The Fourth Annual Dr. Saul and Dorothy Kit Film Noir Festival will be March 1-5, 2023. This year's theme is Beyond the Femme Fatale: The Women Who Made Noir. The 2023 Kit Noir Film Festival will examine women's contributions to noir as film producers, screenwriters, novelists and, in one instance, as a director. Looking at the contributions women made behind the camera not just the character types they played in front of the camera like the notorious "femme fatale". In the process of discovery, we find women occupied a prominent place in popular imaginary of crime.
The series will include a free pre-festival virtual screening on February 25-26 of The Deep End. Most screenings are on 35mm film and located at Columbia University's Lenfest Center for the Arts. All lectures, also located at the Lenfest Center, are livestreamed online.
The festival is programmed by Rob King, the Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Columbia Film Program, and managed by Alexandre Ilic, the Film Events Manager at Columbia Film.
Ten films released between 1946 and 1964 are programmed:
The Deep End (2001, Scott McGehee and David Siegel, Virtual Screening)
Bande à part (1964, Jean-Luc Godard, DCP)
Clash by Night (1952, Fritz Lang, DCP)
Gilda (1946, Charles Vidor, DCP)
In a Lonely Place (1950, Nicholas Ray, DCP)
Ride the Pink Horse (1947, Robert Montgomery, 35mm)
Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock, DCP)
Sudden Fear (1952, David Miller, DCP)
The Bigamist (1953, Ida Lupino, DCP)
The File on Thelma Jordon (1950, Robert Siodmak, DCP)
The Hitch-Hiker (1953, Ida Lupino, 35mm)
This festival is funded by a generous gift from alumnus Gordon Kit (Columbia College '76), in honor of his parents.