Cornell Cinema welcomes alums Michael Hausman '57 and Scott Ferguson '82, part of the producing team for the 1999 award-winning biopic "Man on the Moon," which stars Jim Carrey as the comic Andy Kaufman. Hausman and Ferguson will appear with the film at Willard Straight Theatre on Friday, March 3, at 7 p.m. The film also will be shown Saturday, March 4, at 5 p.m. and Monday, March 6, at 9:15 p.m. All screenings are in Willard Straight Theatre. Admission is $4.50 general/$4 students, seniors, and children 12 and under.
"Man on the Moon," directed by Milos Forman, recreates the life of the bizarre, ground-breaking, irritating and enigmatic Kaufman. The stand-up performer and star of the television series "Taxi" influenced many comedians who came after him, including Carrey, who gives a virtuoso, Golden Globe-winning performance in this film.
Before "Man on the Moon," both Hausman and Ferguson worked on Milos Forman's "The People vs. Larry Flynt." Hausman was the first assistant director on Forman's "Hair," the executive producer of "Ragtime" and "Amadeus" (which won eight Academy Awards) and producer of "Valmont." He produced "Homicide," "Things Change" and "House of Games" (all for writer/director David Mamet) as well as "Silkwood" and was executive producer of "Nobody's Fool" and "Places in the Heart." He teaches at the Graduate Film School at Columbia University.
Two films about encounters between indigenous communities and technological development will be featured Tuesday, March 7. In "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon," the Fulani nomads of Mali move their herds during a severe drought, while scientists, environmental advocates and herders argue the merits of technology, its impact on the environment and culture and who should profit. In "Battu's Bioscope," Battu's passion for film propels him to introduce "Bollywood" melodramas to remote villages in India.
On March 14, two films will be shown about gypsies and their efforts to maintain an identity and culture. "Black and White in Colour" is a portrait of singer Vera Bila, a cult celebrity in Europe who is scorned in her native Czech Republic because of her gypsy heritage. "American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land" looks at outspoken romany leader Jimmy Marks, one of the million gypsies now living in the United States, who led an impassioned civil rights battle against the police in Spokane, Wash.
Two communities re-evaluate their identities in response to outside cultural influence in films shown March 28. "Paradise Bent" presents one of the first explorations of the "fa'afafines" -- Samoan boys raised as girls, fulfilling a traditional role in Samoan culture. Today the growing influence of Western gender roles and the "drag scene" threaten those roles within Samoan society. "Village of Widows," shows how the indigenous community in northwest Canada was employed to transport the uranium used in the atomic bombs dropped on Japan and subsequently suffered from radiation exposure.
The series is cosponsored with the Department of Anthropology, the Cornell Council for the Arts, the South Asia Program and the Institute for African Development.
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