J. Hoberman at the Movies this Friday

We invite you to attend our final event of the season, a special opportunity to view and discuss film clips and the future of cinema with major film critic J. Hoberman, a contributor at the Village Voice for more than three decades, and author of the new book about trends in 21^st century cinema, Film After Film (2012).

Among other films, Hoberman will be showing clips from animated adult feature, Waking Life, and the Polish-Japanese video game digital feature, Avalon.

 

J. Hoberman, film critic
December 7 (Friday)
Reading/Discussion — 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

J. Hoberman, one of the most influential American film critics of recent decades, is admired for his wit, intellectual energy and incomparable knowledge of experimental, international, independent, and Hollywood cinema. His new book is Film After Film (2012), which argues among other things that the future of film is animation and digital-image-making, ending “the need for an actual world, let alone a camera.” Senior film critic at the Village Voice from 1988 to 2012, Hoberman started with the paper in the 1970s as a third stringer under critic Andrew Sarris. Jessica Winter of Time magazine praised his work as “elegant, erudite, ambitious, and wondrously droll arts and media criticism,” and credited him for teaching her generation of critics “how to think and write about popular culture.” A portion of the Writers Institute’s fall 2012 Classic Film Series was based on Hoberman’s list of his favorite 21st century films
(see Classic Film Series Listing).

 

For more information contact 518-442-5620 or writers@albany.edu, or visit us online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/ . You may also wish to visit our blog at http://nyswiblog.blogspot.com/, or to friend us on Facebook. 

 

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Avalon: Sci-fi Film on Friday

Speaking of apocalypse, Junot Diaz, who is fond of apocalyptic sci-fi, might be interested in Friday's movie, Avalon, which was selected for our "The Future of Film" series by major film critic J. Hoberman. The series highlights what is happening to film in the 21st century. This computer-generated film in particular illustrates the rise of films that "no longer have need of an actual world, let alone a camera."

AVALON
October 5 (Friday)Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
(Japan and Poland, 2001, 107 minutes, color and b/w)
In Polish with English subtitles

Japan’s Mamoru Oshii pioneered the concept of a computer-generated world on film with his 1995 anime feature, GHOST IN THE SHELL, a major inspiration for 1999’s THE MATRIX. With AVALON, Oshii creates what Hoberman calls, “a new sort of cyborg entity, namely a digital-photographic fusion.” Made with a Polish cast and a Japanese crew, the film employs digital versions of vintage, sepia-tone photographs to create a battle simulation game set in Eastern Europe in the mid-20th century.

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