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Free Screening and Q & A with Filmmaker Rola Nashef of Detroit Unleaded
Monday, April 6
Forum Hall, Palmer Commons
7:00 p.m.
 A fresh take on boy-meets-girl comedy set in Detroit, Sami runs his immigrant family's gas station with his cousin Mike, a charismatic hustler with dreams of expanding into an unleaded empire. More than just a pit stop for late-night gas and rolling papers, their station is where a steady stream of unforgettable and often hilarious customers flow through. When a gorgeous "up-do girl" named Najlah comes to deliver cheap, long-distance phone cards, Sami quickly falls for her from behind the bulletproof glass. Afraid her overprotective brother Fadi will disapprove, Najlah begins an under-the-counter romance with Sami, making his shift anything but routine.
This screening is sponsored by the Departments of American Culture, Communication Studies, and Screen Arts & Cultures.
To view the trailer, click here.
To learn more about filmmaker Rola Nashef, click here.
Associate Professor Matthew Solomon Delivers Talk Entitled "Méliès and the Materiality of Modern Magic."
Thursday, April 9
North Quad, Room 6360
11:30 - 1:00 p.m.
 At the end of the nineteenth century, modern magic made a specialty of instantaneous disappearances. The Vanishing Lady, first performed in 1886, was the most sensational stage illusion of its time. Just ten years later, the invention of the cinematograph provided magicians like Georges Méliès with a new piece of magic apparatus that could be used to visualize even more striking disappearances. This presentation interrogates the specific materials that made the disappearances of modern magic possible through a close look at several of Méliès' theatrical and cinematographic illusions. Placing these illusions in the context of stage magic's new techniques and the second industrial revolution's new substances reveals how much modern magic relied upon such newly available materials as celluloid, chemical adhesives, and ductile steel wire.
Screen Arts & Cultures' Hubert I. Cohen Film Criticism & Film Scholarship Lecture Series Presents "Do We Really Need Film Criticism?" -- a Talk by Neil Gabler
Thursday, April 9
CC Little 1528
7:00 p.m
 Neal Gabler is a distinguished author, cultural historian, and television commentator who has been called "one of America's most important public intellectuals." His first book, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and the Theatre Library Association Award for the best book on television, radio, or film. On the centenary of the first public exhibition of motion pictures in America, a special panel of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named it one of the one hundred outstanding books on the America film industry. His second book, Winchell: Gossip, Power and Culture of the Celebrity, was nominated for the National Book Critics' Circle Award and was named the non-fiction book of the year by Time Magazine. It recently placed sixth on Newsweek's list of "Books to Read Now." His third book, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, is currently being used in college courses across the country to examine the convergence of reality and entertainment. His most recent book, Walt Disney, The Triumph of the American Imagination, a New York Times best seller, was named biography of the year by USA Today and won Mr. Gabler his second Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was also the runner-up for the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Book Award in England.
Mr. Gabler and Jeffrey Lyons replaced departing co-hosts Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel on the public television review program, "Sneak Previews." He has also been the host of the American Movie Classics cable television network and of "Reel to Real" on the History Channel; he currently hosts "Reel Thirteen" on WNET, the public television station in New York, for which he won an Emmy. Finally, Gabler contributes to the Bill Moyers' series, "Moyer & Co."
Mr. Gabler is a contributing editor at Playboy and a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and Reuters Opinion; his essays and articles have appeared in Newsweek, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New Republic, Men's Journal, George, Time, TV Guide, and Variety. In 2014, he won the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award from the Los Angeles Press Club. An alumnus of the University of Michigan, Mr. Gabler is currently researching a book on the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and the course of modern American liberalism.
Associate Professor Yeidy Rivero Delivers Keynote at The 18th Annual Hispanic and Lusophone Studies Symposium: Race and Gender in Iberian and Latin American Literature and Culture
Friday and Saturday, April 10-11
Ohio State University
This year's symposium concentrates on race and gender in Iberian and Latin American literature and culture; its aim is to enlighten the interdisciplinary academic dialogue in these areas and expand and problematize the notions established by hegemony apparatuses and heteronormative visions among other categorizations. Yeidy Rivero will deliver the keynote for the symposium: her research centers on television history, media and globalization, and race and ethnic representations in media. She is the author of Tuning out Blackness: Race and Nation in the History of Puerto Rican Television, Broadcasting Modernity: Cuban Commercial Television, 1950-1960, and co-editor (with Arlene Dávila) of Contemporary Latina/o Media: Production, Circulation, Politics.
Salon Exhibition of SAC 404 Student Work
Monday, April 20
Space 2435, North Quad
7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Chris McNamara and his SAC 404 students are taking over Space 2435 on Monday night, April 20, to showcase various student projects produced in McNamara's Experimental Screen class. Come wander the galleries and support the creative efforts of our students!
Assistant Professor Damon Young Participates in Panel Discussion at the Queer Art Poetics Conference
Thursday and Friday, April 23 and 24
Wesleyan Universty
 The Queer Art Poetics Conference, sponsored by the Wesleyan Center for the Humanities, will address such questions as "What does theory do when it takes queer art seriously?" and "How does queer theory remain artful while unpacking the objects, strategies, and politics of queer aesthetics?" On Friday, April 23rd, at 1:30 p.m., Assistant Professor Damon Young will participate in a panel discussion entitled "Public Privates: Mediations of Queer Intimacy."
FVSA Lightworks Festival
Friday and Saturday, April 24 and 25
Angell Hall, Auditorium A
Time T.B.A.
The Lightworks Festival is a showcase of Screen Arts & Cultures' student films. Presented by SAC's student organization FVSA (Film and Video Student Association), the Lightworks Festival is the venue for students to present their end-of-the-year production coursework to classmates, family, and friends of Screen Arts. Please join us to support our students.
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED PHOTO
Terri Sarris (seated) and Carrie Moore discuss SAC's academic programs with interested underclassmen at the LSA Major/Minor Expo on March 25th.
Have any upcoming SAC news or events?
Please contact SAC.newsletter@umich.edu by Monday of every week.
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NEWS
"Ziegler," a film by SAC's Terri Sarris and SAC Alumnus Frank Pahl, Premiers at Ann Arbor Film Festival
"Ziegler," by Terri Sarris and Frank Pahl, recently screened at opening night of the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Shot on 16mm film and created using toys, objects, and yard sale paintings that Terri has collected and assembled over the years, the film is adapted from the 1908 story "A Man By the Name of Ziegler" by Hermann Hesse.
 
If you missed "Ziegler" at the Film Festival, watch it on Vimeo.
SAC's Chris McNamara Honored on Both Sides of the River for His Work in Media Arts
 Chris McNamara recently received a Chalmers Foundation Fellowship through the Ontario Arts Council in support of his media arts and video projects. Chalmers Fellowships support artists in examining, investigating, exploring, and/or experimenting with style, technique, process, method, content, or an issue or concern in their arts practice. Pictured above is one of McNamara's works entitled "On Location," an installation piece that represents some of the ongoing work he is doing with video elements and small dioramas.
McNamara has also been invited to serve on the University Advisory Council for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit.
Congratulations on these honors, Chris!
Professor Markus Nornes Publishes "Salute! A Festival That Asks 'What is Documentary?'"
In this article, Markus Nornes reflects upon his experiences at the Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, summarizing its diverse components and praising the festival's celebration of the radical heterogeneity of the documentary form. Below, Professor Nornes is pictured giving a Q&A to an energetic audience that assembled for a morning screening of an Ogawa Productions film.
Read Nornes's complete text about the festival here.
SAC Production Studio Initiates New Camera for Studio C in North Quad
This winter, the SAC Production team initiated their new camera, a new URSA model from Blackmagic Designs that features a Super 35mm image sensor capable of recording resolutions from standard HD up to uncompressed 4K and Ultra HD. It has a very robust lens mount that accommodates professional cinema lenses such as the Cooke20-100mm lens shown below. The camera is primarily used in the studio portion of SAC 400 in collaboration with students from the Theater and Drama Department.
SAC Alumna Connie Huang Takes to the Sea in Taiwan to Work on Scorsese's Silence.
Connie Huang is currently working as a 2nd AC on the new Martin Scorsese film, Silence. Below, she is pictured in action: she has spent her last week shooting various water scenes and visual FX plates on the boat.
April 1, 2015
 Interested in Participating in This Year's Lightworks Festival?
IMPORTANT DATES TO NOTE:
Transfer Sign-ups: April 16th, 11:59 p.m.
Transfers: April 22nd and April 23rd, noon to 5:00 p.m. both days
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