Sunday | June 4, 2006 9:00 pm

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

Screening on Film

Directed by Bill Couturié.
US, 1987, 35mm, color and b&w, 87 min.

One of the more widely acclaimed accounts of the Vietnam War, this made-for-HBO film, which received honors at the Emmy Awards and the Sundance Film Festival, is astounding in its simple presentation. Director Bill Couturié combines film materials from the NBC-TV archives, the Pentagon, and private Super-8 collections with audio performances of actual letters from serving soldiers. The readings—performed by Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Ellen Burstyn, among others—capture both the mundane aspects of life in between battles and the longing of soldiers to be true to their mission and come home safely.

June 2 – 25, 2006

At Home and Abroad: The Vietnam War on Film

September 29–December 1

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

sepia photo of Artie Freedman in silhouette with a video camera at show

November 8

Boston Punk Rewound / Unbound. The Arthur Freedman Collection

November 9–December 9

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

November 10–24

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

a mausoleum that looks like a miniature Spanish cathedral, next to a variety of others, against an evening sky

November 11

The Night Watchman by Natalia Almada

a double-exposed image that includes a 16th century Russian man being fed grapes by another amid decadent decor

November 23

Wings of a Serf

a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

November 25

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

December 12

Carol for Another Christmas

December 13–16

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy