Film-Thinking asks how cinema can help us to think the many challenges facing our moment. According to the novelist Jonathan Coe, “A movie is something we should only see when somebody else shows it to us.” In the spirit of Coe’s remark, each Film-Thinking event comprises a curated screening of a film and a post-screening conversation. A pre-circulated film note offers a point of departure for the screening and the discussion. Convened by Timothy Bewes, Owen F. Walker Professor of Humanities and Professor of English.
Cogut Institute for the Humanities
Film-Thinking
Upcoming Events
Past Events and Transcripts
For 2022–23, Film-Thinking focused on three films: “Far from Heaven” by Todd Haynes (US, France, 2002), “La ricotta” by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy, France, 1963), and “First Case, Second Case [Qazieh-e shekl-e avval … shekl-e dovvom]” by Abbas Kiarostami (Iran, 1980).
After a year’s hiatus, Film-Thinking returned with conversations on Charles Burnett’s family drama “To Sleep with Anger” (1990) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s political mystery “The Spider's Stratagem” (1970).
In its initial year, Film-Thinking convened conversations on Werner Schroeter’s "The Death of Maria Malibran" (1972), Jafar Panahi’s "The Mirror" (1997), and Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi's "Zinda Bhaag" (2013).
On December 9, 2019 Timothy Bewes was joined by Shahzad Bashir and Samine Tabatabaei for a screening and discussion of Jafar Panahi’s film "Ayneh" (The Mirror) (Iran, 1997).
Alexander García Düttmann (University of the Arts, Berlin) discusses Werner Schroeter’s film "Der Tod der Maria Malibran" (Germany, 1972) with Gertrud Koch (Free University, Berlin, and Brown University), Peter Szendy (Brown University) in a conversation introduced and moderated by Timothy Bewes.