STONY BROOK, N.Y., February 17, 2009 —The Humanities Institute at Stony Brook, now in its twenty-first year, has inaugurated the “Point of View Cinema” project, a film and discussion series. The showings will be held at Theatre Three, 412 Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY on the following Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm: February 17, March 10, April 14. All showings are free and open to the public.
The series is co-curated by John Lutterbie, Associate Director of the Humanities Institute and a member of the Stony Brook theater faculty, and Kelly DeVine, an independent film consultant based on Long Island. “Long Island faces a myriad of problems that undermine quality of life,” says Lutterbie. “These films address different and significant issues and, by showing them, we will give members in the audience the opportunity to reflect on how they affect their lives.” "Film hits people emotionally, viscerally, as well as intellectually,” adds DeVine. “Audience members identify with the characters and engage with the issues with a sympathy that might not otherwise be aroused in a traditional lecture format.”
The first film will be The Visitor (2007). From the makers of Sideways and The Station Agent, this acclaimed film concerns a college professor who comes home one day to find a young couple, illegal aliens, living in his apartment. This film, which addresses issues of class, race and immigration will be followed by a discussion hosted by Adrián Pérez Melgosa, Assistant Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook.
The second film, Wonderland (1997), takes place on Long Island and is about the development of Levittown as a modern-day Utopia. The discussion will be hosted by Robert Beuka, Professor at the City University of New York, and one of the pioneers of the emerging discipline of “suburban studies.”
The final film, Half Nelson (2006), concerns an inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit who forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she uncovers his secret. The discussion will be hosted by the writers and directors of the film, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden.
For more information please visit our website www.stonybrook.edu/humanities or call (631) 632-9957.
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This series is being sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, The Suffolk County Office of Cultural Affairs and the Greater Port Jefferson and Northern Brookhaven Arts Council.
