Hirshon Film Festival 2006
"If the first casualty of war is truth, the last is memory."
Peter Davis
The Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival presents
Featuring: The War Film
April 10 - May 5, 2006
Artist in Residence Peter Davis
A special series of screenings, panels and master classes.
The Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival was established by a bequest from the late Dorothy Hirshon, a trustee of The New School for 61 years, with the mission of promoting excellence and education in the filmmaking arts. The fourth Hirshon Film Festival is focused on The War Film and includes lectures, screenings, and master classes with the artist in residence, Peter Davis.
Peter Davis is a writer and documentary filmmaker. Davis' groundbreaking work in television journalism for CBS includes the Emmy, Peabody, and Polk award-winning The Selling of the Pentagon (1971). His timeless Vietnam documentary Hearts and Minds received an Academy Award in 1975. Davis' PBS series Middletown (1982) also won numerous awards, including First Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He is the author of three books, including the Pulitzer-prize nominated If You Came This Way (1995). Davis is an extensively published free-lance journalist, most recently contributing ongoing coverage of the Iraq war to The Nation. Davis is a graduate of Harvard who made New York City his home for thirty years. He currently lives with his family on the coast of Maine.
SCHEDULE EVENTS
Monday, April 10
Peter Davis Master Class
6:00-9:00pm Swayduck Auditorium, 65 Fifth Avenue
Open to University degree students. Current I.D. required
Tuesday, April 11
Screening and Discussion
"Vets on Vets on Film"
12:00-2:00pm 70 Fifth Avenue, Room 1204
Combat veterans discuss their portrayal in narrative film. Clips from All Quiet on the Western Front,
The Best Years of our Lives, Rambo, TheThin Red Line, and others. Panelists include Medal of Honor
recipient Jack Jacobs, Swords to Plowshares Executive Director Michael Blecker, and Paul Cox of
Veterans for Peace, Chapter 69.
Wednesday, April 12 & Thursday, April 13
Peter Davis Master Classes for Degree Students
by application only, available at: www.mediastudies.newschool.edu/hirshon/apply.pdf
Friday, April 14
Screening
"Hearts and Minds (1974)"
7:00-10:00pm Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12 th Street
Q & A with director Peter Davis
Peter Davis' landmark Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds received the Academy Award
for Best Documentary Feature of 1974. The Village Voice's Michael Atkinson wrote in 2004 that today
"but for a few particulars, Davis' film seems as much a prosecution of the present as of the past; only
the names and geography have changed."
Friday, April 28
Screening
"Occupation: Dreamland (2005)"
Directed by Garrett Scott and Ian Olds
7:00-9:00pm Parsons Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue
Q & A with Ian Olds
Occupation: Dreamland is a melancholy portrait of a squad of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne
deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004.
Thursday, May 4
Screening
"Hotel Rwanda"
6:00-9:00pm Swayduck Auditorium, 65 Fifth Avenue
Q and A with director Terry George (8:00-8:30pm)
Hotel Rwanda is director Terry George's graphic, harrowing, and widely honored film based on the true
life heroism of Paul Rusesabigna during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Co-sponsored by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Friday, May 5
Screening
27th Annual New School Invitational Film Show
7:00-9:00pm Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Reception following
A selection of the year's outstanding films juried by a panel of distinguished filmmakers and film
industry professionals.
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all public events are free on a first-come, first-served basis.