Marcello Mastroianni in 8 1/2, 1963. Directed by Federico Fellini

French publicity poster for La Grande Illusion, 1937. Directed by Jean Renoir.

FILM SERIES

Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian present a series of nine Thursday evening film screenings, featuring the presentation of three films by three masters filmmakers--Jean Renoir (1894–1979), Federico Fellini (1920—1993), and Yasujirō Ozu (1903—1963)--all artists whose work has not only endured but also had a profound influence on subsequent filmmakers.

Each week, Jackson and Christian will introduce the film and briefly discuss the career and influence of the filmmaker. After the screening, they’ll join the audience in a discussion of the film, the filmmaker, and their resonance in the world of film and other arts. An information sheet with notes on the directors and films will be available at each screening.

Bruce Jackson is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture at the University at Buffalo. Diane Christian is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University at Buffalo. Together they have written books and made documentary films, one of which Death Row, will be shown at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery on May 1, 2009. Cummins Wide: Photographs from the Arkansas State Prison, a group of Jackson’s photographs, will be on exhibit in the Gallery’s Clifton Hall Link January 23 through May 10, 2009. Jackson’s most recent book—Pictures from a Drawer: Prison and the Art of Portraiture—will be published by Temple University Press in March 2009.

3 x 3 @ AKAG received additional support from the UB Humanities Institute and Capen Chair in American Culture.