‘Classics of Hollywood’s Golden Age’ at OLLI Program

Rick Winston, will present the OLLI-Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program on Tuesday, Nov. 27. ‘Classics of Hollywood’s Golden Age’ will be presented at 2 p.m. at the Nolin Murray Center next to St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Pleasant Street in Springfield.

Film historian Winston will show clips from 12 of his favorite films from 1935-1963. So many old films fail the test of time, while a few are rediscovered by each generation of moviegoers. He’ll discuss some of the elements of these classics from Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age,’ including their writing, acting, directing and cinematography.

Winston, comes from the Montpelier area. He grew up in Yonkers, New York, and became hooked watching old films on TV at a young age. He went to Columbia College and the University of California, Berkeley, where in his bio he writes that “there were many opportunities to catch up on films while putting off writing English literature papers.” He moved to Vermont in 1970 and shortly afterward founded the Lightning Ridge Film Society, which morphed into the Savoy Theater in 1981 — which plays classic films in Montpelier. He was one of the founders of Montpelier’s Green Mountain Film Festival and was its programming director until 2012. His wife Andrea Serota and he sold the Savoy in 2009, and since then, he has been teaching film at Burlington College, the Community College of Vermont in Montpelier, the Montpelier Senior Activity Center, and speaks on film subjects to groups such as OLLI throughout Vermont.

OLLI-Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, affiliated with the University of Vermont, is a local membership program geared towards seniors 50 years and older who want to engage in meaningful learning, “just for the fun of it!” People of all ages are welcome to attend.

The OLLI series programs are selected with input from the local members and carry varied themes from semester to semester including history, art, music, literature, health, nature, science and current events.

Programs are held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons and last about an hour and a half.

Membership is $45 for the semester which includes nine programs. Non-members are encouraged and welcome to attend individual lectures for a single program fee of $8. Memberships, as well as single program fees, may be paid at the program.

The following OLLI program will be just one week later (rather than the usual two) on Dec. 4, and will be Mark Breen, senior meteorologist at Fairbanks Museum, the voice of Vermont Public Radio's ‘Eye on the Sky’ giving us ‘This Winter’s Forecast.’

Brochures have been distributed throughout the area towns at businesses, the local libraries, town halls and Chamber of Commerce offices. The complete Springfield and state-wide program list is available on the internet at www.learn.uvm.edu/olli Choose State-wide programs from the menu, and then scroll to Springfield.