Spring 2022
INTERNATIONAL LENS, a film series with a global perspective, provides a forum to promote conversation among Vanderbilt’s diverse students, faculty, staff, and the greater Nashville community. International Lens endeavors to transcend geographic, linguistic, ethnic, religious, and political boundaries by encouraging conversation and greater cross-cultural understanding through cinema.
The series is coordinated by the Program in Cinema & Media Arts in collaboration with the College of Arts and Science, Dean of Students offices, and other departments, centers, and programs across the University.
There is no charge for admission.
Films are screened in Sarratt Cinema at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Patrons are Required to be Masked at all times and practice social-distancing as best as possible in the theatre.
Spring 2022 Schedule of Films
59th Ann Arbor Film Festival Tour
Thursday, January 27
Presented by Jonathan Rattner, Associate Professor of Cinema & Media Arts and Art
Internationally recognized as a premiere forum for independent filmmakers and artists, the Ann Arbor Film Festival is the oldest avant-garde and experimental film festival in North America. The 59th Festival Tour presents remarkable cinematic experiences by film artists exploring experimental, documentary, animation, narrative, and hybrid forms. 100 mins.
Antigone
Thursday, February 3
Presented by Chiara Sulprizio, Senior Lecturer in Classical and Mediterranean Studies
Canada (2019) Dir: Sophia Deraspe
An Algerian-born teenager living in Montreal with her immigrant family has her world shaken when her oldest brother is wrongfully gunned down by police during the arrest of her other brother who, if convicted, faces deportation. This incisive, liberal adaptation of the Greek tragedy by Sophocles deftly incorporates urgent and explosive contemporary questions of immigration and belonging, social media and identity, and the power of idealism. French with English subtitles. 109 min.
Weathering with You
Thursday, February 10
Presented in association with the Vanderbilt International Student Council
Japan (2019) Dir: Makoto Shinkai
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. He lives his days in isolation, with the weather unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. Then one day he meets an orphan girl who possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky. Japanese with English subtitles. 112 min.
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
Thursday, February 17
Presented by Claudine Taaffe, Senior Lecturer in African American and Diaspora Studies
USA (2019) Dir: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Woven together with a rich collection of art, history, literature and personality, Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics and colleagues on an exploration of race, America, history, and the human condition as seen through the prism of her own literature. It is an artful and intimate meditation on the life and critically acclaimed works of the legendary storyteller and Nobel prize-winner. English. 120 min.
Night Raiders
Thursday, February 24
Presented by Lutz Koepnick, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of German and Cinema & Media Arts
Canada/New Zealand (2021) Dir: Danis Goulet
Set in 2043, after a destructive war across North America, a military occupation seizes control of society. One of their core tactics: taking children from their families and putting them into State Academies, or forced-education camps. A desperate, indigenous Cree woman joins an underground band of vigilantes to infiltrate a State children’s academy and get her daughter back. English. 101 min.
The Green Knight
Thursday, March 3
Presented by Pavneet Aulakh, Senior Lecturer in English
USA (2021) Dir: David Lowery
A fantastical retelling of the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this is the epic adventure of Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a mysterious giant who appears at Camelot. Risking his head, Gawain sets off on an epic adventure to prove himself before his family and court by facing the ultimate challenger. English. 130 min.
Waltz with Bashir
Thursday, March 17
Presented by Jonathan Waters, Principal Senior Lecturer in Cinema & Media Arts
Israel (2008) Dir: Ari Folman
Upon realizing a lack of memory of serving in the Israeli Army in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, film director Ari Forman tracks down fellow veterans of that conflict to try to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service. A tortured reassemblage of an uncertain past, this uniquely devastating animated film tries to piece together how and why thousands of innocent civilians were massacred because those with the power to stop them took no action. Hebrew with English subtitles. 90 min.
Cured
Thursday, March 24
Presented by Tara McKay, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society
Sponsored in collaboration with the Vanderbilt LGBTQ Policy Lab, and the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
USA (2020) Dir: Patrick Sammon, Bennett Singer
This moving film takes viewers inside the campaign that led to a pivotal yet largely unknown moment in the struggle for LGBTQ equality: the American Psychiatric Association’s 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. Combining eyewitness testimony with newly unearthed archival footage, the film reveals how a small group of impassioned activists achieved this unexpected victory. English. 80 min.
In a Different Key
Thursday, March 31. **Not an official iLens event**
Special iLens Affiliate Partner Screening Event @ 7pm
Presented by Keivan Stassun, Stevenson Professor of Astrophysics.
Sponsored in collaboration with the Frist family and the First Center for Autism and Innovation
USA (2020) Dir: John Donvan, Caren Zucker
A mother tracks down the first person ever diagnosed with autism, now an elderly man in rural Mississippi, to learn if his life story holds promise for her own autistic son. Her journey exposes a startling record of cruelty and kindness alike, framed by forces like race, money and privilege – but leads to hope that more of us are learning to have the backs of those who are “different.” English. 102 min.
Memories of My Father (El Olivido que Seremos)
Thursday, April 7. SCREENING CANCELED!
Presented by Miguel Á. Herranz Cano, PhD candidate, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Columbia (2020) Dir: Fernando Trueba
This film details the life of Héctor Abad Gómez, a doctor and university professor, turned human rights activist, who fought against oppression and social inequality during the violent 1970s in Medellin, Colombia. It is a wonderfully intimate story seen through the eyes of his only son, contemporary Colombian author Héctor Abad Facilionce. Spanish with English subtitles. 136 mins
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Thursday, April 14
Presented by Akshya Saxena, Assistant Professor of English
India (2011) Dir: Zoya Akhtar
Three friends who were inseparable in childhood decide to go on a three-week-long bachelor road trip to Spain, in order to re-establish their bond and explore thrilling adventures, before one of them gets married. A heartfelt buddy road-trip movie through picturesque Spain that invites us to rediscover friendships and make the most of life. Hindi with English subtitles. 153 mins
Honeyland
Thursday, April 21
Presented in association with the Department of Cinema & Media Arts
North Macedonia (2019) Dir: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov
In an isolated mountain region deep within the Balkans, the last woman in a long line of Macedonian wild beekeepers must save the bees and return the natural balance when a family of nomadic beekeepers invade her land. Even as the family provides a much-needed respite from isolation and loneliness, this disruption causes a breach in the natural order and exposes the fundamental tension between nature and humanity, harmony and discord, exploitation and sustainability, threatening her very means of survival. Balkin Turkish with English subtitles. 87 mins
Films screen in Sarratt Cinema at 7:30pm unless otherwise noted.
Patrons are Required to Remained Masked at all times in Vanderbilt’s campus buildings and in the theatre. Please practice social-distancing as best as possible in the theatre as well to keep everyone safe.