Celebrating the movies’ long-held fascination with boxing, Sag Harbor Cinema continues its series of screenings in conjunction with The Church’s exhibit, “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing,” which closes September 3rd (https://www.thechurchsagharbor.org).  

The program, which began in June with Scorsese’s Raging Bull, has spanned different genres and eras and included special events, like a Q&A with producer Irwin Winkler, who produced Raging Bull; the Rocky series; and the Creed franchise.

“Boxing on Film” will wrap up with a rare 35mm screening of indie darling Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight, with Michelle Rodriguez in her first film role; Luchino Visconti’s 1960 drama about a Southern Italian family in the industrialized North that inspired Francis Ford Coppola’s and Martin Scorsese’ own immigrant sagas; and Walter Hill’s stunning film debut, Hard TImes, with Charles Bronson and James Coburn in a fight for survival in 1930s Louisiana.  

“Boxing in film has often been depicted both as a reflection and a metaphor of socio-economic  hardship. These three films capture that dimension of the sport in three dramatically different settings: post-War Italy as the economic boom was lifting the North leaving the South behind; a Brooklyn project in the early Nineties; and New Orleans during the Great Depression. I love the juxtaposition of eras, grains and filmmaking," says SHC’s Founding Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan.  

Tickets for all screenings will be available on the cinema’s website, sagharborcinema.org.

For more details about the films, see below:

Produced by John Sayles and his partner Maggie Renzi and set in Brooklyn’s historic  Gleason Gym, Karin Kusama’s debut feature (a sensation at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival) was conceived by its writer/director to subvert the notion of the “boxing genre” as a male-only endeavor. Rebellious teenager Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez, who had never acted before and trained for months in preparation for the part), succumbs to the lure of the ring unbeknownst to her widower father. 

In the middle of the Great Depression, Chaney (Charles Bronson, Death Wish) is just looking to catch a break. When he meets Speed (James Coburn, The Magnificent Seven), a promoter for bare-knuckle street fighting, Chaney thinks, with his fighting skill and Speed’s savvy, he might have a chance. But Speed has his own problems, and what seemed like a sure thing is not as simple. Directed by Walter Hill (48 Hrs.; The Warriors), from his own script, and also starring Jill Ireland (The Mechanic, 1972) and Strother Martin (Cool Hand Luke), Hard Times is a legendary debut of one of most elegant and thoughtful stylists in American contemporary cinema.

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS is a timeless story of modernity, class tension, and family drama spun across an epic canvas by director Luchino Visconti. Looking for opportunity, five brothers move north with their mother to Milan, find fame in the boxing ring and love with the same woman. Famously labeled by Scorsese as “one of the most sumptuous black-and-white pictures,” Rocco lives up to its praise with a new 4K restoration by the Film Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna. With an all-star cast including Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori and Claudia Cardinale, this cinematic tale remains equal parts breathtaking and heartbreaking to behold.