In an effort to initiate public dialogue in the City of Arts and Innovation, about cinema as art, the greatest of all the arts nonetheless, a/perture cinema introduced a new screening and discussion series in 2015. This series centers on the notion of “looking at art cinema.” Together, the community and selected speakers, will discuss a curated list of films. Some of these films you have seen and some you may have not, but either way we hope the discussions will allow you to see them anew.
Looking @ Art Cinema 2019 has been generously underwritten by an anonymous donor.
Transgressive Teachers
with Mary Dalton
Mary M. Dalton is Professor of Communication and Film Studies at Wake Forest University.
Her scholarly publications include articles, book chapters, and the books The Hollywood Curriculum: Teachers in the Movies, Teacher TV: Sixty Years of Teachers on Television, and the co-edited volume The Sitcom Reader: America Viewed and Skewed. Her documentaries have been screened at various festivals, museums, galleries, libraries, and on public television. She is currently working on a longitudinal documentary project.
Professor Dalton teaches critical media studies courses and frequently comments on intersectionality and media on her blog Mary Dalton on Media.
ELECTION (1999)
April 27th, 2019
Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), a well-liked high school government teacher, can’t help but notice that successful student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) uses less than ethical tactics to get what she wants. When Tracy runs for school president, Jim feels that she will be a poor influence on the student body and convinces Paul, a dim-witted but popular student athlete, to run against Tracy. When she becomes aware of Jim’s secret involvement in the race, a bitter feud is sparked.
BLUE CAR (2002)
May 4th, 2019
Megan is a teenage, gifted writer living in the Dayton, Ohio area. She has been abandoned by her father and neglected by her mother, who works 12-hour days and goes to school at night, leaving Megan to babysit her younger sister, Lily. The girls’ father does not pay child support, causing financial strain in the household. Megan is then encouraged by a teacher of hers to enter a poetry contest.
THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER (2014)
May 11th, 2019
A young child’s gift for poetry makes him an object of fascination for his kindergarten teacher. Her desire to protect and nurture his talent from a world that bulldozes purity leads her to claim some of his work as her own