F.I.L.M. Series

The renowned Anvil Orchestra (Larry Dersch, Terry Donahue, and Roger Miller) will accompany three classic, breakthrough “silent” films: Saturday at 7:00: Nosferatu (1923) by F. W. Murnau: Nosferatu was crucial in establishing the horror film genre.                Sunday at 2:00: The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) by Dziga Vertov: A modern British Institute poll of film historians and critics rated Man with a Movie Camera film-history’s greatest documentary. Sunday at 7:00: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger:  This screeni...

The renowned Anvil Orchestra (Larry Dersch, Terry Donahue, and Roger Miller) will accompany these classic, breakthrough “silent” films: 2:00: The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) by Dziga Vertov: A modern British Institute poll of film historians and critics rated Man with a Movie Camera film-history’s greatest documentary. 7:00: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger:  This screening of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger’s feature animation, will be accompanied by Anvil’s brand-new score.       F.I.L.M. events are free and open t...

The renowned Anvil Orchestra (Larry Dersch, Terry Donahue, and Roger Miller) will accompany this classic, breakthrough “silent” film: 7:00: The Adventures of Prince Achmed  (1926) by Lotte Reiniger:  This screening of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger’s feature animation, will be accompanied by Anvil’s brand-new score.       F.I.L.M. events are free and open to the public. Support for F.I.L.M. events is provided by the Dean of Faculty Office, the Kirkland Endowment, and the Cinema and Media Studies major. Events are curated and organized by Prof...

Professor Ani Abrahamyan presents My Sweet Land (2025) followed by a Zoom conversation with director Sareen Hairabedia. Jordanian documentary filmmaker Hairabedia uses an intimate observational approach to tell stories about people and places that usually go unnoticed. My Sweet Land is a coming-of-age story set against a multigenerational war in the post-Soviet Caucasus Mountains. F.I.L.M. events are free and open to the public. Support for F.I.L.M. events is provided by the Dean of Faculty Office, the Kirkland Endowment, and the Cinema and Med...

Professor Pavitra Sundar, presents Video-Essay pioneer, Catherine Grant, who will present and discuss a program of her work. The video-essay represents a new kind of cinema analysis and critique. Grant has been a central figure in the development of the video-essay as a form of scholarship. F.I.L.M. events are free and open to the public. Support for F.I.L.M. events is provided by the Dean of Faculty Office, the Kirkland Endowment, and the Cinema and Media Studies major. Events are curated and organized by Professor of Cinema and Media Studies,...

Professor Scott MacDonald presents The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) Adapted from the novel of the same name, written by Hamilton grad, John Nichols (’62). The Sterile Cuckoo is the only Hollywood movie filmed on the Hamilton campus. The film is a time capsule of pre-co-ed Hamilton College. For the role of Pookie, director Alan J. Pakula (All the President’s Men, 1976; Sophie’s Choice, 1982) chose Liza Minnelli, whose performance was nominated for Best Actress. F.I.L.M. events are free and open to the public. Support for F.I.L.M. events is provided by ...

Professor Zhuoyi Wang presents Japanese journalist and filmmaker Shori Ito who will present Black Box Diaries (2024), followed by a dialog between Ito and Chinese film scholar Belinda Qian He. Shiori Ito is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. Her primary focus is gender-based human rights issues. In 2020, Time magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Black Box Diaries (2024) was named one of the top 5 documentary films of 2024 by the National Board of Review, won a Peabody Award, and was nominated...

Professor Heather Merrill presents Fred Kudjo Kuwornu and his new film: We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (2024) Kuwornu:“When discussing Black people in the 15th and 16th centuries, the focus is often solely on their condition as enslaved individuals, overlooking the remarkable figures who lived in Europe during that period.” F.I.L.M. events are free and open to the public. Support for F.I.L.M. events is provided by the Dean of Faculty Office, the Kirkland Endowment, and the Cinema and Media Studies major...

Max Tohline returns to Hamilton to present “Through the Keyhole.” You may know Tohline’s masterwork of media scholarship, A Supercut of Supercuts (2021, available on-line) or remember his remarkable presentation, last fall at F.I.L.M.: “Living in a Reversed World.” On this visit, he turns his attention to the history of AI. Tohline: “Our conversations about AI shouldn't center on how we use it; they should center on how AI uses and models us.” F.I.L.M. events are free and open to the public. Support for F.I.L.M. events is provided by the Dean o...