Events Calendar

Please join us at FilmScene this fall for a monthly screening and discussion series, Out of the Archive: Envisioning Blackness. A continuation of conversations begun last spring in the inaugural Out of the Archive program, the series showcases 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). Join us before each screening for a free dinner reception catered by local restaurants, and stay after each film for post-screening conversations with UI community members and, whenever possible, the filmmakers themselves. Dinner receptions start at 6:30 p.m., with all screenings following at 7 p.m.  

The third screening event in the 2023-24 series is a trio of horror films by acclaimed filmmaker S. Torriano Berry. Please join us at 6:30 p.m. for a dinner reception provided by Sugapeach (https://www.sugapeach.com/). Following the 7 p.m. screening, Berry will be in conversation with English PhD student Adare Smith. Please invite friends and colleagues; all are welcome! 

In the Hole (1984): A newly incarcerated prison inmate learns his cellmate has been doing time for a similar crime. Now locked in the same cell, he discovers passion once made them the same, but they are very different. Adapted from a play by Robert Wheaton, starring Robert Wheaton and James Nelson.

Deathly Realities (1985): A serial killer discovers there is life after death and that there are consequences to his worldly actions. Written by S. Torriano Berry, starring Sharon Neil, Leonard Thomas, and Tommy Ford.

Embalmer (1996): Based on a neighborhood myth about a deranged mortician who slaughtered his family with his scalpel, and now seeks fresh blood and body fluids to bring them back to life. Is he still hiding in the catacombs beneath his old funeral parlor like the rumors say? One night, Chiffon and friends find out. They also find out that, “When the pain goes away…You’re dead!” Written by S. Torriano Berry and edited from his original feature film. Starring Jennifer Kelly, Kenneth E. Mullen, Tracy Lynn Owens, Cynthia L. Webb, Andre M. Manly, Myron Creek, Dexter K. Tennie.

S. Torriano Berry is an award-winning independent filmmaker who has created the anthology series Black Independent Showcase and Black Visions/Silver Screen: Howard University Student Film Showcase for WHUT-TV 32, in Washington, D.C. His two, half-hour made-for-television movies The Light and When It’s Your Turn were produced through the Minority Advisory Board of WPVI-TV 6, in Philadelphia. Berry is creator of the science fiction anthology series The Black Beyond. A 30-minute version of his feature-length horror film Embalmer was a finalist in Showtime Network Inc.’s 1998 Black Filmmaker’s Short Film Showcase. He is co-creator and director of Noh Matta Wat, the first dramatic television series of Belize, and director of Livin' Mi Life, the first episodic sit-com of Belize in Central America. He co-produced, directed, and edited Episode #3 of the Iowa Public Television Series Telling our Own Story - Black History in 2022.

As a writer, Berry co-authored the film resource books  published by Citadel Press in 2001, and Scarecrow Press, 2007 & 2015. He has also self-published two novels: based on his feature length screenplay addressing the roots of racism in America, and  a coming-of-age adventure set in the 1930s, post-Depression America. Berry is Professor Emeritus at Howard University’s Department of Media, Journalism, and Film. He received his BA in Art/Photography from Arizona State University and earned his MFA in Motion Picture Production from the University of California, Los Angeles. He lives in Coralville, Iowa. 

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

Out of the Archive is presented by the African Diaspora Committee and is made possible through generous support from 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.