 HumaniTech:*
Humanity and Culture in An Age of Technology
A Semester Long Calendar
of Special Events and Performances
*The name HumaniTech is used
with the permission of Barbara L. Cohen and The Regents of
the University of California.
Calendar of Events
February
March
April
May
Postcolonial Film Series
Film in a Global Society
Psychoanalysis and Film
Documentary Film Series
February 3
(Mon),
Lecture: “New Media, New Culture”
Dr. Peter Pollak
Standish Room, Science Library, 5:45 – 7:05 PM
Dr. Pollak will discuss themes that continue to emerge in
a media culture quite different from that of only a decade
ago. The “new media” includes not only digitized
forms of information, but also traditional forms of media
such as newspapers or television which have been forced to
redefine their practices, their audience, their goals –
and their very purpose. Co-Sponsored by the Journalism Program,
Department of English.)
February 5 (Wed)
Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar: “HumaniTech 101”
Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Meets every other Wednesday for seven (7) sessions: February
5 – April 30
Brief presentations and discussion by a panel of UAlbany scholars
who will describe their own work and outline the current major
professional dialogues related to the topic across the disciplines.
Moderator: Dean Joan Wick-Pelletier, College of Arts and Sciences.
Presenters: Mr. Danny Goodwin, Art (Electronic Media); Dr.
Gareth Griffiths, English (Environment, Identity and Culture);
Dr. Judith Johnson, English (Poetry, Cybertext, and Aperiodic
Systems); Dr. Charles Shepherdson, English (New Humanities);
Dr. Bonnie Steinbock, Philosophy (Biomedical Ethics); Dr.
Mary Valentis, English (Psychoanalysis and Mass Culture);
Dr. David Wills, Languages, Literatures and Culture (Humanities
in Translation); Dr. Gerald Zahavi, History (Technology, Democracy,
and the Study of the Past.
February 19 (Wed)
Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar: “Humanities and Culture
in An Age of Technology”
Standish Room, Science Library, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
A discussion with Mark Taylor, Cluett Professor of Humanities
and Religion, Head of the Center for Technology in the Arts
and Humanities, Williams College. Having begun his career
as a scholar of religion and postmodernism, Professor Taylor
will discuss a wide range of topics to include contemporary
issues in the humanities, cultural theory, and technology.
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March 12 (Wed)
Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar: “Emotion, Esthetics,
and the Moral Law: Pity and Fear in Tragedy”
Standish Room, Science Library, 4:00 – 6:00 PM.
Since Plato, philosophers have argued that art is deceptive,
that it plays on our emotions, misleads our judgment, and
uses rhetoric in place of proper rational discourse. In recent
years, however, a defense of art has been made in which our
emotional response to art is seen as part of our moral education.
This presentation will argue against this view, taking Sophocles’s
Antigone as a case study, and drawing on Aristotle and Kant,
in order to stress the division between esthetic experience
and ethical discourse. Presenter: Dr. Charles Shepherdson,
English. Respondents: Dr. Lee Franklin, Philosophy; Dr. Paul
Kottman, English; Dr. David Wills, Languages, Literatures
and Cultures.
March 14 (Fri)
Exhibition: “Gary Schneider:Genetic Self-Portrait.”
Opens at the University Art Museum and runs through April
13
In this photographic installation, the definition of the self-portrait
is extended beyond the figure in front of the camera and into
the elemental depths of identity. Through the use of various
medical-imaging techniques, Schneider reveals the invisible
world of his own cells, chromosomes, and DNA sequencing.
March 14 (Fri)
Performance: “Chekhov’s Shorts”
Lab Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 8:00 PM
Performed again on March 15 at 8:00 PM, March 16 at 3:00 PM,
and March 19-22 at 8:00 PM
Chekhov’s Shorts examines the perennial issues of place,
body and identity in his short, pithy plays through his mastery
of the brief, succinct and the pointed. His revolutionary
classic voice echoes our contemporary concerns. Among the
three Chekov Shorts will be a theatrical adaptation of his
short story, “Anyuta,” written by Theatre Graduate
student Gulgun Karamete in collaboration with Theatre professor
Mark Dalton, who will direct the production. The action of
the play examines the female body as an object of study for
a medical student and a painter. In the play, the title character,
Anyuta is used by her medical student boyfriend as he struggles
to learn gross anatomy. She then models for an artist as he
paints yet another portrait of Psyche, the human lover of
Eros in Greek Mythology. In three short episodes, Anyuta demonstrates
how the body can be scrutinized, dissected and simultaneously
celebrated without being recognized as a fully inhabited human
being. The woman is the body absent, while both the medical
student Klochkov and the artist Fetisov position Anyuta as
an object of intense scrutiny, neither of them truly sees
her.
March 15 (Sat), Opening Reception:
“Gary Schneider: Genetic Self-Portrait.”
The University Art Museum, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
March 15 (Sat), Performance:
“Chekhov’s Shorts”
Lab Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 8:00 PM
March 16 (Sun), Performance:
“Chekhov’s Shorts”
Lab Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 3:00 PM
March 19-22 (Wed - Sat), Performance:
“Chekhov’s Shorts”
Lab Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 8:00 PM
March 20 (Thurs), Lecture: ”
White Innocence/White Accountability: Feminist Politics and
the War on Terrorism,” Anne Russo
Ballroom, Campus Center, 7:30 PM
Anne Russo, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies Program,
DePaul University
In this lecture, Russo addresses how individuals and groups
resist and challenge discrimination and violence, and seek
to transform cultures and communities in ways which promote
equality, human respect, dignity, and social justice. Sponsored
by the Department of Women’s Studies.
For more information, please visit this website: http://www.albany.edu/faculty/vng/russo/
March 20 (Thurs)
Filmmaking Seminar: “Navigating the Documentary.”
David Shapiro
Standish Room, Science Library, 4:15 PM
In this informal seminar, David Shapiro will discuss how the
digital revolution has democratized and revolutionized the
approach to documentary, making it one of the most exciting
mediums in exploring personal narrative and history. A graduate
of UAlbany with a BA in English, David Shapiro, is a visual
artist, and director, writer, and producer of the award winning
documentary film, “Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern
Cannibal Tale.” He is currently a guest lecturer at
UAlbany. Co-Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute
and the University Art Museum in conjunction with its program
series ACT (Art and Culture Talks).
March 21 (Fri)
Film Screening: “Keep the River On Your Right”
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown campus, 7:00 PM
(American, 2000, 93 minutes, color, 35 mm), directed by David
and Laurie Shapiro. Subtitled “A Modern Cannibal Tale,”
this film presents the strange but true story of Tobias Schneebaum,
a Jewish abstract expressionist painter from NewYork who disappeared
in the Amazon rainforest in 1955. Presumed dead, Schneebaum
re-emerged a year later having lived among the Amarakaire
Indians. Much later, Schneebaum wrote of his adventures in
a memoir, Keep the River on Your Right (1969). The book details
the artist’s homosexual liaisons among the Amarakaire,
as well as his participation in a single act of cannibalism.
After Peru, Schneebaum went on to become a noted cultural
anthropologist and explorer of erotic folkways in remote communities.
Directors David and Laurie Shapiro join Schneebaum as he revisits
the places and people that changed his life. David Shapiro,
codirector of “Keep the River On Your Right,”
will provide film commentary and answer questions immediately
following the screening. Co- Sponsored by the New York State
Writers Institute and the University Art Museum in conjunction
with its program series ACT (Art and Culture Talks).
March 25 (Tues)
Lecture: “Redefining Identity: Art, Genetics, and the
New Nature of Portraiture”
University Art Museum, 7:00 PM
Artist Gary Schneider and geneticist Dr. Dorothy Warburton,
Director of the Genetic Testing Laboratory at the Babies and
Children’s Hospital at New York Presbyterian, will discuss
the nexus between art and science in relation to their collaborative
work on Schneider’s Genetic Self-Portrait, a photographic
installation that employs advanced medical imaging techniques
to explore issues dealing with identity, photography, science,
art, and new technologies. Held in conjunction with Gary Schneider’s
Genetic Self-Portrait on view at the University Art Museum
from March 13 – April 14, 2003.
March 26 (Wed)
Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar: “Creating Heaven
or Hell: Cities and the Evolution of Human Health”
Humanities 354, 4:00 PM
Technology, as anthropologists use the term, includes all
problem-solving, human-made organizations of things, from
materials (that make hammers) to ideas (that make dictionaries).
In that sense, cities are a technology, and the history of
human-technology relationships is exemplified in the history
of cities and health. This presentation will argue that the
way our biological ‘equipment’ matches or mismatches
the city has created urban heavens and hells, and their combination
distributed among different groups within cities. Presenter:
Dr. Lawrence Schell, Anthropology/Epidemiology. Respondents:
Dr. Brian Ladd, History; Dr. Carolyn Yalkut, English.
March 27 (Thurs)
IFW Winter Forum on Women in Technology
Offered in partnership with the New York Tech Valley Chapter
of the Alliance of Technology and Women
RECEPTION: Futterer Lounger, Performing Arts
Center, 5:30 PM.
PERFORMANCE: “How I Became Canoehead,”
Lori Anderson.
A poetic exploration, involving video and live performance,
of one woman’s search for identity in the Technological
World.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Women working in the field
of technology at the University at Albany, other local higher
education institutions, and in the private sector, discuss
the implications of technology from various perspectives,
Lab Theatre, 6:15 PM.
March 28 (Fri)
Film Screening: “STARTUP.com”
Page Hall, Downtown Campus, 7:30 PM
This film follows the fortunes of a promising “dotcom”
from tech boom to bust. Directed by documentary filmmakers
Chris Hegedus and Jehane Joujaim. Sponsored by The New York
State Writers Institute.
March 31(Mon)
Mini Gala and Live Reading: “The Technology Plays”
Capital Repertory Theatre,
Hors d'oeuvres and cash bar: 6:00 - 7:00 PM.
Remarks and readings: 7:00 - 8:30 PM.
Playwrights William Kennedy, Richard Dresser, Kirk Smith,
and Regional Winners and Runners-up. Live readings of Technology
Play Project selections. Sponsored by HumaniTech and funded
in part by The Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s “Imagining
America” public grants program.
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April (Fri)
Lecture: Dr. Jon Beckwith
"Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist In Science"
Standish Room, 4:00PM
A memoir that recounts Beckwith’s research
in genetic studies and his commitment to social responsibility
over the course of his career. As scientist and a political
activist, Beckwith provides a unique perspective into the
major controversies in the field of genetics over the last
30 years. Beckwith is American Cancer Society Research Professor
of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical
School.
Co-Sponsored by The Writers Institute and the Science Library
and by the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center
April 7 (Mon)
Symposium: “Scholarly Publishing and Archiving on the
Web: New Opportunities”
Campus Center Assembly Hall, 8:45 AM – 4:15 PM
Nationally known researchers on Web publishing and archiving,
Professors Steven Harnad of University of Southhampton, U.K.,
Carl Lagoze of Cornell University, and Rob Kling of Indiana
University, will explore emerging models for Web self-publishing
and discuss the implications of electronic publication for
the future of scholarly communication. They will also discuss
new possibilities for creating institutional repositories
of archived research. Speakers from the University of Michigan
and the University of Rochester will present examples of sustainable
models for electronic storage and distribution of scholarly
content. This day-long symposium is free to all UAlbany faculty,
staff and students. Sponsored by the University Libraries.
April 9, (Wed)
A Hacker Manifesto: Information, Property, and Class
Recital Hall, 4:00pm
A new form of property arises out of the consolidation
of copyrights, patents and trademarks into a legal regime
of 'intellectual property'. Like all forms of private property,
intellectual property forms the basis for a class relation,
a relation of possession and dispossession. Is this merely
an extension of capitalism, or is it rather a new kind of
commodity system? This presentation will argue the latter.
Many of the phenomena of late capitalism and globalization
can be understood as instances of the shift to a new kind
of property relation, based on the securing of information
as a stable form of private property, and hence new class
relations.
Presenters:
Dr. McKenzie Wark, English
Representatives from the iEar e-media studies program at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute.
April 10 (Thurs)
Public Conversation: “The Politics of Media: Culture
Jammers, Hackers, Hacktivists and Other Encounters between
Art, Media, and Technology”
University Art Museum, 3:00 PM.
Mark Dery and McKenzie Wark will lead an informal public conversation
on the spontaneous and calculated alliances between artists,
theorists, and activists that are creating new zones for cultural
resistance in the digital age. Mark Dery is a critic of popular
culture and cyberculture. He has written extensively on new
media, fringe thought, the Internet, as well as the complexities
of the computer age and its social and economic impact on
society. His books include The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American
Culture on the Brink (1999), Escape Velocity: Cyberculture
at the End of the Century (1996), and Culture Jamming: Hacking,
Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of the Signs (1993). McKenzie
Wark is a media theorist and author of three books, including
the award winning Virtual Geography, The Virtual Republic,
and Celebrities, Culture and Cyberspace. He was a co-editor
of the Nettime anthology Readme!, and teaches in the Department
of English at UAlbany.
April 10 (Thurs)
Lecture: “Collapsing New Buildings: The Trade Towers,
Terror Art, and the Excesses of Aesthetic Philosophy”
Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, 7:00 PM.
Mark Dery examines the destruction of the Trade Towers and
other contemporary atrocities through the lens of aesthetic
philosophy and asks “When does the aestheticization
of the unspeakable become a moral obscenity?”
April 11 (Fri)
Performance: “Cities of Mathematics and Desire”
Location and time TBA
The Jawbone Reading Series of the University at Albany English
Department presents a staged reading of Judith Johnson’s
prize-winning poem, which plumbs depths of chaos, order, and
the intersections of mathematical, social, and emotional systems.
Generated by chance operations and visionary techniques, the
poem juxtaposes a series of dramatic characters drawn from
literature and popular culture in a set of virtual cybertext
performance screens.
April 21 (Mon)
Showcase of UAlbany faculty creative practices for integrating
technology into teaching.
Location and time TBA
Organized and sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Teaching
and Learning.
April 21 (Mon)
Mrdjan Bajic
"Yugomuseum"
The Boor Sculpture Studio, Room 102, 4:30PM
Serbian artist Mrdjan Bajic, professor at the Fine Arts Academy
of Belgrade, with extensive international credits (Paris,
Cracow, Munich, Venice, Prague, Sydney Biennale, Sao Paulo
Biennale), will present his virtual "Museum Yugoslavia."
"Situated" in Belgrade's busiest intersection, Slavija,
the Yugomuseum aims to preserve the most bizarre artifacts
of the 70-year history of Yugoslavia. It is available online,
and by means of mixed media sculptures and prints, videos,
etc.
Demonstration and presentation by Mrdjan Bajic, moderated
by Branka Arsic, English, UAlbany.
Co-sponsored by Departments of Art; Languages, Literatures
and Cultures; and English.
April 22 (Tues)
Performance: “A Century of Sound: Listening In With
The Kitchen Sisters.”
The WAMC Linda Norris Auditorium, 7:00 PM
The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva have produced
radio together since 1979. They have been honored with numerous
broadcasting awards for their creative story-telling techniques
and well-crafted productions—most notably for their
work on National Public Radio’s Lost and Found Sound,
a series that explores history through recorded sound. Nelson
and Silva regularly conduct workshops and public presentations
throughout the country. In this presentation, they will showcase
highlights from their work and that of other audio producers
who are making use of new technologies to capture and present
history in sound. This event is free and open to the public
as part of the Capital Voices ~ Capital Lives Aural History
Project. Additional details will be available at www.talkinghistory.org/capitalvoices.
Sponsored by the ClioMedia Initiatives and the Department
of History.
April 23 (Wed)
Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar: “The Next Enlightenment.”
Standish Room, Science Library, 4:00 PM
As a consequence of the Western Enlightenment, scientific
rationality became the principle governing most of the West’s
major political, socio-economic, and cultural institutions.
Yet in late modern democratic society, the emergence of a
new, aesthetic form of reason is beginning to compete with
the ubiquity of scientific reason and may herald a new and
different form of enlightenment. Professor Schoolman will
address the origins and nature of aesthetic reason, the ways
it is penetrating democratic institutions and practices, and
the consequences of this societal evolution.
Presenter: Dr. Morton Schoolman, Political
Science. Respondents: Dr. Donald Byrd, English; Dr. Sarah
Cohen, Art.
April 25 (Fri) Capital Campaign
Symposium
April 26 (Sat)
Performance: “Hair”
Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 8:00 PM.
Relive the 60’s in this adaptation of the original 1968
Broadway play that deals with sexuality, marijuana, peace
and the Viet Nam draft. Hair embodies a desire for the joyful,
timeless expression of freedom and peace.
April 26 (Sat)
Graduate Student Conference.
April 27(Sun)
Performance: “Hair”
Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 3:00 PM.
April 30 (Wed) – May 3
(Sun)
Performance: “Hair”
Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 8:00 PM
April 30 (Wed)
Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar: “Technologies for
Communities.”
Standish Room, Science Library, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
A roster of speakers, including both UAlbany and RPI faculty,
will make short presentations on their local outreach projects.
They will focus on the ways that new technologies are being
applied to stimulate positive changes in inner-city neighborhoods
and remote rural areas. Efforts are particularly focused on
basic education, computer literacy, engaged citizenship, environmental
enhancements, support for children and the elderly, personal
safety, and micro-enterprise development.
Presenters: Dr. Ray Bromley, Geography and
Planning; Dr. Teresa Harrison, Communication; Dr. David Hess,
Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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May
5 (Mon)
Premieres: The Technology Plays.
Capital Repertory Theatre
Interactive performances and premieres sponsored by HumaniTech
in collaboration with Capital Repertory Theatre.
May 13 (Tues)
Performance: “Corporeal States: A Multi-media Dance
Performance.”
Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 8:00 PM
A multimedia dance and video performance will capture bodily
movement at the cellular and muscular/skeletal level. Dancers
and students from science and digital art will collaborate
to produce virtual and corporeal images and choreography.
May 31(Sat)
Symposium/Workshop: “Capital Voices ~ Capital Lives:
Discovering, Recording, and Preserving the Stories of Our
Past”
Location TBA, 9:00AM – 5:00 PM
This daylong symposium will focus on the aural history of
the Capital Region and will officially launch the Capital
Voices ~ Capital Lives Aural History Project—an ongoing
effort to gather, preserve, and make accessible the sounds,
voices, and stories of this historically-rich region. Speakers
will discuss the importance of gathering the sonic treasures
of Albany’s history in order to compose an oral/aural
history of our past. Workshops will explore recording and
interview techniques, demonstrate the use of antique and modern
recording technologies, explain how to preserve old recordings,
and offer detailed instruction on how to produce historical
documentaries from “found” and created sound.
This event is free and open to the public. Additional details
will be available at www.talkinghistory.org/capitalvoices.
Sponsored by The ClioMedia Initiatives and the Department
of History.
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Postcolonial Film
Series
All films will be screened in
Humanities B39 on the Uptown Campus, and begin at 7:30 PM.
This series focuses on postcolonial themes, including the
impact of technology on culture and cultural change.
Each screening is hosted by a faculty member, who will provide
a brief introduction and moderate discussion afterwards. Sponsored
by the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
and the Postcolonial Study Group.
January 27, (Mon)
“Overseas” (France, 1992, Brigitte Rouan).
The story of three sisters in French Colonial Algeria during
the 1950s and how their lives of ease and privilege are irrevocably
changed by the onset of the Franco-Algerian War. The film
is presented in the form of a triptych – the same story
told three times from the point of view of each of the sisters
– with each successive unfolding revealing both new
perspectives and new information.
February 10 (Mon)
“The Battle of Algiers” (Italy/Algeria, 1965,
Gillo Pontecorvo).
Shot on location, and starring actual FLN rebels, Battle of
Algiers is one of the most viciously realistic films of all
time. Initially banned by the French government, it quickly
won wide acclaim: an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign
Film and 11 international awards.
February 24 (Mon)
“Wedding in Galilee” (Palestine/Belgium, 1987,
Michel Kheifi).
This is the first feature film made by a Palestinian director
on location. It is a lyrical, passionate take off on a Palestinian
wedding that takes place in an occupied village, and the contemporary
tensions, contradictions, and hostilities that surround it.
March 10 (Mon)
“Black Robe” (Canada, 1991, Bruce Beresford).
This film relates the story of the first contacts between
the Huron Indians of Quebec and the Jesuit missionaries from
France who came to convert them to Catholicism, and ended
up delivering them into the hands of their enemies.
March 17 (Mon)
“Earth” (Pakistan, 1911, Deepa Mehat).
The second of an announced trilogy, “Earth” deals
with the partition of India in 1947, and the subsequent displacement
of 11 million people – Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others
who found themselves on the wrong side of the dividing lines
- and were driven out of their homes as a consequence.
March 31 (Mon)
“The Last Supper” (Cuba, 1976, Tomas Gutierrez
Alea).
Based on a true incident from 18th century Cuban history,
a pious slave owner decides to improve his soul by introducing
his slaves to Christianity by inviting 12 slaves to participate
in a reenactment of the Last Supper. He cannot foresee the
consequences of his action.
April 14 (Mon)
“The Great White of Lambarene” (Camberoon, 1995,
Bassek Ba Kobhio).
In Le Grand Blanc de Lambarene, Bassek Ba Kobhio presents
the Noble Prize winner Albert Schweitzer with a new perspective.
Shot on the site of Schweitzer’s hospital in Gabon,
this film does not portray the famous doctor as a saint, but
rather, as a self- absorbed man who refused to acknowledge
the culture of the people whom he treated. Schweitzer’s
life and hospital are portrayed as a sadly missed opportunity
for European and African cultures to meet and to grow.
April 28 (Mon)
“M. Butterfly” (United Kingdom, 1993, David Cronenberg).
Beijing, 1964. French Embassy accountant Ren Gallimlard becomes
infatuated with Beijing opera singer Song Liling after watching
her perform arias from Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”
Gallimard attends the Chinese Opera just to see Liling again,
this time, he initiates an affair, which will last 18 years.
As soon as Gallimard is promoted to vice consul, becoming
privy to top-secret intelligence, Liling takes the opportunity
to spy for the Communist regime. But what Gallimard doesn’t
realize is that there’s a secret that Liling is keeping
from him.
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Film in a Global
Society UNI 301Z
All screenings on Tuesdays, at 4:15 PM, in Lecture
Center 24 on the Uptown Campus.
This is a series keyed to an undergraduate intensive writing
course taught by Professor Judith Johnson. Anyone is welcome,
however, to attend and participate in the film screenings.
The course explores the use of film as a medium of global
cultural exchange and transformation. Audiences are invited
to consider how much these films represent an "Americanization"
of global indigenous cultures, and how much a cultural resistance
that may simultaneously be not only conserving separate cultural
values but also "globalizing" Hollywood in particular
and American culture in general.
January 28, Shanghai Noon, (Tom
Dey)
February 4, Tokyo Story, (Yasujiro
Ozu)
February 11, Monsoon Wedding, (Mira
Nair)
February 18, Happy Together, (Wong
Kar-Wai)
February 25, My Son the Fanatic,
(Udayan Prasad)
March 11, The Seven Samarai (first
half ), (Akira Kurosawa)
March 18, The Seven Samarai (second
half ), (Akira Kurosawa)
March 25, The Magnificent Seven,
(John Sturges)
April 1, El Topo, (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
April 8, Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White
Mask, (Isaac Julien)
April 15, Earth, (Deepa Mehta)
April 22, King of Masks, (Wu Tianming)
April 29, Anchoress, (Chris Newby)
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Psychoanalysis
and Film ENG 243Q
All screenings on Wednesdays, at 4:15 PM, in Lecture
Center 20 on the Uptown Campus.
This is a series keyed to an undergraduate course taught
by Dr. Mary Valentis. Anyone is welcome, however, to attend
and participate in the film screenings. The course explores
the relationship between psychoanalysis and film, teaches
skills for visual literacy, and covers the historical and
theoretical backdrop of psychoanalysis.
January 29, Marnie, 1964, Alfred
Hitchcock. Psychological drama starring Tippi Hendron and
Sean Connery who plays a man obsessed with a beautiful but
traumatized thief.
February 5, Play Misty for Me,
1971, Clint Eastwood. The precursor to Fatal Attraction starring
Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter, this dark, tension-filled
thriller is the prototype for stalker films.
February 19, The Piano, 1993, Jane
Campion. Beautifully photographed romantic, multi-layered
period piece set in New Zealand that narrates the story of
a mute woman, her daughter, her husband and her lover.
February 26, Aliens IV: The Resurrection,
1997, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. A science fiction horror epic about
a re-cloned pilot battling human-hunting aliens aboard a spaceship.
Stars Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder.
March 12, The Silence of the Lambs,
1991, Jonathan Demme. Oscar-winningpsychological thriller
starring Jodi Foster as an FBI acolyte assigned to glean information
from Hannibal the Cannibal (played by Anthony Hopkins) in
order to capture a serial killer.
March 19, Lolita, 1997, Adrian
Lyne. Beautifully filmed drama faithfully adapted from Nabokov’s
novel that depicts a professor’s obsession with a pre-teenage
girl against the backdrop of 1950’s America.
March 26, The Matrix, 1999, Andy
Washkowski, Larry Washkowski. Action-thriller about a computer
programmer who discovers multiple realities and an alternate
universe. Stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne.
April 2, Titanic, 1997, James Cameron.
Epic adventure and romance that dramatizes the sinking of
the ocean liner with a broad cross-section of travelers including
the star-crossed lovers played by Kate Winslett and Leonardo
DiCaprio.
April 9, Minority Report, 2002,
Steven Speilberg. Intellectual science fiction thriller set
in the future where crimes are predicted by psychics and thwarted
by paramilitary police.
April 23, Mulholland Drive, 2001,
David Lynch. Twisted and convoluted murder mystery focused
on an abandoned amnesiac and an actress who tries to determine
the orphan’s true identity.
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Documentary
Filmmakers Series
March 20 (Thurs), Page Hall,
Downtown Campus, 7:00 PM
Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute.
Pull My Daisy, directed by Alfred Leslie and Robert
Frank. This largely spontaneous and uproarious short film
features Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and other Beat figures
acting out part of an unfinished stage play by Jack Kerouac,
‘The Beat Generation’ based on an incident in
the life of Neal and Carolyn Cassady. Kerouac himself provides
the narration.
The Last Clean Shirt, directed by Alfred Leslie.
This experimental short presents three identical takes of
an interracial couple riding in a car while the woman speaks
in an unknown tongue. Each take is subtitled with a different
stream-of-consciousness narration by poet Frank O’Hara.
Writer Gilbert Sorrentino said O’Hara’s work “moves
in a world of wry elegance, of gesture, a world made up of
a certain kind of strictly New York joie de vivre.”
Lowell Blues, directed by Henry Ferrini. Lowell
Blues is a rich visual tour of Jack Kerouac’s hometown
of Lowell, Massachusetts. This poetically structured documentary
takes its narration from Kerouac’s novel, Dr. Sax, with
readings from Beat poets Gregory Corso, David Amram, Carolyn
Cassady, Joyce Johnson, and Robert Creeley as well as movie
actor, Johnny Depp. Cool jazz pioneer Lee Kontz helps supply
the soundtrack. Henry Ferrini, director of Lowell Blues will
present film commentary and answer questions immediately following
the screening. Ferrini is the director of a number of acclaimed
and prizewinning documentaries, many of them about historic
Massachusetts communities. His film, Witch City (1996), examines
Salem’s modern-day relationship with its historic witch
trials, featuring interviews with Wiccans, Christians, and
playwright Arthur Miller.
For more information go to our website at www.albany.edu/humanitech
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