Virginia Film Festival announces that its 2008 theme will be “Aliens!” Human fascination with extraterrestrial life has always amazed me. Human treatment of “aliens”; whether they be another one of earth’s races or from the planet Xenog involves a fear of the unknown, making assumptions and creating our own conclusions about something different from ourselves.
Hopefully the festival will call upon Roy Wagner, who teachers “Fantasy and Social Values” at UVA to discuss some of the cultural reasons behind people’s fear of the unknown.
There will be a lot to play with in the Virginia Film Society’s 2008 theme. The Society’s artistic director, Richard Herskowitz, explains:
The prominence of the immigration issue in this year’s election inspired us to tackle this theme. There is a rich history of films about the alien-ness of immigrants and outsiders, including science-fiction films like ‘The Brother from Another Planet’ and dramas like ‘El Norte.’ And there are many great filmmakers, from Luis Bunuel to Ang Lee and Mira Nair, whose frequent border crossings and perpetual alien-ness, it can be argued, have sustained the vitality of their work.”
We are very excited over at MUSE about this upcoming events. What alien movies have meant something to you? What would you like to see at the festival?
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One of my faves is John Sayles’ movie “Brother from Another Planet”
Oh man, that is really exciting. Richard’s explanation for the theme is interesting as well (though I never need an excuse for scifi!). Seconding hopes for a talk by Wagner.
Working on my conehead foilwrap, I’ll be MUSE mascot for the festival with a spray painted T-Shirt saying, ‘Jupiter rocks!’
in a move aimed at elevating our current discourse i have decided to strike my previous comments from the record
But I do have a t-shirt suggestion: “Bring back Pluto!”
Shaun, I might be wrong, but I’ve seen “Bring Back Pluto” before. Where? Can’t remember.
I think “Mars Attacks!” is a woefully under-appreciated alien movie. It’s hilarious, and a really well done parody of B-movies circa 1950.
I knew it was too good to be my own…
The Day the Earth Stood Still is great ‘alien’ film from the 50’s. I know a lot of those old movies look cheesy now compared to the special effects we have today, but this is a classic. I haven’t seen it in years. Sneak Reviews here I come. I can also hear Conan O’Brien making fun of me now in his Star Trek nerd voice.