Columbia Student Film Enters National Film Registry

Today's headline over at the Hollywood Reporter notes that PULP FICTION and MARY POPPINS made the cut of this year's 25 new entries into the National Film Registry. Each year the Library of Congress designates a new group of films for preservation as "culturally, historically, aesthetically significant.

But for me the real news was that Adam Davidson's classic student short THE LUNCH DATE, shot when he was at Columbia's film school in 1989, also made the cut. I don't know if this film has been seen much outside of film schools but it did win the Oscar for short film in 1990.

This was probably one of the first short films I saw as a grad student at NYU and it was really an instant classic. Beautifully shot in black and white at Grand Central Station, it tells a simple and nearly soundless story of a woman and a homeless man who end up on an unexpected "date". It really impressed on me the nature of visual storytelling as I was transitioning from being a writer to a filmmaker. Here it is below if you want to check it out.