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Film & Media Culture

Film & Media Culture FMMC

Hirschfield Series - Much Ado About Nothing

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Film & Media Culture
(Joss Whedon, USA, 2012, 109 minutes) Shakespeare’s classic comedy is given a contemporary spin by director Joss Whedon. Shot in just 12 days, the story of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick offers a dark, sexy and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love. “The first filmed Shakespeare comedy in decades that is actually funny.”––Lou Lumenick, New York Post.

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Mr. Turner

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Film & Media Culture
(Mike Leigh, 2014, UK, 150 minutes) This film explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. “It’s funny and visually immaculate”––Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Mountains May Depart

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Film & Media Culture
An intensely moving study of how China’s economic boom and the culture of materialism it has spawned has affected the bonds of family, tradition, and love. “We’re always aware of being in the hands of one of the contemporary world’s great filmmakers”—Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com. In Cantonese with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Zhangke Jia, China, 2015, 131 minutes) Free

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Life itself

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Film & Media Culture
(Steve James, USA, 2014, 120 minutes) Acclaimed director Steve James and executive producers Martin Scorsese and Steven Zaillian present Life Itself, a documentary that recounts the inspiring and entertaining life of Roger Ebert—arguably the nation’s best-known and most influential movie critic. “A film about illness and death, about writing, about cinema and, finally, and very movingly, a film about love”––Geoffrey O’Brien, The New York Times.

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Leviathan

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Film & Media Culture
(Audrey Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2014, 140 minutes) A dispute over land in a remote Russian township becomes a stone that casts cataclysmic ripples through a family and a community. It is a thinly veiled political parable drenched in bitter irony that takes aim against the corrupt, corrosive regime of Vladimir Putin. “The director’s most accessible and naturalistic film, using everyday characters to test how well modern-day Russia is maintaining the social contract with its citizens.”––Peter Debruge, Variety. In Russian with English subtitles.

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Lamb

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Film & Media Culture
When an Ethiopian boy moves in with distant relatives he takes along his pet sheep—but the upcoming holidays spell danger for his beloved friend. “It provides a welcome insider view of a certain element of rural Ethiopian life, influenced in non-demonstrable ways by the country’s turbulent political situation”––Jay Weissberg, Variety. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Yared Zeleke, Ethiopia, 2015, 94 minutes) Free

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Jauja

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Film & Media Culture
Danish Captain Gunnar Dinesen leads a band of men assigned to kill Aboriginals in Argentina’s desert. During his sojourn there, his daughter runs off with a young soldier, causing him to take off in pursuit. “Jauja is a rapturously bizarre movie that resists knowledge. That’s its secret, intoxicating power; the less you understand, the more mesmerized you are”––Bilge Ebiri, Vulture. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/Denmark, 2014, 109 minutes) Free

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Ida

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Film & Media Culture
(Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland, 2013, 82 minutes) Poland, 1962. Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), an eighteen-year-old novitiate nun is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation. “Ida is an art film in the finest sense of the term. It is austere technique counterbalanced by emotions that bleed”––Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. Sponsored by the Holocaust Film Fund.

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public

Hirschfield Series - Girlhood

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Film & Media Culture
(Celine Sciamma, France, 2014, 113 minutes) Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her style, drops out of school and starts stealing to be accepted into the gang. “A mesmerizing exercise in the enlightenment that can happen when a filmmaker shifts the male cinematic gaze ever so slightly”––Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. In French with English subtitles. Sponsored by the French Department.

Dana Auditorium (Sunderland Language Center)

Free
Open to the Public