Past Events
Celebrate the opening of the exhibition Women’s Work: Organizing New York Independent Film & Video and the related Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts’ signature program, which together highlight the organizing labor that enabled groundbreaking media collectives to pursue new forms of self-expression and advocate for political change. Come meet some of the key figures whose labor made important untold stories visible, and those who are working to preserve and continue this work today.
This event is free and open to the public.
A screening of Everything Everywhere All at Once followed by a Q&A with producer Jon Read ’09.
This event is free and open to the public.
Professor of Chinese Studies Liang Luo examines how the White Snake legend is being reimagined through contemporary opera, film, and theater as a framework for digital-age minority activism.
Rescoring Richter is a multimedia project pairing contemporary sound artists with Hans Richter’s 1920s avant-garde films to create new scores, documented through short films and live performances that reveal and reanimate his revolutionary cinematic imagery.
MODfest 2026
Renowned British war correspondent and journalism professor Julius Strauss presents his 47-minute documentary film Return to Kosovo and responds to questions about his work. This event is open to the public.
The Film Department will be screening Hale County This Morning, This Evening and there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes afterwards.
The Film Department will be screening Nickel Boys and there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes afterwards.
Join us for the Pride and Prejudice Film Festival in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. The first screening is on Friday, November 7, 2025 from 7–9 p.m. See the full schedule. This event is free and open to the public.
Professor Rosalind Galt of King’s College, London will be giving a giving a Dean’s Lecture on “Imperfect Archives.”
A Screening of Jennifer Reeves’ The Gloria of Your Imagination followed by a Q&A with the director.
The “Sky Woman Women” project holds space for eighteen women storytellers from Mohawk, Seneca and Tuscarora tribal affiliations (enrolled, unenrolled, and not enrolled), telling and retelling a Haudenosaunee creation story to each other. A Q&A with the artist and featured storytellers follows the screening.
Free and open to the public
Join the Film Department as we screen Secret Mall Apartment followed by a Q&A with the director, Jeremy Workman P ’27.
This event is open to the public.
This film, created by Ahmed Moussa, takes you behind the scenes of The Garbage Monster, an innovative theatrical production that toured Cairo in June 2024, using applied theatre to spark conversation and action around climate change and garbage pollution.
The film imagines an actress preparing to play Césaire, and encountering and re-examining her own ideas about creativity, love, Black identity, and politics as a result.
Through an intimate reconstruction of an important phone call, When The Phone Rang investigates dislocation and the nature of remembering. In the protagonist’s eleven-year-old mind, the phone call erases her entire country, history, and identity and hides its existence in books, films, and memories of those born before 1995.
A screening of the documentary Checkpoint Zoo followed by a conversation with director Joshua Zeman.
At a time of both urgent need for algorithmic literacy and heightened social division, it is vital to understand the politicized grammar with which we talk and think about AI. This talk by Gerald Sim will focus on visual media whose power derives from being uniquely vivid, engaging, and visceral.
Campus community only, please.
Metropolis Reimagined is a new scoring of the 1984 restoration of Fritz Lang’s classic film, performed live by acclaimed pianist Po-Wei Ger and electronic artist Drake Andersen.
MODfest 2025
Prudence Fenton ’75 will be featured at a screening of a documentary she co-produced about her partner, the songwriter Allee Willis. Open to the public.
The Vassar Film Department will host alum India Donaldson ’07 and her feature debut, Good One. This event is free and open to the public.
Celebrate the opening of the exhibition Women’s Work: Organizing New York Independent Film & Video and the related Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts’ signature program, which together highlight the organizing labor that enabled groundbreaking media collectives to pursue new forms of self-expression and advocate for political change. Come meet some of the key figures whose labor made important untold stories visible, and those who are working to preserve and continue this work today.
This event is free and open to the public.
The Film Department will be screening Nickel Boys and there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes afterwards.
Join us for the Pride and Prejudice Film Festival in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. The first screening is on Friday, November 7, 2025 from 7–9 p.m. See the full schedule. This event is free and open to the public.
Professor Rosalind Galt of King’s College, London will be giving a giving a Dean’s Lecture on “Imperfect Archives.”
A Screening of Jennifer Reeves’ The Gloria of Your Imagination followed by a Q&A with the director.
The “Sky Woman Women” project holds space for eighteen women storytellers from Mohawk, Seneca and Tuscarora tribal affiliations (enrolled, unenrolled, and not enrolled), telling and retelling a Haudenosaunee creation story to each other. A Q&A with the artist and featured storytellers follows the screening.
Free and open to the public
The film imagines an actress preparing to play Césaire, and encountering and re-examining her own ideas about creativity, love, Black identity, and politics as a result.
The Vassar Film Department will host alum India Donaldson ’07 and her feature debut, Good One. This event is free and open to the public.
Join alum Jonathan Silberberg, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker and producer, for an engaging discussion about the challenges and rewards of a career in documentary filmmaking and how the field is rapidly transforming today.
This film chronicles the arc of a family across history, geography and tragedy—from the racial segregation of the Jim Crow South to the promise of New York City.
Celebrate your success with the Film Department community.
Campus community only, please.
Studio Art senior thesis projects by nine student artists will be on view through May 18.
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.
Transdisciplinary artist Maravilla grounds his practice in activism and healing.
A lecture by Elizabeth A. Patton, Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Campus community only, please.
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.