The Clark partners with Images Cinema to present a film series that captures the explosion of creativity, critical acclaim, and box office success that Hollywood directors found after the fall of the studio system.

The series continues with Girlfriends (1978). When her best friend and roommate abruptly moves out to get married, Susan (Melanie Mayron), trying to be an artist while making ends meet as a bar mitzvah photographer on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, finds herself adrift in both life and love. A wonder of American independent cinema by Claudia Weill (who, when she was admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a director in 1981, was one of only four women ever to have received that honor), Girlfriends is a remarkably authentic vision of female relationships that has become a touchstone for makers of an entire subgenre of films and television shows about young women trying to make it in the big city. This 1970s New York time capsule captures the complexities and contradictions of women’s lives and relationships with wry humor and refreshing frankness. (Run time: 1 hour, 26 minutes)

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.



Image: Girlfriends, Claudia Weill, 1978