Register in advance for the conversation here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

See the films prior to the discussion.
They’ll be available starting May 19th.

Please join us for a discussion of the short student films students from URB 202.  Normally, in this seminar, we hold a lens to Trenton and learn about how communities work by examining the lives of Trentonians.  This year, from the seclusion of our own homes, we set out to build community by sharing our own stories. Taken together, the films that have emerged these semester – in eight short weeks – suggest that our job as artists and media-makers in this pandemic is to acknowledge the wide range of experiences we’re facing, while also creating what commentator Ezra Klein has called “a collective understanding of we’re going through individually together.” 

You are cordially invited to watch the films ahead of time – they’ll be available as soon as they’re finished, May 19 -- and then join our online discussion with the filmmakers on May 20 at 5pm. Sharing these cinematic experiments with you will allow us to continue, albeit very differently, our project of community-engagement.

DISCUSSANTS:
- Purcell Carson, The Trenton Project, Princeton University
- Katharine Reed, ’19, Global History Lab
- Sadia Shepard, writer and filmmaker, Wesleyan University
- David Stirk, dean of Butler College

The FILMS:

Lost Spring. Liana Cohen. As Covid-19 ravages New York City, a quarantined former opera singer rediscovers old photographs and materials from throughout her life, sparkling mingled nostalgia and self-reflection.

7,000 Miles. Jimin Kang. Set amidst the uncertainty of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, this film documents Kang, an international student from South Korea, as she spends her days in isolation at Princeton University, trying to stay connected with her family despite being 7,000 miles away.

Are You Happy?  Sanna Lee.  Su, an immigrant mother who raised two daughters all by herself, recounts how she’s managed to feed her family on a low paycheck.

Lakeless. Drew Pugliese. A poetic meditation on Packanack Lake—the filmmaker’s childhood home—through a conversation with his mother, as she negotiates her relationship with the community in the context of pandemic.

A First Hand, Reclaimed. Jonathan Reiss. Almost 50 years after her left hand was first tied behind her back to eradicate her left-handedness, Raya decides to draw for the first time in her life. With chalks and pencils, she reclaims her left handedness, and a childhood lived in second hand.

Double Red Flag. Jamie Rodriguez.  A film about surfers and lemmings, two misunderstood populations that engage in dangerous behavior. Surfers have continued to gather despite stay-at-home orders. By following Max Edgerton, a North Carolina surfer, we gain perspective as to why surfers have chosen to engage in such deviant behavior.

Nocturno de la Pandemia. Jonathan Romero. The testimonial potential of dreams is deployed in this collection of voices from around the world providing rare access to the real concerns and desires of a generation going through the most challenging period for humanity since World War II.

Dinnertime.  Cheyenne Zhang. As the global pandemic continues to affect our daily lives, we feel far away from so many people we love and care about. But for some families, ironically, social distancing has brought them closer together.