Past Events

Two smiling people, arm in arm, looking up at a camera above them.

The Film Department will be screening Nickel Boys and there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes afterwards.

Portrait drawing and painting of a seated subject.

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.

Film still of a close up of a seated person holding a cigarette while looking on.

A Screening of Jennifer Reeves’ The Gloria of Your Imagination followed by a Q&A with the director.

Photo of young woman smiling and looking to her left

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

A monochrome halftone photo shows two people sitting on a couch watching television. The image is a selection from the poster for the film "Secret Mall Apartment".

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.

Children sitting on the ground watching two people arm wrestle.

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.

A side profile of one of the characters in the film of wearing a green shirt with blue trim and hair in a ponytail.

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.

Close up of the face of a lion behind the bars of a cage.
Mar. 25, 2025, 5:00 p.m.

A screening of the documentary Checkpoint Zoo followed by a conversation with director Joshua Zeman.

A photographic portrait of Gerald Sim.

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.

An image from the original Metropolis poster: a monochrome drawing of an android with architecture behind.
Feb. 8, 2025, 7:30 p.m.

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

Allee Willis sits on a circular bed in the middle of a music video set, the walls are splatter painted and there is a heart with lights surrounding it on the wall behind her.

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.

Close up of a person's head looking towards the right.
Dec. 4, 2024, 5:00 p.m.

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.

an image of degraded celuloid film, two women kiss with the damaged edges hand painted.
Nov. 20, 2024, 5:00–6:30 p.m.

The Film Department and Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies presents a screening of some of Peggy Ahwesh’s short films, followed by a Q&A session moderated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Carl Elsaesser.

Campus community only, please.

Portrait of a person with short cropped hair and glasses.

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.

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.

Two smiling people, arm in arm, looking up at a camera above them.

The Film Department will be screening Nickel Boys and there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes afterwards.

Portrait drawing and painting of a seated subject.

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.

Film still of a close up of a seated person holding a cigarette while looking on.

A Screening of Jennifer Reeves’ The Gloria of Your Imagination followed by a Q&A with the director.

Photo of young woman smiling and looking to her left

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

Close up of a person's head looking towards the right.
Dec. 4, 2024, 5:00 p.m.

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.

Portrait of a person with short cropped hair and glasses.

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.

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.