So you're coming up north to the hinterlands of New Hampshire and you're interested in film. Well, if you're anything like I was when I was a freshman, you're probably pretty worried. With the kind of comments people tend to make about small-town New Hampshire, I'm sure you're all convinced that Hanover doesn't even have movie theaters at this point. Well, to my surprise and soon to be to yours, Dartmouth is chock full of almost everything a young cinephile could want.
Film plays an important role in the lives of most people here in Hanover. With much of the usual entertainment offered by a city (bars, clubs, innumerable restaurants and so on) nowhere to be found, movies take on an even more important entertainment role. There are two commercial movie theaters and two college operated theaters in range of the average Dartmouth student.
There's Hanover's own Nugget Theater, which was recently remodeled. The Nugget boasts four screens and shows the latest releases. It tends to show the more upscale current releases. It's a very clean, nicely appointed theater, but the screens are a bit small. The sound system is adequate, but better suited to the Nugget's usual higher end fare rather than your average summer action pic.
The Sony Theaters in Lebanon, NH offers six screens. About a 10 minute ride away, they generally offer whatever movies that the Nugget does not. Unfortunately, they aren't anywhere near as pleasant and are pretty inconvenient for the carless.
When it comes to movies at Dartmouth, the best theater is Dartmouth's own Spaulding Auditorium. Located in the Hopkins Center, Spaulding offers a giant screen and unbeatable location. Spaulding does not show first-run films. Their bill is composed of the Dartmouth Film Society's series and special engagements, usually recently released movies.
The DFS' choices are usually first-rate, their themes fun and interesting. Some examples include this past winter's war movie theme and the spring's best of the independents theme. The DFS gets their hands on some incredible movies. They're also quite effective at procuring hard to find prints of currently in release films, like "Scream" last winter and "Good Will Hunting" this spring. The series generally reflect the DFS' desire to both edify and entertain the community, offering a balance of popular and lesser known films.
The last of the accessible theaters here at Dartmouth is the Loew Theater, which lies underneath the Hood Museum. Loew is the theater where many film classes are taught and offers a range of projectors to professors wishing to show clips from many sources. The Loew series, separate from the DFS Spaulding series, has its own different themes every term. The Loew series is usually designed to go with a class, such as this summer's "L.A.: City of Angels" series. This coincides with Comparative Literature 62: Literature and Film of Los Angeles, allowing the whole community to enjoy at least part of a fascinating course.
If you are interested in more than just watching movies, the DFS meets weekly to discuss the previous week's films. It's really just a bunch of people who like movies. They welcome anyone and everyone (and they have free food, which is very important at college). If you go to enough meetings, you can even have a hand in choosing the next term's film series. Perhaps the most important aspect of DFS is detailed by Dan Powell '00: "DFS is all about getting to meet famous people at fancy cocktail parties that the school pays for."
Dartmouth also does a great job of bringing up various film luminaries to Hanover, principally through the Dartmouth Film Award. The Dartmouth Film Award is given to a distinguished member of the moviemaking community, usually a director or actor, on a sporadically basis. Dartmouth is treated to a montage of their earlier work, an in-person interview with the recipient and a showing of their latest. The honoree also meets with some lucky film classes and attends an open reception. Sometimes this leads to more casual interaction.
This year's honoree, Oliver Stone, wound up spending much of an evening just hanging out and talking with students at a fraternity party. This past fall, Meryl Streep received it. The Dartmouth Film Award is important because its prestige allows students to interact with giants of the field despite our remote location.
Another special opportunity for Dartmouth students is the presence of Telluride Film Festival founder Bill Pence on campus. As director of film for the Hopkins Center, Pence plays an important role in the DFS, getting films for the series, special engagements and basically every facet of film on this campus. Due to his continuing role with the Telluride Film Festival, Dartmouth gets the privilege of screening movies that have only been seen at Telluride before their general release.
Last, but certainly not least, you can write movie reviews for our own Daily Dartmouth newspaper. The D is always hungry for new meat and its fun to get to inflict your opinion on the whole campus. It's a good opportunity for all you Entertainment Weekly wanna-be's out there.
Have a great summer and get ready to kick off your fall with "Groovy Baby," the DFS' 70s film series!
