Please join BVFCC and the 2023 New Haven Documentary Festival for a screening of the documentary film, KAREN CARPENTER: STARVING FOR PERFECTION on Sunday, October 22nd at 10 am. Tickets can be purchased HERE. The BVCoffee Bar will be open for café drinks and pastries.

She was the first in a long line of celebrities to suffer from an eating disorder during an era when the vastly misunderstood phenomenon brought shame and public humiliation. For the first time, we hear Karen Carpenter's personal struggle in her own voice through never-before released recordings and through the legendary voices of those who knew her and were inspired by her music. As the #1 American musical act of the 1970s, the Carpenters were on top of the world, producing a string of pop masterpieces, including "Close to You," "We've Only Just Begun," and "Rainy Days and Mondays." But behind closed doors, Karen's quest for perfection resulted in low self esteem, a disheartening love life, and a public battle with anorexia nervosa, which ended with her untimely death at the age of only 32. Forty years after her death comes KAREN CARPENTER: STARVING FOR PERFECTION, a captivating, revealing, and unvarnished documentary providing astounding new insight into the singer's tragically short life and enduring musical legacy. 

RANDY MARTIN is an award-winning, veteran director of television documentary films including the Sundance Channel series The Inspiration Sessions, and has interviewed everyone from presidents to pop megastars to sports icons. Martin also produced Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey and Tiger at Thirty.

Growing up in the heart of the Carpenters' era, Randy brings an authentic sense of nostalgia to the project, while creating a timely, cautionary tale for today's image-obsessed culture.

"To me, Karen's velvety-rich contralto voice evokes equal parts grace and sadness—in many ways the aural coalescence of the human condition."