SPRING
2012
Friday evenings, 7:30 p.m.
(Unless otherwise noted)
Page Hall, 135 Western Ave., UAlbany’s Downtown Campus
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SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME February 3 (Friday) Film screening and commentary — 7:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center [Note location]  Directed by Samuel Pollard(United States, 2012, 90 minutes, color and b/w) Due to air on PBS in prime time on February 13 and selected for competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME is based on Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the abuse of black laborers in the United States from the end of the Civil War through the middle of the 20th century. Douglas A. Blackmon and Sheila Curran Bernard, who wrote the film, will answer questions immediately following the screening. Douglas A. Blackmon, an acclaimed journalist and independent historian, received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction for Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (2008). He is a Senior National Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Sheila Curran Bernard, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, is Assistant Professor of History and Documentary Studies at UAlbany, and the author of Documentary Storytelling (2010). NOTE: On Friday, February 3 at 4:15 p.m. in the Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus, Blackmon will hold an informal seminar on his current project, a memoir of growing up in the racially tense South. Cosponsored by UAlbany’s History Department and Documentary Studies Program |
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The Films of John Sayles: HONEYDRIPPER |
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The Films of John Sayles: AMIGO February 24(Friday) Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center [Note location] Directed by John Sayles (United States, 2010, 128 minutes, color, in English, Tagalog, Spanish, and Chinese with English subtitles) Starring Joel Torre, Chris Cooper, Ronnie Lazaro Set during the nearly-forgotten Philippine-American War, AMIGO examines the predicament of a Filipino village mayor caught between the demands of U.S. occupying forces and the guerrilla insurgency. Writing in Rolling Stone, Peter Travers said, “AMIGO is combustible filmmaking.... In an entertainment universe of escapism and short attention spans, AMIGO is a rousing antidote and a cause for celebration.” NOTE: John Sayles will appear at the Writers Institute on February 27th. |
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ELECTRIC EDWARDIANS: THE FILMS OF MITCHELL & KENYON |
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DADDY-LONG-LEGS March 30 (Friday) Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Marshall Neilan (United States, 1919, 85 minutes, b/w, silent with musical soundtrack) Starring Mary Pickford, Milla Davenport, Percy Haswell In this archetypal rags-to-riches tale based on the bestselling 1912 novel by Jean Webster, silent superstar Mary Pickford plays an orphan girl whose life is changed by an anonymous benefactor. Oscar-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow has called it, “…a 24-carat masterpiece…. funny, surprising, and touching.” |
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FAUST
April 13 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by F. W. Murnau (Germany, 1926, 116 minutes, b/w, silent with musical soundtrack) Starring Emil Jannings, Gösta Ekman, Camilla Horn One of the great achievements of German silent cinema, and replete with astonishing special effects, this adaptation of Goethe’s Faust features major silent film actor Emil Jannings in a starring role as the devil Mephisto. Writing in The New Yorker, Richard Brody praised director F. W. Murnau for “an artistic imagination that isn’t merely adaptive but even rivals Goethe’s own.” |
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BED AND SOFA [TRETYA MESHCHANSKAYA] April 20 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Abram Room (Soviet Union, 1927, 95 minutes, b/w, silent with musical soundtrack) Starring Nikolai Batalov, Lyudmila Semyonova, Vladimir Fogel Against the wishes of his wife, a Moscow construction worker invites an army buddy to move into their cramped basement apartment, creating a new and dysfunctional family ménage. A remarkable satire, the film explores the upheaval of social and sexual norms during the early days of Soviet Communism. |
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EROTIKON April 27 (Friday) Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Mauritz Stiller (Sweden, 1920, 97 minutes, b/w, silent with live piano accompaniment by Mike Schiffer) Starring Anders de Wahl, Tora Teje, Karin Molander In this Swedish comedy (cited as an important inspiration by film director Ernst Lubitsch), an entomologist who specializes in the sex life of bugs becomes infatuated with his own niece. Meanwhile, his wife embarks on extramarital affairs with a dashing aviator and a brooding sculptor. Dave Kehr of the New York Times called it, “sublime… one of the screen’s first sophisticated sex comedies.” |
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CONTACT INFORMATION Science Library, SL 320 | University at Albany, NY 12222 | Phone 518-442-5620 | Fax 518-442-5621 email [email protected] |
