On Tuesday, associate professor Maria San Filippo programmed a special advanced screening of three short films by faculty members, which featured women-centric films about issues of immigration. The screenings were followed by a Q&A, where students were able to ask faculty questions and discuss politically relevant issues.
“I hope students will see how powerfully film can speak to a lot of the contemporary issues that we’re facing, and the importance of seeing films communally in a shared space,” San Filippo said. “These films invite dialogue around the questions of migration, political oppression, liberty, and justice that are swirling amongst us.”
Maria San Filippo felt this type of community discourse was missing in the Department of Visual and Media Arts. For 12 years, the Bright Lights Cinema Series had held recurring screenings that were free to attend for students, and frequently invited VMA faculty members—who are often working filmmakers—to screen their work and discuss them with students.
Emerson suspended the program ahead of the 2024-25 academic year, after announcing a budget shortfall and staff layoffs related to enrollment decline. Anna Feder, the former curator of the series, was among those laid off and is now suing Emerson for wrongful termination.
Alongside fellow VMA faculty Maria Corrigan and Marc Fields, San Filippo created an interim committee last semester to program screenings for the VMA department.
“We as VMA have access to exhibit films in the Bright Family Screening Room, and that space shouldn’t go unused,” San Filippo said. “For the benefit of our community, we had to step in without any funding to support using the space as it’s intended to be used.”
In the past year, the VMA department has been able to host screenings for faculty films, providing faculty a valuable way to tie their filmmaking careers with their educational careers. Some of these screenings have included “Film Is Dead. Long Live Film!” directed by assistant professor Peter Flynn, “Crescendo,” written by affiliated faculty Stephen Glantz, and “The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire,” produced by associate professor Mike S. Ryan.
One of the films screened on Tuesday, April 8, was “Woman Who Lives at the End of Time,” directed by professor and BFA Program Coordinator Cristina Kotz Cornejo. Two films by assistant professor and graduate program director Hanadi Elyan were also screened.
“Woman Who Lives at the End of Time” takes place in 2030, but its premise plays more like a post-apocalypse: Worsening conditions in the U.S. cause people to cross the border into Mexico for safety. The film centers on a group of queer women who create an enclave in Mexico, but who encounter and take in a mysterious woman who seems to be bringing trouble with her.
Kotz Cornejo, the film’s director, created the film in response to encroaching anti-LGBTQ+ laws across the country. Following the screening, she passed out leaflets to donate to the Rainbow Railroad, an organization that helps LGBTQ+ refugees escape persecution in their home countries.
“Seeing and hearing the reaction through the Q&A made me realize that this was needed, and that people got it and appreciated it,” Kotz Cornejo said.
“Woman Who Lives at the End of Time” was created by a predominantly woman- and queer-led team. They worked with Las Amazonas Electricas, a women-only lighting team, which historically, have been roles predominantly reserved for men in Hollywood. Sarah Secunda, who teaches basic cinematography and videography at Emerson, was the director of photography for the film. As a queer and nonbinary cinematographer, they believe they have to find their own community through filmmaking and film exhibition.
“You really just have to carve out space,” Secunda said. “You have to figure out how to organize people around to see your film and maintain community from screenings. It’s up to filmmakers significantly right now to build their own audiences, because the large structures are not always in place.”
