The screening is followed by a Q&A with director Nancy Savoca and producer Richard Guay.
In Dogfight, Nancy Savoca provides a snapshot of innocence just before it is lost. The story takes place over the course of a single night in 1963, when U.S. Marine Eddie (River Phoenix) encounters idealistic aspiring folksinger Rose (Lili Taylor). They meet under decidedly cruel circumstances, but their night together finds them falling in love despite the wide gap in how they view the oncoming war. The film is a showcase for River Phoenix who, only two years before his own tragic death, transforms beautifully from a cocky soldier into a scared kid being shipped to a war zone. The camerawork emphasizes the film’s tragedy, as a bustling San Francisco gives way to empty streets and lonely—but stunningly intimate—interiors (the music hall where Rose hopes to perform one day provides a particularly affecting backdrop.) A love letter to folk music, a tender romance, and a powerful antiwar film all at once, Dogfight is a quiet masterpiece with a nuanced understanding of love. ~AK