The Cinema Salon Film Club will resume free screenings and discussion in the Clark auditorium on Friday, February 12, at 4:00 pm, and on alternate Fridays thereafter. The theme of this series will be “What in the World is Going On?” featuring a different country or region in each session. Steve Satullo, an independent film scholar who programs films at the Clark and writes the Cinema Salon blog, will select a representative feature film from each country, introduce it in the context of the director’s career and that nation’s film history, and lead a discussion afterward.
The subjects of the first three sessions will be Iran on February 12, China on February 26, and Africa on March 12. Thereafter subjects will be determined by consensus of the club, with reference to areas currently prominent in international news. Please note that each of these films earns a Metacritic rating that connotes "universal acclaim."
Friday, Feb. 12, 4:00pm: Offside. (directed by Jafar Panahi, 2006, 92 min.) A highly pointed satire on women’s status in Iran follows a group of girls who try to get into a World Cup soccer match from which they are barred. (MC-85)
Friday, Feb. 26, 4:00pm: The World. (directed by Jia Zhang-Ke, 2005, 143 min.) The hottest young director from China follows a group of internal immigrants from the countryside working at a Beijing theme park with reduced-scale copies of landmarks from around the world. (MC-81) [Please note: my introduction will begin at 3:45 due to length of this film. By the printed calendar, we are locked into 4:00 timeslot, but in future I will schedule screenings earlier, as requested]
Friday, March 12, 4:00pm: Moolaadé. (directed by Ousmane Sembene, 2004, 124 min.) The title translates as “sanctuary,” which is offered to girls in a Senegalese village who do not want to be subjected to the traditional practice of female circumcision. (MC-91)
For information on specific film selections and schedule of future screenings, as well as news of supplemental screenings at other times, there are three ways to keep current: online at www.cinemasalon.blogspot.com; by email notification requested from ssatullo@clarkart.edu; or by phone message at 458-0415.
The Cinema Salon Film Club is intended for interested viewers who approach film as a medium of engagement rather than entertainment, who wish to grapple intellectually and emotionally with the serious art of film, and to find in world cinema a way of engaging with the world and extending one’s understanding and empathy for other cultures. The point lies in actively entertaining new ideas and impressions, and not in being passively entertained by appeal to familiar feelings. Ideally the screenings will attract not just sophisticated film fans, but participants with particular interest or expertise in the region under discussion.
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