One of the most important figures in African film, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra is a name that deserves to be better known. After directing the first substantial film by a French-speaking sub-Saharan African, Afrique sur Seine, in 1955, Vieyra went on to become the first African admitted to study at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques… Read more »
Onscreen at IU Cinema
International Art House Series presents: Faya Dayi (2021)
With her mesmerizing debut feature Faya Dayi, Ethiopian-Mexican filmmaker Jessica Beshir returned to her hometown of Harar to document its rural Oromo community of farmers and the harvesting of the khat plant, the country’s most desired export. Photographed in swooning black and white, Beshir’s Oscar-shortlisted film is both a loving tribute to Ethiopia and a… Read more »
International Art House Series presents: The Rescue (2021)
Four years ago, the whole world seemed to hold their breath when a group of boys and their soccer coach became trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. It was an unimaginable, terrifying event to watch unfold, with no guarantee of a happy ending. In their new documentary The Rescue, which was recently placed on… Read more »
Not-Quite Midnights presents: Titane (2021)
If you’ve heard anything about Titane since its release last year, you’ve probably heard it described as the movie where a woman has sex with a car. But Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner is infinitely more complex than that. It is also the kind of film that the less you know about it, the better… Read more »
A Look at This Spring’s International Art House Series
Guest post by Dr. Alicia Kozma, Director of IU Cinema. In 1956, film scholar John Twomey surveyed his contemporary film exhibition landscape and noticed a change was taking place: small, independently run theaters across the country were turning away from the usual mainstream film fare, focusing instead on what he termed “films of quality.”[1]… Read more »
Tanna: Molten Lovers in the Pacific Ring of Fire
Guest post by David Stringer, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Department of Second Language Studies. The film series Islands of Resilience opens in IU Cinema’s virtual screening room with the visually stunning Tanna (2015), a tale based on a true story of forbidden love on the lush, hypnotically beautiful island of… Read more »