September

September 8 (Friday): BACKPACK FULL OF CASH
Film screening with commentary by director/producer Sarah Mondale and producer/editor Vera Aronow — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time],
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Sarah Mondale (United States, 2017, 96 minutes, color)
Narrated by Matt Damon, this feature-length documentary explores the growing privatization of public schools and the resulting impact on America’s most vulnerable children. Filmed in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Nashville, and other cities, it takes viewers through the tumultuous 2013-14 school year, exploring the world of education “reform” and its effects on public education.

Sarah Mondale is president and co-director of Stone Lantern Films, and a former public school teacher in New York. She directed and co-produced the award-winning PBS series School: The Story of American Public Education (2001); the PBS primetime films Marcel Proust: A Writer’s Life and Asylum, which was nominated for an Emmy award. She also co-directed and co-produced Megamall (2010), which has screened at festivals in the U.S. and abroad.

Vera Aronow is an accomplished producer and director. Recent works include co-directing and producing the feature-length documentary, Megamall (2010), about suburban development in the age of sprawl, produced with Stone Lantern Films and now available on Video On Demand.
Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s Department of History and Documentary Studies Program; School of Education; and United University Professions

September 15 (Friday): A BRIDGE TOO FAR
Film screening — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time],
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Richard Attenborough (United States, 1977, 175 minutes, color and b/w)
Starring Sean Connery, Ryan O’Neal, Gene Hackman
A BRIDGE TOO FAR recounts the true story of Operation Market Garden, the Allies’ attempt during WWII to drive the German Army out of occupied Belgium and Holland. The film carries particular significance for Albany, as it explains the genesis of the city’s relationship to its “sister city” Nijmegen, Holland. The city of Nijmegen suffered heavy casualties and damage as a result of the Allied offensive. The city of Albany and its residents organized a humanitarian relief effort that shipped 300 tons of clothing, and medical and building supplies to the city after the war.
Cosponsored by Friendship Albany-Nijmegen, and The Dutch Settlers Society of Albany

October

October 20 (Friday): FORREST GUMP
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Robert Zemeckis (United States, 1994, 142 minutes, color and b/w)
Starring Tom Hanks, Sally Fields, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise
Tom Hanks plays the title role of a man of less than average intelligence who lives an extraordinary life, managing to be involved with major events in American history from the 1950s through the 1980s. The film received six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hanks. The film is being shown in conjunction with the December 1 appearance of Phillip Caruso, who was the still photographer for the film and ranks it as one of his favorites. [see December 1 Visiting Writers Series listing]

October 27 (Friday): QUILLS
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Philip Kaufman (United Kingdom, Germany, USA, 2000, 124 minutes, color)
NOTE: Rated R for violence and adult content. Not suitable for children.
Starring Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix
Play and screenplay by Doug Wright [see October 30 listing]
The Marquis de Sade, notable French philosopher, writer, and sexual deviant, engages in a battle of wills with a doctor at the asylum where he is incarcerated. Doug Wright, who visits the Writers Institute on Monday, October 30 [see October 30 Visiting Writers Series listing], won an Obie award for “Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting” for his 1995 play, and wrote the screenplay for this Oscar-nominated film.

November 3 (Friday): BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
Film screening with commentary by former paramedic Joe Connelly, on whose novel the film is based, and members of UAlbany’s Five Quad Volunteer Ambulance Service — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Martin Scorsese (United States, 1999, 121 minutes, color)
Starring Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman
Based on the bestselling autobiographical novel of the same name by Joe Connelly, BRINGING OUT THE DEAD follows a burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic working the graveyard shift at the height of the crack epidemic in the early 1990s as he is haunted by the ghosts of the people he couldn’t save. Student volunteers of UAlbany’s award-winning Five Quad Ambulance Service will join Connelly immediately following the screening in a conversation about the rewards and perils of serving on an ambulance corps.
Cosponsored by UAlbany School of Criminal Justice’s Crime, History, and Public Memory Film Series

November 17 (Friday): LOS SURES
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Diego Echeverria (United States, 1984, 57 minutes, color)
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Los Sures was one of the poorest neighborhoods in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This documentary presents the challenges of the area—drugs, crime, gang violence, abandoned buildings, and racial tensions—while also celebrating the vitality of this largely Puerto Rican and Dominican community. Manohla Dargis in The New York Times called the film “a must see for those interested in both the history of Lost New York and the power of nonfiction cinema.”
Shown in conjunction with the annual Researching New York Conference [see November 16 Visiting Writers Series listing]

DECEMBER

December 1 (Friday): The Art of Still Photography on the Movie Set
Discussion with photographer Phillip Caruso — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall,
135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Phillip Caruso, one of the most sought-after still photographers in the motion picture industry, is known for his extensive work with Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Zemeckis, Terry Gilliam, and other leading directors. Caruso also served as actor Robert De Niro’s personal photographer for 18 films, and is the subject of a documentary, But I’m the Bad Guy (2004), about his friendship with De Niro and Scorsese. Caruso’s challenge as a photographer is to tell a film’s story in the singular images that appear on movie posters and in the media. In 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Camera Operators.