IUP Film Studies

This is great news.

Ali and I attended IUP in the early nineties and both of us took Dr. Slater's Intro to Film Art class, a fantastic course offered at that time through the English department. Thirteen years later, I can still rattle off big chunks of the syllabus. Bordwell and Thompson's intro book, which I still have and love. Man with a Movie Camera. Meet Me in St. Louis. Mr. Hulot's Holiday. Breathless.

It also gave us a pretty good story. IUP held a literature conference in the spring of 1993, and Ali and I agreed to participate in a panel discussion on film. We talked about films concerned with the effect of tyranny on individual identity. She discussed Abuladze's awesome and underappreciated Repentance (someday, Doug!) and I talked about Europa, Europa. The guy who went after us was a Dario Argento fan who described in precise detail the differences between the various Euro and American cuts of Suspiria, complete with clips of spraying arteries and delicate descriptions of blood trails and denunciations of the less-forgiving American censors. Believe me-- I have no illusions and know full well that our contribution was amateurish and jargon-packed. Still, if you could have seen the quietly respectful but thoroughly puzzled reaction of the audience-- mostly a distinguished tweed-jacket crowd in their forties and fifties-- well, good times. Good times.

Congratulations, Dr. Slater