Rodrigo Reyes’ debut fiction feature, LUPE UNDER THE SUN, won the two top prizes—Best Film and Best Narrative Feature—at the 2017 Brooklyn Film Festival. A first-of-its-kind dramatic film that uses non-actors who are real farm workers, LUPE follows the grinding routine of an aging Mexican migrant worker in southern California as he comes to terms with his past.

Cosponsored by the New York State Migrant Education Program, an affiliate of the SUNY Research Foundation

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Film screening with commentary by Darryl Pinckney
February 9 (Friday)

7:00 p.m. Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Directed by Raoul Peck (United States, 2017, 93 minutes, PG-13, color and b/w)

Based on James Baldwin’s unfinished memoir, Remember This House, this Oscar-nominated documentary presents his meditations on the history of racism in the United States and his perspectives on slain civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Guardian called it, "one of the best movies about the civil rights era ever made."

Presented by the Writers Institute in conjunction with the Performing Arts Center with support provided by The University at Albany Foundation, Office of Intercultural Student Engagement, University Auxiliary Services, English Department, Sexuality Month, and the Diversity Transformation Fund administered through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion

A powerful film about the experience of new immigrants, ENTRE NOS presents the story of a Colombian woman and her two young children struggling to survive on the streets of New York City.

Based partly on the life story of writer-director Paola Mendoza’s mother, the film received an Honorable Mention award at the Tribeca Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Newport International Film Festival. Filmmaker Magazine called it, "an inspiring story of what a mother does during an unthinkable situation to provide her kids with a better life."

Cosponsored by the UAlbany Department of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies

Directed by Deepa Mehta (Canada/UK, 2012, 146 minutes, color)

Starring Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor

DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is one of the great political satires on film about the escalation of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and the impending danger of nuclear war. The film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Peter Sellers.

This award-winning documentary tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world’s largest youth slam. "Packs a greater emotional punch than any film in current release" (Boston Herald).

Film screening and discussion of INCARCERATION NATION with Susan Burton, former inmate, author, and prison reform activist — 7:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

(United States, 2013, 60 minutes, color)

Film screening and discussion is the keynote event of the University at Albany symposium, "Incarcerating Girls and Women: Past and Present."

In this edition of Moyers & Company, broadcaster Bill Moyers speaks with author and legal scholar Michelle Alexander to discuss issues of racial injustice and mass incarceration in America. The segment features a substantial excerpt from the documentary SUSAN, by Tessa Blake and Emma Hewitt, about former inmate Susan Burton.

After serving six prison terms in 17 years, Susan Burton has turned her life around and dedicated herself to helping other women overcome personal histories of incarceration, poverty, and addiction. Burton is the founder and executive director of A New Way of Life, a reentry project for former inmates.

Her memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton, recounts her life-struggles after her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street and, consumed by grief, she turned to drugs.

For more information about the symposium, contact the School of Criminal Justice at (518) 442-5210.

Sponsored by UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Justice and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century project, and cosponsored by the Prison Public Memory Project

Directed by Jonathan Demme (United States, 2013, 130 minutes, color)
Starring Wallace Shawn, Julie Hagerty

This film was adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s play for a contemporary setting by Wallace Shawn, who plays the architect Halvard Solness, an egomaniac who enjoys manipulating and bullying everyone around him, especially his wife and mistresses.
NOTE: Shown in association with the April 30 visit of Eugene Lee, who created the film’s production design