Pressing On: The Letterpress Film

Pressing On: The Letterpress Film
Directed Andrew P. Quinn and Erin Beckloff (Beckloff In Person)

Thursday, May 24, 6 pm

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$9 / $7 Speed and CULT Louisville members

The modern world was born on a printing press. Once essential to communication, the 500-year-old process is now in danger of being lost as its caretakers age. From self-proclaimed basement hoarders to the famed Hatch Show Print, Pressing On: The Letterpress Film explores the question: why has letterpress survived in a digital age?

Worlds of each character emerge as unusual narratives—joyful, mournful, reflective, and visionary—are punctuated with on-screen visual poetry, every shot meticulously composed. Captivating personalities blend with wood, metal, and type, as young printers strive to save this historic process in a film created for the designer, type nerd, historian, and collector in us all. 2016, U.S., DCP, 99 minutes.  Recommended for 12+.

A panel discussion follows the film with co-director Erin Beckloff and other letterpress printers, moderated by Brad Vetter of CULT Louisville.

Co-presented by Creative Union of Louisville Trades (CULT Louisville).

Co-director Erin Beckloff is a letterpress printer, filmmaker, and graphic design educator. Erin is an assistant professor of graphic design at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she revitalized the Curmudgeon Press type shop and developed letterpress courses.