By Clarence Fanto
Article from Berkshire Eagle - Sunday, May 10
LENOX, Even thought we're surrounded by video gadgetry capable of turning our living rooms into virtual home theaters, there's still something magical about the communal experience...
of attending a film in a high-quality cinema - a treat that rematins essential and irreplaceable for many of us.
The indefatigable Kelley Vickery has organized the fourth annual Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) at Great Barrington's four-screen Triplex this Thursday through Sunday. Although more than 70 films from 13 nations will be presented, I'm most enthused about two programs honoring NYU-based Professor Richard Brown, who has been presenting his Movies 101 classes at various Manhattan sites for the past 40 years. He was only 25 when he started with 14 students after recovering from a cerebral hemorrhage and deciding on a teaching rather than a directing career.
Brown's very first guest back then was none other than Mel Brooks, who later commented: "Of course Richard is brilliant, everybody knows that. But he's also a helluva teacher, and really funny. Richard is the only stand-up professor."