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In recognition of his sustained record of excellence in teaching and service, Jim Burnstein was named one of three university-wide Collegiate Lecturers for 2015 and honored on Thursday, October 29th, in the Hussey room of the Michigan League. Burnstein is pictured delivering his speech (top left), being congratulated by Dean Martin (top right), and receiving the enthusiastic support of his family, friends, and colleagues (bottom). 
photo credit - Mary Lou Chlipala
THIS WEEK'S EVENTS
Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien
Fall 2015 Chinese Film Festival 
November 3-11
Michigan Theater: See schedule for specific times 
Free and Open to the Public 
This film series trailer was prepared for the touring retrospective when it screened last fall at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
An international retrospective organized by Richard I. Suchenski (Dir. Center for Moving Image Arts, Bard College) in collaboration with the Taipei Cultural Center, the Taiwan Film Institute, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China, the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies presents the Also Like Life Film Series, which will feature the following films: Dust in the Wind; A Time to Live and a Time to Die; Flowers of Shanghai; Good Men, Good Women; and Millennium Mambo. 
Professor Markus Nornes comments on the retrospective: Hou Hsiao-hsien is one of the greatest filmmakers working today, and if you haven't seen his work, this is your chance. The Taiwanese government struck brand new prints, which have been circulating around the world to venues like MOMA, BFI, Eastman House, the Academy, and everywhere else. The Michigan Theater just made a test run, and the projectionist told me he was shocked at the quality of these pristine archival prints. It's a rare treat to see these films on the big screen. I hope to see you there! 
For more on Hou Hsiao-hsien's work, read "Taiwan's Master Timekeeper." 
3rd Thursday Speaker Series Features SAC Doctoral Candidate Katy Peplin
Thursday, November 5
SAC Conference Room, North Quad
11:30 a.m.
Katy Peplin continues this year's series with a presentation of her paper, "Does Anybody Like Dolphins?: Realism, Nature Documentary and the Image." 
Peplin begins with a discussion of Bazin, film critic and theorist who established a special place for animal subjects in his discourses on realism, and the world of scholarship that has followed his original work. She then applies those concepts to the realm of the nature documentary, and traces how changes in technology have caused that genre to adjust what is meant by realism in regards to the natural environment. This leads into the discussion of the medium of blu-ray discs, and how those discs were often marketed in terms of their hyper-realism, showcased by otherworldly images of the natural world. This combination of hyper-reality and realism placed an incredible burden on the body of the animal to be imaginistic, and brilliant in HD, and lead, perhaps in part, to the rise of the digital animal body. 
Lusophone Film Festival 
Festival Runs Through Early December
Films Screened at State Theater, Michigan Theater, and UMMA Helmut Stern Auditorium; See Schedule for Specific Times and Locations 
Free Admission  

The Lusophone Film Festival showcases the contemporary cinema of the Portuguese-speaking world. It is the second event of its kind in Ann Arbor and at the University of Michigan. The primary objectives of this event are to provide high visibility to the Portuguese language and its cultures at the University of Michigan and throughout the region, while contributing to program-building efforts currently underway in Portuguese.
Still from Sacred Bush (Kadjike), directed by Sana Na N'Hada. See the screening - with an introduction by Professor Fernando Arena - on November 5th at the State Theater at 7:00 p.m. 

Kadjike is set on the pristine shores of the Bijagós Archipelago, off the coast of W. Africa, and follows the lives and rituals of the islanders as they face up to the threat of drug traffickers in their midst. In the last decade, Guinea-Bissau became a transit hub for cocaine trading between Latin America and Europe. Kadjike is a coming of age drama and a meditation on the schism between traditional Guinean customs and the rising tide of modernity — a constant theme throughout N’Hada’s cinematic career.
The Lusophone Film Festival is sponsored by the Brazil Initiative/Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, LSA, International Institute African Studies Center, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Institute for the Humanities, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Sheldon Cohn Fund/Department of Screen Arts & Cultures, Center for European Studies, and Rackham Graduate School.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Gasland: A Multimedia Presentation on Fracking by Josh Fox  
Wednesday, November 11
Rackham Auditorium
5:00 p.m. -- Free and Open to the Public 

Goldring Family Foundation Distinguished Speaker Josh Fox, the creator of Gasland I and II, will feature clips and comments from his documentaries in order to showcase environmental issues and their possible solutions.
This event is hosted by Program in the Environment (PitE) and co-sponsored by Screen Arts & Cultures, Environmental Law & Policy Program, Department of English Language and Literature, Department of American Culture, and the Institute for the Humanities.
Sacapalooza
Friday, November 13
Studio A, 1440 North Quad 
2:00 - 4:00 p.m. 
Power and the Mediterranean Conference
November 13-15
East Conference Room, Rackham Building
Various Speakers and Times
The Meditopos Conference is a biennial symposium for graduate students and junior faculty working in Mediterranean Studies.
To view the full schedule of  conference speakers and titles, click here. 
Keynote address: "The Power of a 'View from Land and Sea' for the Mediterranean World" 
Julia Clancy-Smith, University of Arizona
Friday, November 13, 6:00 p.m. 
The third biennial Meditopos conference is presented with generous cosponsorship from the departments of Classics, History of Art and Architecture, Comparative Literature, English, and Screen Arts & Cultures, as well as the program in Modern Greek, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, the Institute for the Humanities, and the college of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED PHOTO
During a workshop in the studio, Dawn Hollison's SAC 304 students (from left to right) Sarah Shelby, Camila Peña, and Logan McCulloch reconstruct lighting from a famous film scene and shoot it on 16mm film. 
photo courtesy of Alan Young 
NEWS
SAC Alum Phil Ranta Featured in Variety as one of "Hollywood's New Leaders"
SAC alum Phil Ranta (pictured second from right) was recently featured in Variety's article "Hollywood's New Leaders: Digital and PR." The magazine's "New Leaders" section profiles those to look out for in the worlds of film, TV, digital, and more. Ranta, the new Chief Operating Officer of Collective Digital Studio, a multi-platform digital entertainment company, is responsible for overseeing the network, the engineering and distribution teams, and for developing strategies to strengthen CDS's MCN. Michael Green, chairman of CDS, states, "Phil has a deep understanding for digital media [...] As we continue to grow, he will play a key role in helping us build the infrastructure needed to maximize opportunities that best serve channels, brands, and creators."  Read Ranta's full profile here. 
Nine SAC Undergrads Receive Fall 2015 Scholarship Awards 
Established in 1978 on the occasion of Professor Garrison’s retirement, the Garnet R. Garrison Scholarship for Honors was the result of endowment gifts from his former students and colleagues at the University of Michigan. Upon the recommendation of Professor Garrison, this award is for Senior Honors candidates to help defray the cost of preparing the Honors thesis – either research costs or the costs of a creative production project or screenplay. This year, the recipients of Garrison scholarship are Joe Biglin, Andrew Day, and Nisreen Salka.  Established in 1976 in honor of Alice Webber Glover, the Alice Webber Glover Scholarship Awards are intended to help with the special costs associated with the writing and/or production of student production projects. This year's Webber Glover recipients are Joe Biglin, Jill Borowski, Nicolas Ciccone, Andrew Day, Claudia Fuentes, Eric Smudski, Carina Teoh, and Lauren Wood. Congratulations to all of you! 
SAC Faculty Spotlight:
Christopher McNamara 
Christopher McNamara spent the last several months working on three separate projects for Gallery and performance works. As a recent recipient of a Joan A. Chalmers Fellowship, McNamara is developing a multi-media work about the legacy of Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki. In addition to this, he is embarking on a new collaborative electronic music and live cinema project entitled "ShoreLights" with Walter Wasacz and Rod Modell. Finally, McNamara is continuing his city intersection studies.
Still from "Chicago," a part of McNamara's new Intersection series
To date he has created videos of Barcelona, Zürich, Detroit, Rotterdam, Xian, and now, Chicago. Shot at the magic hour, facing westward, the camera documents the flow of people and vehicles. Presented as wall works, the effect of seeing these places, simultaneously, gives the momentary impression that the border lines are collapsing... if just for a brief moment in time. 
SAC 2015-16 Honors Cohort
Spotlight on Jeremy Bryson
Jeremy Bryson was born in Walla Walla, Washington. From there he moved with his family around the United States and Europe. He dropped out of high school in Colorado in 2006. Now, he fancies himself a filmmaker and has come to the University of Michigan to indulge in the art that has always captivated his imagination. His thesis will consider themes of narcissism in contemporary culture, youth past its prime, and class privilege. Using a multi-format approach, it will be a hybrid of documentary and fiction primarily featuring non-professional actors. Self-reflexive tendencies in the movie are expected to draw attention to the coordinated reiteration of identities. The movie will make extensive use of interviews with local personalities playing parodies of themselves. Much of the tone of the movie will be determined by these interviews, but given his themes and personal inclinations, Bryson anticipates something of a dark comedy to come out of all this.
Attention Undergrads! Check Out the Updated Casting and Crew Calls on the SAC Website 
Are you interested in acting in or working on the crew of a SAC production? Check out the casting call for extras in two SAC 400 films, the casting call for a SAC 300 project called "Deliverance," and the crew call for PAs in one of the SAC 400 films. Details are posted in the specific calls on the SAC website: find casting here and crew here.