The McGillicuddy Humanities Center is holding a year-long film series examining “The Cinema of Colonization and Decolonization” as part of our annual symposium. The films selected engage with the theme in a variety of ways, from incorporating the legacies of colonization into the storyline to disrupting traditional Western systems and methods of production and distribution. Films are shown in Hill Auditorium in Barrows Hall (ESRB) on select Monday evenings at 6 p.m. All movies are free, open to the public, and include a meal and discussion.
March 9: Coffy
Coffy (1973), directed by Jack Hill, is a classic of blaxploitation cinema starring Pam Grier as a vigilante nurse fighting drug dealers, criminals, and the system, in an effort to avenge her sister’s death. The film subverts the action/crime movie genre and places black characters at the center as the heroes. Noted visiting film scholar, Professor Ernest Mathijs from the Film and Media Studies Department at the University of British Columbia, will lead a discussion following the film.
March 23: Innocence Unprotected
Innocence Unprotected (1968), directed by Dusan Makavejev, is a Yugoslav film pieced together with footage from an earlier 1941 film of the same name made by gymnast Dragoljub Aleksić that was never released due to Nazi censors. Makavejev added additional news footage from the war and Nazi propaganda to turn it into something entirely new, part documentary, part bizarre acrobatic montage. Michael Grillo, Associate Professor of the History of Art at UMaine, will lead a discussion following the film.
April 6: Timbuktu
Timbuktu (2014), directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, is a French-Mauritanian film that examines the brief occupation of Timbuktu, Mali by the militant Islamist group Ansar Dine. The film has won numerous awards, including the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Alan Berry, PhD student in Communication, will lead a discussion following the film.
