The Invitation

As a result of the interest that was generated by the series "Christianity and Film" that Wim Christiaens (now back in Belgium) and I did last summer, NOOC has kindly offered to host another series, which I am calling Film and Culture.

Anyone at NOOC (and their friends) is invited to join in the film event. You are also welcome (and encouraged!) to suggest and find other films so we can continue the exploration beyond this schedule either by making another schedule for later or more informally with viewings announced on the film corner of the notice boards, as we plan them.

All the films are on Fridays of February in the Common Room of the 117 Banbury Road site of North Oxford Overseas Centre (NOOC). Please be in your seats by 9:00pm.

You can use the comments feature of these postings to ask questions or leave your suggestions.

The Idea

The idea is to interact in an empathetic way with culture through the medium of film. So hopefully, we will be exposed to sensibilities and ways of being that we would not normally know of or understand.

At least some part of cultural understanding might be to recognize the diverse attitudes to moments and movements in time, different approaches to story telling, and the construction of humour. By choosing (a) local directors with different techniques of film making, I am hoping we will have a glimpse of these aspects of culture as well through the films we watch. I have tried to make the selection (b) culturally diverse (but with English subtitles!).

For convenience, I have also limited the choice to films that (c) can be rented from Amazon.co.uk, which means some very promising films can't make the list. The last arbitrary filtering process I have applied is to only select (d) very recent films -- made after 2000.



You have thoughts on the above or ideas for the future? click on comments and have your say.

Disclaimer!

My interest and engagement with film is as an amateur and this is very much an exploration. There is no guarantee that everyone will like every film. But, because it's an open event I have only selected film titles or directors that have received critical acclaim in their country or internationally. So, films are more likely to have wider appeal, but the choices are not as daring (and therefore, may not be as rewarding or disappointing) as they could have been :)

Remember, the titles given in the schedule are the approximate International English titles. If for some reason the film listed for viewing in a particular week is unavailable for renting that week, I will try to substitute it with a film that has similarities in form or content and make sure the change is announced on the film corner of the notice boards and on this blog.

See post below on "Thoughts from the Gallery" to make your recommendations for alternatives

Thoughts from the Gallery

Any suggestions, thoughts?

Please let me know, using the comments feature below, if you would like to suggest alternatives to the films listed in this series. You comments will be published and available for all to read.