visiting filmmakers & special guests, early spring 2009

  • Pray the Devil Back to Hell

    Tues Mar 10 @ 7:15, Schwartz Center Film Forum ($4)

    introduced by Jackie Sayegh, Program Manager of the Institute for African Development

    The incredible and uplifting story of how a group of Christian and Muslim women joined forces in nonviolent protest against Liberian dictator Charles Taylor and the warlords that terrorized the country in a ten-year bloody civil war.

  • Seen previously

  • The Pool

    Wed Jan 21 @ 7:00, WSH

    introduced by Prof. Timothy Murray, Director, Society for the Humanities

    Join us for the kick-off event of Water World, Cornell Cinema's film series held in conjunction with the Society for the Humanities 2008-09 focal theme: Water: A Critical Concept for the Humanities.

  • Cornell-in-Hollywood Alumni Film Festival

    Tues Jan 27 @ 7:15, Schwartz Center Film Forum ($4)

    presented by Festival co-chair Shelley Stuart

    Six fascinating short films written, directed and/or produced by Cornell alumni.

  • Frozen River

    Tues Jan 27 @ 7:00, WSH

    introduced by Prof. Maria Cook (ILR)

    Frozen River won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year. "Venturing deep into the trenches where hard-working Americans struggle to put food on the table, Courtney Hunt's somber film evokes a perfect storm of present-day woes: illegal immigration, ethnic tension, depressed real estate, high gas prices and dire poverty." (NY Times) The first film in our Native American Lives series.

  • Unoccupied Zone: The Impossible Life of Simone Weil

    Tues Feb 3 @ 7:15, WSH

    with filmmaker Cathy Lee Crane and the following panelists who will discuss Weil's life and impact: Camille Robcis (Cornell/History), Moderator; Brett de Bary (Cornell/Asian Studies), John Weiss (Cornell/History), William Robert (Syracuse/Religion), and Stephen Cope (Ithaca College/Writing)

    Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of SImone Weil— philosopher, trade-unionist, and Christian mystic. Ithaca College professor Cathy Lee Crane's 2005 film is a meditation on Weil’s life when she moved to southern France following the 1940 German occupation of Paris, but the “unoccupied zone” of the title only marginally refers to France under Vichy. It is more importantly an existential labyrinth imaged by the film itself; a psychic space through which Weil passed while in exile in her own country.

  • Cornell Cinema's Elegant Winter Party featuring 'It' Girl Clara Bow in 'Mantrap'

    Sat Feb 7 @ 7:30, Willard Straight Theatre
    $50 general ($90 per pair), $25 students ($40 per pair)

    with live piano accompaniment by Dr. Philip Carli

    Join us for scrumptious hors d’oeuvres & desserts (courtesy of some of Ithaca’s finest dining and catering establishments), a cash bar, live music, drawings for an array of wonderful door prizes and a 9 pm screening of Mantrap, with accompaniment by silent film pianist extraordinaire, Dr. Philip Carli, all in the always elegant Willard Straight Theatre.

  • The 28th Annual Black Maria Film & Video Festival

    Tues Feb 10 @ 7:15, WSH

    with festival award winners Vincent Grenier, professor of film at SUNY Binghamton, and John Zissovici, professor of architecture at Cornell

  • Benny and the Dreamers & Mick and the Moon

    Wed Feb 11 @ 7:15, WSH

    introduced by Professor Fred Myers (Anthropology, NYU)

    This extraordinary story of an Aboriginal tribal group's first contact with the white world screens as part of our Visions of Aboriginal Australia series, in conjunction with the Johnson Museum's exhibit Icons of the Desert: Australian Aboriginal Painting from Papunya. Shown with Mick and the Moon.

  • Up the Yangtze

    Thur Feb 12 @ 7:00, WSH

    with Haiping Yan, CU Professor of Theatre and Cultural Theory, and Mark Selden, a Senior Fellow in Cornell's East Asia Program

    Yan and Selden will lead a discussion after the screening of this fascinating (and stunningly photographed) look at modernization in China and its costs

  • The Amazing Underwater Films of Jean Painlevé

    Sat Feb 14 @ 2 pm, WSH ($3 adults / $2 kids 12 & under)

    live narration by actress Sonja Lanzener, Schwartz Center Resident Professional Theatre Artist

  • Gigantic (Sneak Preview!)

    Sat Feb 14 @ 7:15, WSH

    with Executive Producer Scott Ferguson ‘82

    Gigantic is a romantic comedy starring Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano. Ferguson will also show clips from the upcoming HBO documentary Temple Grandin about the Cornell professor with Asperger's Syndrome. Part of the Schwartz 20th Anniversary Celebration.

  • Adrift

    Wed Feb 25 @ 7:00, WSH

    presented by filmmaker Cathy Lee Crane

    A poetic adaptation of the fountain of youth fable, Adrift follows a woman who has come to Rome to die. On her journey through the city's fountains, she encounters a young girl who taunts her with visions of lost innocence. Staged on locations from the Roman films of Pier Paolo Pasolini.

    shown with Touched by Water, an ode to the social ritual of pbulic bathing and a thought-provoking look at water's spiritual significance

  • The Sari Soldiers

    Tues Mar 3 @ 7:15, Schwartz Center Film Forum ($4 all)

    introduced by Prof. Kathryn March (Anthropology)

    Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal's modern history, The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women's courageous efforts to shape Nepal's future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King's crackdown on civil liberties.

  • The Exiles

    Thur Mar 5 @ 7:15, WSH

    introduced by Prof. Eric Cheyfitz (Director, American Indian Program)

    "A ghostly and startling tale of Native Americans in Los Angeles in the late 50's.… a revelation." Entertainment Weekly Restored print.