The director brings his knowledge to the Wexner Center for the Arts through the selection of films
Dave Filipi screens films weekly at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Credit: Sophia Tobias | For the lantern
When Dave Filipi selects a film to screen at the Wexner Center for the Arts, he says the selection process comes naturally to him.
Filipi, Director of Film and Video at the Wexner Center, has brought a number of unique films and events to the center with nearly three decades of experience at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Filipi said he selects several films to screen at the Wexner Center each week and has also hosted director retrospectives with filmmakers like Richard Linklater, known for “Before Sunrise,” to Philip Kaufman, known for “The Right stuff”.
“It’s like trying to touch a lot of different bases, films that people haven’t heard of or films from countries that people wouldn’t necessarily know about the films that came from there. over the years, but also mixing in some slightly more well-known movies,” Filipi said.
In addition to his work with many prolific filmmakers at the center since 1994, Filipi has presented his “Rare Baseball Films” archive at the Wexner Center and other venues – including New York’s Film Forum and the Cleveland Museum of Art – according to the Wexner Center for the Arts website. Filipi also curated a traveling national retrospective in 11 cities for Academy Award-winning director Julia Reichert.
Filipi said the Wexner Center emphasizes selecting a wide range of films to screen and voices to include.
“There’s no formula for it, you just develop a sense for it,” Filipi said. “What we want to be able to do is when you step back and look at six months or a year that it’s very diverse programming in every sense of the word diversity: new films, international films, classic films and representing different voice.”
Filipi said he and the Wexner Center are dedicated to helping all filmmakers succeed and have their voices heard, regardless of experience.
Filipi has also worked with the university — namely the film studies program — said John Davidson, who founded the major in 2006.
Davidson said Filipi contributed to the success of the Wexner Center because of his knowledge of filmmaking and his understanding of the state of Ohio. The film studies program is an important offering to have at Ohio State, Davidson said, and having experts, such as Filipi, has helped the program become one of the biggest majors in the College of Arts. and Sciences.
“It was a great working relationship and absolutely essential to getting the program up and running,” Davidson said. “He’s someone who understands college, in the world of film studies, it was really important to have Dave’s input in trying to develop things at the Wexner Center.”
Filipi said that going forward, he and the Wexner Center will continue to preserve the movie experience in Ohio State by supporting filmmakers and screenings.
“We support working filmmakers and we can provide a lot of different resources for someone to help them complete their film, it’s more rewarding than showing films,” Filipi said. “Cinema is such a perfect way to develop empathy, to learn more about people who are different from you or people from other countries. What better than a movie for that?
