Pulling Focus

Interview with Lou DiCrescenzo, Film Historian & Preservationist

Release Date: 3/26/2024

Duration: 27 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: I'm very pleased to be joined by film historian and preservationist Lou DiCrescenzo, who has been collecting original 35 millimeter films and production equipment since the late 50s. Through his efforts and generosity, many rare and formerly lost films have been saved and donated to the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute, where they have been copied and are now available for public viewing and study. Lou's projection equipment occupies a floor of the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. Queens. He is a technical consultant providing his expertise to theaters dealing with silent era projection in film, a long term member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and for many years was the Technical Supervisor for the Ritz Theater circuit here in Philadelphia. He is also an accomplished musician having performed with many regional orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, and the Trenton State Symphony, and he hosts a daily radio program sunshine music memories with smiling Lou Powers on WBCB 1490 am in Montgomery County. Films from Lou's vast collection aare shown regularly as intended, projected on the big screen at local theaters, notably the Ambler Theater where he was part of their inaugural 35 Millimeter Film Festival in 2018. note: Lou passed away on January 12th, 2024.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Phil Bertelsen & Lise Yasui discuss their new doc, The Picture Taker

Release Date: 1/27/2023

Duration: 59 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: THE PICTURE TAKER is a tale from in front of, and behind the camera. Ernest Withers lived a complicated and extraordinary life, magnified by a legacy of developing nearly two million images that came to define the American civil rights movement. A photo-journalist, soldier, police officer, and civil rights activist in his lifetime, The Picture Taker illuminates Withers lesser-known work as a secret FBI informant, a double-life uncovered only after his death.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Tiffany Naiman talks about David Bowie in Film

Release Date: 1/11/2023

Duration: 62 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: Tiffany Naiman, is a scholar of popular music, temporality, and disability studies with a specialization as a David Bowie scholar. She comes to Pulling Focus during Philly Loves Bowie week to talk about David Bowie in film.  She also discusses her work at the Director of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s Music Industry Program as well as a lecturer in the Musicology department.  She is a DJ and electronic musician performing under the moniker NeonGray; the experimental film and music programmer for Outfest Los Angeles; creator of a multiplicity of club nights and one-off musical events in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia; and an award-winning documentary film producer. 

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 10_3_17 with John Pettit, Temple Urban Archives

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 114 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: In this episode John Petitt, Assistant Archivist with Temple University  Libraries' Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) discusses the  Archives' 50th Anniversary, "digital rot" and International Home Movie  Day.  John share some of his favorite soundtrack music by Brian Eno,  Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, Raymond Scott and Al Ham's Move Closer  to Your World aka Action News Theme.  Also we pay tribute to Harry Dean  Stanton and Tom Petty.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 9_19_17 with Slate's Sam Adams

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 61 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: In this episode Sam Adams, longtime Philadelphia City Paper writer and  now Senior Editor at Slate.com joins me in the studio to discuss the  changing role of the film/media critic, the 2017 Emmy Awards, and his  recent trips to the Toronto International Film Festival and the Camden  International Film Festival in Maine.  Featured are some great  soundtracks from the current “Golden Age” of television shows Master of  None, I Love Dick, Fargo, Empire, This is Us and Broad City plus such  classic opening TV themes from Rockford Files, Miami Vice and Peter Gunn.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 9_4_17 Back to School

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 62 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode is dedicated to all the students in the Philadelphia Public  School System headed back to school on their first day.  Featured here  are some great soundtracks from Fame, To Sir with Love, Cooley High,  Rushmore, Clueless, Breakfast Club and more.  This show also celebrates  the incredible resources of the Philadelphia Free Library with a set of  music pulled from CDs from their music collection.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 8_14_17

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 59 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode was compiled for my summer road trip to head to South  Carolina to see the eclipse. It features selections from some of the  most iconic road movies --Badlands, Thelma and Louise, Easy Rider, Two  Lane Blacktop and a few less obvious ones, including music from Wim  Wenders Road Movie Trilogy. Featured artists include Kris Kristopherson,  Roger Miller, Canned Heat, Improved Sound Limited, Eddy Arnold and the  Village People.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 8_1_17 with BlackStar's Maori Karmael Holmes & Nehad Khader

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 64 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode offers a sneak preview of the upcoming BlackStar Film Festival  opening on Thursday, August 3. Senior Program Manager, Nehad Khader discusses this year's festival theme of Resistance. And BlackStar’s Artistic Director Maori Karmael Holmes talks about the genesis of the  festival and how it has become a kind of family reunion for independent  filmmakers of color.  Featured tracks in this episode include Nina  Simone’s Four Woman, Sweet Honey in the Rock’s Echo and Horance Tapscott’s The Giant Has Awakened.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 7_11_1 with Cinespeak's Sarah Mueller

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 60 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode includes a lively conversation with Sarah Mueller,  co-organizer of Cinespeak: Alternative Cinema talking about their  #Boycott the Oscars summer film series in the Brewerytown neighborhood  of Philadelphia. Featured soundtracks include films from Claudine, Sweet Love Bitter, and Spike Lee joints including Do the Right Things, Crooklyn and Bamboozled.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 6_20_17 with Keith Brand

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 94 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: For this special 2-hour WPPM FUNd Drive show Keith Brand, longtime radio  host of WXPN Sleepy Hollow and Soundtrack Sunday Morning shares some of  his favorite soundtrack and sound scores. Featured artists include  Harry Neilson, Elton John, Jay Farrar, Judy Garland, Gustavo  Santaolalla.  Hear music from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Brazil, Diva,  Harlan County USA, Mary Poppins and Singing in the Rain.   It’s a FUNd  Drive show but we went easy on the pitching.  Episode is chockful of  great info about WPPM and PhillyCAM!

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 6_13_2017 Shot in Philly

Release Date: 11/28/2021

Duration: 59 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: In honor of our tenth episode we finally dug out the Rocky theme, it was  only a matter of time.  It seemed the only fitting way to close out a  short audio piece recorded at a rally in support of the PA Film Tax  Credit held on the steps at the Art Museum on June 3, 2017.  Featured  soundtracks of films shot in Philly include Peter Gabriel's score for  Birdy, Paul Buckmaster's theme for Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys and  James Newtown Howard's score for M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable.  We  also devote a set of music to Sofia Coppola who just became only the 2nd  women to be named Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival.  Hear  music from her first short film Lick the Star, Lost in Translation,  Somewhere, Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 5_30_17 with Marangeli Meija Rabell, Phila Latino Film Festival

Release Date: 11/16/2021

Duration: 60 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode offers a sneak preview of the upcoming Philadelphia Latino  Film Festival (PHLAFF) opening on Friday, June 2.   Festival Director,  Marangeli Meija Rabell discusses this year's festival offerings and  their commitment to showcasing work by emerging filmmakers and those  using film as a means of social change.  We talk about the current  economic crisis in Puerto Rico, the new documentary film about Residente  and how PHLAFF is building community by bringing artists together with  audiences.  Featured soundtracks include Alejandro Iñárritu's Amores  Perros, Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus, Eliseo Subiela's Dark Side of the  Heart and Residente.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 5_16_17 with Jesse Pires, Light Box Film Center

Release Date: 11/14/2021

Duration: 62 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode celebrates the over 40 years of repertory film programming  at International House of Philadelphia while looking ahead to its future  with a new name, the Light Box Film Center. I'm joined by Jesse Pires, Chief Curator to talk about their launch event featuring a 25th  Anniversary screening of Allison Anders' Gas, Food Lodging.  Featured  soundtracks are all inspired by past programs shown on the big screen at  International House and include Wim Wenders' Kings of the Road, Robert  Mugge's Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise and Bill Pypmton's The Tune.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Pulling Focus 5_2_17 with Maori Karmael Holmes, Nefertite Nguvu & Kimi Takesue

Release Date: 11/14/2021

Duration: 60 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode of Pulling Focus is a conversation with local film curator,  filmmaker, cultural critic, fashionista, Maori Karmael Holmes.  She  invited 2 filmmakers. Nefertite Nguvu (In the Morning)  and Kimi Takasue  (95 and 6 to Go) to talk about their recent films screening here in  Philadelphia in May 2017.   In the Morning follows a group young, hip  folks on a day in Brooklyn and that got me thinking about other films  with strong ensemble casts full of young breakout talents.   Soundtracks  featured in this episode include Diner and Chacun cherche son chat plus  music by Danny Elfman, Bahamadia, Greg Tate and Abby Dobson.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Poetry and Jazz with Beth Feldman Brandt

Release Date: 2/20/2021

Duration: 61 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: Continuing the celebration of National Poetry Month but this time adding jazz to the mix. April is designated as Jazz Appreciation Month in Philadelphia and here at WPPM we have been pulling out all the stops highlighting the tremendous community of jazz musicians of all genres and generations. I’ll put playing of some seminal jazz film tracks film noir to the French new wave. And in just a few minutes I will be having a conversation with poet Beth Feldman Brandt who was commissioned by the Philadelpia Jazz Project to adapt her poems to the stage and combine them with jazz in the work Retro Love. Aired on WPPM 106.5 FM in Philadelphia in April 2017.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Experimental Film and Poetry

Release Date: 2/14/2021

Duration: 61 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: It being National Poetry Month, this edition of Pulling Focus puts films  that feature poetry in the foreground. Program also features a short  audio piece recorded during a hand processing workshop led by experimental filmmaker Kathryn Ramey. Hear music from films by Jim Jarmusch, Robert Frank, Nina Patel and others. Featured artists include Lynn Sheffield and David Amram, Annette Hanshaw, Masala Dosa, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and more.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Concert Films

Release Date: 2/14/2021

Duration: 62 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode of Pulling Focus aired on WPPM in Philadelphia on March 21,  2017. This is an all music episode built around the theme of great  concert films. It features jazz. Latin, RnB, ska, bluegrass and Rock n  Roll from films like Stop Making Sense, Jazz on a Summer's Day, Dave  Chappelle's Block Party, Wattstax, Woodstock and The Last Waltz and featuring artists Dinah Washington, Buena Vista Social Club, Talking Heads, David Bowie, The Selector and more.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Women Animators with Emily Hubley and Signe Baumane

Release Date: 2/14/2021

Duration: 59 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: Recorded on the eve of International Women's Day, this episode of  Pulling Focus puts women directors in the foreground and features  interviews with Laris Kreslins, programmer of the Women's Animation  Festival, and animators Emily Hubley and Signe Baumane. For more info  about the festival go to http://moore.edu/calendar/moore-women-artists-film-festival-women-in-animation.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Interview with Documentary Film Producer Hebert Peck

Release Date: 2/14/2021

Duration: 61 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This episode of Pulling Focus is an Oscar preview and features an  interview with Hebert Peck, one of the producers of the Oscar nominated I Am Not Your Negro. Original air date on WPPM in Philadelphia, 2/21/2017.  Featured artists include Maurice Jarre, Mychael Danna, Nicholas Britell, Little Jimmie Scott, Alexi Aigui, words by James Baldwin and more.

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No

Valentine to the Movies

Release Date: 2/1/2021

Duration: 61 Mins

Authors: Gretjen Clausing

Description: This edition of Pulling Focus is a crowd sourced mix of songs about movies.  Original air date on WPPM in Philadelphia, 2/14/17. Au Cinema by Lianne La Havas Skate Away by Dire Straits Clint (Silence on tourne) by Thomas Dutronc Matinee Idol by Rufus Wainwright Mon Pere se prenait pour Fred Astaire by Antoine Brimful of Asha by Cornershop Celluloid Heroes by Kinks B Movie by Elvis Costello What’s Your Take on Cassavetes by Le Tigre - Films by Gary Numan Gary Numan by Let's all go to the Lobby Let's Go to the Movies by Ozomatli Saturday Night at the Movies by The  Drifters Grace Kelly by Mika The Film of My Love by 10 cc 

Is Closed Captioned: No

Explicit: No