Summer 2009 Film Series: The World in a Frame: Human Nature in Films
Tuesdays & Thursdays, July 15, 17, 22 & 24, 2008
4 meetings 10am-3:30pm with lunch break; Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall
Course Fee: $70
Register Now!
ABOUT THE SERIES
This summer series features four of the Osher LLI’s best known and well liked instructors, each presenting a film, providing expert commentary, and encouraging discussion. They will show films that explore, in a wide variety of genres, what it means to be human. We will take a quick trip through the past, present and future of the hu-man race, starting with a prehistoric tribe in search of the Promethean gift of fire and ending with a view of the future in which having your genes engineered before you’re born can make the difference between success and failure in life. In between we’ll visit a Zen monk on an island with a pupil who attempts to live the life of “pure nothingness” and the gripping story of the well known political demagogue, Huey Long, and the people he manipulates and controls.
The classes will run from 10:00am to approximately 3:00pm, providing time for instructors to talk about their sub-jects, to view the movie, to engage in discussion, and for everyone to join together for lunch. Each instructor will organize the day in the way he feels is most appropriate to the materials and the movie.
The fee for the four-day series is $70, or you can attend any two days for $40.
Students may bring their own lunch, go to Charlie Brown’s, the outdoor Barbeque near the Commons or to a restaurant across the street. Parking is not included in the course fee, permits may be purchased at the main entrance information booth, and carpooling is recommended. Seating is limited so register early.
This is an excellent opportunity to bring friends who are not yet OLLI members and introduce them to the program; they will experience a variety of instructors, and at a reasonable cost.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
QUEST FOR FIRE
Our evolutionary past does not determine our future, but it gives us important clues as to what we may expect from ourselves in the future. Too often, evolutionary theory is thought to be the source of bad news—we evolved from apex predators, from killer apes, and that fact explains it all. But it does not. It would be naïve to attempt to deny the horrors so conspicuously present throughout human history. But it would be equally naïve, and dangerous in the bargain, to deny that something in our evolutionary origins has given us the capacity for a progressive transcendence of the violence that marked our emergence into homo sapiens.
Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1981 film, "Quest for Fire," based on the 1911 novel of the same title by J. H. Rosny, imaginatively compressed some 85,000 years of human evolution into a two-week adventure. Paleoanthropologists have howled in derision at the inaccuracies and impossibilities in the plot, but the film makes an excellent springboard for a discussion about human evolution and what it sug-gests for the human future. And that is what we shall do.
Bill Garrett, Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies has taught eight courses for Osher Lifelong Learning at SSU. The subject matter of his courses has ranged from the Jewish Jesus, Religion in America, Islam, and Asian Religions to the Flight from the Enlightenment, and Revolutions that Changed the World in Science and Religion. He has been a Professor of Religion and Philosophy at JFK University since 1989 and has taught at other OLLI programs in the Bay Area.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
SPRiNG, SUMMER, FAll, WiNTER AND SPRiNG, 2003
Once in a while an astonishing film is made about religion. This brilliant Korean film has received numerous awards—from Korea, Spain, and Switzerland to Argentina and the USA—for its irides-cent beauty and profound simplicity. Perhaps no other film captures the essence of Buddhism better. Clearly a masterpiece, every frame is a gem full of thoughtful wisdom and perfect harmo-ny. The photography is exquisitely rendered to provide a magnificent canvas for this fable tracing the life of a monk and his pupil. Each season is full of messages about how to live with uncer-tainty, passion and wisdom. The landscape is set beside a serene lake with a floating monastery where the action takes place as the seasons unfold to embrace all the challenges of life. The major principles at the core of Buddhism are embedded in a tapestry of extraordinary beauty and sim-plicity and will provide us with the chance for reflection and discussion on the deeper meaning of life and the challenges involved in living it.
James Preston, Ph.D. has taught a number of courses for the SSU OLLI program. He is an anthropologist and a specialist on world religions. Born in California and raised in Ethiopia during his early years, he has spent his life searching the globe for meaningful paradigms that bring a degree of higher consciousness in human spirituality. He taught for over thirty years in SUNY as Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Religious Studies Program and has published numerous books and articles in symbolic anthropology and religious studies. He has conducted fieldwork on Hinduism in India and among Native American Catholic populations in the United States and Canada.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
John Syer, "ALL THE KING'S MEN", 1949
Huey Long, a colorful and controversial governor of Louisiana, was purportedly the inspiration for Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize winning All the King’s Men. The novel was, in turn, the basis for the 1949 movie of the same name that won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The story, film and acting are riveting in themselves, but they also raise fundamental questions about the nature of human-ity as it unfolds in the world of politics. The hunger of the demagogue and the susceptibility of the masses is brought out as well as in any movie. The moral question of whether the good ends justify the evil means is posed again and again. The nature of a political machine and its leader run amok are vividly portrayed, as are the weaknesses and compromises of people who otherwise consider themselves upstanding members of society. And the nature of real politics and the formalities of democracy on the state level are compared to reveal the tenuous nature of our democratic system and the people in it.
All of this and more will be the topics of our discussion of this powerful and dramatic film. Finally we will ask whether, and in what form, this level of corruption plays a role in our present day politics.
John Syer, Ph.D., having been a faculty member at the University of Illinois-Springfield and at CSU-Sacramento, has closely witnessed two State Capitols in action. Professor Syer held seminars involving student interns and fellows placed in the legislative and the executive branches of state government. His former students now serve on the Board of Equalization and in the state legislature. Syer is co- author of Power and Politics in California (9th ed. 2009). He is the recipient of Distinguished Teaching Awards from Cal Poly-SLO and from CSU-Sacramento.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Phil Harriman: "GATTACA", 1997
In the near future, where corporations screen their employees based on their genetic makeup, a man with a congenital heart condition tries to assume the identity of a former athlete with perfect genes in order to fulfill his dream of traveling in space. The name "GATTACA" is composed entirely of the letters standing for the four building blocks of DNA. The Gattaca building is, in reality, the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael. Part thriller, part futuristic drama and cautionary tale, Gattaca establishes its social structure so convincingly that the entire scenario is chillingly believable. Uma Thurman stars as the woman who loves Vincent (played by Ethan Hawke) and identifies with his struggle. Hawke’s performance lends the film a note of tragic and heartfelt humanity. “Informed by Ray Bradbury on the one hand and BusinessWeek on the other, Gattaca is a tone poem in futurism, and it could happen here. Indeed, little stands between us and a society stratified by chromosomal perfection. We have begun screening embryos for serious disease. We will start to fix more subtle defects.” (from Wired)
We’ll discuss how much closer we have moved toward the situation described in the film, and what limits should be put on selection. How far have we moved toward institutionalized eugenics? The movie has a byline “There is no gene for the human spirit”. What aspects of human nature might be influenced by our genetic makeup?
Phil Harriman, Ph.D., has taught courses in genetics for both SSU’s and Dominican University’s OLLI programs during the last six years. Before that he was Program Director for Genetics at the National Science Foundation. He was introduced to GATTACA when it was shown at the National Institutes of Health to lead off discussions of the implications of the Human Genome Project.