October 20, 2009

The Oscar-winning filmmaking Costa Garvas has focused on international politics and political abuse of power for over forty years. His acclaimed films include Missing, starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, the true story of an American journalist who disappeared in the bloody aftermath of the US-backed Chilean coup of 1973 that deposed President Salvador Allende. Film & Video Professor Gerald Hooper, who has organized Garvas visit, will be screening Missing along with the equally acclaimed Z, a fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of a prominent leftist politician, played by Yves Montand, this Wednesday evening (October 21st) at 6:30PM in the large screening room in the basement of University Crossing (University Crossing room 028) in advance of a campus visit Costa Garvas this Thursday, October 20th. Z won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Garvas other films include State of Siege and Music Box. These screenings are free and open to the public, but seating is limited and therefore will be first come, first served.

This Thursday (October 22nd), Costa Gavras will be at the Bossone Auditorium at 12:30PM for a screening of his 2005 film Le Couperet and he will answer questions from the audience following the screening. Le Couperet was adapted from Donald Westlake's 1998 thriller, "The Ax," which recounts a similar tale of a downsized executive-turned-serial killer following the loss of his job in our era of globalization. The film was nominated for two Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.