Filmmakers Carolyn Swartz and Ann Schaetzel will present films produced in the past five years by former students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working under Richard Leacock. The filmmakers describe the program as “a unique and coherent body of work in the so-called direct cinema tradition... made by one- or two-person crews. Using the supple and unobtrusive technique of handheld shooting of unscripted documentary, they present strong and personal interpretations of the world.”

Mom
The filmmaker's mother leaves her comfortable home and family in suburban Illinois to attend fashion school in New York City. Relieved of her role as wife and mother, the woman's sense of self emerges. The film climaxes in a dramatic clash between mother and son. Mark Rance is a pioneer in one-person sync-sound filming - both shooting and recording sound by himself. His system uses a camera with a fixed wide-angle lens held on one shoulder and a microphone held on the other. Rance's film received an Academy Award nomination in 1978 for the Best Documentary by a Student.

• Directed by Mark Rance. (1978, 30 mins)

Breaking and Entering
Return of a prodigal daughter. An angry film in which the filmmaker tries to come to grips with the distance between her and her parents. Cinema-verité footage that depicts a complacent and impenetrable suburban existence is overlaid with an interior monologue that stamps the film with her presence and peculiar point of view. Ann Schaetzel won First Prize at the Ann Arbor 8mm Film Festival in 1979 for her film, Pat's Tow.

• Directed by Ann Schaetzel. (1979, 30 mins)

Marv Cutler and the Little Prince of Rock
Marv Cutler is a small-time impresario who is promoting several entertainers, most notably his seven-year-old son, on the fringes of the music business around Boston. The film observes the relationship between father and son, and how each one relates to the elusive goal of success and stardom in a world of tacky bars and sad variety shows. Marv is a believer in the New American Dream - not the rise from rags to riches through hard work, but the leap to fame and fortune through the gimmick and the lucky break.

• Directed by Carolyn Swartz. (1979, 35 mins)