MIT STS film series

STS film series

(scheduled screenings and fun film facts):
• Jan. 6, 2006: Friday 4-6PM (E51-053) - THX-1138 (1971) - Film synopsis: a future where people are owned by the state and pacified through constant psychiatric medication; it is also a brilliant example of what Rosalind Williams describes as the "underground" myth in sci-fi imaginary worlds
• Feb. 1, 2006: Wednesday 5-7PM (Wharehouse TV Room) - The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2003) - Documentary on a man who communes with and takes care of a group of wild (or feral) parrots in San Francisco

Future possibilities

(person in brackets owns a copy)
- A Trip to the Moon (1902) [Xaq], early Méliès adaptation of Vernes's classic (only 14 minutes long)
- Nosferatu (1922) [Xaq] - an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula novel (without official permission from Stoker's estate) and a classic example of German expressionism (it is the inspiration for all subsequent uses of shadow-work associated with Dracula), it is also loaded with Weimar Republic Germany anxieties of anti-semitism and social malaise.
- Metropolis (1926) [Xaq]
- Freaks (1932), directed by Tod Browning (a.k.a. director of the English-language 1931 version of Dracula) this movie is a great illustration of inter-war anxieties about "otherness" and all of the dismembered veterans of WWI
- King Kong (1933)
- Modern Times (1936) [Xaq]
- The Bad Seed (1956), typical 1950s subliminal eugenics and crude psychology all mix in one. (This choice lends itself more to the "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" genre than to a class of film that should be taken seriously.) Good stuff!
- Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Ingmar Bergman film on the subtle terror of schizophrenia
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) [Xaq]
- short film 21-87 (1964)
- Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Bradbury adaptation directed by none other than François Truffaut
- Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Woody Allen classic
- Logan's Run (1976)
- Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979), Werner Herzog's recreation of the silent horror film
- Apocalypse Now (1979) - classic anti-Vietnam War film and Heart of Darkness adaptation
- Being There (1979) - A film adaptation of a Jerzy Kosiński novel that satirizes Heidegger's ''Being and Time''
- Blade Runner (1982) [Xaq]
- short film Ilha das Flores (1989) [I believe Mike Fischer has a copy]
- The Abyss (1989)
- Baraka (1992)
- Safe (1995) - though painfully slow, this movie captures the spirit (or spiritlessness) of Sartre's existential novel Nausea (though it is not an adaptation), and certainly the spiritlessness of late 20th century suburbia
- Ghost in the Shell, 1 & 2 (1995, 2004) [Xaq], the sequel has a character named after Donna Haraway!
- Microcosmos (1996)
- Gattaca (1997)
- Dark City (1998) [Xaq]
- Pi (1998) [Xaq], a math genius who is try to break the code (through scientistic numerology) for life's unifying order, and driven crazy and paranoid in the process
- America's Atomic Bomb Tests (2000), documentary [Kieran owns a copy]
- Minority Report (2002) [Xaq]
- Kitchen Stories (2003) [Xaq], in a post-WWII setting, a Swedish home economics scientist goes to a rural Norwegian home to observe how single men use the kitchen in order to improve their efficiency
- Mondovino (2004) [Xaq], documentary on the changing art and science of making wine
- The Future of Food (2004) [Xaq], documentary on genetically modified foods (with an obvious anti-GM food slant)
- I, Robot (2004) [Xaq]
- Grizzly Man (2005), documentary
- March of the Penguins (2005) [Xaq], documentary
- The Island (2005)

***If you missed any of the previous film screenings, please feel free to borrow a copy of the movie from Xaq!***