Capital Region Curated: August 10-16
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with a Thursday cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart week.
Alan Koslow
16
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Thursday Cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart Week 🎺🎬🎼
The summer calendar is still light, but this week has something last week barely had: a real local cluster.
Thursday is the center of the local week. Skidmore’s Tang Teaching Museum continues Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey. Albany Law connects to a public book talk in Bolton Landing with nationally significant legal scholar Judith Resnik. SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis.
That is a useful summer Thursday: one outdoor indie-pop concert, one civic/legal book conversation, and one serious jazz outing.
The week’s largest arts offering is outside the regular footprint. Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World from Wednesday through Sunday, strong enough to flag again as a regional-extension package for readers willing to drive about an hour south.
After the weekly listings, this issue turns to the final summer preview guide: Film and Media on Campus.
☀️ Summer Note
We are still in the dog days of August, but the calendar is starting to wake up.
This is not yet a full fall week. It is still too early for the regular flood of campus lectures, concerts, films, exhibitions, and public forums. But Thursday has real local choices, and Bard gives the week scale.
That is the job this week: catch the local Thursday cluster, make a clear call on Bard, and then look ahead to where film and media show up on campus once the academic year starts moving.
📣 Help Spread the Word
It really helps when readers share Capital Region Curated.
If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
Subscribe here: Capital Region Curated
🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 10–16
This week is not crowded, but it has a clear shape.
The local core is Thursday: Tang, Albany Law/Bolton Free Library, and SUNY Schenectady at Music Haven.
The larger arts story is Bard Music Festival, handled separately as a regional-extension package from Wednesday 8/12 through Sunday 8/16.
⭐ Top Picks
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00–9:00 PM — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (Schenectady — Music Haven, Central Park) (Map | Details | Free)
SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs outdoors at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis, a major jazz trumpeter long associated with Dizzy Gillespie’s musical legacy. If I were choosing one local music event this week, I would look hard at this one.
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik 📅 Thursday 8/13, 6:30–8:30 PM — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (Bolton Landing — Bolton Free Library) (Map | Details | Free)
Judith Resnik discusses Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy in conversation with Ray Brescia, Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life at Albany Law. This is the week’s strongest civic/legal conversation.
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey 📅 Thursday 8/13, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with Nice Hockey, an indie-pop quartet that includes Skidmore Psychology professors Dom Vuvan and Harrison Schmitt. This is the easy outdoor campus choice: free, casual, and on the Tang Grounds.
Regional Extension Pick — Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World
Bard Music Festival continues Wednesday 8/12–Sunday 8/16 with concerts, talks, and public programs across Bard and regional venues. Full Bard schedule and links are below.
🚗 Regional Extension Pick — Bard College
Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World 🎼
Bard College is not part of Capital Region Curated’s normal weekly campus sweep, but it sits about an hour south of Albany.
This week, Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World, its 36th season, with concerts and public programs exploring Mozart’s music, influence, religion, legacy, and cultural world.
For readers willing to make the drive, this is the week’s major regional-extension arts package.
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion 📅 Wednesday 8/12, 7:30 PM — Bard Music Festival (Hudson — First Presbyterian Church) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; reservations required)
A free off-campus Bard Music Festival program in Hudson.
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00 PM — Bard Music Festival (Rhinebeck — Church of the Messiah) (Map | Details | Sold out)
Bard’s off-campus sacred-music program in Rhinebeck is sold out.
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason 📅 Friday 8/14, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Friday night program connecting Mozart, sacred music, Freemasonry, and Enlightenment ideals.
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism 📅 Saturday 8/15, 10:00 AM–12:00 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details | Free and open to the public)
A Saturday morning public panel framing Mozart’s historical and intellectual world.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement 📅 Saturday 8/15, 1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Saturday afternoon chamber program centered on Mozart and Haydn.
Bard Summer Picnic 📅 Saturday 8/15, 3:30–5:30 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Campus Center North) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; food available for purchase; reservations required)
An optional festival event between the afternoon and evening programs.
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students 📅 Saturday 8/15, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A second-weekend program placing Mozart among family, friends, students, and contemporaries.
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy 📅 Sunday 8/16, 11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Sunday morning program about Mozart’s long musical afterlife.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio 📅 Sunday 8/16, 2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A semi-staged concert performance of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio.
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🏛️ PART TWO: FILM AND MEDIA ON CAMPUS
Where Film and Media Show Up on Campus 🎬📽️
Campus film programming is not just movie night.
At UAlbany, a film festival can bring together writers, filmmakers, students, and public audiences for a full day of screenings and conversations — but that is only part of the story. Film also appears through departments, language programs, museum programs, and public conversations. At EMPAC, film may become experimental media, video installation, performance, or sound. At Skidmore, film can appear through media studies, the Tang Museum, French film, documentary work, or public conversations.
This guide is about where film and media happen on campus — not every student movie night, but the public-facing festivals, screenings, media arts programs, and film conversations that are worth knowing about as the new academic year begins.
📽️ UAlbany / NYS Writers Institute — Film Festivals, Film Series, Language Departments, and Public Conversation
UAlbany is the strongest campus film source because it has more than one film lane.
The biggest public anchor is the Albany Film Festival, presented by the NYS Writers Institute. That is the region’s clearest recurring campus film festival: public, substantial, and tied to screenings, conversations, short films, filmmakers, writers, actors, and storytelling.
The Albany Film Festival is not the whole story.
UAlbany also has the kind of scattered film programming that is easy to miss if you only look for the word “festival.” The English Department has run campus film series in Lecture Center spaces. Languages, Literatures and Cultures has hosted film screenings and discussions, including films such as Sound of Berberia and Souleymane’s Story. The NYS Writers Institute uses film to connect books, writers, history, biography, journalism, and public conversation. The UAlbany Art Museum also uses film and video in public programs, including artist-linked screenings and conversations.
Reader note: Readers should expect the big public film anchor in spring with the Albany Film Festival, but individual screenings may appear throughout the year through Writers Institute programs, English, Languages/Literatures/Cultures, the Art Museum, and public-affairs or culture programs.
🎛️ RPI / EMPAC — Experimental Film, Video, Media Art, and Technology
EMPAC is the strongest experimental media source in the normal Capital Region campus footprint.
This is not “movie night.” EMPAC’s film and media programming often sits at the edge of film/video, sound, performance, installation, technology, and time-based art.
Recent examples include the staging grounds festival, Corpus Festival, film/video programming, installations, talks, and video works throughout EMPAC. RPI also hosted Academy Award-nominated director Robert Stone for a free public screening of Starman followed by a live Q&A at EMPAC Theater.
The confirmed coming anchor is TOPOS 2026, September 2–5, 2026, at EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media. This should be described as interdisciplinary rather than simply a film festival: performances, live podcasts, film screenings, conversation, media, music, and public ideas.
Reader note: Readers should expect experimental film/video, media art, screenings with talks, artist videos, installation/video/performance hybrids, festival formats, and events where film becomes part of sound, performance, architecture, or installation.
🎞️ Union College — Film Studies, Computer Science, Student Film, and Proctors
Union’s film lane is more interesting than it looks at first glance because it spreads across departments and into downtown Schenectady.
The basic source is Film Studies. Union says students share work at campus screenings throughout the academic year, attend international film series and festivals, many at Proctors, and meet filmmakers invited to campus for talks, screenings, and workshops.
The public-facing examples are stronger than a simple “campus screening” label would suggest.
Union Film Studies students have screened Digital Filmmaking and Documentary class work at Proctors’ GE Theatre. Union students also won Best Original Screenplay at the student-run Refractions Student Film Festival, competing against entries from schools including NYU, New School, Skidmore, UAlbany, SUNY New Paltz, and RIT.
Computer Science adds another important lane.
Union’s Computer Science Film Series at Proctors Theatre is a major example of how film can become public conversation about technology, society, and imagination. The films included WarGames, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, and Her — a smart sequence moving from hacking and nuclear risk to artificial humans, AI, intimacy, and technological isolation.
That gives Union several distinct film/media lanes: Film Studies, student filmmaking, Proctors collaborations, faculty panels, documentary work, and technology-themed film through Computer Science.
There is also a broader Schenectady film ecosystem around Proctors. It Came From Schenectady is the long-running Proctors film series, and Sci:Fi Schenectady Film Fest has added a science/science-fiction festival layer in the city. Those are not Union events by default, but Union’s Proctors connection makes this ecosystem relevant when Union faculty, departments, students, or official programs are involved.
Reader note: Readers should expect student film showcases, filmmaker visits, Proctors-linked screenings, faculty panels around major films, Computer Science film conversations, and public events where film becomes a way into technology, science, history, ethics, or culture.
🖼️ Skidmore College — Media and Film Studies, Tang Screenings, French Film
Skidmore has one of the better campus media lanes because film appears through several channels: Media and Film Studies, Tang Museum screenings, diversity programming, French film, documentary work, and public conversations.
Skidmore’s Media and Film Studies program sponsors and co-sponsors events that address the campus and the greater community, highlight member work, build community, and connect with local professionals and organizations.
Tang Museum screening programs add another lane, including Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video, video-art programs, documentary screenings, and filmmaker Q&As. Other examples include Every Body, the Skidmore French Film Festival, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, and a Pollinators screening with Q&A.
Reader note: Readers should expect Media and Film Studies events, Tang film/video screenings, experimental video, documentary screenings and Q&As, French/international film programming, and film tied to diversity, identity, environment, art, and public issues.
🎨 Siena University — Creative Arts, Experimental Video, International Film
Siena’s film/media lane runs through Creative Arts.
That gives Siena a real public-facing path for film screenings, experimental video, student creative work, and occasional international or issue-based film programming. The Franciscan Center speaker page also includes a Film Discussions category, showing that film can appear through ethics, religion, and public-life programming as well.
Possible upcoming programming: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
Reader note: Readers should expect Creative Arts film/video screenings, student experimental video, international or issue-based film programs, occasional film discussions through Franciscan/public-life programming, and smaller but accessible public screenings.
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🎥 Russell Sage / Opalka Gallery — Film as Gallery, Documentary, Conversation
Opalka Gallery uses film as part of public arts programming, often paired with conversation, panel discussion, documentary, or exhibition context.
Opalka has hosted film screenings such as Cinema Paradiso and Point and Shoot, with the latter described as a collaboration with POV and WMHT Public Media. Russell Sage / Opalka has also hosted film screening and conversation programs where documentary work connects to ethics, technology, and public life.
Opalka’s value is not volume. Its value is context. When film is connected to visual culture, documentary, public conversation, media, art, or community programming, it can fit Capital Region Curated very well.
Reader note: Readers should expect documentary screenings, film + conversation programs, gallery-linked film/media events, public media collaborations, and film tied to ethics, art, social questions, or public issues.
🧑💻 HVCC — Digital Media, Student Media, Refractions Connection
HVCC’s film/media value is digital media, animation, video, interactive media, and student work.
The key public-facing source is the Teaching Gallery, which hosts end-of-year exhibitions for Fine Arts, Theatre Arts, and Digital Media students. Recent student exhibitions have included animation, video, web art, interactive media, photography, digital imaging, and graphic design.
HVCC was also connected to Refractions Student Film Festival as a screening/ceremony site, tying it into a larger regional student film ecosystem.
Reader note: Readers should expect digital media student exhibitions, animation/video/web art, interactive media, occasional student film festival connections, and media work inside Teaching Gallery shows.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Bard College
Bard is outside the normal Capital Region footprint, but film/media is a real Bard lane because of the Center for Moving Image Arts, Weis Cinema, Bard film programs, and issue-based documentary screenings.
Recent examples include curated Center for Moving Image Arts programs, The Librarians documentary screening and panel discussion, and No Other Land screening and discussion. Bard also has recurring internal or club-style film series, but those should not be included unless a specific event clears the regional-extension test.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Bard College. Include only major film/media events strong enough for an Albany reader to drive for. Do not include routine Bard movie nights, weekly film clubs, or ordinary campus screenings.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Williams College
Williams has a real regional-extension film lane through Images Cinema partnerships, French Film Festival, Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programs, and museum/media screenings.
Recent examples include the Williams College French Film Festival, the Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programming, and student-organized film series supported by academic programs and WCMA.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Williams College. Include only major film festivals, museum/media programs, public conversations, or film events strong enough to justify the Williamstown drive.
🔮 Coming Film and Media Anchors
Confirmed
RPI / EMPAC — TOPOS 2026
Dates: September 2–5, 2026
Type: Festival / film / media / music / conversation
Status: Strong confirmed fall anchor. Frame as interdisciplinary media/music/performance, not a standard film festival.
Possible Upcoming Programming
Siena University — Creative Arts film and video programming
Type: Creative Arts / experimental video / themed film
Status: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
UAlbany — Albany Film Festival
Expected pattern: Spring
Type: Major public campus film festival
Status: Recurring major campus film anchor; next date not yet confirmed.
Williams — Regional Extension Watch: French Film Festival / Transnational Asian Film Festival
Expected pattern: winter/spring based on recent examples
Type: Regional-extension film festival
Status: Include only if strong enough for Williamstown treatment.
Bard — Regional Extension Watch: Center for Moving Image Arts / issue-based documentary screenings
Expected pattern: recurring curated film and documentary programming
Type: Regional-extension film/media
Status: Include selectively; major public programs only.
🎬 Bottom Line on Film and Media
Film and media on campus are not limited to one big screen.
UAlbany has the clearest public film festival anchor through the Albany Film Festival, but its real strength is broader: Writers Institute screenings, English Department film series, language and culture department screenings, Art Museum film/video programs, and public conversations around story, identity, history, and politics.
EMPAC turns film into experimental media, video, sound, installation, and performance. Union connects film studies to student filmmaking, Proctors, faculty panels, and Computer Science film conversations. Skidmore spreads film across media studies, Tang screenings, documentary, and international programs. Siena has a smaller Creative Arts lane for experimental video and themed film festivals. Opalka uses film as a doorway into art, documentary, and public conversation. HVCC’s strength is digital media and student media work.
The reader-service lesson is simple: do not search only for “film festival.” Look for film, screening, media, video, documentary, moving image, digital media, and artist talk. Campus film programming often hides under department, museum, gallery, and media-arts pages.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 12
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion — First Presbyterian Church, Hudson (7:30 PM)
Thursday — August 13
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey — Tang Teaching Museum / Skidmore College, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (6:30–8:30 PM)
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (7:00–9:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion — Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck (7:00 PM; sold out)
Friday — August 14
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Saturday — August 15
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism — Bard College / Olin Hall (10:00 AM–12:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement — Bard College / Olin Hall (1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert)
Bard Summer Picnic — Bard College / Campus Center North (3:30–5:30 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Sunday — August 16
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy — Bard College / Olin Hall (11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio — Bard College / Fisher Center (2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert)
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This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is close now. The quiet weeks are almost over.
Alan Koslow
16
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
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Capital Region Curated: August 10-16
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with a Thursday cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart week.
Alan Koslow
16
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Thursday Cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart Week 🎺🎬🎼
The summer calendar is still light, but this week has something last week barely had: a real local cluster.
Thursday is the center of the local week. Skidmore’s Tang Teaching Museum continues Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey. Albany Law connects to a public book talk in Bolton Landing with nationally significant legal scholar Judith Resnik. SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis.
That is a useful summer Thursday: one outdoor indie-pop concert, one civic/legal book conversation, and one serious jazz outing.
The week’s largest arts offering is outside the regular footprint. Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World from Wednesday through Sunday, strong enough to flag again as a regional-extension package for readers willing to drive about an hour south.
After the weekly listings, this issue turns to the final summer preview guide: Film and Media on Campus.
☀️ Summer Note
We are still in the dog days of August, but the calendar is starting to wake up.
This is not yet a full fall week. It is still too early for the regular flood of campus lectures, concerts, films, exhibitions, and public forums. But Thursday has real local choices, and Bard gives the week scale.
That is the job this week: catch the local Thursday cluster, make a clear call on Bard, and then look ahead to where film and media show up on campus once the academic year starts moving.
📣 Help Spread the Word
It really helps when readers share Capital Region Curated.
If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
Subscribe here: Capital Region Curated
🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 10–16
This week is not crowded, but it has a clear shape.
The local core is Thursday: Tang, Albany Law/Bolton Free Library, and SUNY Schenectady at Music Haven.
The larger arts story is Bard Music Festival, handled separately as a regional-extension package from Wednesday 8/12 through Sunday 8/16.
⭐ Top Picks
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00–9:00 PM — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (Schenectady — Music Haven, Central Park) (Map | Details | Free)
SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs outdoors at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis, a major jazz trumpeter long associated with Dizzy Gillespie’s musical legacy. If I were choosing one local music event this week, I would look hard at this one.
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik 📅 Thursday 8/13, 6:30–8:30 PM — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (Bolton Landing — Bolton Free Library) (Map | Details | Free)
Judith Resnik discusses Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy in conversation with Ray Brescia, Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life at Albany Law. This is the week’s strongest civic/legal conversation.
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey 📅 Thursday 8/13, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with Nice Hockey, an indie-pop quartet that includes Skidmore Psychology professors Dom Vuvan and Harrison Schmitt. This is the easy outdoor campus choice: free, casual, and on the Tang Grounds.
Regional Extension Pick — Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World
Bard Music Festival continues Wednesday 8/12–Sunday 8/16 with concerts, talks, and public programs across Bard and regional venues. Full Bard schedule and links are below.
🚗 Regional Extension Pick — Bard College
Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World 🎼
Bard College is not part of Capital Region Curated’s normal weekly campus sweep, but it sits about an hour south of Albany.
This week, Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World, its 36th season, with concerts and public programs exploring Mozart’s music, influence, religion, legacy, and cultural world.
For readers willing to make the drive, this is the week’s major regional-extension arts package.
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion 📅 Wednesday 8/12, 7:30 PM — Bard Music Festival (Hudson — First Presbyterian Church) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; reservations required)
A free off-campus Bard Music Festival program in Hudson.
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00 PM — Bard Music Festival (Rhinebeck — Church of the Messiah) (Map | Details | Sold out)
Bard’s off-campus sacred-music program in Rhinebeck is sold out.
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason 📅 Friday 8/14, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Friday night program connecting Mozart, sacred music, Freemasonry, and Enlightenment ideals.
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism 📅 Saturday 8/15, 10:00 AM–12:00 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details | Free and open to the public)
A Saturday morning public panel framing Mozart’s historical and intellectual world.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement 📅 Saturday 8/15, 1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Saturday afternoon chamber program centered on Mozart and Haydn.
Bard Summer Picnic 📅 Saturday 8/15, 3:30–5:30 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Campus Center North) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; food available for purchase; reservations required)
An optional festival event between the afternoon and evening programs.
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students 📅 Saturday 8/15, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A second-weekend program placing Mozart among family, friends, students, and contemporaries.
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy 📅 Sunday 8/16, 11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Sunday morning program about Mozart’s long musical afterlife.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio 📅 Sunday 8/16, 2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A semi-staged concert performance of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio.
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🏛️ PART TWO: FILM AND MEDIA ON CAMPUS
Where Film and Media Show Up on Campus 🎬📽️
Campus film programming is not just movie night.
At UAlbany, a film festival can bring together writers, filmmakers, students, and public audiences for a full day of screenings and conversations — but that is only part of the story. Film also appears through departments, language programs, museum programs, and public conversations. At EMPAC, film may become experimental media, video installation, performance, or sound. At Skidmore, film can appear through media studies, the Tang Museum, French film, documentary work, or public conversations.
This guide is about where film and media happen on campus — not every student movie night, but the public-facing festivals, screenings, media arts programs, and film conversations that are worth knowing about as the new academic year begins.
📽️ UAlbany / NYS Writers Institute — Film Festivals, Film Series, Language Departments, and Public Conversation
UAlbany is the strongest campus film source because it has more than one film lane.
The biggest public anchor is the Albany Film Festival, presented by the NYS Writers Institute. That is the region’s clearest recurring campus film festival: public, substantial, and tied to screenings, conversations, short films, filmmakers, writers, actors, and storytelling.
The Albany Film Festival is not the whole story.
UAlbany also has the kind of scattered film programming that is easy to miss if you only look for the word “festival.” The English Department has run campus film series in Lecture Center spaces. Languages, Literatures and Cultures has hosted film screenings and discussions, including films such as Sound of Berberia and Souleymane’s Story. The NYS Writers Institute uses film to connect books, writers, history, biography, journalism, and public conversation. The UAlbany Art Museum also uses film and video in public programs, including artist-linked screenings and conversations.
Reader note: Readers should expect the big public film anchor in spring with the Albany Film Festival, but individual screenings may appear throughout the year through Writers Institute programs, English, Languages/Literatures/Cultures, the Art Museum, and public-affairs or culture programs.
🎛️ RPI / EMPAC — Experimental Film, Video, Media Art, and Technology
EMPAC is the strongest experimental media source in the normal Capital Region campus footprint.
This is not “movie night.” EMPAC’s film and media programming often sits at the edge of film/video, sound, performance, installation, technology, and time-based art.
Recent examples include the staging grounds festival, Corpus Festival, film/video programming, installations, talks, and video works throughout EMPAC. RPI also hosted Academy Award-nominated director Robert Stone for a free public screening of Starman followed by a live Q&A at EMPAC Theater.
The confirmed coming anchor is TOPOS 2026, September 2–5, 2026, at EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media. This should be described as interdisciplinary rather than simply a film festival: performances, live podcasts, film screenings, conversation, media, music, and public ideas.
Reader note: Readers should expect experimental film/video, media art, screenings with talks, artist videos, installation/video/performance hybrids, festival formats, and events where film becomes part of sound, performance, architecture, or installation.
🎞️ Union College — Film Studies, Computer Science, Student Film, and Proctors
Union’s film lane is more interesting than it looks at first glance because it spreads across departments and into downtown Schenectady.
The basic source is Film Studies. Union says students share work at campus screenings throughout the academic year, attend international film series and festivals, many at Proctors, and meet filmmakers invited to campus for talks, screenings, and workshops.
The public-facing examples are stronger than a simple “campus screening” label would suggest.
Union Film Studies students have screened Digital Filmmaking and Documentary class work at Proctors’ GE Theatre. Union students also won Best Original Screenplay at the student-run Refractions Student Film Festival, competing against entries from schools including NYU, New School, Skidmore, UAlbany, SUNY New Paltz, and RIT.
Computer Science adds another important lane.
Union’s Computer Science Film Series at Proctors Theatre is a major example of how film can become public conversation about technology, society, and imagination. The films included WarGames, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, and Her — a smart sequence moving from hacking and nuclear risk to artificial humans, AI, intimacy, and technological isolation.
That gives Union several distinct film/media lanes: Film Studies, student filmmaking, Proctors collaborations, faculty panels, documentary work, and technology-themed film through Computer Science.
There is also a broader Schenectady film ecosystem around Proctors. It Came From Schenectady is the long-running Proctors film series, and Sci:Fi Schenectady Film Fest has added a science/science-fiction festival layer in the city. Those are not Union events by default, but Union’s Proctors connection makes this ecosystem relevant when Union faculty, departments, students, or official programs are involved.
Reader note: Readers should expect student film showcases, filmmaker visits, Proctors-linked screenings, faculty panels around major films, Computer Science film conversations, and public events where film becomes a way into technology, science, history, ethics, or culture.
🖼️ Skidmore College — Media and Film Studies, Tang Screenings, French Film
Skidmore has one of the better campus media lanes because film appears through several channels: Media and Film Studies, Tang Museum screenings, diversity programming, French film, documentary work, and public conversations.
Skidmore’s Media and Film Studies program sponsors and co-sponsors events that address the campus and the greater community, highlight member work, build community, and connect with local professionals and organizations.
Tang Museum screening programs add another lane, including Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video, video-art programs, documentary screenings, and filmmaker Q&As. Other examples include Every Body, the Skidmore French Film Festival, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, and a Pollinators screening with Q&A.
Reader note: Readers should expect Media and Film Studies events, Tang film/video screenings, experimental video, documentary screenings and Q&As, French/international film programming, and film tied to diversity, identity, environment, art, and public issues.
🎨 Siena University — Creative Arts, Experimental Video, International Film
Siena’s film/media lane runs through Creative Arts.
That gives Siena a real public-facing path for film screenings, experimental video, student creative work, and occasional international or issue-based film programming. The Franciscan Center speaker page also includes a Film Discussions category, showing that film can appear through ethics, religion, and public-life programming as well.
Possible upcoming programming: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
Reader note: Readers should expect Creative Arts film/video screenings, student experimental video, international or issue-based film programs, occasional film discussions through Franciscan/public-life programming, and smaller but accessible public screenings.
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🎥 Russell Sage / Opalka Gallery — Film as Gallery, Documentary, Conversation
Opalka Gallery uses film as part of public arts programming, often paired with conversation, panel discussion, documentary, or exhibition context.
Opalka has hosted film screenings such as Cinema Paradiso and Point and Shoot, with the latter described as a collaboration with POV and WMHT Public Media. Russell Sage / Opalka has also hosted film screening and conversation programs where documentary work connects to ethics, technology, and public life.
Opalka’s value is not volume. Its value is context. When film is connected to visual culture, documentary, public conversation, media, art, or community programming, it can fit Capital Region Curated very well.
Reader note: Readers should expect documentary screenings, film + conversation programs, gallery-linked film/media events, public media collaborations, and film tied to ethics, art, social questions, or public issues.
🧑💻 HVCC — Digital Media, Student Media, Refractions Connection
HVCC’s film/media value is digital media, animation, video, interactive media, and student work.
The key public-facing source is the Teaching Gallery, which hosts end-of-year exhibitions for Fine Arts, Theatre Arts, and Digital Media students. Recent student exhibitions have included animation, video, web art, interactive media, photography, digital imaging, and graphic design.
HVCC was also connected to Refractions Student Film Festival as a screening/ceremony site, tying it into a larger regional student film ecosystem.
Reader note: Readers should expect digital media student exhibitions, animation/video/web art, interactive media, occasional student film festival connections, and media work inside Teaching Gallery shows.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Bard College
Bard is outside the normal Capital Region footprint, but film/media is a real Bard lane because of the Center for Moving Image Arts, Weis Cinema, Bard film programs, and issue-based documentary screenings.
Recent examples include curated Center for Moving Image Arts programs, The Librarians documentary screening and panel discussion, and No Other Land screening and discussion. Bard also has recurring internal or club-style film series, but those should not be included unless a specific event clears the regional-extension test.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Bard College. Include only major film/media events strong enough for an Albany reader to drive for. Do not include routine Bard movie nights, weekly film clubs, or ordinary campus screenings.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Williams College
Williams has a real regional-extension film lane through Images Cinema partnerships, French Film Festival, Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programs, and museum/media screenings.
Recent examples include the Williams College French Film Festival, the Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programming, and student-organized film series supported by academic programs and WCMA.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Williams College. Include only major film festivals, museum/media programs, public conversations, or film events strong enough to justify the Williamstown drive.
🔮 Coming Film and Media Anchors
Confirmed
RPI / EMPAC — TOPOS 2026
Dates: September 2–5, 2026
Type: Festival / film / media / music / conversation
Status: Strong confirmed fall anchor. Frame as interdisciplinary media/music/performance, not a standard film festival.
Possible Upcoming Programming
Siena University — Creative Arts film and video programming
Type: Creative Arts / experimental video / themed film
Status: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
UAlbany — Albany Film Festival
Expected pattern: Spring
Type: Major public campus film festival
Status: Recurring major campus film anchor; next date not yet confirmed.
Williams — Regional Extension Watch: French Film Festival / Transnational Asian Film Festival
Expected pattern: winter/spring based on recent examples
Type: Regional-extension film festival
Status: Include only if strong enough for Williamstown treatment.
Bard — Regional Extension Watch: Center for Moving Image Arts / issue-based documentary screenings
Expected pattern: recurring curated film and documentary programming
Type: Regional-extension film/media
Status: Include selectively; major public programs only.
🎬 Bottom Line on Film and Media
Film and media on campus are not limited to one big screen.
UAlbany has the clearest public film festival anchor through the Albany Film Festival, but its real strength is broader: Writers Institute screenings, English Department film series, language and culture department screenings, Art Museum film/video programs, and public conversations around story, identity, history, and politics.
EMPAC turns film into experimental media, video, sound, installation, and performance. Union connects film studies to student filmmaking, Proctors, faculty panels, and Computer Science film conversations. Skidmore spreads film across media studies, Tang screenings, documentary, and international programs. Siena has a smaller Creative Arts lane for experimental video and themed film festivals. Opalka uses film as a doorway into art, documentary, and public conversation. HVCC’s strength is digital media and student media work.
The reader-service lesson is simple: do not search only for “film festival.” Look for film, screening, media, video, documentary, moving image, digital media, and artist talk. Campus film programming often hides under department, museum, gallery, and media-arts pages.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 12
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion — First Presbyterian Church, Hudson (7:30 PM)
Thursday — August 13
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey — Tang Teaching Museum / Skidmore College, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (6:30–8:30 PM)
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (7:00–9:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion — Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck (7:00 PM; sold out)
Friday — August 14
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Saturday — August 15
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism — Bard College / Olin Hall (10:00 AM–12:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement — Bard College / Olin Hall (1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert)
Bard Summer Picnic — Bard College / Campus Center North (3:30–5:30 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Sunday — August 16
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy — Bard College / Olin Hall (11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio — Bard College / Fisher Center (2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert)
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This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is close now. The quiet weeks are almost over.
Alan Koslow
16
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
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Capital Region Curated: August 10-16
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with a Thursday cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart week.
Alan Koslow
16
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Thursday Cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart Week 🎺🎬🎼
The summer calendar is still light, but this week has something last week barely had: a real local cluster.
Thursday is the center of the local week. Skidmore’s Tang Teaching Museum continues Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey. Albany Law connects to a public book talk in Bolton Landing with nationally significant legal scholar Judith Resnik. SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis.
That is a useful summer Thursday: one outdoor indie-pop concert, one civic/legal book conversation, and one serious jazz outing.
The week’s largest arts offering is outside the regular footprint. Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World from Wednesday through Sunday, strong enough to flag again as a regional-extension package for readers willing to drive about an hour south.
After the weekly listings, this issue turns to the final summer preview guide: Film and Media on Campus.
☀️ Summer Note
We are still in the dog days of August, but the calendar is starting to wake up.
This is not yet a full fall week. It is still too early for the regular flood of campus lectures, concerts, films, exhibitions, and public forums. But Thursday has real local choices, and Bard gives the week scale.
That is the job this week: catch the local Thursday cluster, make a clear call on Bard, and then look ahead to where film and media show up on campus once the academic year starts moving.
📣 Help Spread the Word
It really helps when readers share Capital Region Curated.
If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
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🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 10–16
This week is not crowded, but it has a clear shape.
The local core is Thursday: Tang, Albany Law/Bolton Free Library, and SUNY Schenectady at Music Haven.
The larger arts story is Bard Music Festival, handled separately as a regional-extension package from Wednesday 8/12 through Sunday 8/16.
⭐ Top Picks
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00–9:00 PM — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (Schenectady — Music Haven, Central Park) (Map | Details | Free)
SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs outdoors at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis, a major jazz trumpeter long associated with Dizzy Gillespie’s musical legacy. If I were choosing one local music event this week, I would look hard at this one.
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik 📅 Thursday 8/13, 6:30–8:30 PM — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (Bolton Landing — Bolton Free Library) (Map | Details | Free)
Judith Resnik discusses Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy in conversation with Ray Brescia, Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life at Albany Law. This is the week’s strongest civic/legal conversation.
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey 📅 Thursday 8/13, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with Nice Hockey, an indie-pop quartet that includes Skidmore Psychology professors Dom Vuvan and Harrison Schmitt. This is the easy outdoor campus choice: free, casual, and on the Tang Grounds.
Regional Extension Pick — Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World
Bard Music Festival continues Wednesday 8/12–Sunday 8/16 with concerts, talks, and public programs across Bard and regional venues. Full Bard schedule and links are below.
🚗 Regional Extension Pick — Bard College
Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World 🎼
Bard College is not part of Capital Region Curated’s normal weekly campus sweep, but it sits about an hour south of Albany.
This week, Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World, its 36th season, with concerts and public programs exploring Mozart’s music, influence, religion, legacy, and cultural world.
For readers willing to make the drive, this is the week’s major regional-extension arts package.
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion 📅 Wednesday 8/12, 7:30 PM — Bard Music Festival (Hudson — First Presbyterian Church) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; reservations required)
A free off-campus Bard Music Festival program in Hudson.
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00 PM — Bard Music Festival (Rhinebeck — Church of the Messiah) (Map | Details | Sold out)
Bard’s off-campus sacred-music program in Rhinebeck is sold out.
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason 📅 Friday 8/14, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Friday night program connecting Mozart, sacred music, Freemasonry, and Enlightenment ideals.
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism 📅 Saturday 8/15, 10:00 AM–12:00 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details | Free and open to the public)
A Saturday morning public panel framing Mozart’s historical and intellectual world.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement 📅 Saturday 8/15, 1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Saturday afternoon chamber program centered on Mozart and Haydn.
Bard Summer Picnic 📅 Saturday 8/15, 3:30–5:30 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Campus Center North) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; food available for purchase; reservations required)
An optional festival event between the afternoon and evening programs.
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students 📅 Saturday 8/15, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A second-weekend program placing Mozart among family, friends, students, and contemporaries.
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy 📅 Sunday 8/16, 11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Sunday morning program about Mozart’s long musical afterlife.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio 📅 Sunday 8/16, 2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A semi-staged concert performance of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio.
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🏛️ PART TWO: FILM AND MEDIA ON CAMPUS
Where Film and Media Show Up on Campus 🎬📽️
Campus film programming is not just movie night.
At UAlbany, a film festival can bring together writers, filmmakers, students, and public audiences for a full day of screenings and conversations — but that is only part of the story. Film also appears through departments, language programs, museum programs, and public conversations. At EMPAC, film may become experimental media, video installation, performance, or sound. At Skidmore, film can appear through media studies, the Tang Museum, French film, documentary work, or public conversations.
This guide is about where film and media happen on campus — not every student movie night, but the public-facing festivals, screenings, media arts programs, and film conversations that are worth knowing about as the new academic year begins.
📽️ UAlbany / NYS Writers Institute — Film Festivals, Film Series, Language Departments, and Public Conversation
UAlbany is the strongest campus film source because it has more than one film lane.
The biggest public anchor is the Albany Film Festival, presented by the NYS Writers Institute. That is the region’s clearest recurring campus film festival: public, substantial, and tied to screenings, conversations, short films, filmmakers, writers, actors, and storytelling.
The Albany Film Festival is not the whole story.
UAlbany also has the kind of scattered film programming that is easy to miss if you only look for the word “festival.” The English Department has run campus film series in Lecture Center spaces. Languages, Literatures and Cultures has hosted film screenings and discussions, including films such as Sound of Berberia and Souleymane’s Story. The NYS Writers Institute uses film to connect books, writers, history, biography, journalism, and public conversation. The UAlbany Art Museum also uses film and video in public programs, including artist-linked screenings and conversations.
Reader note: Readers should expect the big public film anchor in spring with the Albany Film Festival, but individual screenings may appear throughout the year through Writers Institute programs, English, Languages/Literatures/Cultures, the Art Museum, and public-affairs or culture programs.
🎛️ RPI / EMPAC — Experimental Film, Video, Media Art, and Technology
EMPAC is the strongest experimental media source in the normal Capital Region campus footprint.
This is not “movie night.” EMPAC’s film and media programming often sits at the edge of film/video, sound, performance, installation, technology, and time-based art.
Recent examples include the staging grounds festival, Corpus Festival, film/video programming, installations, talks, and video works throughout EMPAC. RPI also hosted Academy Award-nominated director Robert Stone for a free public screening of Starman followed by a live Q&A at EMPAC Theater.
The confirmed coming anchor is TOPOS 2026, September 2–5, 2026, at EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media. This should be described as interdisciplinary rather than simply a film festival: performances, live podcasts, film screenings, conversation, media, music, and public ideas.
Reader note: Readers should expect experimental film/video, media art, screenings with talks, artist videos, installation/video/performance hybrids, festival formats, and events where film becomes part of sound, performance, architecture, or installation.
🎞️ Union College — Film Studies, Computer Science, Student Film, and Proctors
Union’s film lane is more interesting than it looks at first glance because it spreads across departments and into downtown Schenectady.
The basic source is Film Studies. Union says students share work at campus screenings throughout the academic year, attend international film series and festivals, many at Proctors, and meet filmmakers invited to campus for talks, screenings, and workshops.
The public-facing examples are stronger than a simple “campus screening” label would suggest.
Union Film Studies students have screened Digital Filmmaking and Documentary class work at Proctors’ GE Theatre. Union students also won Best Original Screenplay at the student-run Refractions Student Film Festival, competing against entries from schools including NYU, New School, Skidmore, UAlbany, SUNY New Paltz, and RIT.
Computer Science adds another important lane.
Union’s Computer Science Film Series at Proctors Theatre is a major example of how film can become public conversation about technology, society, and imagination. The films included WarGames, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, and Her — a smart sequence moving from hacking and nuclear risk to artificial humans, AI, intimacy, and technological isolation.
That gives Union several distinct film/media lanes: Film Studies, student filmmaking, Proctors collaborations, faculty panels, documentary work, and technology-themed film through Computer Science.
There is also a broader Schenectady film ecosystem around Proctors. It Came From Schenectady is the long-running Proctors film series, and Sci:Fi Schenectady Film Fest has added a science/science-fiction festival layer in the city. Those are not Union events by default, but Union’s Proctors connection makes this ecosystem relevant when Union faculty, departments, students, or official programs are involved.
Reader note: Readers should expect student film showcases, filmmaker visits, Proctors-linked screenings, faculty panels around major films, Computer Science film conversations, and public events where film becomes a way into technology, science, history, ethics, or culture.
🖼️ Skidmore College — Media and Film Studies, Tang Screenings, French Film
Skidmore has one of the better campus media lanes because film appears through several channels: Media and Film Studies, Tang Museum screenings, diversity programming, French film, documentary work, and public conversations.
Skidmore’s Media and Film Studies program sponsors and co-sponsors events that address the campus and the greater community, highlight member work, build community, and connect with local professionals and organizations.
Tang Museum screening programs add another lane, including Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video, video-art programs, documentary screenings, and filmmaker Q&As. Other examples include Every Body, the Skidmore French Film Festival, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, and a Pollinators screening with Q&A.
Reader note: Readers should expect Media and Film Studies events, Tang film/video screenings, experimental video, documentary screenings and Q&As, French/international film programming, and film tied to diversity, identity, environment, art, and public issues.
🎨 Siena University — Creative Arts, Experimental Video, International Film
Siena’s film/media lane runs through Creative Arts.
That gives Siena a real public-facing path for film screenings, experimental video, student creative work, and occasional international or issue-based film programming. The Franciscan Center speaker page also includes a Film Discussions category, showing that film can appear through ethics, religion, and public-life programming as well.
Possible upcoming programming: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
Reader note: Readers should expect Creative Arts film/video screenings, student experimental video, international or issue-based film programs, occasional film discussions through Franciscan/public-life programming, and smaller but accessible public screenings.
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🎥 Russell Sage / Opalka Gallery — Film as Gallery, Documentary, Conversation
Opalka Gallery uses film as part of public arts programming, often paired with conversation, panel discussion, documentary, or exhibition context.
Opalka has hosted film screenings such as Cinema Paradiso and Point and Shoot, with the latter described as a collaboration with POV and WMHT Public Media. Russell Sage / Opalka has also hosted film screening and conversation programs where documentary work connects to ethics, technology, and public life.
Opalka’s value is not volume. Its value is context. When film is connected to visual culture, documentary, public conversation, media, art, or community programming, it can fit Capital Region Curated very well.
Reader note: Readers should expect documentary screenings, film + conversation programs, gallery-linked film/media events, public media collaborations, and film tied to ethics, art, social questions, or public issues.
🧑💻 HVCC — Digital Media, Student Media, Refractions Connection
HVCC’s film/media value is digital media, animation, video, interactive media, and student work.
The key public-facing source is the Teaching Gallery, which hosts end-of-year exhibitions for Fine Arts, Theatre Arts, and Digital Media students. Recent student exhibitions have included animation, video, web art, interactive media, photography, digital imaging, and graphic design.
HVCC was also connected to Refractions Student Film Festival as a screening/ceremony site, tying it into a larger regional student film ecosystem.
Reader note: Readers should expect digital media student exhibitions, animation/video/web art, interactive media, occasional student film festival connections, and media work inside Teaching Gallery shows.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Bard College
Bard is outside the normal Capital Region footprint, but film/media is a real Bard lane because of the Center for Moving Image Arts, Weis Cinema, Bard film programs, and issue-based documentary screenings.
Recent examples include curated Center for Moving Image Arts programs, The Librarians documentary screening and panel discussion, and No Other Land screening and discussion. Bard also has recurring internal or club-style film series, but those should not be included unless a specific event clears the regional-extension test.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Bard College. Include only major film/media events strong enough for an Albany reader to drive for. Do not include routine Bard movie nights, weekly film clubs, or ordinary campus screenings.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Williams College
Williams has a real regional-extension film lane through Images Cinema partnerships, French Film Festival, Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programs, and museum/media screenings.
Recent examples include the Williams College French Film Festival, the Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programming, and student-organized film series supported by academic programs and WCMA.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Williams College. Include only major film festivals, museum/media programs, public conversations, or film events strong enough to justify the Williamstown drive.
🔮 Coming Film and Media Anchors
Confirmed
RPI / EMPAC — TOPOS 2026
Dates: September 2–5, 2026
Type: Festival / film / media / music / conversation
Status: Strong confirmed fall anchor. Frame as interdisciplinary media/music/performance, not a standard film festival.
Possible Upcoming Programming
Siena University — Creative Arts film and video programming
Type: Creative Arts / experimental video / themed film
Status: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
UAlbany — Albany Film Festival
Expected pattern: Spring
Type: Major public campus film festival
Status: Recurring major campus film anchor; next date not yet confirmed.
Williams — Regional Extension Watch: French Film Festival / Transnational Asian Film Festival
Expected pattern: winter/spring based on recent examples
Type: Regional-extension film festival
Status: Include only if strong enough for Williamstown treatment.
Bard — Regional Extension Watch: Center for Moving Image Arts / issue-based documentary screenings
Expected pattern: recurring curated film and documentary programming
Type: Regional-extension film/media
Status: Include selectively; major public programs only.
🎬 Bottom Line on Film and Media
Film and media on campus are not limited to one big screen.
UAlbany has the clearest public film festival anchor through the Albany Film Festival, but its real strength is broader: Writers Institute screenings, English Department film series, language and culture department screenings, Art Museum film/video programs, and public conversations around story, identity, history, and politics.
EMPAC turns film into experimental media, video, sound, installation, and performance. Union connects film studies to student filmmaking, Proctors, faculty panels, and Computer Science film conversations. Skidmore spreads film across media studies, Tang screenings, documentary, and international programs. Siena has a smaller Creative Arts lane for experimental video and themed film festivals. Opalka uses film as a doorway into art, documentary, and public conversation. HVCC’s strength is digital media and student media work.
The reader-service lesson is simple: do not search only for “film festival.” Look for film, screening, media, video, documentary, moving image, digital media, and artist talk. Campus film programming often hides under department, museum, gallery, and media-arts pages.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 12
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion — First Presbyterian Church, Hudson (7:30 PM)
Thursday — August 13
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey — Tang Teaching Museum / Skidmore College, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (6:30–8:30 PM)
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (7:00–9:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion — Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck (7:00 PM; sold out)
Friday — August 14
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Saturday — August 15
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism — Bard College / Olin Hall (10:00 AM–12:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement — Bard College / Olin Hall (1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert)
Bard Summer Picnic — Bard College / Campus Center North (3:30–5:30 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Sunday — August 16
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy — Bard College / Olin Hall (11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio — Bard College / Fisher Center (2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert)
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This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is close now. The quiet weeks are almost over.
Alan Koslow
16
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Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
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Capital Region Curated: August 10-16
Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events, with a Thursday cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart week.
Alan Koslow
16
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
Capital Region Curated, Alan Koslow’s weekly guide to Capital Region campus events.
What’s worth your time at Capital Region colleges and universities.
A Thursday Cluster, Jon Faddis at Music Haven, and Bard’s Mozart Week 🎺🎬🎼
The summer calendar is still light, but this week has something last week barely had: a real local cluster.
Thursday is the center of the local week. Skidmore’s Tang Teaching Museum continues Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey. Albany Law connects to a public book talk in Bolton Landing with nationally significant legal scholar Judith Resnik. SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis.
That is a useful summer Thursday: one outdoor indie-pop concert, one civic/legal book conversation, and one serious jazz outing.
The week’s largest arts offering is outside the regular footprint. Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World from Wednesday through Sunday, strong enough to flag again as a regional-extension package for readers willing to drive about an hour south.
After the weekly listings, this issue turns to the final summer preview guide: Film and Media on Campus.
☀️ Summer Note
We are still in the dog days of August, but the calendar is starting to wake up.
This is not yet a full fall week. It is still too early for the regular flood of campus lectures, concerts, films, exhibitions, and public forums. But Thursday has real local choices, and Bard gives the week scale.
That is the job this week: catch the local Thursday cluster, make a clear call on Bard, and then look ahead to where film and media show up on campus once the academic year starts moving.
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If you work with a college department, program, gallery, museum, performing arts office, campus newsletter, or personal newsletter, I’d be grateful if you would share it with people who might want a weekly guide to public events on Capital Region campuses.
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🗓️ PART ONE: THIS WEEK’S CAMPUS EVENTS
August 10–16
This week is not crowded, but it has a clear shape.
The local core is Thursday: Tang, Albany Law/Bolton Free Library, and SUNY Schenectady at Music Haven.
The larger arts story is Bard Music Festival, handled separately as a regional-extension package from Wednesday 8/12 through Sunday 8/16.
⭐ Top Picks
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00–9:00 PM — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (Schenectady — Music Haven, Central Park) (Map | Details | Free)
SUNY Schenectady’s Faculty Jazz Combo performs outdoors at Music Haven with special guest Jon Faddis, a major jazz trumpeter long associated with Dizzy Gillespie’s musical legacy. If I were choosing one local music event this week, I would look hard at this one.
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik 📅 Thursday 8/13, 6:30–8:30 PM — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (Bolton Landing — Bolton Free Library) (Map | Details | Free)
Judith Resnik discusses Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy in conversation with Ray Brescia, Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life at Albany Law. This is the week’s strongest civic/legal conversation.
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey 📅 Thursday 8/13, 5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music — Skidmore / Tang Teaching Museum (Saratoga Springs — Tang Grounds) (Map | Details | Free)
Tang’s summer concert series continues with Nice Hockey, an indie-pop quartet that includes Skidmore Psychology professors Dom Vuvan and Harrison Schmitt. This is the easy outdoor campus choice: free, casual, and on the Tang Grounds.
Regional Extension Pick — Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World
Bard Music Festival continues Wednesday 8/12–Sunday 8/16 with concerts, talks, and public programs across Bard and regional venues. Full Bard schedule and links are below.
🚗 Regional Extension Pick — Bard College
Bard Music Festival: Mozart and His World 🎼
Bard College is not part of Capital Region Curated’s normal weekly campus sweep, but it sits about an hour south of Albany.
This week, Bard Music Festival continues Mozart and His World, its 36th season, with concerts and public programs exploring Mozart’s music, influence, religion, legacy, and cultural world.
For readers willing to make the drive, this is the week’s major regional-extension arts package.
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion 📅 Wednesday 8/12, 7:30 PM — Bard Music Festival (Hudson — First Presbyterian Church) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; reservations required)
A free off-campus Bard Music Festival program in Hudson.
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion 📅 Thursday 8/13, 7:00 PM — Bard Music Festival (Rhinebeck — Church of the Messiah) (Map | Details | Sold out)
Bard’s off-campus sacred-music program in Rhinebeck is sold out.
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason 📅 Friday 8/14, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Friday night program connecting Mozart, sacred music, Freemasonry, and Enlightenment ideals.
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism 📅 Saturday 8/15, 10:00 AM–12:00 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details | Free and open to the public)
A Saturday morning public panel framing Mozart’s historical and intellectual world.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement 📅 Saturday 8/15, 1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Saturday afternoon chamber program centered on Mozart and Haydn.
Bard Summer Picnic 📅 Saturday 8/15, 3:30–5:30 PM — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Campus Center North) (Map | Details/Reservations | Free; food available for purchase; reservations required)
An optional festival event between the afternoon and evening programs.
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students 📅 Saturday 8/15, 6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A second-weekend program placing Mozart among family, friends, students, and contemporaries.
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy 📅 Sunday 8/16, 11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson — Olin Hall) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A Sunday morning program about Mozart’s long musical afterlife.
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio 📅 Sunday 8/16, 2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert — Bard College / Fisher Center (Annandale-on-Hudson — Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater) (Map | Details/Tickets | Tickets start at $25)
A semi-staged concert performance of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio.
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🏛️ PART TWO: FILM AND MEDIA ON CAMPUS
Where Film and Media Show Up on Campus 🎬📽️
Campus film programming is not just movie night.
At UAlbany, a film festival can bring together writers, filmmakers, students, and public audiences for a full day of screenings and conversations — but that is only part of the story. Film also appears through departments, language programs, museum programs, and public conversations. At EMPAC, film may become experimental media, video installation, performance, or sound. At Skidmore, film can appear through media studies, the Tang Museum, French film, documentary work, or public conversations.
This guide is about where film and media happen on campus — not every student movie night, but the public-facing festivals, screenings, media arts programs, and film conversations that are worth knowing about as the new academic year begins.
📽️ UAlbany / NYS Writers Institute — Film Festivals, Film Series, Language Departments, and Public Conversation
UAlbany is the strongest campus film source because it has more than one film lane.
The biggest public anchor is the Albany Film Festival, presented by the NYS Writers Institute. That is the region’s clearest recurring campus film festival: public, substantial, and tied to screenings, conversations, short films, filmmakers, writers, actors, and storytelling.
The Albany Film Festival is not the whole story.
UAlbany also has the kind of scattered film programming that is easy to miss if you only look for the word “festival.” The English Department has run campus film series in Lecture Center spaces. Languages, Literatures and Cultures has hosted film screenings and discussions, including films such as Sound of Berberia and Souleymane’s Story. The NYS Writers Institute uses film to connect books, writers, history, biography, journalism, and public conversation. The UAlbany Art Museum also uses film and video in public programs, including artist-linked screenings and conversations.
Reader note: Readers should expect the big public film anchor in spring with the Albany Film Festival, but individual screenings may appear throughout the year through Writers Institute programs, English, Languages/Literatures/Cultures, the Art Museum, and public-affairs or culture programs.
🎛️ RPI / EMPAC — Experimental Film, Video, Media Art, and Technology
EMPAC is the strongest experimental media source in the normal Capital Region campus footprint.
This is not “movie night.” EMPAC’s film and media programming often sits at the edge of film/video, sound, performance, installation, technology, and time-based art.
Recent examples include the staging grounds festival, Corpus Festival, film/video programming, installations, talks, and video works throughout EMPAC. RPI also hosted Academy Award-nominated director Robert Stone for a free public screening of Starman followed by a live Q&A at EMPAC Theater.
The confirmed coming anchor is TOPOS 2026, September 2–5, 2026, at EMPAC and the Sanctuary for Independent Media. This should be described as interdisciplinary rather than simply a film festival: performances, live podcasts, film screenings, conversation, media, music, and public ideas.
Reader note: Readers should expect experimental film/video, media art, screenings with talks, artist videos, installation/video/performance hybrids, festival formats, and events where film becomes part of sound, performance, architecture, or installation.
🎞️ Union College — Film Studies, Computer Science, Student Film, and Proctors
Union’s film lane is more interesting than it looks at first glance because it spreads across departments and into downtown Schenectady.
The basic source is Film Studies. Union says students share work at campus screenings throughout the academic year, attend international film series and festivals, many at Proctors, and meet filmmakers invited to campus for talks, screenings, and workshops.
The public-facing examples are stronger than a simple “campus screening” label would suggest.
Union Film Studies students have screened Digital Filmmaking and Documentary class work at Proctors’ GE Theatre. Union students also won Best Original Screenplay at the student-run Refractions Student Film Festival, competing against entries from schools including NYU, New School, Skidmore, UAlbany, SUNY New Paltz, and RIT.
Computer Science adds another important lane.
Union’s Computer Science Film Series at Proctors Theatre is a major example of how film can become public conversation about technology, society, and imagination. The films included WarGames, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, and Her — a smart sequence moving from hacking and nuclear risk to artificial humans, AI, intimacy, and technological isolation.
That gives Union several distinct film/media lanes: Film Studies, student filmmaking, Proctors collaborations, faculty panels, documentary work, and technology-themed film through Computer Science.
There is also a broader Schenectady film ecosystem around Proctors. It Came From Schenectady is the long-running Proctors film series, and Sci:Fi Schenectady Film Fest has added a science/science-fiction festival layer in the city. Those are not Union events by default, but Union’s Proctors connection makes this ecosystem relevant when Union faculty, departments, students, or official programs are involved.
Reader note: Readers should expect student film showcases, filmmaker visits, Proctors-linked screenings, faculty panels around major films, Computer Science film conversations, and public events where film becomes a way into technology, science, history, ethics, or culture.
🖼️ Skidmore College — Media and Film Studies, Tang Screenings, French Film
Skidmore has one of the better campus media lanes because film appears through several channels: Media and Film Studies, Tang Museum screenings, diversity programming, French film, documentary work, and public conversations.
Skidmore’s Media and Film Studies program sponsors and co-sponsors events that address the campus and the greater community, highlight member work, build community, and connect with local professionals and organizations.
Tang Museum screening programs add another lane, including Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video, video-art programs, documentary screenings, and filmmaker Q&As. Other examples include Every Body, the Skidmore French Film Festival, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, and a Pollinators screening with Q&A.
Reader note: Readers should expect Media and Film Studies events, Tang film/video screenings, experimental video, documentary screenings and Q&As, French/international film programming, and film tied to diversity, identity, environment, art, and public issues.
🎨 Siena University — Creative Arts, Experimental Video, International Film
Siena’s film/media lane runs through Creative Arts.
That gives Siena a real public-facing path for film screenings, experimental video, student creative work, and occasional international or issue-based film programming. The Franciscan Center speaker page also includes a Film Discussions category, showing that film can appear through ethics, religion, and public-life programming as well.
Possible upcoming programming: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
Reader note: Readers should expect Creative Arts film/video screenings, student experimental video, international or issue-based film programs, occasional film discussions through Franciscan/public-life programming, and smaller but accessible public screenings.
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🎥 Russell Sage / Opalka Gallery — Film as Gallery, Documentary, Conversation
Opalka Gallery uses film as part of public arts programming, often paired with conversation, panel discussion, documentary, or exhibition context.
Opalka has hosted film screenings such as Cinema Paradiso and Point and Shoot, with the latter described as a collaboration with POV and WMHT Public Media. Russell Sage / Opalka has also hosted film screening and conversation programs where documentary work connects to ethics, technology, and public life.
Opalka’s value is not volume. Its value is context. When film is connected to visual culture, documentary, public conversation, media, art, or community programming, it can fit Capital Region Curated very well.
Reader note: Readers should expect documentary screenings, film + conversation programs, gallery-linked film/media events, public media collaborations, and film tied to ethics, art, social questions, or public issues.
🧑💻 HVCC — Digital Media, Student Media, Refractions Connection
HVCC’s film/media value is digital media, animation, video, interactive media, and student work.
The key public-facing source is the Teaching Gallery, which hosts end-of-year exhibitions for Fine Arts, Theatre Arts, and Digital Media students. Recent student exhibitions have included animation, video, web art, interactive media, photography, digital imaging, and graphic design.
HVCC was also connected to Refractions Student Film Festival as a screening/ceremony site, tying it into a larger regional student film ecosystem.
Reader note: Readers should expect digital media student exhibitions, animation/video/web art, interactive media, occasional student film festival connections, and media work inside Teaching Gallery shows.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Bard College
Bard is outside the normal Capital Region footprint, but film/media is a real Bard lane because of the Center for Moving Image Arts, Weis Cinema, Bard film programs, and issue-based documentary screenings.
Recent examples include curated Center for Moving Image Arts programs, The Librarians documentary screening and panel discussion, and No Other Land screening and discussion. Bard also has recurring internal or club-style film series, but those should not be included unless a specific event clears the regional-extension test.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Bard College. Include only major film/media events strong enough for an Albany reader to drive for. Do not include routine Bard movie nights, weekly film clubs, or ordinary campus screenings.
🚗 Regional Extension Watch — Williams College
Williams has a real regional-extension film lane through Images Cinema partnerships, French Film Festival, Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programs, and museum/media screenings.
Recent examples include the Williams College French Film Festival, the Transnational Asian Film Festival, WCMA film/video programming, and student-organized film series supported by academic programs and WCMA.
Reader note: Label as Regional Extension Watch — Williams College. Include only major film festivals, museum/media programs, public conversations, or film events strong enough to justify the Williamstown drive.
🔮 Coming Film and Media Anchors
Confirmed
RPI / EMPAC — TOPOS 2026
Dates: September 2–5, 2026
Type: Festival / film / media / music / conversation
Status: Strong confirmed fall anchor. Frame as interdisciplinary media/music/performance, not a standard film festival.
Possible Upcoming Programming
Siena University — Creative Arts film and video programming
Type: Creative Arts / experimental video / themed film
Status: Siena Creative Arts has previously listed experimental-video screenings and themed film programming. Check the Creative Arts page as fall dates are posted.
UAlbany — Albany Film Festival
Expected pattern: Spring
Type: Major public campus film festival
Status: Recurring major campus film anchor; next date not yet confirmed.
Williams — Regional Extension Watch: French Film Festival / Transnational Asian Film Festival
Expected pattern: winter/spring based on recent examples
Type: Regional-extension film festival
Status: Include only if strong enough for Williamstown treatment.
Bard — Regional Extension Watch: Center for Moving Image Arts / issue-based documentary screenings
Expected pattern: recurring curated film and documentary programming
Type: Regional-extension film/media
Status: Include selectively; major public programs only.
🎬 Bottom Line on Film and Media
Film and media on campus are not limited to one big screen.
UAlbany has the clearest public film festival anchor through the Albany Film Festival, but its real strength is broader: Writers Institute screenings, English Department film series, language and culture department screenings, Art Museum film/video programs, and public conversations around story, identity, history, and politics.
EMPAC turns film into experimental media, video, sound, installation, and performance. Union connects film studies to student filmmaking, Proctors, faculty panels, and Computer Science film conversations. Skidmore spreads film across media studies, Tang screenings, documentary, and international programs. Siena has a smaller Creative Arts lane for experimental video and themed film festivals. Opalka uses film as a doorway into art, documentary, and public conversation. HVCC’s strength is digital media and student media work.
The reader-service lesson is simple: do not search only for “film festival.” Look for film, screening, media, video, documentary, moving image, digital media, and artist talk. Campus film programming often hides under department, museum, gallery, and media-arts pages.
📅 By Day Calendar
Wednesday — August 12
Bard Music Festival — Mozart and Religion — First Presbyterian Church, Hudson (7:30 PM)
Thursday — August 13
Upbeat on the Roof with Nice Hockey — Tang Teaching Museum / Skidmore College, Tang Grounds (5:30 PM craft kits; 6:00 PM music)
Bolton Landing Book Talk with Judith Resnik — Albany Law School-connected off-campus event / Bolton Free Library (6:30–8:30 PM)
SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with Jon Faddis — SUNY Schenectady / Music Haven (7:00–9:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Six: I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion — Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck (7:00 PM; sold out)
Friday — August 14
Bard Music Festival, Program Seven: Beauty, Charity, and Reason — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Saturday — August 15
Bard Music Festival, Panel Two: The Age of What?: Absolutism and Enlightenment or Revolution and Romanticism — Bard College / Olin Hall (10:00 AM–12:00 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eight: The Pinnacle of Achievement — Bard College / Olin Hall (1:00 PM preconcert talk; 1:30 PM concert)
Bard Summer Picnic — Bard College / Campus Center North (3:30–5:30 PM)
Bard Music Festival, Program Nine: Family, Friends, and Students — Bard College / Fisher Center (6:00 PM preconcert talk; 7:00 PM concert)
Sunday — August 16
Bard Music Festival, Program Ten: A Lasting Influence: Mozart’s Legacy — Bard College / Olin Hall (11:00 AM preconcert talk; 11:30 AM concert)
Bard Music Festival, Program Eleven: “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio — Bard College / Fisher Center (2:00 PM preconcert talk; 3:00 PM concert)
🤝 Community Newsletter Partner
Capital Region Curated is pleased to cross-promote with Jewish World News, a local source for Jewish community news, culture, events, and stories.
Read or subscribe to Jewish World News
This only works if people share it—feel free to forward to anyone who attends campus events.
I’m building this into a comprehensive weekly guide—recommendations are always welcome.
Fall is close now. The quiet weeks are almost over.
Alan Koslow
16
mins read time
Originally published at
Substack: Capital Region Curated
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© 2026 The Jewish World · Since 1965 - The Capital Region's gateway to Jewish life
Designed and Developed by Ta-Da Studios
© 2026 The Jewish World · Since 1965 - The Capital Region's gateway to Jewish life
Designed and Developed by Ta-Da Studios