As you might have noticed, the first batches of promotion for this year’s Boston Calling included a curious little tagline near the bottom of the poster. This year’s Memorial Day weekend festival, which starts today at Harvard Athletic Complex, was to include a “Film Experience Curated by Natalie Portman,” the actress and Harvard grad, and many people were wondering what the hell was up with that. Only a few months later did we find out that it’d been cancelled (though we’re not entirely sure, we can guess it might have had something to do with her having given birth to twins, which would complicate anyone’s schedule), and replaced by a Hannibal Buress-led comedy programme. It’s a huge loss, but we’re glad Buress and company stepped in.
It was briefly mentioned at an Allston Civic Association meeting by a festival organizer that Portman’s experience would have centered around “women in film”, and that got us to thinking. If we had control of a film experience to be tied into the festival, what would we show? And we got to thinking, and made up a little schedule for you below. Three of the films are upcoming releases (of course we’ve gotta pay love to what’s coming down the pipeline), but the rest are available to watch on your favorite streaming service or to rent from your preferred digital storefront.
Here’s what the Vanyaland Film Experience at Boston Calling would look like. You can have a “film experience” right there on your couch.