This will be my last calendar as Acting Curator of the Harvard Film Archive. Thank you to my extraordinarily hard-working staff (Steffen Pierce, Katie Trainor, Peter Dowd, Bill Westfall), the ace projectionists (Steve Livernash, Clayton Mattos), calendar designer John Dale, and the dedicated box office people and interns. I will miss being at the HFA, and I thank the VES Department for offering me the chance to curate. And certainly good luck to the new Curator.

My last urgings: everyone attend lots of movies of my favorite filmmaker in the world, John Ford, who also made my favorite film in the world, The Searchers. And I’ve added a bunch of movies that, before I go, I’d like to watch in 35mm on the big screen. Several I saw years ago, others never. I’m making no claims for their importance (most of them aren’t important), only that, to this movie-crazy fan, they sound damned enjoyable. Four of the films came out in the 1950s, the greatest era in the history of cinema.

Join me, four Tuesdays in June. – Gerald Peary