VIRTUALPROGRAMMING
Cinema LatinXperience
Programmed by Nico Treviño
Cinema LatinXperience is a virtual film series highlighting the explosion of filmmaking and productions coming from Latin America in the 21st century. This month we focus on Mexico, where films and filmmakers have emerged and succeeded in attaining some of the world’s most renowned accolades, while also capturing colorful nuance and idiosyncratic human experiences.
Cinema LatinXperience: Mexico will also examine the political, social, and historical backdrop of contemporary cinema in an attempt to better understand its ties to the modern Mexican identity. We will soon discover, if we have not yet already, that Mexican cinema and its prestige will not be contained at its borders.
THE FEMININE MASHRIQ
Programmed by Emily Basma
The Feminine Mashriq is a series shining light on the thriving independent cinema of the Arab world - 50% of which is made by women and femme directors. This series will focus on narratives that don’t explicitly center on war or poverty, but instead the mundane, poetic, and human aspects of taking up space in the MENA region. Each week we will highlight a film from a different country and explore the idea of national and regional cinema.
BLACK IS NOT A GENRE
Programmed by Graham Cumberbatch
Black Is Not A Genre is a film series highlighting the under-examined and under-appreciated contributions of Black cinema to genre film. The title is a play on the paradoxical existence of Black cinema. The acknowledgment of shared aesthetic and cultural languages across the Black film diaspora is integral to a deeper understanding of its value. However, the persistent marginalization of Black art and racist assumptions about marketability have pigeonholed Black films into a commercial monolith, a commercially artificial “genre” that makes a spectacle of their Blackness and ignores the specificity of their craftsmanship. As a result, Black films are only discussed in relation to other Black-made films and are excluded from essential, canonical discussions about genre that fundamentally shape the way we view what’s good, what’s good, what holds value.