Anderson Blanton
ISM Fellow
Anthropology
“Object Lessons: Materiality and Aesthetic Formation in the American Sunday School”

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey, the ultimate science fiction film by director Stanley Kubrick, explores themes of existentialism and the relationship between technological innovation and its destructive potential.

Science Fiction & Spirituality Film Series

Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013)

Jodorowsky’s Dune is the story of film director Alejandro Jodorowsky and his ambitious film, Dune, a project that never reached fruition. This fascinating documentary follows Jodorowsky and his cast of “spiritual warriors” as they reshape the Western canon of science fiction film engaging other major works like Contact (1997), Alien (1979), and Prometheus (2012).

Science Fiction & Spirituality Film Series

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

The Man Who Fell to Earth, featuring the late David Bowie, plays a dual role in realm of science fiction by marrying the cult following of a pop icon with a plot that questions cultural values and desires.

Science Fiction and Spirituality Film Series

Advantageous (2015)

Advantageous, a film by Jennifer Phang, is set in a near future ridden by increasing unemployment and gender inequality. Noted for its Asian American female protagonist, the film uses the genre of science fiction to consider themes of the body, embodiment, and desire.

Science Fiction and Spirituality Film Series

The 2016-2017 Religion and Film Series focuses on Science Fiction and Spirituality. All films will be screened at the Whitney Humanities Center at 7 pm and are followed by a conversation led by a guest speaker. Dustin Gavin is series coordinator. For more information about each film, including guest speakers, click on the links below. 

Sept 30 - Solaris (1972)

Solaris (1972)

Tarkovsky’s mystifying drama of grief and memory, wholly engages both inner and outer space. In it Tarkovsky takes a step away from the standard science fiction film and  creates a divine conversation of reality, humanity, and “contact” with other forms of intelligence.

Science Fiction & Spirituality Film Series

Maria J. Feliciano
Independent Scholar
Director, Medieval Textiles in Iberia and the Mediterranean Research Project
“Sumptuousness and Splendor, or the Sensory Dimensions of Medieval Textiles in Iberia”

Caroline Fowler
A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of the History of Art
Yale University
“Translating Matter from India to Amsterdam in the Eighteenth Century”

Sensational Religion: Sense and Contention in Material Practice focuses on sensory cultures of religions as well as the degree to which the senses and sensation lie at the heart of contention over religious objects and spaces. The conference is equally about controversy and about religion’s material engagements of the senses. In addition to these specific topics, this event also invites into public interaction people who might not ordinarily find space to converse with one another on such subjects.