Thursday, May 14, 2026 | 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Robert Burgoyne, PhD Thursday, May 14 at 1:00 pm Cost: Complimentary members / $5 guests Robert Burgoyne is a writer, speaker, and podcast host whose work centers on the ways film engages with the historical past. In this talk, he will discuss two films that explore the historical past from a disconcerting, deeply unfamiliar perspective: Robert Eggers’ The Witch, set in Puritan New England of the early 1600’s, and Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant, set in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800’s. The imagery of landscape in these two films, in particular, the imagery of the wild forest, draws into view older but still potent systems of belief concerning nation, race, mystical belief and the natural world. Both films evoke worlds that are charged with supernatural possibility, chiefly associated with the dark woods of the wilderness, portrayed as a place of both dread and renewal. Dr. Burgoyne served as Professor and Chair in Film Studies at The University of St Andrews in Scotland, and as Professor and Chair of English at Wayne State University. If you are a film fanatic and like to delve deep into themes, historical context, etc., this program is for you!
It is highly recommended that you see both films prior to the May 14th lecture. Next will be showing them on the following days: The Witch: Wednesday, May 6 at 4:00 – 5:30 pm The Revenant: Wednesday, May 13 at 4:00 – 6:30 pm
Location:
Birmingham Next