Tuesday, October 14, 6:00 p.m. | An epistolary video, MEASURES OF DISTANCE (1988, dir. Mona Hatoum, UK, 16 min., in English and Arabic with English subtitles / Format: Digital) depicts the layered connection between a mother and daughter, each in her own form of exile, gaining a deeper understanding of the other’s life and worldview despite the distance. The daughter reads her mother’s letters over superimposed images of her mother’s naked body and Arabic script. The personal and political are inseparable, as the letters reflect on internalized patriarchy and the external violence of war shaping their lives as women. In MY LIFE IS WIND (2024, dir. Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, USA, Sweden, 33 min., in English and Arabic with English subtitles / Format: Digital, pictured) Myriam, a war refugee torn from her Middle Eastern home, is resettled in the American Midwest. Her initial weeks in this new, alien land are woven into an intimate letter to her grandmother, whom she was forced to leave behind.
Interiority on Screen Lecture Series | Fall 2025
This series focuses on cinematic works that depict the subjectivities and mental states of their characters in unconventional, intimate, and poetic manners. Tuesday film screenings will be accompanied by lectures, where these films will be discussed not only from the standpoint of critical spectatorship but also from a filmmaker’s point of view. Select titles offered with Sunday encores. Tickets for Sunday encores are regular price and do not include the lecture. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Art History, Theory, and Criticism department. Lecturer: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Assistant Professor of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu