This is why I love living down the street from a college (and heck, working at one for that matter). Lafayette College, in Easton, Pa. is holding — of all things — a dark future film festival and art exhibition.
Called “Future Noir”, the show opened June 8. The art component of the exhibition is being hosted in the Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery of Lafayette’s very cool looking new Williams Visual Arts Building. It features work by Hilary Harkness, Dan Kopp, Fabian Marcaccio, Syd Mead, Chris Morris, Paul Noble, Alexis Rockman and Christoph Steinmeier.
Future Noir’s promotional material describes it as “an exhibition that brings together artists whose work responds to the visionary Syd Mead and the ideas of films such as Blade Runner and Dune, psycohologized and personalized concepts of the future that ae dark, beautiful, complex, diaristic and memorable.” It’s curated by John Post Lee
The June 8th kick off included a reception and round-table discussion followed by a showing of the classic Blade Runner in the Visual Arts building’s parking lot. Yes, that’s right — science fiction under the stars! I didn’t get to go — I found out about it to late — but a friend who did go said it was excellent.
Future shows include Dune (Monday, June 23), Road Warrior (Monday, June 23), Silent Running (Monday, July 7) and Metropolis (Monday, July 14). All shows are at 9 p.m. The rain date for each is the following day.
Of these films, I’m most interested in seeing Metropolis, a giant of the science fiction genre that dates back to the silent film era. Sure, it’s dark and dystopian, but it’s also history, and I’ve never been able to see it.
Dune and Road Warrior are films I’ve seen before and don’t feel particularly compelled to see again. Silent Running is an eco-propaganda film from the early 1970s, and frankly, it’s not something I have any desire to see.
Still, I love the idea of this film/art exhibition, and I hope they do more. I’d love to see a cyberpunk exhibition (or go more eccentric and just do a Philip K. Dick exhibition), as well as heroic or libertarian SF showings.