Experimental and Documentary Cinema: The Visible Spectrum

Experimental and Documentary Cinema is a new, annual film series to be presented as part of Screen/Society at the Rubenstein Art Center. For its inaugural year, guest curators Chi-hui Yang and Jon-Sesrie Goff created The Visible Spectrum, a program showcasing 18 artists who radically experiment with documentary form to articulate the fullness of history and lived experience.

Aural Futures

Often music is the first introduction to the cultural movement Afrofuturism. The Aural Futures series looks at how electronic music created a foundation in the development of Afrofuturism, explores the history of certain music movements like Afropunk that have introduced Afrofuturism to a larger audience, and how the Afrofuturist aesthetic is used to visually express the music and provide a narrative. Curated by Ingrid LaFleur from AFROTOPIA & Negar Mottahedeh at Duke University.
 

Cine-East: East Asian Cinema

This semester’s program focuses on the films of two exciting South Korean filmmakers: documentarian KIM Soyoung and narrative filmmaker KIM Ji-woon. KIM JI-woon will be in attendance for the 2 screenings of his films.

Precarious Living: Rediscoveries in American Independent Film

Three timely restorations (and one underseen classic) of 70’s/80’s independent film offer an affective glimpse into the origins of our own historical moment, where broad coalitions of class, race, geography and gender have failed to materialize, leaving precarious individuals to get by however they can. Curated by Jason Sudak and Hank Okazaki of Screen/Society.
 

Middle East Film Series

Four contemporary films explore a range of approaches and stories, including teenage detention centers in Tehran, Syrian construction workers in Lebanon, female-led uprisings in Palestine, and unemployed youth in Turkey.
 

Kung Fu 'Sifu' Lau Kar-Leung

‘Sifu’ is the Cantonese term for a skillful master/teacher. Renowned Hong Kong film director/choreographer Lau Kar-leung (Liu Chia-liang), was also a kung fu master whose lineage traced back to legendary folk hero Wong Fei-hung (portrayed by Gordon Liu in Lau’s Instructors of Death). In wildly entertaining films like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Lau used authentic kung fu demonstrations and arduous training sequences to educate audiences about kung fu, and to document and preserve its traditions. Curated by Hank Okazaki of Screen/Society.
 

2018 NC Latin American Film Festival

The 2018 NC Latin American Film Festival brings together an eclectic selection of new films from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. This diverse constellation of works is united by their cinematic exploration of moments of transformation — when individuals, communities, or even nations are at crossroads of dangers and/or possibilities. Screenings throughout the Triangle, including the four highlighted here at Duke University. Curated by Gustavo Furtado, Romance Studies/Latin American Studies.