Events Calendar

This fall, the Out of the Archive screening and discussion series continues at FilmScene! This year’s theme is “Envisioning Blackness,” and the series will showcase the vibrant, multifaceted tradition of Black cinema by presenting rarely screened and/or recently restored films. Tickets are pay-what-you-can (with students, in particular, encouraged to pick $0). The majority of the screenings will include food and drink receptions and post-screening discussions with UI community members as well as, whenever possible, the filmmakers themselves. All screenings will begin at 7 p.m. 

The second film for the 2023-24 series is Kasi Lemmons' beloved feature film Eve's Bayou (1997, 108 mins) presented in the director's cut. Over the course of a long, hot Louisiana summer, a 10-year-old girl, Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett), discovers that her family's affluent existence is merely a facade. The philandering of her suave doctor father, Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), creates a rift, throwing Eve's mother, Roz (Lynn Whitfield), and teenage sister, Cisely (Meagan Good), into emotional turmoil. Eve, though, manages to find some solace with her quirky psychic aunt, Mozelle (Debbi Morgan).

This screening is co-presented by the English Department and FilmScene's African Diaspora Committee. Please join us for a pre-screening dinner reception at 6:30 pm before the 7 p.m. screening. Catering will be provided by I Love FuFu (https://ilovefufuiowacity.com/). There will also be a post-screening conversation with UI faculty members Dr. Tara Bynum, Dr. Ashley Howard, and Dr. Deborah Whaley, moderated by PhD student Adare Smith. 

Reserve your tickets today at https://icfilmscene.org/.

Additional support for the series has been generously provided by the following University of Iowa departments and units: the Black Visual Culture Group, the Center for Human Rights, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Cinematic Arts, the Department of Communication Studies, the Department of Dance, the Department of English, the Department of History, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the College of Education, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the School of Library and Information Science, the School of Music, and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.