Cornell Cinema will host several special events and series this semester, including “Skin” in partnership with The Society for the Humanities and an LGBT festival in partnership with the Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program and the LGBT Resource Center.
The highlight of the “Skin” series will be a screening of the new documentary by Raoul Peck, “I Am Not Your Negro” (2016) Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. Based on the writings of James Baldwin, the screening will be followed by a panel discussion with four Arts & Sciences faculty members: Kevin Gaines, the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Africana Studies and History; Russell Rickford, associate professor of history; Samantha Sheppard, assistant professor in performing and media arts and Dagmawi Woubshet, associate professor of English.
“Having faculty provide introductions and post-screening panel discussions helps link cinematic works to the subjects that students care about,” said Douglas McLaren, Cornell Cinema manager.
The rest of the “Skin” series will include films from a variety of genres including sci-fi, horror, documentary, melodrama and more. Each film was chosen because it explores skin’s form and functions, and provokes the audience to think more deeply about skin as it relates to race, sexuality, gender, class and ethnicity.
The LGBT Festival will present five films including the 2016 hits “Moonlight” and “The Handmaiden,” as well as two foreign films and a documentary. The films were chosen because they explore the lives of both real and fictional LBGT figures. . The series will conclude April 21 with a screening of “The Glamour & The Squalor,” about Marco Collins, a gay DJ in ‘90s Seattle. Director Marq Evans will present the film in person.
In November, Cornell Cinema raised $10,000 in for a capital equipment grant received from the New York State Council on the Arts for a digital 3D upgrade. “We hope to offer one or two 3D screenings in late April or May,” said Mary Fessenden, Cornell Cinema director.
Other special events during the semester include the cinema’s elegant winter party and benefit on Feb. 25; the screening of three Stanley Kubrick classics; a return of the “Cat Video Fest,” which was popular last spring; three films by Cornell alumni and a screening of “Our Heavenly Bodies” in Sage Chapel in the beginning of April.
For more information or to see the full schedule of events, visit the Cornell Cinema website.
