The Film Program's Cinema Visionaries Lecture Series is designed to bring film industry luminaries to CCA for campuswide lectures and Film Program master classes.
The series was launched by a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is funded with the generous support of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein.
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Similarly, the new Young Cinema Visionaries also brings to CCA film industry professionals -- those whose careers have recently taken off. Rachel Grady, codirector of Jesus Camp, The Boys of Baraka, 12th & Delaware, and Detropia, launched this exciting new series in fall 2012.
The Young Cinema Visionaries series is made possible by a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Luminary Filmmakers
Sam Green
Spring 2013
CCA welcomes Oscar-nominated documentarian, experimental filmmaker, and performance cinema pioneer Sam Green, whose latest, The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, features Green and seminal indie-rockers Yo La Tengo performing live with the film.
Werner Herzog
Fall 2012
German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director Werner Herzog is often considered one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema. French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive" and American film critic Roger Ebert stated that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular."
Gus Van Sant
Spring 2011
In 2011 the inaugural Cinema Visionaries Lecture Series event featured maverick film director Gus Van Sant in a standing-room-only appearance. "Gus Van Sant is not only a remarkable filmmaker but also a generous one," praised Film Program chair Rob Epstein. "As an artist, Gus Van Sant's films run the gamut from experimental to mainstream hits so, with that, he brought a very special wealth of experience and knowledge to our campus."
John Waters
Spring 2012
Legendary film director John Waters (Pink Flamingos, 1972; Female Trouble, 1974; Polyester, 1981; Hairspray, 1988; Cry Baby, 1990; Serial Mom, 1994; A Dirty Shame, 2004) made a special guest appearance at CCA for “John Waters in Conversation," copresented by the Design and Craft Lecture Series.
Barbara Hammer
Fall 2012
Legendary filmmaker Barbara Hammer, known for such experimental films as Nitrate Kisses (1992); its sequel, Tender Fictions (1996); Dyketactics (1974), and many other first-of-their-kind lesbian-themed films in history, is a pioneer of LGBT cinema and one of contemporary cinema's most important and fearless chroniclers of hidden histories of marginalized peoples.
CCA welcomes the iconic filmmaker November 14, 2012, for a performance lecture, titled "Incorporating The Lesbian Museum and The Hidden Hammer".
Barry Jenkins
Fall 2011
CCA visiting faculty member and award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins was featured in the second Cinema Visionaries lecture in November 2011. His feature film debut, Medicine for Melancholy, was released in theaters by IFC Films and hailed as one of the best films of 2009 by A. O. Scott of the New York Times. Other projects include the shorts Tall Enough, A Young Couple, Remigration, and Chlorophyl, all of which were highlighted at the event, followed by a Q&A.
Curricular Opportunity
Guest lecturers are often invited to partake in leading a master class where students they have the opportunity to interact with this important figure in world cinema in both a lecture context and in a more informal master class.
Upcoming Guests
Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways, The Descendants): TBA
Meet Kevin
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