Symposium: Women, Social Justice, Documentary

Saturday, March 31st through Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Film Studies Program at Smith College invites you to a two-day symposium bringing together some of the major women practitioners of documentary whose aim is social justice. This weekend of panel discussions, talks, and screenings is free and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by the Film Studies and Gender Studies Programs and the Media & Journalism Nexus at Mount Holyoke College.

Wake Up: Documentary Screening and Q&A with Filmmaker Jonas Elrod

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 7:00 p.m. Seelye Hall 201

Jonas Elrod was leading an ordinary life until he woke up one day with the ability to see angels, demons, and ghosts.  Wake Up follows Elrod, who, with his loving but skeptical girlfriend by his side, crisscrosses the country as he searches for answers and delves into the world of the phenomenal and spiritual.  The film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and includes interviews with many renowned scientists, teachers and spiritual leaders.  For more information about the film and watch the trailer, visit  http://thewhitefoxstudio.com/Wake_Up/index_Northampton.html.  To view the poster or download it as a PDF go to http://www.smith.edu/filmstudies/news.html.

This event is free and open to the public.  Sponsored by the Smith College Film Studies Program with support from the Smith College Endowed Lecture Fund, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Philosophy Department.  

Grad Study Info Session

Interested in Graduate Study in Film?  (MA/PhD/or MFA)  Attend an informational session on Thursday, October 13, 4:30 p.m., Seelye Hall 201, hosted by Smith’s Film Studies Program.  Open to all Five College students.

The informational session will be presented by Alexandra Keller ( Director of Film Studies at Smith), Jennifer Malkowski (McPherson Post-doctoral Fellow in Film and New Media at Smith), and Bernadine Mellis (Five College Visiting Artist in Film Studies).  The session will provide a basic overview of grad school: why you might choose to go or not to go, what kind of experience you should expect, the types of background and application materials good programs might require, and the financial aspects of graduate education.  The goal of this session is to help you make informed choices about if/when, where, and how to apply for a program.  Please bring any questions you have and we will allow time to discuss them. 

A Talk by Caetlin Benson-Allott Paranormal Spectatorship: Faux Footage Horror and the War on Piracy

Thursday, September 22, 2011 4:30 p.m. Seelye Hall 201

A Professor of English at Georgetown University, where she teaches US film history, new media theory, and gender and sexuality studies will deliver a talk titled "Paranormal Spectatorship: Faux Footage Horror and the War on Piracy". Building on the found footage conceit of The Blair Witch Project, recent horror movies like Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity teach their spectator to fear underground media distribution and finding movies through P2P networks. The MPAA member studios' support of this subgenre thus extends the organization's war on piracy into films themselves.

Sponsored by the Smith College Connections Fund and the Smith College Film Studies Program. This event is free and open to the public.

Dominique Cabrera - L'Autre côté de la mer

Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at 7 p.m., Seelye Hall 201

French/Algerian filmmaker Dominique Cabrera will present her 1997 film L'Autre côté de la mer (The Other Shore) and answer questions from the audience following the screening. The film offers a reflection on the relationship between France and Algeria in the decades following the Algerian War of Independence, focusing on two men of North African and French descent in contemporary France. In French and Arabic with English subtitles.

Film Editor Chris Seward

Thursday, November 18, 2010, at 7p.m., Seelye Hall 201

A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Chris Seward got his start editing shows for television, working with such clients as NBC, PBS and the History Channel. Nominated by the American Cinema Editors guild for Best Documentary Editor of the Year for Fahrenheit 9/11, he won the award in 2008 for Sicko.

COOKING HISTORY

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 7p.m., Weinstein Auditorium Wright Hall

The American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Traveling Film & Video Festival presents: Cooking History. War as you've never seen it: through the eyes of military cooks.