GIGS
REEL DIVA Laura Boyes reflects on 20 years as NCMA’s Movie Diva by JACKSON COOPER photography by EAMON QUEENEY
L
aura Boyes is not afraid anymore. In the early years of the film program at the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA), she’d get nervous speaking in front of an audience about the film they were about to see. But this year, as Boyes celebrates her twentieth season as film curator for NCMA, the audience feels like family: Some familiar faces, some new, but everyone there to experience a new film together as a community. For the last two decades, Boyes has
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programmed the year-round film series at NCMA, which screens September through May in the SECU Auditorium. The films range from exhibition-themed to special restorations of forgotten niche classics. Boyes selects the films, books them, writes copy and introduces them when they screen, making her one of the few curators at NCMA that regularly engages with guests face-to-face. The program, which is funded through ticket revenue, is one of the longest-sustained public programs that the museum offers.
And certainly, its success is built on the diverse selections that have fostered a devoted audience of film lovers. One day, back in 1999, Boyes heard from her colleague Nancy Kalow that NCMA was looking for someone to curate a new film series. Kalow, a folklorist at Duke University, knew George Holt, the now-retired Director of Performing Arts and Film for NCMA, through his work with the Folklife program through the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. She quickly connected the
