Citizen Kane at Facets / Mary at Transistor Chicago

This summer, for the fifth year in a row, I will be teaching a session at Facets Multimedia’s Summer Film Institute, a unique and intensive week-long film camp for teachers. The topic of my day long seminar is “Hollywood Masterpieces in the Classroom: How to Teach Classic Hollywood Movies.” During the day-long session I will be screening Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane in its entirety as well as clips from various other classic films. The Film Institute is aimed at high school teachers and affords the opportunity to earn 30 CPDUs although anyone is welcome to attend. My session will occur this Friday, July 17th. More information can be found on the Facets website here.

Also, on Saturday, July 18th, at 8:00 pm I will be introducing a screening of Abel Ferrara’s Mary at Transistor Chicago. Admission is free and the event is BYOB. This will be the Chicago premiere of Ferrara’s masterpiece, which will be screened via projection of a Region 2 DVD. Here is the description I wrote for Transistor’s website:

From writer/director Abel Ferrara comes this controversial, brilliant and fragmented narrative: Juliette Binoche plays an actress who plays Mary Magdelene in a movie within the movie. Her experience playing the part causes her to embark on a spiritual quest to Israel. Meanwhile, her film’s megalomaniacal director (Matthew Modine) faces a Passion of the Christ-like controversy back in the United States. A profound exploration of spirituality in the modern world, Mary boasts an all-star cast that also includes Forest Whitaker, Marion Cotillard and Heather Graham but tragically remains without North American distribution. (2005, R, 83 minutes)

More info can be found on the Transistor website here. Any of my students who attend will earn extra credit points towards their final grade. Refer to the extra credit page of your course syllabus for details. Hope to see you there!