2/10 Wall-E
2/25 Ghost in the Shell
3/1 The Stepford Wives
3/10 Ex Machina
The film series is now over.
This film series explores the line between human and machine. How have popular movies engaged with this question, and what can we learn from viewing them in the context of Ambiguously Human? Please join one or come to them all!
Wall-E
Wednesday, February 10 at 7pm
Griffith Theater, Bryan Center (125 Science Drive)
WALL-E is a lovable robot cleaning up the trash that covers Earth, which has been abandoned by humans in favor of space. When a robotic probe from the luxury liner housing the remaining humans, EVE, finds plant life on Earth, the two robots start an adventure that could save both humanity and the planet. This family movie explores the defining qualities of humanity through characters that are human, animal, and robot, without necessarily privileging any one form.
The movie will be followed by a discussion with Kati and Dirk Philipsen, Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and a Duke Arts and Sciences Senior Research Scholar, on the relationship between the spectrum of human-ness between people & machines, food production & stewardship, and modern capitalism. It should be interesting!
This screening is part of the Kenan Institute for Ethics’s Film Fe(a)st series, which is focused on food, culture and ethics. The series reflects the different ways visual narratives can help unearth the ways in which preparing and eating food brings us closer to one another.
Refreshments are provided. Parking is available in the Bryan Center Parking Deck. Upon leaving the film, you will receive a voucher to hand to the attendant.
Ghost in the Shell
Thursday, February 25 at 6pm
Graduate Liberal Studies house (2114 Campus Drive)
Motoko and her partner Batou are cyborg investigators in a world where most people have technological modifications to their bodies and minds. They pursue the increasingly complicated trail of the Puppet Master, who hacks these ubiquitous networks and the people who use them. Ghost in the Shell explores the vanishingly thin line between augmented humans and artificial intelligence.
The film will be followed by a discussion with Kati around machine qualities that can become human.
Refreshments will be provided.
RSVPs to the facebook event page are appreciated, but not required.
The Stepford Wives
Tuesday, March 1 at 7pm
The Pink Parlor, East Duke (1304 Campus Drive)
Joanna Eberhart moves from New York City to the small suburb of Stepford. What begins as expressing her frustrations with her new life soon transforms into uncovering a sinister town-wide conspiracy. The Stepford Wives is a classic suspense movie that explores the impact of a patriarchal society on women’s human qualities.
The film will be followed by a discussion with Rachel Ingold, Curator of the History of Medicine Collections at the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, around human qualities that can become inhuman.
Refreshments will be provided. Funding made possible by The Kenan Institute for Ethics. This event is co-sponsored by Duke Women’s Studies.
RSVPs to the facebook event page are appreciated, but not required.
Ex Machina
Thursday, March 10 at 7pm
217 Perkins Library (411 Chapel Drive)
Caleb, a programmer at a large tech company, wins a visit with the reclusive CEO, Nathan. Once there he begins testing how human Nathan’s intelligent android, Ava, really is. But things are more complicated under the surface. Ex Machina explores questions of what makes someone fully human in all of its characters.
The film will be followed by a discussion with Kate Hayles, James B. Duke Professor of Literature, and Jaybird O’berski, Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Theater Studies, on distinguishing biological humans from artificial ones.
Refreshments will be provided. Funding made possible by The Kenan Institute for Ethics.
RSVPs to the facebook event page are appreciated, but not required.
