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CENTER FOR INTERPERSONAL STUDIES THROUGH FILM & LITERATURE

Begun in 1997, through the generosity and creativity of Jeanne Hoffman Smith, MSSW, the Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature brings a distinguished poet to the campus each year. Seven of the poets have been Poet Laureates of the United States and many of them have been Pulitzer Prize and/or National Book Award winners. Poets Robert Pinsky, Jane Hirshfield, Michael Ondaatje, Mark Doty, Lucille Clifton, Naomi Shihab Nye, Li-Young Lee, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser, Joy Harjo, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Charles Simic, Natasha Trethewey, Carolyn Forche, Claudia Emerson, Terrance Hayes, Tracy K. Smith, Richard Blanco, Marie Howe, Simon Armitage, Chris Abani, and Alberto Rios have been featured so far, along with other poets and writers for additional events throughout the year.

In addition, the Center supports the OCU Film Institute, develops for the university and community an archive collection of quality DVDs, facilitates field trips to OCU for teachers and students from upper elementary through high school, hosts a regular ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Humanities Let’s Talk About It book discussion series for the university and ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ City community, and collaborates with other campus and metropolitan organizations to support and encourage different groups to work together on creative projects. The director is a member of the English Department and teaches courses in this department as well as other university courses related to the mission of the Center. The Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment Fund and an advisory committee support the development of the Center and its programs.

OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY FILM INSTITUTE

The OCU Film Institute offers the university and the greater ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ City community the opportunity to view classic and contemporary international films. Since 1983, the Institute has been screening films every year on to an audience of 50 to 400 people. Each year the series focuses on a theme, and reading recommendations on the theme and individual films are available at the showings. A discussion session follows each screening. The films are also available for university courses. Each spring audience participants have the opportunity to recommend films for the next season, and their preferences are honored to the degree possible. The Institute is committed to showing each season films from many different countries as well as offering each year a film from a place that has not been represented before. Once a film has been screened in the series, it is placed in OCU’s Dulaney-Browne Library where it can be checked out for viewing by an individual.

In 1996, the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Humanities Council awarded the Institute one of four awards for excellence in humanities programming over the previous twenty-five years in the state of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥. The film series is supported by OCU, the OCU Film Institute Endowment, the Designated Endowment in the Community Foundation of the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, and the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment for the Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature. The creator and director of the Film Institute, Dr. Harbour Winn, retired in 2016, but remains active in the community programming he helped to develop.

Dr. Tracy Floreani, Director

Carol Blackwood, Community Member

Karen Browne, Community Member

Bryan Cardinale-Powell, Chair of Film

Dr. Amy Cataldi, Dean of Petree College

Judy Cawthon, Community Member

Terri L. Cummings, Poet and Community Member

Dr. Mark Davies, Professor of Ethics

Melanie J. Jester, Federal Courts Attorney

Linda P. Lambert, former Board of Trustees member

Vivian Nida, Poet and Retired Educator

Billy Palumbo, Film Faculty

Dr. Karen Schiler, Chair of English & Modern Languages

Jason Stephenson, Poet and ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ State Dept. of Ed. ELA

Sharon Varnum, Community Member

Emeritus consultant and founder, Dr. Harbour Winn

The 43-year-old tradition of providing free screenings of select films for the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ City University community and our neighbors continues with this year’s film series. This may be the only place in town where you’ll get the chance to see these movies on a large screen.

Each screening begins at 1 p.m. on the second Sunday of each month during the academic year, and the screenings will take place in the Norick Art Center, 1601 NW 26th Street. Parking is available to the west and north of the building, and if you get here early you’ll be able to take in the art on display in the Hulsey Gallery. Also, please make plans to stick around after each screening to share your thoughts on the film.

Work/Life

A selection of films about people looking for ways to make sense of their lives while making ends meet  

SEPTEMBER 8

The Old Oak

Directed by Ken Loach • UK • 2023 • 1h 53m

The Old Oak is a special place in a once thriving mining community. TJ Ballantyne, the proprietor, hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, a hold that is threatened when The Old Oak becomes contested territory after the arrival of Syrian refugees in the village. (theoldoakfilm.co.uk)

OCTOBER 13

Sorry to Bother You

Directed by Boots Riley • US • 2018 • 1h 52m

In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a universe of greed. (imdb.com)

NOVEMBER 10

La Promesse

Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne • Belgium • 1996 • 1h 30m

Roger uses his 15-year-old son, Igor, to help ruthlessly exploit illegal immigrant workers. When African immigrant Amidou tumbles from a scaffold, Igor finds him before he dies and promises that he will take care of his wife and baby. (rottentomatoes.com)

DECEMBER 8

Life Is Sweet

Directed by Mike Leigh • UK • 1990 • 1h 42m

The working-class malaise of suburban London is captured in this comedic drama, which focuses on twin sisters Natalie and Nicola and their parents, Andy and Wendy. While Natalie has a plumbing job, Nicola is on the dole and perpetually dwells on the negative. (rottentomatoes.com)

JANUARY 12

Perfect Days

Directed by Wim Wenders • Japan/Germany • 2023 • 2h 4m

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. (filmaffinity.com)

MARCH 9

Ressources humaines

Directed by Laurent Cantet • France • 1999 • 1h 43m

Frank, a business school graduate, returns to his hometown to take a management position alongside his father. First Frank makes the mistake of actually asking the workers on the assembly line for their opinions. Then upper management manipulates his findings to lay off employees. (imdb.com)

APRIL 13

Certain Women

Directed by Kelly Reichardt • US • 2016 • 1h 47m

Three strong-willed women strive to forge their own paths: a lawyer who finds herself contending with office sexism and a hostage situation; a wife and mother at odds with the men in her life; and a law student who forms an ambiguous bond with a lonely ranch hand. (rottentomatoes.com)