Podcast – Episodes 15–18: Boston on Film, Parts 1–4 (Reissued)

88 min • Inspired by our partnering with the Massachusetts Historical Society for a program focusing on the dichotomy of Boston’s image in Hollywood films, we begin a three part series with a selection of pictures that could be called “The Boston Crime Wave,” or, as Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr calls this subgenera, “Boston Triple Decker Films,” or, as Boston crime novelist Chuck Hogan refers to them, “Boston No-R movies.” We explore what these films get right and what they get wrong in how they depict and use our fair city in geographical, character, and thematic terms.

90 min • For this second part of our Boston on Film series, we go beyond the crime movie to focus on how the institutions of Boston – educational, social, scientific, medical, legal, and the press – are depicted on screen. Because the focus of these pictures is not on the underground criminal element, they are more likely to feel like time-capsules giving us a glimpse into a Greater Boston that many of us have never seen.

86 min • For our third and final episode looking at the way Boston is depicted in movies we look at the wave of independent pictures that began shooting in the city during the 1990s as well as some of the more outlandish genre pictures that have used (or destroyed) the city.

88 min • As an addendum to our Boston on Screen series we’re joined by Adam Roffman for a look behind the scenes of many of the films featured in our three previous episodes. Adam, an on-set dresser, documentarian, and former programer of the Independent Film Festival of Boston, shares his stories of working on The Town, Little Women, American Hustle, Patriots Day, The Heat, and countless other Boston productions, as well as what the future of production looks like during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visit Letterboxd for the full list of films mentioned in this episode.