Film Series
2020-2021 RIC FLIX 2.0
Movies in Times of Crisis and Times of Change
- Watch monthly films on your own streamed through FREE
RIC Kanopy account (login using RIC username and password required)
- Join LIVE guided discussions each month on scheduled Friday nights at 7pm
Cosponsored by RIC Film Studies, Adams Library and Student Union
Relevance of movies in this day and age…
Movies provide us with fantasy worlds and alternate realities, but the stories that they tell both impact and are impacted by real-world conditions at the times at which they are made. Movies celebrate the things our culture values. They reflect cultural anxieties or cultural tensions—and sometimes they reflect on them. In other cases, they critique social inequalities and injustices.
Movies can be made to preserve the status quo or to advocate for change. They can be made to commemorate, to honor, to mourn for, or to reevaluate the past. They can be made to document, to validate, or to challenge the present. And, they can be made to imagine, to warn against, or aspire to different futures.
Movies sometimes provide us with a form of escapism—whether at the end of a stressful day, at moments of social upheaval, or in the midst of upheaval in our personal lives. Our favorite moves—like our favorite books or our favorite TV shows—also provide comfort and familiarity in times of uncertainty and change.
Movies are not just cathartic or transformational for their audiences, either. Some filmmakers make movies to work through personal issues. Some filmmakers make movies to try to make sense of current social issues. And some filmmakers make movies as a form of social activism.
Join us for the 2020-2021 RIC FLIX 2.0 film series as we examine all of these different ways that movies intersect with times of crisis and times of change.
Schedule
October 4 - 9 – Mariam
As a result of the law passed in France in 2004 that bans religious symbols from public schools, high school student Mariam must choose between remaining in school and continuing the practice of wearing a hijab in observance of her Muslim faith.
- October 4-9: Watch film Mariam via FREE
RIC Kanopy (login using RIC username and password required)
- Friday, October 9 @ 7pm - LIVE
Guided Discussion
November 8 - 13 - In the Mood for Love
Two neighbors in a Hong Kong apartment complex develop a bond after discovering their respective spouses are both cheating on them.
- November 8-13: Watch film In the Mood for Love via FREE
RIC Kanopy (login using RIC username and password required)
- Friday, November 13 @ 7pm - LIVE
Guided Discussion
November 29 - December 4: In Sickness and in Wealth
This documentary explores the impact of both economic inequalities and racial inequalities on health and illness in the U.S., including access to healthcare, access to medication and other treatments, and the types of care patients receive from healthcare professionals.
- November 29-December 4: Watch film In Sickness and in Wealth via FREE
RIC Kanopy (login using RIC username and password required)
- Friday, December 4 @ 7pm - LIVE
Guided Discussion
February (dates TBD): Passion for Justice
This documentary profiles 19th Century journalist Ida B. Wells. Born into slavery, Wells was an early Civil Rights activist, a co-founder of the NAACP, and an investigative reporter who used her reporting to document the terrorizing and lynching of African-Americans in the South in the 1890s.
March (dates TBD): Cleo from 5 to 7
Awaiting biopsy results, (fictional) French pop star Cleo spends two hours wandering through Paris, trying to distract herself from worry about a possible cancer diagnosis.
April (dates TBD): Modern Times
This comedy provides both satirical commentary and insightful reflection on the social, economic, and technological changes that characterized life in the U.S. in the early 20th Century, including industrialization, the labor movement, the suffrage movement, and the experience of immigrants in urban areas.
