Hosted by Elizabeth Dell '98
1840 Valpreda Street
Burbank, CA 91504
Cost: $10 for alumni and parents
$5 for young alumni (2011-2016) and students
Professor Amelie Hastie will present "The Vulnerable Spectator: Watching and Loving Contemporary Film." What does it mean to make oneself vulnerable to film? What does it mean to approach film with a sense of faith? And what critical practices are ignited when we believe in what we see? Professor Hastie’s talk will raise these questions, setting them both in relation to (and some contradistinction from) the discipline of classical and contemporary film studies. But at the heart of the discussion will be the claim that our potential proximity to film — whether emotional and/or intellectual — can incite a creative critical practice in viewers. Looking at recent releases from the US and abroad that attempt to tell the stories of particular lives (whether real or fictional), her lecture will engage in autobiographical and critical reflection on how film helps us understand the world. Telling the story of a life on film, whether fictional or biographical, is premised on the fact that that life has already been lived, that that life may already be over. Biological life is inherently, stubbornly chronological. But film can take a far more complex form, and so, too, argues Professor Hastie, can our writing in response to it.
The author of Cupboards of Curiosity: Women, Recollection and Film History (Duke UP) and The Bigamist (a BFI "Film Classic"), Amelie Hastie is the founding Chair of the Film and Media Studies Program (a position she held for six years) and Professor of English at Amherst College. Her research and teaching focus on film and television theory and historiography, feminism, and material cultures. She has edited special issues of academic journals Film History, Journal of Visual Culture, and Vectors, and she currently writes "The Vulnerable Spectator" column in Film Quarterly. She was a proud member of the Camera Obscura feminist editorial collective for ten years. She is currently writing a book on the 1970s television series Columbo for Duke University Press. The courses she teaches at Amherst include "Things Matter," a first year seminar, "Knowing Television," and "Cinema and Everyday Life."
Directions and Parking: The building is located at the intersection of Valpreda Street and Kenmere Avenue and has a "Zio Rentals" sign on the side. Parking is available in the building lot after 7 p.m. and there is also plenty of street parking.
Questions? Please contact Elizabeth Dell '98 at elizabeth@twocamelsfilms.com.