Traveling film exhibit which debuted at the Museum of Modern Art finally premiering in Dayton
The Neon, Dayton’s downtown art house cinema, will host “Julia Reichert: 50 Years in Film,” a traveling celebration of the Oscar winning filmmaker’s decades of documentaries. The screenings begin on Sunday afternoon, November 21, 2021. The retrospective, which was curated and organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts, premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in May 2019. The film series then traveled 
to Los Angeles, Houston, Minneapolis, Portland, Cleveland, Louisville and Madison before the pandemic shut everything down.
“I’m deeply grateful to the Neon’s manager Jonathan McNeal for bringing this retrospective home,” said Julia Reichert. “It means so much to me to share these films again with Dayton audiences, many who weren’t even born yet when these films came out. New and beautiful 4K restorations of the four films I made with Jim Klein will play on the Neon’s screens, and they look amazing.”
“For 50 years, my professor, mentor and dear friend Julia Reichert has been telling powerful and engaging cinematic stories,” said McNeal. “These important films still resonate, and we’re thrilled to finally be able to present this incredible collection of work back on the big screen.”
The retrospective will begin on Nov 21 with Reichert, who taught film at Wright State for 28 years, giving a live, intimate, illustrated talk about her origins. How did she go from a working-class small-town girl, told she could only be a secretary, teacher or nurse, to being a pioneering filmmaker? The first event will also include a screening of Julia Reichert & Jim Klein’s first film, GROWING UP FEMALE, their groundbreaking 1971 documentary exploring how girls and women are socialized. This film, Julia’s senior project at Antioch College, was selected in 2011 by the Library of Congress for the prestigious National Film Registry of historically significant films.
The 2021 events in the retrospective are:
- Sun, Nov 21 at 4:00: Julia Reichert Artist Talk and GROWING UP FEMALE (1971)
- Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 7:00: UNION MAIDS (1976) and THE LAST TRUCK: CLOSING OF A GM PLANT (2009).
- Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 7:00: SEEING RED: STORIES OF AMERICAN COMMUNISTS (1984)
- Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 7:00: Julia’s Hidden Gems & Deep Cuts: Four shorter documentaries from Reichert’s body of work: METHADONE – AN AMERICAN WAY OF DEALING (1974), SPARKLE (2012), MAKING MORNING STAR (2014) & NO GUNS FOR CHRISTMAS (2014).
Reichert’s retrospective will continue in 2022 with films and dates to be announced.
Tickets are $10 for each screening and available on THE NEON’s website www.neonmovies.com or at THE NEON’s Box Office. For additional information, please contact Jonathan McNeal at [email protected]
