Seemingly small moments, unexpected and beautiful, make this world interesting. Noticing the beauty all around is a pastime that comes with many benefits, especially in the field of the humanities. Art, music, and film—they are areas I will always enjoy, but one specific night heightened my love for all three, and it happened in the … Continued
The first time I saw Children of a Lesser God was in a large theater. I expected it to be just another blockbuster and as it started my expectation was to be entertained for 2 hours and then I would go home. In a very short time my senses were overwhelmed and I realized there … Continued
The guiding question for my Humanities Moment pertains to the most recent film that I cannot stop talking about with my peers, friends, family and strangers. As a self-described film aficionado, I typically find myself at the movie theater 2-3 times a week. I definitely appreciate the power and effect films can have on our … Continued
My Humanities Moment involves a connection between two individuals that might not initially seem to have anything in common: Jane Austen and Quentin Tarantino. One of the first places I found inspiration for the tenacity that has always kept me going through numerous personal and professional challenges was in the novels of Jane Austen. The … Continued
Between the years of 2012-2014, the book The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green was one of the most popular books and films for teenagers. The book was such a hit Hollywood decided to make it a film, and they did a great job sticking to the original novel. This novel is about … Continued
Musician Dave Wilson describes being struck by the legacy of The Night of the Hunter, a film essentially ignored directly after its release in 1955 but celebrated by critics decades later. (In fact, in 1998 the magazine Cahiers du Cinema listed it as the second most beautiful film of all time.)
When I saw Beautiful Boy, I found myself closing my eyes every time a lighter and spoon appeared. I would sneak one eye open and look through blurred eyelashes to see if the scene had changed, often shutting my eye more quickly than I’d opened it. When I accidentally saw anything “too graphic,” my neck … Continued
For Peter Galison, an influential moment was seeing a film made in 1961 by an anthropologist and a sociologist, featuring a series of estival interviews with people on the sidewalks of France. With its innovations in sound technology, Chronicle of a Summer opened Galison’s eyes to the possibilities of documentary film. The film illuminated the … Continued
In this video, author Roddy Doyle describes the experience of seeing Fellini’s Amarcord for the first time as a boy in Dublin. Growing up in Ireland, at that time a strict Catholic country, it was revelatory for him to see the religion ridiculed in the subversive comedy-drama. The combination of the beautiful and the grotesque … Continued
In the 1930s, the writer Ursula Parrott used her novels, short stories, and screenwriting ventures to portray independent women during a period of immense social change in America. Despite this, like many women writers, Parrott’s legacy has been all but erased from the popular imagination. In this podcast, Marsha Gordon, professor of film studies at North Carolina State University, delves into the way that Parrott’s independence and professional success existed in a complex relationship to her rather conservative views on gender.