Academy Award winner and visual effects supervisor Brian Connor has over two decades’ experience in high-end visual effects for film and television and is the winner of an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for Denis Villeneuve’s epic sci-fi blockbuster “Dune: Part One.” Connor joins The Sidney Poitier New American Film School for a deep dive into the world of computer graphics and visual effects, featuring the incredible VFX work that brought the world of “Dune” to life, and shares what it takes to be a successful VFX artist.

What happens when you combine the world’s greatest athlete with some of the world’s most beloved cartoon characters? Movie magic. Bring the whole family for The Sidney Poitier New American Film School’s special Black History Month outdoor screening of the original 1996 sports movie classic “Space Jam,” starring NBA legend Michael Jordan alongside animated Looney Tunes characters as they team up to play against invading aliens intent on capturing the toons. 

*** Note new date, time, and location. ***

 

Kino Nights is a new curated series of themed monthly screenings and conversations hosted by the Melikian Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. The series features present-day groundbreaking documentary and narrative cinema from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, contextualized in timely conversations with scholars and artists. The screenings and conversations are free and open to all to attend.

The Classics at the MIX series continues with an early and often overlooked Steven Spielberg masterpiece, “Empire of the Sun.” A 12-year-old Christian Bale stars in his big Hollywood debut as Jamie "Jim" Graham, a young British boy who gets separated from his wealthy family in Shanghai during WWII and comes of age in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. This international epic is an underrated gem that touches on themes that recur throughout Spielberg’s filmography and offers an emotionally stirring child’s-eye view of war. 

Some films demand to be seen on the big screen, and “Lawrence of Arabia” is at the top of that list. The Classics at the MIX series continues with a favorite from The Poitier Film School’s founding director Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the 1962 best picture-winning historical epic directed by cinematic master David Lean and starring Peter O’Toole. The sweeping tale follows British writer and adventurer T.E. Lawrence through the Middle East as he fights alongside Arab guerilla forces.

The Endstar Game Maker Spark Challenge invites Arizona State University faculty and students to collaborate in teams, design innovative games using the cutting-edge Endstar platform and win prizes! 

Choose between two challenge tracks and explore the power of game-based learning while fostering creativity, teamwork, and hands-on experience in game design.

Launchpad Track (No Code)

In this no-code track, teams will work together to d

Celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. on MLK Day with a special screening of Ava DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated 2014 film “Selma,” starring David Oyelowo and Oprah Winfrey. This stirring historical drama focuses on the months in 1965, when King helped organize peaceful protest marches from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights for Black Americans. The film earned a best picture nomination, and musicians John Legend and Common won the Oscar for best original song for “Glory.”

This awards season, we celebrate a film famous for not having won many of them despite being universally considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made: Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece “Citizen Kane,” the winner of a single Oscar (and Welles’ only) for best screenplay. The Sidney Poitier New American Film School professor and lover of classic cinema Joe Fortunato joins us for a special big-screen presentation of “Citizen Kane,” offering audiences the chance to experience "Fortunato Film School" on the big screen.

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