who runs City Lights. The series started in 1998 when several CMCL grad students became aware of the various films in the IU archives that were sitting unused. Many of the films were on their last legs until a team of archivists began restoration. \n"There were a lot of film series featuring classic Hollywood cinema that sprang up on college campuses in the '60s and into the '70s. City Lights is continuing in the spirit of those series, which were dedicated to bringing classic Hollywood to people in a film format. We're just a little late to join the bandwagon, we're the tail end of that movement," says Matt Yockey, another PhD student who helps run the program. \nThe City Lights group would like to see more IU students attend the screenings. "The majority of our audience tends to be older crowds," says Jason Sperb, who works with Trice and Yockey. On average there are about 20 to 30 audience members at each showing Sperb says. "Watching movies in this format is a much different experience," Trice says. "Even if you've seen some of these old '30s gangster movies more than a thousand times in your dorm room, it's still great to see these films on the big screen." Trice loved the experience of watching one of these gangster films. When they screened 1931's "Public Enemy" there was a surprisingly large number of students in the audience, which lead Trice to believe that some class was offering extra credit to students who went to see the film. "Most of the students had never seen the film and were so surprised by how brutal and effective the ending was. Everyone in the audience was just floored." \nSperb sees the City Lights as an opportunity for students to expose themselves to films they've never seen before. "It's important for these great films to be seen," Sperb says. "By watching these films people will be able to see where today's biggest filmmakers like Tarantino, Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson got their inspiration from."\nAdmission to the screenings is free and takes place every Friday night at 7 p.m. in the TV and Radio Building. It has been difficult for Trice to find films to screen lately. "It's a matter of what we have available to screen," says Trice. "We have a limited number of films to choose from." However, the series has looked to other screening outlets such as the Audio Visual Department, Black Film Center, the David Bradley Collection and the Chester Glime Collection. They also have been receiving films from a distributor in Iowa. \nInstead of viewing the other film screening in Bloomington as competition, the City Lights has joined together with other groups such as the Ryder, Underground and the Buskirk-Chumley Theater's Golden Age series to raise awareness about film preservation and viewing. This weekend the City Lights and the Underground will work together to hold a weekend dedicated to French director Jean-Luc Godard.\nThe 16mm reels are shown on two old projectors that, according to Trice, are "literally propped up on pieces of lumber and held together by scotch tape." Scope lenses are used for widescreen films. They also keep a DVD backup in case of technical difficulties. Trice had to resort to the "Nashville" DVD when the film wasn't working properly. After attempting to fix the shaking visual effect and clarity problems of the film several times, Trice was forced to use the DVD. Apologizing for the problem several times, Trice was disappointed the film could not be seen in its original format. The audience didn't seem to mind except for three men who opted to leave, muttering French obscenities on the way out.\nThe fall 2005 series has been underway since school started and has contained films such as the classic Hitchcock film "Strangers on a Train," the French favorite "Jules et Jim," and a Halloween double feature with "The Bride of Frankenstein" and "Nosferatu The Vampyre." The fall series continues until Dec. 2 and will resume again in the spring.\nBloomington residents Desiree Valentine and James Gillie came to the screening in search of "something fun to do on a Friday night." While it was Valentine's first time attending City Lights, Gillie had come once before. "It's been a while since I've come. I'd forgotten it was even going on, but coming here tonight made me remember what a good time I had the last time I came"