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photo credit, Jim Pyke
Professor Cohen’s SAC 340 (Writing Film Criticism) poses with Robert Altman’s awards (recently added to the Altman archive in UM Library's Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers Collection by Film Studies Field Librarian Phillip Hallman).  Daniel Hackert (left) holds Altman’s Golden Globe for Gosford Park; Mary Lou Chlipala (middle) holds his lifetime achievement Oscar; and Professor Cohen (right) holds his Emmy for Tanner ’88. 
THIS WEEK'S EVENTS
Center for Japanese Studies Noon Lecture Series
"Anime Ecology: Girls Are Not Bound by Thermodynamics" 
Thursday, April 14
School of Social Work, Room 1636
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. 
World crisis is a common theme in recent anime, and often a gendered one. Gaia theory postulates a self-regulating Earth figured as feminine and maternal, but the notion of mother nature as a force of equilibrium looks naive in the context of the Anthropocene. Is it possible to see in magical girls an anime ecofeminism that complicates the idealism of a maternal Nature? This talk explores how the magical girl may bridge the media ecology of anime and "dark ecology," or ecological thought without Nature. Organized by Professor Markus Nornes, this lecture features Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Emory University, Ryan Cook. Cook teaches courses in world film history and on topics related to his own research areas in Japanese film and cultural history—these include postwar film and art movements, genres, and criticism, as well as contemporary narrative film, adaptation and the “media mix.” 
Psychos: SAC Honors Original One-Hour Television Drama, a Table Read
Thursday, April 14 
CC Little Building, Room 1528
7:00 p.m. 
Students accepted into the SAC Honors Program enroll in a year-long honors seminar course (SAC 495) and gain the opportunity to carry out the independent work required to complete an honors thesis, screenplay, or film, video, television, or digital production. Kristen Batko's original one-hour television drama Psychos, takes place in 1948 and revolves around three characters committed to Metropolis State Hospital -- Charlotte, a Rosie the Riveter type who becomes depressed after the war when she's forced back into being a housewife and pressured to become a mother; Robert, a 17-year-old with bipolar disorder and a penchant for getting in trouble way over his head; and Evelyn, a black lesbian who was part of an underground LGBTQ movement and institutionalized by her lover's husband. Please join us at the table read of Psychos and help to support the creative work of our students. 

Please see the "Mark Your Calendars" section below for details about this year's Honors Film Screenings. 
"What Is Digital Studies?" Interdisciplinary Digital Studies at the University of Michigan 
Friday, April 15
Gallery Room 100, Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library
11:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. 
Digital Studies allows students to engage in topics such as video games and identity, digital culture, the role of computer code in everyday life, and the use of social media as a form of personal and cultural expression.  It offers students the methods and tools for studying, analyzing, and critically reflecting upon their everyday engagements with electronic forms of community and culture. 
This conference includes a faculty and graduate student panel entitled "What is Digital Studies" featuring Professor Amanda Lotz ("Researching Television Distribution as Digital Studies") and PechaKucha Presentations featuring Doctoral Student Joseph DeLeon ("Mapping Digital Detroit"). For a full conference schedule, please click here.

Keynote Speech: Wendy Chun "Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media," 4:15 p.m.  

Theorist Wendy Chun discusses her new book; to read more, click here. 
This event is being held in conjunction with the Department of American Culture's 80th Anniversary; Organized by Digital Studies with support from Rackham Graduate School, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, and the Departments of American Culture, Communication Studies, English Language & Literature, and Screen Arts & Cultures.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
React to Film Screening: Salam Neighbor 
Monday, April 18
Trotter Multicultural Center
8:00 - 10:00 p.m. 
This event is sponsored by React to Film and cosponsored by the Syrian Orphans Sponsorship Association (SOSA) and the Middle East and Arab Network (MEdAN).
SAC Honors Film Screenings
Tuesday, April 19
Michigan Theater Screening Room 
Screening - 6:30 p.m.
(Left) Stills from Andrew Day's "Night Watch"; (right) stills from Joseph Biglin's "February 14, 1992"
SAC honors students Joseph Biglin  and Andrew Day will screen their original films "Night Watch" (22 minutes) and "February 14, 1992" (35 minutes) at the Michigan Theater on April 19 and be available to answer questions after the screenings. Please join us and support the creative work of our students!
FVSA Lightworks Festival
Saturday, April 23 (beginning at 7 p.m)
Sunday, April 24 (beginning at 2 p.m)
Natural Science Auditorium
The Lightworks Festival is a showcase of Screen Arts & Cultures' student films. Presented by SAC's student organization, FVSA (Film and Video Student Organization), the Lightworks Festival is the venue for students to present their end-of-the-term production coursework to classmates, family, and friends of Screen Arts & Cultures. Please join us to support the art of production -- and our talented students!

If you are a SAC student, and you would like more information about submissions and deadlines, please click here. 
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED PHOTO
photo credit, Mary Lou Chlipala

As part of the SAC Speaker Series, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at BU, Deborah Jaramillo, presented "In Pursuit of Wholesome TV: The Strange Path to the Television Code" on April 7 in the SAC Conference room. 
NEWS
Professor Amanda Lotz Speaks at Northwestern and BEA Conference 
Professor Amanda Lotz was invited to present a paper, Rethinking Television: Broadband-Distributed Portals and the Logics of a "Subscription Model," at the Inventing the New: Innovation in Creative Enterprises conference at Northwestern University on April 8-9. This paper explored the emergence of broadband-distributed portals and their related logics with particular attention to new business models and ramifications for long-form, industry-created television content. 
Lotz will also present on Teaching Media Industries Courses in a Converged World at the Broadcasting Education Association Conference on April 17 in Las Vegas. This year’s conference theme goes back to the idea that content is still king, no matter how it’s dressed up in technology. At the heart of everything … is the ability to tell a great story.  So how do we create and teach the next generation of media professionals to be great storytellers?  What should we be researching or thinking about to help foster creative storytelling across multimedia platforms? 
Professor Johannes von Moltke Talks with New York Times Critic and Author A.O. Scott in Princeton
Among a packed house at Labyrinth Books in Princeton last week, Professor von Moltke sat down to talk with journalist  A.O. Scott about his new book, Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth. In the book, Scott argues that we are, in fact, all critics: because critical thinking informs almost every aspect of artistic creation, of civil action, of interpersonal life. With penetrating insight and warm humor, Scott shows that while individual critics–himself included–can make mistakes and find flaws where they shouldn’t, criticism as a discipline is one of the noblest, most creative, and urgent activities of modern existence.
TV Producer Shaw Brown Fulfills Michigan Oath Upon Visiting Sarris's SAC 304
 photo credit, Mary Lou Chlipala

TV Producer Shaw Brown visited Terri Sarris's SAC 304 - WOLV class last week to talk about his television career after leaving Michigan and give students advice about working in broadcast television. He invited students to send their resumes and work samples for his review and promised to connect students with other Michigan alums at ESPN, NBC, and various other outlets.  The class took "The Michigan Oath" -- the promise that once you have begun your career you will help other Michigan grads who come to you seeking career advice.  Sarris asked Brown to take that oath in her class in 1995 --  and he kept it by coming back to talk to students and agreeing to help them as they start their careers -- despite his demanding work schedule (The night before Brown came to visit the class, he had produced a televised soccer match in Orlando and, upon leaving, he was on his way to produce another in Connecticut).  Sarris and her students are truly grateful that Brown took the time to "fit SAC in" to his very busy life. For more about Shaw Brown's career, click here. 
Filmmaker Jennifer Phang Skypes in for Q & A with Veerendra Prasad's SAC 210
Filmmaker Jennifer Phang skyped in for a Q & A during  V. Prasad's SAC 210: Introduction to Screenwriting class. Students read Phang's screenplay for the movie Advantageous and watched the short film upon which the feature-length film was based. Phang answered questions about the process of developing the screenplay and realizing the feature film on a small budget.

Advantageous, a dystopian film that Wired's Jordan Crucchiola claims "is just Phang’s latest attempt to be a part of the solution she so deeply hopes for, to raise our awareness of the issues she views as most pressing in our world," won a Special Jury Prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards.
SAC Senior Joseph Biglin Lauded for His Original Film "February 14, 1992" by M-agination Film Goers  
In the recent M-agination review in the Daily entitled "Student-run M-agination screens original short films," Daily Film Editor Rebecca Lerner and Arts Writer Madeleine Gaudin praise Biglin's film as a "stand-out film [that] truly exhibited the nature of the festival." They comment, "It felt vaguely like a film you’d watch in a theory class, with obvious cultural value and messages that feel clear but also sometimes totally out of intellectual reach. It jumped through stretches of the life of a college-aged man in seconds, intriguing us with small tastes of the film’s strong and bittersweet emotions." The shortened teaser shown at M-agination was only a part of the full film that will be shown at The Michigan Theater April 19 as part of the U-M Screen Arts & Cultures Honors Film Screening. For more commentary about Biglin's film, as well as information about other LSA and SAC student films and involvement in the festival, please click here. 
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