Event Details
Come share the journey of America's 250-year legacy. We’re hosting a special film screening and talk with expert historian and filmmaker Greg Blank. The lecture will highlight the representation of immigrants in early Hollywood cinema and the evolution of the portrayal of immigrant characters in more recent films and explore the ways in which immigrant stories are used to address larger social, political, and cultural issues. We’ll look at movies that detail the immigrant experience, such as The Godfather, Part II (1974); America America (1963); Avalon (1990); films from the early silent days, such as Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917); to more recent films like Brooklyn (2015) and Minari (2020); as well as comical or allegorical commentary on the immigrant experience, like Coming to America (1988) and Alien Nation (1988). The presentation concludes with a discussion of the importance of accurate and nuanced representation of immigrant experiences in movies and the impact that these representations can have on shaping public perception and understanding of immigration.
Greg Blank has over 15 years of experience as a producer, director, cinematographer and editor. He has been lecturing on film and media studies and other topics since 2018. Greg is an award-winning producer for the show Push Pause Long Island on Verizon Fios1, and as a documentarian for the films Undocumented (2016), and A World Within a World: The Bay Houses of Long Island (2020). He has developed and produces over 70 lecture programs for public and private clients, including LIU Post Hutton House, Molloy College, The Huntington Cinema Arts Centre, and dozens of colleges, libraries, and venues throughout the country.
The program will take place at the Great Neck Library Station Branch, 26 Great Neck Road, 2nd Level, Great Neck, on Friday, June 5, at 2:00 p.m. Registration is not required; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please call Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.
Image source: Charlie Chaplin in a scene from The Immigrant (1917). Source courtesy of the J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs at the University of Washington: Special Collections, and Wikimedia Commons.