WELCOME

Welcome to the Urban Culture course at Avila University created by Susan Lawlor and Dotty Hamilton.  We travel with our students to great cities to explore art museums, engage with the architecture, study the local film and music venues, and experience the ethnic enclaves as a way to learn about the culture of urban spaces and the interaction of art and environment.  It's a fun, intense learning environment.  

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Gene Siskel film center

Although our students are having fun at the Gene Siskel Film Center, they watched a thought provoking film today - Hannah Arendt.  This is what the Center does well - present films that cause one to think about the human condition. We wanted to start the trip with a challenge.

2 comments:

  1. Film is another thing that I am particularly fond of, so I was (again) excited to be able to visit the Gene Siskel Film Center, and to watch a film there. More so than plays, I get really wrapped up into the stories that film tell. Granted, I was extremely tired from the train ride so there were moments of Hannah Arendt that were a little difficult to follow, but overall I really enjoyed the film. I am really into studying World War II and how the Nazis could commit such a horrendous act (I really am into social justice pieces). I found it intriguing that this Jewish woman was being ridiculed and condemned for taking a stance on an issue that was not exactly what the general public wanted to hear. And, had the general public read the entirety of the article, maybe there would have been ideas within that they wouldn't have thought about prior to reading it. I agree that we as humans should think about things and be open to new ideas. But I also understand that at that time the issue of Nazi Germany was still very fresh in people's minds, and that it would be a sensitive subject to write about. I also still stand by what I said when we discussed the film the following morning: that had a man presented this idea then perhaps it would have not received as much criticism as she received. I appreciated the film's ability to make us think about new ideas in a way which we wouldn't have normally--not only within the plot of the film itself, but also in the way which the film told the story.

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  2. The experience with the film we attended I definitely have mixed feelings about. While I enjoyed the film quite a bit and found it thought provoking once it started speeding up, I was having a hard time fighting the fact that I was quite exhausted and had not slept much on the train or the night before. That definitely made it harder to catch all the subtleties that this film had to offer. I really enjoyed the film overall however. The stance of the main character versus the general public was quite interesting, and the way she stood up against everyone in what she believed was inspiring.

    -Erika Intfen

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