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 said the process of selection comes naturally for him.
Filipi, the director of film and video at the Wexner Center, has brought a number of unique movies 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 from the likes of Richard Linklater, known for “Before Sunrise,” to Philip Kaufman, recognized for “The Right Stuff.”
“It’s having a feel for trying to touch lots of different bases, some films that people haven’t heard of or films from countries people wouldn’t necessarily be aware of the films that have come from there over the years, but then also mixing in some films that are a little more well known,” Filipi said.
In addition to his work with numerous prolific filmmakers at the center since 1994, Filipi has presented his archival “Rare Baseball Films” 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 organized a national, 11-city touring retrospective for Academy Award-winning director Julia Reichert.
Filipi said the Wexner Center puts an emphasis on selecting a diverse array of films to screen and voices to be included.
“There’s no formula for it, you just kind of develop a sense for it,” Filipi said. “What we want to be able to do is when you take a step back and look at six months or a year that it’s a very diverse offering program in all senses of the word diversity: new films, international films, classic films and representing different voices.”
Filipi said he and the Wexner Center are dedicated to helping all filmmakers succeed and get their voice out there, regardless of experience.
Filipi has also worked with the university — namely the film studies program — John Davidson, who founded the major in 2006, said.
Davidson said Filipi contributed to the Wexner Center’s success due to his knowledge of film and understanding of Ohio State. The film studies program is an important offering to have at Ohio State, Davidson said, and having experts, such as Filipi, helped the program grow into one of the largest 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 somebody who understands the university, in the film studies world it was really important to have Dave’s input on trying to develop things at the Wexner Center.”
Filipi said in the future, he and the Wexner Center will continue to preserve the film experience at Ohio State through supporting filmmakers and screenings.
“We support working filmmakers, and we can provide lots of different resources to a person to help them finish their film, that’s more gratifying than showing movies,” Filipi said. “Film is such a perfect way to build empathy, to learn about people that are different from you or learn about people in other countries. What’s better than film for that?”
