Past Events

A blurry frame from the film "Power" by Yance Ford. It shows a group of police officers in helmets, holding batons and marching in a line.

The Film Department will be hosting a screening of Yance Ford’s new film Power, which traces the accumulation of money, the consolidation of political power, and the nearly unrestricted bipartisan support that has created the institution of policing as we know it. Followed by a Q&A with the director moderated by Professor Mia Mask.

A hand holding a brush on a canvas with text that reads: See Memory, a film by Viviane Silvera
Feb. 29, 2024, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

A multidisciplinary faculty panel (including Film, Media Studies, Neuroscience & Behavior, and Psychological Science) will be hosting a special screening of the short film See Memory followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker, Viviane Silvera.

Mia Mask wearing a satin blouse, pearl necklace, and big smile posed in front of three large posters featuring covers of books she has worked on: Contemporary Black American Cinema, Divas on Screen, and Poitier Revisited.
Sep. 20, 2023, 5:00 p.m.–6:15 p.m.

Film Professor Mia Mask examines the African American Western hero within the larger context of film history by considering how Black westerns evolved.

Campus community only, please.

Three figure dancing and the words "The Impossibly Microcinema...dreams and nightmares...jazz and animation"
Apr. 27 – Apr. 29, 2023

A free community film screening festival at the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory located at 8 North Cherry Street.

Noah Kalina seated on a stool in an art studio.

Noah Kalina has taken a picture of himself daily since 2000 for his series Everyday, which has amassed over 40 million views. He will discuss his photography career and matters of composition, concept, and duration.

A black-and-white headshot of Nick Rees-Roberts in profile.

In this lecture, Professor Nick Rees-Roberts of the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, mobilizes failure as a critical tool to unpack the structural fault lines of an industry invested in the promotion of success and celebrity in which no one can afford to fail.

Hiroshima bombing survivor and former Vassar professor Tomiko Morimoto West standing at a lectern on a dark stage with the film title, Appreciation--the Tomiko Morimoto West Story.

Director/producer Michael Dwyer made this 20-minute film featuring Tomiko Morimoto West, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima who taught Japanese language courses at Vassar for a decade until she retired in 1994. Both will be available for a Q&A session after the screening.

Actress Selina Jones as Medea in the Khameleon Productions film of Euripides's Medea
Mar. 21, 2022, 5:30 p.m.

Shivaike Shah, Visiting Artist and Producer/Founder of Khameleon Productions (UK), will discuss the making of Khameleon’s upcoming short film on the figure of Medea, based on Khameleon’s stage production of Euripides’s Medea at Oxford in 2018, which reimagined the ancient Greek tragedy with an all-global majority cast and crew. Campus community only, please.

A hand holding a brush on a canvas with text that reads: See Memory, a film by Viviane Silvera
Feb. 29, 2024, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

A multidisciplinary faculty panel (including Film, Media Studies, Neuroscience & Behavior, and Psychological Science) will be hosting a special screening of the short film See Memory followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker, Viviane Silvera.

Portrait of Ellen Kuras

American director/cinematographer Ellen Kuras will speak about her groundbreaking and visionary work. Moderated by Mia Mask, Professor of Film on the Mary Riepma Ross Chair. Open to the public.