Big budget favorites, cult classics, mesmerizing art films and documentaries you’ll tell colleagues and classmates about the next day — they can all be found at an Emory film series. Oh, and bring a friend: they’re all free and open to the public.
Ethics at the Movies
White Hall, Room 207, at 7 p.m.
Reserve free tickets in advance.
Ethics at the Movies, which has screened more than 40 films since its start, features groundbreaking documentaries about topical issues followed by talkbacks with people involved in making the films, often hosted by faculty specializing in the films’ subject matter.
This year’s film subjects include a struggling rural Indiana school district, a pair of Black North Carolina farming families trying to preserve their land and a group of people striving to stay housed while living in single-room-occupancy hotels in San Francisco.
The themes — systemic racism, poverty and challenges to our public schools — can feel intimidating in the abstract.
But Laura Asherman, a documentary filmmaker who directs the Emory Center for Ethics’ Ethics and the Arts program and runs the film series, says that’s why this format is helpful. “In the context of a film and a talkback,” she explains, “the conversation doesn’t feel limitless and overwhelming.”
The filmmakers and their subjects often visit classes, too. Earlier this year, Steven Melendez, artistic director of the New York Theatre Ballet, who was featured in the film “Lift,” gave a master class to the dance department.
Coming up:
“Family Tree,” Thursday, Nov. 14
“Home is a Hotel,” Thursday, Feb. 13
“This World is Not My Own,” Thursday, March 27
“North Putnam,” Thursday, April 10
Off the Wall @ 725 Ponce
725 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE
Only one series in Atlanta fits the bill.
Off the Wall @ 725 Ponce, presented by the Department of Film and Media, projects mainstream movies as well as art films and videos onto the side of the eight-story building above the Kroger that overlooks the Atlanta BeltLine off Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown.
“We call it the largest movie screen in the Southeast,” says curator Gregory Zinman, Emory associate professor of film and media. Whether it’s a series of nature films and videos shot by contemporary women artists or “Singin’ in the Rain,” (a personal favorite of Zinman’s), all the movies are projected using powerful 4K laser projectors and 3,000-watt stereo sound. People also have the option of listening through an app on their mobile devices, allowing them to watch from anyplace nearby.
Whether viewers bring lawn chairs and make a night of it or take a quick selfie while rollerblading by, Zinman is pleased, saying, “We just want to create an experience anyone can enjoy.”
Coming up:
“The Addams Family,” Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m.
“The NEXT Movement,” Friday, Nov. 8, and Saturday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 and 8:15 p.m.
Emory Cinematheque
White Hall, Room 208, at 7:30 p.m.
Coming up:
“Eve’s Bayou,” Wednesday, Oct. 30
“O Brother, Where Are Thou?” Wednesday, Nov. 6
“Winter’s Bone,” Wednesday, Nov. 13
“Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Wednesday, Nov. 20
“True Detective,” two episodes from Season 1, Wednesday, Dec. 4