Events

Professor Hamid Naficy will present Mouth Harp in Minor Key with an extended discussion to follow: In this film, Iranian filmmaker Maryam Sepehry follows the eminent film scholar Hamid Naficy in the United States and his family in Iran. It is a documentary portrait that elucidates the complexities of personal identity in a globalized world, where individual, national, and transnational forces interact. A timely documentary film about exiles in America and the families they left behind, MOUTH HARP IN MINOR…

In a digital universe where live streamers earn up to $200K a month, can virtual relationships replace real-life human connection? People’s Republic of Desire (2018) follows two online stars who rise from obscurity to fame and fortune in China. The film journeys through their live streaming showrooms, which become gathering places for hundreds of millions of viewers, including wealthy patrons who lavish performers with digital gifts and poor migrant workers who worship them. The two subjects are brought together in…

At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, insurgent candidates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin decided to fight back and embarked on a journey that would change their lives and their country forever. Knock Down the House (2019) follows the grassroots campaigns of these four ambitious women as they challenge powerful incumbents in the 2018 congressional race. Despite their lack of political experience and corporate donations, these women work to redefine community values and…

Since his ALS diagnosis in 2016, activist Ady Barkan and his family have struggled to keep up with insurance paperwork, doctors’ bills, and prescription drugs. Rather than diminish his voice, these experiences have emboldened Barkan to expand his initiatives in new directions. He co-founded the Be A Hero PAC, wrote an autobiography titled Eyes to the Wind, and launched himself into ambitious media projects. This event focuses on Barkan’s video short series Uncovered: Health Care Conversations with Ady Barkan, which…

When D. B. Norton (Edward Arnold), an oil magnate with political ambitions, takes over a city newspaper and begins firing employees by the dozen, columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) fights back, penning a fake letter from a jobless “John Doe,” who in protest against the state of the world threatens to commit suicide by jumping off the City Hall roof. After the letter becomes the talk of the town, Mitchell and her editor hire a washed-up baseball player (Gary Cooper)…

In 2010, pioneering Chinese filmmaker Wu Wenguang founded the Memory Project. Housed in the Caochangdi Workstation in an art district on the outskirts of Beijing, the project’s purpose is to teach documentary production skills to aspiring amateur filmmakers, who then travel to their familial villages to collect oral histories about some of the most tumultuous periods of the twentieth century, including the Great Famine and Cultural Revolution. To date, the Memory Project has collected over a thousand interviews and produced…