Sun. Dec. 23

 The Harvard Film Archive has a Christmas present for you, December 23, Sunday afternoon at 2 at the Carpenter Center in Cambridge. There's no charge, meaning it’s a “free gift” – as opposed, I guess, to a gift you pay for. But, you're wondering, what will I see? I don’t know. The HFA folks told me they think of it like a Christmas present – you don’t know what it is until you open it. This is the 4th year they’ve done it. It started with films from the Howard E. Burr Collection, which included a number of holiday shorts.  He was a collector from Western Mass who shared his love of film with his family on a daily basis.  He was thier inspiration for this annual screening, Here’s what they’ll tell us: There’s a murder mystery feature, a George Kuchar video diary and some short comedy classics. Total running time: Two hours. Guarantee: It’s family friendly, which means “Silent Night, Deadly Night," "Santa's Slay" and "Jack Frost" are not likely on the program 
     Kuchar was an underground, avant-garde film-maker who died a year ago. He made some campy and boundary-breaking films with his twin brother Mike and John Waters called them “the Warner Brothers  of the underground.” But he did lots of video diaries, best-known which is a series called “The Weather Diaries,” which HFA has screened before. He also did “The Holiday Xmas Video of 1991” so maybe that's on tap.
    Oh, and so you’re not walking in without any knowledge, there will be a printed program at the door so people can decide whether or not to not pay any admission price and  enter. HFA says they've dropped hints on website:http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2012octdec/holiday.html

24 Quincy St., Cambridge, 617-495-4700 http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2009octdec/christmas.html