What is Deep Focus? Deep Focus is an online educational program including full film courses and monthly seminars. Join us online to discuss great movies and to increase your appreciation of film. DEEP FOCUS is designed for a general audience – from the casual film lover to the hardcore cineaste. There is something for everyone.
More infoTCM writer Hannah Jack leads our Classic Hollywood monthly seminars, aiming to build on the success of the conversations she has already brought to our community. While all of the talks in this category will be about movies considered “classics”, they will range from those extremely widely known and well-received to hidden gems whose critical reputation has changed over time.
While our monthly Deep Focus seminars are free for anyone, we recommend a small donation from non-members to your local theater to support the series. You can donate to the County, Ambler, Garden, or Hiway.
Ambitious radio reporter Marcia Jeffries comes across the charismatic folk singer Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes in the Pickett County Jail and gives him the exposure that will send him on the rise from TV star to political rabble-rouser. Andy Griffith stars as the manipulative and egotistical Rhodes in his on-screen debut. Directed by Elia Kazan, this film proves prescient when it comes to the dark side of the relationship between media and politics. In his review for Cahiers du Cinéma François Truffaut called it 'a great and beautiful work whose importance transcends the dimensions of a cinema review.'
Watch at Home Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play
John Ford’s working class drama tells the story of a Welsh coal mining family as they struggle through a period of societal change during the early 20th century as they become divided over a miners’ strike. Meanwhile, the only daughter in the family pines after the new village preacher. Boasting a terrific cast that features Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee, and Roddy McDowell. The film is most famously remembered for beating out Citizen Kane, Sergeant York, and The Maltese Falcon to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Watch at Home Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play
While South Korean cinema has flourished across many eras, we are living through its modern renaissance. Created in collaboration with Princeton University Professor Steven Chung, this month-long virtual cinema studies course will explore this rich cinematic tradition through four different contemporary South Korean films, each by a different director: Mother, House of Hummingbird, Decision to Leave, and Burning. Weekly discussions will be enriched by supplementary reading and suggestions for further viewing.
Registration for the class includes admission to Mother at your preferred nonprofit theater. Our cinema studies class includes a modest course fee that goes to sustaining the Deep Focus program by helping us pay our staff and guest speakers.
Registration for this course has hit capacity and is now closed. Please look out for announcements about Deep Focus cinema studies courses in the near future!
House of Hummingbird is the debut feature from writer director Kim Bora. Set in Seoul in 1994, the year the Seongsu Bridge collapsed, this coming of age character study follows the lonely 14 year old Eun-hee. In turns ignored and abused by her family, she traverses the city, seeking human connection, flitting along like a humming-bird searching for succor.
Watch at Home Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, Roku Channel, Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Video
Reading Hyun Seon Park, “Through the Lens of Cine-Feminism” (academic article)
Supplemental Viewing Yi Yi (free on Criterion Channel, Rent on Amazon Video and Apple TV)
Detective Hae-joon is investigating the case of a man who plunged to his death off of the top of a mountain. He soon begins to suspect the man’s wife, Song Seo-rae, all while growing enamored with her. The layers of deception and longing multiply as the plot advances, and this police procedural morphs into a twisted, neo-noir romance with a Hitchockian tinge.
Watch at Home MUBI, Amazon Video, Apple TV
Reading Sara Ahmed, excerpt from Strange Encounters (academic book)
Supplemental Viewing The Yellow Sea (rent on Amazon Video or Apple TV)
Inspired by a Haruki Murakami short story, this haunting film is a tense study of modern class conflict and a slow burning thriller. When an aspiring writer is reacquainted with a childhood friend, he agrees to cat-sit for her; but when she returns from Africa with a wealthy and enigmatic man she met there, he begins to question the motives of her new acquaintance. Driven by an unsettling performance from Steven Yeun, this film is as disturbing as it is revelatory.
Watch at Home Netflix, Peacock, Mubi, Tubi, Roku Channel, Amazon Video, Apple TV
Reading Haruki Murakami, “Barn Burning” (short story)
Supplemental Viewing Episodes of the TV show Beef (stream on Netflix)
All About Deep FocusSeries offered under the Deep Focus umbrella will use different lenses to examine a variety of film genres while also creating opportunities for sustained conversations built around certain topics and themes. We generally offer different series, each consisting of events led by expert speakers, ranging from professors, to film critics, to members of the industry. While the format will vary slightly depending on the speaker, audience members will always be invited to ask questions and share their opinions. Events will be run in an online format, allowing us to partner with other local independent art house cinemas and to reach an even broader audience. Deep Focus is the successor to our Film 101 series. It has same great programming but is rebranded as we expand the scope of the series.
Deep Focus is a seminar only series. The films discussed are not included in the scheduled seminars. Be sure to watch the films ahead of time. You can catch some titles at screenings in person at our theaters – for that, you’ll have to check your local theater to see if and when it is showing the film. We’ll also provide guidance as to where you can stream the films online. See below in each film description under the heading "Where to Watch."
Registration. While our monthly Deep Focus seminars are free for anyone, we recommend a small donation from non-members to your local theater to support the series. You can donate to the County, Ambler, Garden, or Hiway. Our courses require a modest registration fee to help sustain the program and compensate our speakers. Enrollment in our cinema studies courses is discounted for members.
Archive of past seminars. Our monthly seminars are recorded and will be available on YouTube at a later date.
Renew Theaters operates four Pennsylvania/New Jersey movie theaters: the County Theater in Doylestown, PA, the Ambler Theater in Ambler, PA, the Hiway Theater in Jenkintown, PA, and the Princeton Garden Theatre in Princeton, NJ. Renew manages each theater according to each individual mission to: Exhibit art, independent and world films that offer the community an opportunity to experience a broad range of artistic and alternative expressions; Educate the community about the film and media arts through a diverse program of educational activities that seek to develop a lifelong involvement with the arts; Serve as a community and charitable resource for the arts, and to promote and effect access to the arts for all members of the community; and
Preserve the theaters as cultural resources.
Deep Focus is supported by a generous grant from the Vesta Fund. We offer free monthly online seminars as well as more formal cinema studies courses.