the humanities film series presents

AN AMERICAN TAIL

Friday, February 3 at 7 PM

An American Tail is a 1986 American animated adventure film directed by Don Bluth and presented by Steven Spielberg.  It features Fievel Mousekewitz, a young Russian Jewish mouse who becomes separated from his family during their immigration to America.  The Mousekewitzes believe that America will be a land of opportunity but soon find that America has many of the same problems they faced back home in Russia.  Will Fievel find his family?  Will the Mousekewitzes achieve the American Dream?

the humanities film series presents

ORPHÉE

Friday, February 3 at 8:30 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Orphée, a 1950 French film by director Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais, is a variation on the classic Greek myth of Orpheus.  Set in contemporary Paris, the film follows Orpheus as he learns of the Underworld and as that knowledge becomes more dangerous and tempting, he is forced to choose between his wife Eurydice and the Death that captivates him.

the humanities film series presents

THE MISSION

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20 at 7 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Set in the 1750s, The Mission features Jeremy Irons as Father Gabriel, a Jesuit priest working with the Guarani people.  Robert De Niro plays Rodrigo Mendoza, a slave trader whom Father Gabriel converts to the Jesuit faith.  When Gabriel’s mission comes under attack from Portuguese forces, Father Gabriel and Mendoza take vastly different measures to defend it.  Filmed on location in Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, The Mission won the Palm d’Or Award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.

the humanities film series presents

PHAEDRA

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20 at 9 PM

ETC LECTURE HALL

The 1962 Jules Dassin film Phaedra stars Melina Mercouri in a retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus. In modern Greece, Alexis’s father, an extremely wealthy shipping magnate, marries the younger, fiery Phaedra. When Alexis (Anthony Perkins) meets his stepmother, sparks fly and the two begin an affair. What will the Fates bring this family?

the humanities film series presents

SMOKE SIGNALS

January 6 @ 7 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Smoke Signals is a 1998 independent film based on the Sherman Alexie short story “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona” from his book Lone Ranger and Tonto: Fistfight in Heaven.  Claiming to be the first feature film written, directed, and produced by Native Americans, Smoke Signals features two young men of the Coeur d’Alene tribe in Idaho—Victor and Thomas.  In a quintessential road movie, their journey off the reservation strengthens their bond and causes them to make realizations about their past and their identities.

THE HUMANITIES FILM SERIES PRESENTS

IPHIGENIA

Friday, December 2 @ 9 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

A timeless classic of Greek tragedy is brought vividly to life in the Oscar-nominated Iphigenia, an engrossing and lavish adaptation of Euripides’ play Iphigenia in Aulis. Director Michael Cacoyannis retells the gut-wrenching story of commander Agamemnon, who is preparing to launch his legendary fleet of 1,000 ships to retrieve the beautiful Helen of Troy. But the wind refuses to blow in the sails of the fleet, and Agamemnon is fatefully convinced that military victory can only be achieved if he sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to the gods. Faced with her husband’s deception and betrayal, Clytemnestra responds with vengeful wrath, and Iphigenia reaches a fever pitch of clashing agendas and devastating turmoil.

View a scene from the film:

The Humanities Film Series presents…

OF GODS AND MEN

Friday, December 2 @ 7 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Of Gods and Men, inspired by the life of Cistercian monks of Tibéhirine in Algeria from 1993 to 1996, shows the life of eight French Christian monks as they are closely related to religious Muslims of the mountain village.  Fundamentalists belonging to neither religious group begin terrorist massacres in the region.  Should the Christians and the Muslims then separate?  What is most important in a genuinely religious life?  What is the place of poverty, failure, and death?

Of Gods and Men is slow and thoughtful, even as its events are horrible and its issues, fearful.  Yet, because “love hopes all things,” it expresses joy.

The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix.

123 minutes. In French with English subtitles.

The Humanities Film Series presents

THE CONSPIRATOR

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11 @ 7PM

ETC LECTURE HALL

The Humanities Film Series presents

AMISTAD

Friday, October 14 @ 9 PM

ETC Lecture Hall

Steven Spielberg directed Amistad, an exploration of the true story of the U.S. Supreme Court case that tried the Africans responsible for the 1839 Amistad Mutiny, in which newly captured slaves rebelled against their captors and killed the captain of the slave ship on which they traveled. The film stars Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams; Djimon Hounsou as Cinque, the African who acts as a leader of the mutineers; Morgan Freeman as a free African American who acts as an advocate for the accused; and Matthew McConaughey as the attorney who defends them.

the humanities film series presents

MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

FRIDAY, OCT. 7 @ 9 PM

ETC LECTURE HALL