Film series: Scale on Screen

The 2025-2026 focal theme for the Society for the Humanities is Scale.

Scale (or scales) as a form of measurement that can generate relationships between objects or ideas, forms of embodiment, ideas of justice. From the object (noun) by which we measure to the process of scaling (verb), scale is a question we are constantly confronted with. Thinking about scale through humanistic inquiry raises questions about the cultural, social, moral, aesthetic, political implications of quantification. How big of a story, of a theory, of a history does one need to tell to properly encompass an object or idea? What is too much, too many (maybe excessive)? What is too little, too few (maybe insufficient)? What does it mean to say something is out of scale? What does it mean to propose "scaling up" or "scaling down"? How do scales facilitate or interfere with comparison? Scale provokes us to consider how concepts of proportionality shape our lives. 

This series features a dynamic selection of films that approach questions of scale from different perspectives. Screenings will be introduced by this year’s Society for the Humanities Fellows and are inspired by the topics and themes of their fall course offerings.

Free admission! Sponsored by the Society for the Humanities

Featuring:

The Draughtsman's Contract (1982, dir. Peter Greenaway)

Tuesday, September 16, at 6pm

Framing Agnes (2022, dir. Chase Joynt)

Tuesday, September 30, at 6pm

Marwencol (2010, dir. Jeff Malmberg) 

Tuesday, October 21, at 6pm

Special thanks to Durba Ghosh, Chloe Wray, Julie McLean, Benjamin Anderson, Teagan Bradway, and Luke Fidler.