Learning Opportunity Announcement

Language Arts Lab Learning Opportunity

I’m sorry, but I only discovered this event on Monday, Sept. 3, and I didn’t have time to get the information out except hastily and by word of mouth. I am going to attend, and I would be pleased to take some interested students with me.

The events are at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, and it is free. If some students want to go, we will leave immediately after school in my car. We will arrive at the Modern in time for a look around at the Ron Mueck Exhibit and the permanent collection. When the museum closes at 5:00, we will go somewhere nearby to eat and then return for the 6:00 program described below. When the event is over (8:40 or so) I will return the students who ride with me to Timberview to get into their own cars or to be picked up by parents.

NOTE: This is NOT a school-sponsored event. It is NOT required (or even expected) of Language Arts Lab students. It is something I am going to do and want to give students access to. There will be other similar events during the year, and some of them will happen on the same short notice. Parents with questions should e-mail me or call me at home 817.423.0694.

Jim Benton, Language Arts Lab Teacher

American Cinema: Film Noir and the Detective Film

With gratitude to the College of Communications at Texas Christian University, we are pleased to offer Modern patrons an opportunity to enjoy a four-part lecture and film series taught by Dr. David E. Whillock, Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Communications at TCU. This series is an abbreviation of a full course offered to adults through the TCU Master of Fine Arts program.
These lectures and screenings explore the cultural, narrative, and critical impact of literary and cinematic forms of film noir and the detective film in the United States. The course introduces the film lover to the technical and aesthetic processes used in developing the style and form found in the American cinema since 1941. Dr. Whillock's lectures will be followed by film screenings. A question-and-answer session will follow. There is no charge. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. The text used for the series is Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Cinema by Foster Hirsch.

Wednesday, September 5, 6–8:40 pm Literary Influences: The Hard Boiled Detective Novel; Screening: Murder My Sweet (1944, directed by Edward Dmytryk)

Wednesday, September 26, 6–8:40 pm Visual Styles of Film Noir: IconographyScreening: Out of the Past (1947, directed by Jacques Tourneur)

Wednesday, October 10, 6–8:40 pm Literature and Film: Problems of AdaptationScreening: The Big Sleep (1946, directed by Howard Hawks)

Wednesday, November 7, 6–8:40 pm Women in Film Noir: The Virgin and the Femme Fatale; Screening: Body Heat (1981, directed by Lawrence Kasdan)