Cinema of Substance

A film series showcasing poignant films from around the world exploring who we are and how we might be. The subjects of the films are then further examined in audience discussions with the films' award winning writers and directors.

Co-sponsored by the USC School of Cinematic Arts

2010-2011 Films and Speakers

2009-2010 Films and Speakers

Film Screening: Poetry

Wednesday, March 7, 7 PM (Albert and Dana Broccoli Theatre, SCA 112)

Co-sponsor: USC School of Cinematic Arts

On a whim, Mija enrolls in a poetry class at the local cultural center and begins a personal quest to find the perfect words to describe her feelings. When her world is turned upside down by the discovery of a monstrous crime, it is Mija’s unique and touching poetry that allows her to defy the weight of shame and distance herself from a painful proximity to violence.

“With an understated visual style and perfectly paced narrative, [writer-director Lee Chang-dong’s] Poetry has created a portrait of a woman who has, by the end, become an extraordinary vision of human empathy.”

—Manohla Dargis, New York Times

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Film Screening: Nostalgia for the Light

Tuesday, October 25, 7 PM (Ray Stark Family Theatre)

Prix Chalais Winner, 2010 Cannes Film Festival
Best Documentary Grand Prix, 2010 European Film Awards
Centerpiece, 2011 Documentary Fortnight, The Museum of Modern Art
Top 10 Best Movies of 2010, Sight & Sound
Critic’s Pick, The New York Times

Director Patricio Guzman travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth. Atop the mountains of the Atacama Desert, astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe.

The Atacama Desert is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, “disappeared” by the Chilean army after the military coup of September 11, 1973.

So while astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies, at the foot of the mountains, women, surviving relatives of the disappeared whose bodies were dumped here, search, even after twenty-five years, for the remains of their loved ones, to reclaim their families’ histories.

Melding the celestial quest of the astronomers and the earthly one of the Chilean women, Nostalgia for the Light is a gorgeous, moving, and deeply personal odyssey.

For more information and to see the trailer click here

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HAPPY: An evening with filmmaker Roko Belic

Does money make you HAPPY? Kids and family? Your work? Do you live in a world that values and promotes happiness and well-being? Are we in the midst of a happiness revolution?

Roko Belic, director ofthe Academy Award® nominated "Genghis Blues" now brings us HAPPY, a documentary that combines interviews with leading scientists who research happiness and real life stories from ordinary and extraordinary people across 14 countries. Taking us from the bayous of Louisiana to the deserts to Namibia, from the beaches of Brazil to the villages of Okinawa, HAPPY explores the secrets behind our most valued emotion.

Screening followed by Q&A with Roko Belic

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