Face to Watch

Burleigh "Bo" Smith 71 was a chemistry major who headed Dartmouth's Christian Union and was the only student he knew never to attend a cinema course or Film Society screening. Now he runs one of the country's most influential film programs. Operating out of a basement behind Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, he shows more than 400 films a year—everything from ancient rarities to Icelandic epics.

He got to this place the long way, spending a year at Dartmouth Med, two years teaching, and a grad-school stint studying applied psychology at the University of Kansas. He found himself watching more and more films for pleasure, and ended up heading an acclaimed film program at U-Kansas. Smith distributed firms in San Francisco and developed a theater film-jazz program in Minneapolis before coming to Boston in 1987

Today, Smith and his tiny staff (including an occasional Dartmouth intern) preview thousands of films, from Hong Kong action flicks to a short about Jesus's return as a black lesbian cowgirl. Fans say the MFA film program is second only to New York City's massive Museum of Modern Art staff and archives.

It's in the can: Bo and his reels