Humanities Film Series
The Humanities Film Series at York College of
Pennsylvania is an interdisciplinary program sponsored by the English &
Humanities Department that is designed
to
promote the humanities on campus and in the surrounding community by encouraging
a serious and ongoing examination of and discussion about cinema.
All too often, in our media-saturated and leisure-driven culture, we approach
film as a form of disposable entertainment; movies are passively “consumed” and
soon forgotten, leaving no lasting impression and prompting little in the way of
critical dialogue. The Humanities Film Series aims to transform such viewing
habits by presenting films in an academic context, one in which students and
members of the community will learn about the various aesthetic, industrial,
social, and historical dimensions of cinema, while at the same time having the
opportunity to enter into meaningful debates about the nature of the medium and
its effects. In this way, the Humanities Film Series helps to foster on campus
and in the community a renewed understanding of and appreciation
for this major art form, one that—along with television—is perhaps the
predominant way in which the contemporary Western world represents itself.
The Humanities Film Series
will consist of between four and six advertised film screenings per academic year that
are free and open to the entire college and to the surrounding community. At
each of the film screenings, a guest scholar or filmmaker will, after a short introductory lecture,
present a film and lead discussion about it afterward. The films screened will
vary widely to include classic as well as contemporary American and foreign
movies. The present and past schedules for the series can be found below.
FALL 2008
Thursday, September 25
Home (2008)
York, Pennsylvania has long been the quintessential, salt-of-the-earth
American town, touting a proud cultural, architectural and industrial
history. But after a steady migration to the suburbs that began in the
1950s, poverty, crime and blight have become the city’s current hallmarks,
straining its finances, tarnishing its image and demoralizing its
citizenry. In the midst of these challenges, some have sought a
revolution in York--an economic revolution. When municipal, county and
area business leaders unveiled a plan to level part of a low-income,
residential neighborhood and build a minor league stadium, promising it to
be the catalyst behind millions in urban redevelopment, who could argue?
But what happened to those who lived in this neighborhood and made way for
the stadium? Houses are built with wood and nails, brick and mortar.
Homes, however, are built over time with family and memories; they are
deeply associated with our sense of self and security. How are these
intangible values assessed when one is compelled to move? In order to
find out, Brian Plow, an Assistant Professor of Electronic Media and Film
at Towson University, produced and directed Home (2008), a
documentary that examines the story of baseball, urban redevelopment and
the human cost of bringing them to York. The Humanities Film Series is
proud to present the York premiere of Home, with a special
introduction by Mr. Plow. A question-and-answer session will follow the
screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, September 25
in Humanities Center 218.
Wednesday, October 22
Halloween Magic-Lantern Show and "Cinema Before Film" Lecture
In conjunction with the Division of Art at York College, the Humanities
Film Series is pleased to present a performance by the American
Magic-Lantern Theater. Travel back in time with the boisterous fun of
America’s only Victorian magic-lantern show. An authentic 1890s visual
extravaganza projected on a full-sized screen--the kind of show that led
to the movies! Spooktacular Halloween stories like Poe’s The Raven,
bizarre animated comedy and outrageous songs--all dramatized on screen by
a live showman and singer/pianist. The audience participates in the fun,
creating sound effects and joining in chants and hilarious sing-alongs
like The Worm Crawls In. Plus, following the show, there will be
an illustrated lecture about the history and cinematic techniques of the
Magic Lantern. For 16 years, the American Magic-Lantern Theater has
delighted audiences from Lincoln Center to Singapore. “What a hoot!”
says NEED. “You’ll be enthralled,” says The Family
Adventure Guide to Connecticut. But National Public Radio says it
best: “It’s an incredible experience . . . Don’t miss them. They’re a
living national treasure!” For adults and children ages 6 and up.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Wednesday, October 22
in the Collegiate Performing Arts Center.
Thursday, November 20
Catch Me if You Can (2002)
Music is a
key ingredient of cinema; all too often, however, we overlook its
importance when we watch movies. Consider the case of Steven
Spielberg's chase thriller, Catch Me if You Can (2002). Based
on a true story, Spielberg's film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank
Abagnale, Jr., the youngest con artist on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List
during the 1960s. Starting at the tender age of 16, Abagnale began a
five-year string of impersonations and forgeries. He went by countless
aliases, but the FBI agent trailing him (played in the film by Tom Hanks)
knew him as the Skywayman. Abagnale managed to use his skills to cash in
on millions of dollars. He took on such identities as an airline pilot, a
doctor, a professor, and even an assistant attorney general. The success
of the film owes much to the musical score composed by longtime Spielberg
collaborator John Williams. Williams, in a departure from his usual
symphonic style of movie composition, offers an unusual jazz-inspired
score featuring a saxophone soloist in many of the music cues.
Indeed, not since Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme has the
saxophone played such a major role in a film score. Here, it
effectively evokes the 1960s, while helping the movie to walk a delicate
line between drama and comedy. Susan Loy, a professor of music at
York College, will introduce Catch Me if You Can, discussing in
more detail how the film uses music to help create tone and define
settings, characters, and themes. A question-and-answer session will
follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, November 20
in Humanities Center 218.
SPRING 2009
Thursday, February 19
Miss Evers' Boys (1997)
In 1932, the United States government started a medical program to treat
black men for syphilis at the Tuskegee Institute, which housed the South’s
only black hospital. Funding for the program was soon cut, but money was
made available to continue a study of the effects of untreated syphilis in
black men to determine if blacks and whites were similarly affected by the
disease. The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Adult Male Negro
was poorly designed, had no real oversight, and continued despite advances
in medicine, changes in research protocol, World War II, penicillin’s
development, and the increasing pressure for civil rights. The program
was in place until 1972, when it was finally exposed to the public. Today
the study is considered one of the worst moments in the history of
American medicine. It produced few, if any, valuable scientific insights,
but it was instrumental in the birth of medical ethics and increased
concern for welfare of all study participants. In 1992, this story was
dramatized by David Feldshuh in his play, Miss Evers’ Boys, which
used as its inspiration the long-time participation of Nurse Eunice Rivers
in the Tuskegee Study. In 1997, Feldshuh’s play was turned into an Emmy-
and Golden Globe-award-winning HBO film starring Alfre Woodard and
Laurence Fishburne. In honor of Black History Month, Dr. Rory Kraft, a
professor of philosophy at York College, will introduce the film and
discuss the role of the Tuskegee Study and other landmark events in the
formation of medical ethics as a legitimate discipline. A
question-and-answer session will follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 19
in Humanities Center 218.
Thursday, March 26
![[ TAMING OF THE SHREW POSTER ]](b70-6919.jpg)
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Shakespeare’s early farcical comedy The Taming of the Shrew
(1592-4) has been popular for over 400 years. Beyond very different stage
versions over the centuries, the play has spawned a musical, Kiss Me
Kate (1953), and a recent teen film, 10 Things I Hate about You
(1999). Moreover, Shakespeare’s staged battle of the sexes has been
interpreted in a variety of ways: as an example of patriarchal misogyny,
as an expression of companionate marriage recommended by early-modern
Protestantism, as a proto-feminist play in which a smart and independent
woman gets her way, and as the triumph of mutual love over both
psychological insecurities and confining social conventions. In the
turbulent 1960s, two recently married global stars--Shakespearean actor
Richard Burton and Hollywood beauty Elizabeth Taylor--asked Franco
Zeffirelli, Italian opera, stage, and film director, to direct their
cinematic production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
(1967). The film went on to gross twice its budget in the USA and three
times worldwide; it was also nominated for two Oscars and two Golden
Globes. Interestingly, however, it featured many additions, cuts, and
changes to the Bard’s comedy, all of which resulted in a surprising new
interpretation of the play. In his introduction to the film, Dr. David
Kranz, Dickinson College Professor of English and Film Studies, will
compare the source text and the film adaptation, outlining the dramatic
and cinematic ways in which Zeffirelli represented his interpretation of
Shakespeare’s comedy to twentieth-century filmgoers. A
question-and-answer session will follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, March 26
in Humanities Center 218.
Thursday, April 23
The Black Maria Film Festival
The Black Maria was
the world’s first motion picture studio. It was built in West Orange, New
Jersey in 1893 by Thomas Edison to facilitate the production of the
earliest moving images known to the public. Edison’s motion picture
technology allowed previously unimagined expressive possibilities and
freed creative individuals to interpret and represent--and audiences to
experience--the world as never before. It is this pioneering and
adventuresome spirit of innovation and pursuit of fresh, insightful,
passionate, and diverse independent filmmaking that originally inspired
the Black Maria Film and Video Festival. Since 1981, this annual
festival, an international juried competition and award tour, has been
fulfilling its mission to advocate, exhibit and reward cutting edge works
from independent film and videomakers. The festival is known for its
national public exhibition program, which features a variety of bold
contemporary works drawn from the annual collection of 50 award winning
films and videos. The York College Humanities Film Series is proud to
host a selection of short films from the 2009 Black Maria Film and Video
Festival. The program will be introduced by the Festival’s Director, who
will also lead a question-and-answer session after the screenings.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 23
in Humanities Center 218.
FALL 2007
Thursday, September 27
The Films of Jay Rosenblatt
The 2007-08 Humanities Film Series will open with the presentation of two
critically-acclaimed films made by Jay Rosenblatt, a veteran independent
director described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “major
artist” whose films exhibit a “deep, unfeigned and unmistakable respect
for life in its many forms.” Human Remains (1998) is a haunting
documentary that illustrates the banality of evil by creating intimate
portraits of five of this century’s most reviled dictators: Hitler,
Mussolini, Stalin, Franco and Mao. Though based on historical figures,
Human Remains is contemporary in its implications and ultimately
invites the viewer to confront the nature of evil. King of the Jews
(2000) is a film about fear and transcendence. Utilizing Hollywood movies,
1950s educational films, personal home movies and religious films spanning
the history of cinema, the filmmaker depicts his childhood fear of Jesus
Christ. These childhood recollections are a point of departure for larger
issues, including the roots of Christian anti-Semitism and the need for
forgiveness and healing. Director Jay Rosenblatt will introduce his films
and lead a question-and-answer session after the screenings.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, September 27
in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.
Friday, September 28
A Lecture by Film Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
The New Film Criticism and
the New Cinephilia: Paradigmatic Shifts
In a recent New York Times article, A.O. Scott questioned whether
film criticism still matters in an age where, in spite of almost
universally negative reviews, Hollywood movies like Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Da Vinci Code gross
millions of dollars at the box office, while critically-praised arthouse
and foreign cinema fails to find an audience. At the same time, other
commentators maintain that film criticism is undergoing a renaissance,
thanks largely to the platform that the internet has provided to amateur
critics.
Jonathan Rosenbaum argues, however, that current claims that film
criticism is becoming extinct, and counter-claims that it’s entering a new
golden age, miss the point. We should instead be focusing on how the
fundamental changes in the way we now watch movies necessitate entirely
different critical perspectives. Today, when someone says, “I just saw a
film,” we don’t know whether this person saw something on a large screen
with hundreds of other people or alone on a laptop--or whether what he or
she saw was on film, video, or DVD, regardless of where and how it was
seen. We’re living in a transitional period where enormous paradigmatic
shifts should be engendering new concepts, new terms, and new kinds of
analysis, evaluation, and measurement, not to mention new kinds of
political and social formations, as well as new forms of etiquette. In
most cases, however, we’re stuck with vocabularies and patterns of
thinking that are still tied to the ways we were watching movies half a
century ago. In his talk, Mr. Rosenbaum will map out the possible
directions that a new film criticism and a new cinephilia might take.
Jonathan Rosenbaum is widely recognized as one of the most important
voices in contemporary American film criticism and an outspoken champion
of world cinema produced outside the commercial mainstream. He is the lead
film critic for the Chicago Reader and has authored many books on
film, including Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Limit What
Films We Can See (A Cappella Books, 2002); Essential Cinema: On the
Necessity of Film Canons (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), and,
most recently, Discovering Orson Welles (University of California
Press, 2007). The lecture is free and open to the public. No tickets or
reservations are required.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Friday, September 28
in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.
Thursday, October 25
A Special Screening Hosted by Film Professor Ray Carney
Honoring the Legacy of Beat Cinema
In honor
of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's Beat
Generation masterpiece On the Road, Ray Carney, Professor of Film
and American Studies at Boston University, will be re-creating one of
the major artistic events of the Beat movement. John Cassavetes'
Shadows and Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's Pull My Daisy
were originally given their world premiere screenings on a double bill
at Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 in New York on November 11, 1959. The two
films have seldom or never played together on the same program since
then. Now, almost a half century later, they will be brought together
again. Professor Carney will introduce the screening and briefly discuss
the Beat Movement.
Professor
Carney co-curated the Whitney Museum of American Art's Beat Culture
and the New America 1950-1965 show, is the author of more than ten
books on film and other art, and manages the largest non-commercial web
site in the world devoted to the art of film (at www.Cassavetes.com).
Thursday, November 15
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
An Inconvenient Truth
(2006), one of the most widely-seen and discussed documentaries in recent years,
presents Al Gore’s campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized
problem worldwide. Intertwining simple but harrowing statistics with personal
reflections, Gore explains that the tools and methods to reverse the damage we
have done are at hand and that the economic consequences of tackling the problem
are positive rather than negative. This documentary helped to open a national
dialogue about the scientific evidence underlying climate change and the
observation that our warming world is impacting physical and biological systems.
Dr. Keith Peterman, a chemistry professor at York College, addresses issues
associated with climate change in his courses and has participated in field
studies related to climate change in the tropics and the artic. He will
introduce An Inconvenient Truth by discussing a case study of species
impact due to climate change observed by York College students during a recent
field study in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. A question-and-answer session
will follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, November 15
in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.
SPRING 2008
Thursday, February 14
Killer of Sheep (1977)
Killer of Sheep (1977) examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of
Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who
is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a
slaughterhouse. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents
life--sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy
and gentle humor. It was directed by independent African-American
filmmaker Charles Burnett on location in Watts over a series of weekends
on a budget of less than $10,000, most of which was grant money. Finished
in 1977 and shown sporadically, its reputation grew and grew until it won
a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, the
Library of Congress has declared it a national treasure and the National
Society of Film Critics selected it as one of the “100 Essential Films” of
all time; it was also released theatrically for the first time in 2007 and
received rapturous reviews from critics around the country. Most people,
however, have never heard of this important film or its director. In
celebration of Black History Month, York College film professor Dr. Ian
Olney will present Killer of Sheep, making a case for its
historical importance and artistic value. A question-and-answer session
will follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 14
in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.
DATE CHANGE!
Wednesday, March 19
Dodo (2006)
An alternately harrowing and hilarious autobiographical documentary about
growing up in a dysfunctional family in Western Pennsylvania, Dodo
(2006) charts the emotionally-strained relationship between director Bob
Golub and his late father, a domineering and abusive alcoholic nicknamed
“Dodo.” Golub, an actor and stand-up comedian by profession (he has
appeared as a comic on The Tonight Show and Comedy Central,
and his credits as an actor include Goodfellas and Art School
Confidential), first conceived Dodo as a one-man stage
production, which he performed live in theaters around the country.
Encouraged by the positive reviews garnered by the show, he decided to
transform it into a film, drawing on home movies of his family that he
made as a teenager and combining them with newly-shot footage of the town
where he grew up, as well as excerpts from his comedy routines and the
one-man performance piece, interviews with himself and others, and scenes
from an unfinished dramatic movie based on his life. The result is a
powerful and often very funny portrait of family dysfunction and its
consequences that has won widespread audience praise and critical
recognition--most recently at the Pittsburgh Film Festival, where Dodo
was awarded the prize for Best Documentary. Director Bob Golub will
present his film and lead a question-and-answer session after the
screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Wednesday, March 19
in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.
Thursday, April 17
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
On one level a cautionary drug tale, A Scanner Darkly (2006) is
also a paranoid fantasy of life in a 21st century surveillance culture in
which the distinctions between reality and fantasy and self and other are
melted away in a pharmacological and technical mélange. Richard
Linklater’s film, based on Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name,
employs a unique rotoscoping technique to give form to Dick’s trenchant
observation that “so-called ‘reality’ is a mass delusion that we’ve all
been required to believe for reasons totally obscure.” Dr. Dennis Weiss, a
professor of philosophy at York College, will introduce A Scanner
Darkly and situate it in Dick’s fictional and film oeuvre.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 17
in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.
FALL 2006
Tuesday, September 12
City of Hope (1991)
Almost fifteen years before the release of the recent, Oscar-winning Crash
(2005), John Sayles's searing independent film, City of Hope (1991),
dramatized the racial, economic, and political tensions simmering in
contemporary urban America by chronicling the ways in which the lives of a large
cast of socially-diverse characters intertwine in a fictional New Jersey city.
Weaving together their stories in a way that challenges stereotypes and defeats
the viewer's expectations, Sayles creates a rich and compelling tapestry that
remains provocative today for its insights into the fractiousness of modern-day
social relations in the United States. Dr. Jack Ryan, a professor of
English at Gettysburg College and the author of John Sayles, Filmmaker
(McFarland, 1998), will introduce the film and lead a question-and-answer
session after the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, September 12
in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
Tuesday, October 24
Rough Cut (2005)
Rough Cut
(2005), an independent documentary directed by native Pennsylvanian Todd Klick,
demonstrates once again that truth is stranger than fiction. On January
10, 2003, a woman was found murdered in her East Pennsboro Township home.
Eight months earlier, an independent horror film was shot on the nearby
Appalachian Trail. How did these two events tie together? Rough
Cut explores the twisted tale of two young filmmakers who had a dream of
making a horror movie and the bizarre events that followed. Director Todd
Klick will introduce his film and lead a question-and-answer session after the
screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, October 24
in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
Tuesday, November 14
Butterfly (1999)
Set in rural Spain in 1936, Jose Luis Cuerda's Butterfly (1999) tells the
story of a young schoolboy who forms a special bond with his teacher, a crusty
old man who, despite his fearsome reputation among his pupils, takes the boy
under his wing and teaches him to appreciate literature and nature. The
boy's idyllic education is interrupted, however, by the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War, which teaches him real-life lessons about political persecution,
discrimination, religious hysteria, and the terror of war. Dr. Cindy
Doutrich, a professor of Spanish at York College, will introduce the film and
lead a question-and-answer session after the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, November 14
in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
SPRING 2007
Tuesday, February 6
![[ TRAIN OF LIFE POSTER ]](A70-7658.jpg)
Train of Life (1998)
Radu Mihaileanu's comic fable, Train of Life (1998), tells the story of
the inhabitants of an Eastern European Jewish village who discover, in the
summer of 1941, that their shtetl is about to be invaded by German troops.
To avoid being sent to the death camps, the villagers decide to fake their own
deportation by masquerading as a group of Nazi soldiers and Jewish prisoners,
and embarking on a wild train ride towards the Russian border and the promise of
freedom. Dr. Kay McAdams, a professor of history at York College, will
introduce the film and lead a question-and-answer session after the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, February 6
in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
Tuesday, March 13
![[ GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK POSTER ]](MPW-15858.jpg)
Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
George Clooney's recent, Oscar-winning film, Good Night and Good Luck
(2005), recreates a crucial chapter in twentieth-century American history when
acclaimed CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow took to the airwaves in a personal,
patriotic crusade to challenge the infamous anti-Communist witch-hunt being
conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the mid-1950s. Although the events
depicted in the film take place fifty years in the past, its observations about
the importance of an unfettered press to a free, open, and democratic society
are timelier now than ever. Dr. Jill Craven, a professor of film at
Millersville University, will introduce the film and lead a question-and-answer
session after the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, March 13
in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
Tuesday, April 17
Short Films: Tracks (2005) and Civil War (2006)
The 2006-07 Humanities Film Series ends with two independent short films
directed by native Pennsylvanian C.C. Webster. Tracks (2005),
winner of the award for best short film at the 2005 Quittapahilla Film Festival,
tells the story of an environmental science teacher who inherits an old car from
her estranged father. She plans to get rid of the unwanted gift as quickly
as possible, but finds this surprisingly hard to do when it keeps giving her
pieces to a puzzle about the man she thought she wanted to forget.
Civil War (2006), a short film sponsored by the Lifetime cable television
channel, tells the story of a mutiny that happens between a group of 13-year-old
girls on a field trip to the battlefield of Gettysburg, focusing on the harsh
cruelty of young women towards each other. Director C.C. Webster will
introduce her short films and lead a question-and-answer session after the
screenings.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, April 17
in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
FALL 2005
Thursday, September 22
![[ VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT POSTER ]](MPW-11414.jpg)
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
The most recent film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the
director of the international smash-hit
A Very Long Engagement tells the World War I story of a young
woman named Mathilde (played by Amelie star Audrey
Tautou) who receives news that her fiancé, Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), has
been killed in the Battle of the Somme. Refusing to believe that Manech
is truly dead, Mathilde, who walks with difficulty because of a childhood
case of polio, resolves to find him, embarking on a journey that is by
turns whimsical and horrific. In his introduction to the film, York
College Professor Ian Olney, who teaches and has written extensively about
European cinema, will discuss what
A Very Long Engagement
tells us about the current state of filmmaking in Europe. For the
American moviegoing public, European film has long been synonymous with
challenging “art cinema”: the opposite of the mainstream, commercial fare
produced by Hollywood. This may no longer be the case, however, as the
growing popularity of European movies like A Very Long Engagement—a
very expensive film, largely financed by Warner Brothers, that tells an
epic story with state-of-the-art digital effects and a cast of
international stars including Audrey Tautou and Jodie Foster—would seem to
indicate. A question-and-answer session led by Professor
Olney will follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday,
September 22 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
Thursday, October 27
France Divided (2002)
France Divided, a complex and compelling
documentary produced, directed, and authored by Eileen M. Angelini, Ph.D.,
and Barbara P. Barnett, M.A., explores the two sides of France during
World War II. Both collaborators and resisters are seen through the eyes
of seven French people: a Holocaust survivor, three hidden children, two
historians (including Serge Klarsfeld) and leader of the French Resistance
Lucie Aubrac. Each interviewee presents a very different account of the
times by virtue of his or her personal experiences. Also included are the
historic public apologies of the French government and the Catholic
Church. In her introduction to the film, Philadelphia University
Professor Eileen Angelini, who co-authored, co-directed, and co-produced
France Divided, will discuss the impact that her study of French
complicity with and resistance to the Holocaust has had on her teaching
and share anecdotes of her experience making the documentary. A
question-and-answer session led by Professor Angelini will follow the
screening. Program begins at 7:00pm on
Thursday, October 27 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
SPRING 2006
Thursday, March 16
The Women (1939)
Before
there was Sex in the City, there was The Women. George
Cukor's wickedly funny comedy of manners tells the story of a
happily-married socialite, Mary Haines (Norma Shearer), who discovers that
her husband is having an affair with a gold-digging perfume salesgirl
(Joan Crawford). At the urging of her acerbic best friend, Sylvia
(Rosalind Russell), whose marriage is also on the rocks, Mary travels to
Reno to get a divorce; however, while waiting with a group of
similarly-minded women at a dude ranch outside of Reno for her divorce to
become final, Mary has a change of heart and decides to fight for her
marriage. In her introduction to the film, York College professor
Colbey Emmerson Reid, who teaches and has written extensively about the
intersection of cultural, literary, and cinematic sophistication in the
first half of the twentieth century, will discuss the feminization of the
American public sphere during that era, explaining how, in Cukor's classic
Hollywood comedy, the techniques of gossip, flirtation, and deception
undermine the distinction between public and domestic spheres, and showing
how such strategies turn marriage and the home into sites of important
modernist experimentation. A question-and-answer session led by
Professor Reid will follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, March
16 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.
Thursday, April 6
![[ ALL OR NOTHING POSTER ]](MPW-3426.jpg)
All or Nothing (2002)
This quintessentially representative film by Mike Leigh, the director of
the recent, Oscar-nominated film, Vera Drake (2004), takes a
documentary-like look at the fragility of working-class family life and
love in a drab South London high-rise housing project or “sink” estate.
It concentrates, after provocatively hinting at a number of potential
plotlines, on the disintegrating relationship between a taxi driver
(Timothy Spall) and his common-law spouse (Lesley Manville) and their
nearly-grown children. These are characters, played by screen newcomers
and superb veteran Leigh performers, too lethargic or afraid to ask for
love despite their immense need for it. A family emergency provides a
catalyst for the renewal of shared affection and trust. In his
introduction to the film, York College Professor Emeritus Edward Jones,
author of All or Nothing: The Cinema of Mike Leigh (Peter Lang,
2004), will discuss the director’s collaborative working methods and draw
attention to some of the cinematic means Leigh uses to achieve his
distinctive tragicomic effects. This film clearly demonstrates the
humanistic intimacy that comprises the art and power of Mike Leigh as a
world-class filmmaker. A question-and-answer session led by Professor
Jones will follow the screening.
Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 6 in York College's DeMeester
Theatre.
If you have further questions about the Humanities Film Series, please contact Dr. Ian Olney at iolney@ycp.edu or visit his web page at
http://goose.ycp.edu/~iolney.