Film & Media Culture

Please join us as Film and Media Culture students read from their senior thesis screenplays.

Today, no society is immune from the effects of capitalism. In Haiti “Batay La,” or the struggle, has been ongoing since before the slave revolution that founded the Caribbean nation. Batay La examines the current anti-imperialist movement in Haiti, led for decades by grassroots workers’ rights organization Batay Ouvriye (Workers Fight). Founded in 1994, Batay Ouvriye is known throughout Haiti as a fierce, uncompromised organization dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation of poor workers.

A public reading of excerpts from the six fellows’ screenplays of this year’s Middlebury Script Lab

The Script Lab, now in its third edition, is a unique program that brings together emerging screenwriters, industry professionals and Middlebury students. The six Fellows, selected through a nation-wide competition, are spending a week in Middlebury workshopping their screenplays with established industry professionals.

The reading is the final event of the Script Lab, followed by a reception.

Protecting our Information Environment: Digital Ethics, Social Justice & Refusing the Poisons of Bigotry & Manipulation

A Talk by Professor Whitney Phillips, Syracuse University

In 1950, three former FBI agents labeled 41 women “members or sympathizers” of the Communist Party in their self-published book, Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. This book became the central vehicle for a purge that dramatically influenced the future of American television. These women were critical of anti-communist norms and resisted the imposition of these in their lives.

Ana López (Tulane University), one of the foremost scholars of Latin American film studies, explores affect, melodrama, and the movies in this public lecture.

Growing up in the Moroccan village of Tazzeka, Elias learned the secrets of traditional Moroccan cuisine from his grandmother who raised him. Years later, meeting a top Paris chef and a young woman named Salma inspires him to leave home. In Paris, Elias faces unstable work and financial hardship as an undocumented immigrant. But he also finds friendship with Souleymane, who helps revive his passion for cooking. In French with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Department of French. (1h 35min). Free.

Growing up in the Moroccan village of Tazzeka, Elias learned the secrets of traditional Moroccan cuisine from his grandmother who raised him. Years later, meeting a top Paris chef and a young woman named Salma inspires him to leave home. In Paris, Elias faces unstable work and financial hardship as an undocumented immigrant. But he also finds friendship with Souleymane, who helps revive his passion for cooking. In French with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Department of French. (1h 35min). Free.

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. But this new ecosystem is fragile, and soon enough greed and class prejudice threaten to upend the Kims’ newfound comfort. Cannes Film Festival Winner: Palme d’Or.

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. But this new ecosystem is fragile, and soon enough greed and class prejudice threaten to upend the Kims’ newfound comfort. Cannes Film Festival Winner: Palme d’Or.