Welcome to the Film Schedule for Laura Janda's courses!

Schedule of Films

Location and Time: Dey Hall 113 6:00pm on Tuesdays

[Please note: Food and drink are not allowed in Dey 113]

Be sure to sign in to receive credit for movie attendance.

All screenings will be followed by a group discussion (approx 15 minutes).

This film schedule includes films for both SLAV/LING 409 and SLAV/PWAD 467 (color coded).

Dates for Films:

August 28: John Taylor Lecture 1 (Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics and what it might offer to the Language Teaching Professions) & Lecture 2 (Categorizations)

September 4: Sudeten Germans & Czechs: A Challenge for Europe (documentary about ethnic cleansing), Documentary on Welsh

Sept 11: George Lakoff Lecture 2 (Cognitive Semantics: The Basic Mechanisms of Thought (1)) & Lecture 3 (Cognitive Semantics: The Basic Mechanisms of Thought (2))

Sept 18: Pathfinder. (1897, 86 min) Nominated for an Oscar. A film about a Sami myth. Viewer comment:One of the many beauties of this film is the exquisite simplicity. Filming, acting, directing, costuming - all have been distilled to their essence so that the viewer is never distracted from the superb story. I watch this film several times a year (and have given it as gifts to friends) and no longer bother to read the sub-titles, so clear has the story become to me. We lost a great deal when we stopped sitting around fires telling stories to one another; this film can give some of that back to us.

Sept 25: George Lakoff Lecture 4 (Cognitive Semantics: The Basic Mechanisms of Thought (3)) & Lecture 5 (Constructions: The Structure of Grammar)

Oct 2: Sápmi (20 min documentary on Sámi people), Even if a Hundred Ogres (1 hr outdoor theater performance depicting the history and culture of the Sámi people)

Oct 9: John Taylor Lecture 6 (Construal of Space) & Lecture 7 (Metaphor, Metonymy and Blending)

Oct 23: Herders of the Mongun Taiga (1 hr documentary about the Tuvan people of Siberia)

Oct 30: George Lakoff Lecture 6 (The Neural Theory of Language) & Ron Langacker Lecture 1 (Conceptual Semantics)

Nov 6: Vukovar (1994, 96 min) A powerful film, made on location during the bombing of the city of Vukovar. This film won many international awards. Plot summary: Vukovar is a small city on the Croatian side of the Danube. The Berlin wall falls, and amidst this hope, Ana and Toma marry. Friends since childhood, she is a Croat, he a Serb. Their parents help them build a house. But, the wedding celebration is interrupted by demonstrators from three ethnic and national contingents. Toma is drafted into the Yugoslav army; Ana, pregnant, watches civil war slowly engulf her city. Threats painted on walls, intimidation, shootings, then tanks and rockets. Within a year, destruction reaches every aspect of their lives. Soundtrack lyrics underscore the ironies, intimate enmity, and stubborn friendships of civil war. NOTE: This film contains explicit sexual material.

Nov 13: Ron Langacker Lecture 2 (Dynamicity, Fictivity, and Scanning) & Lecture 3 (Symbolic Grammar and Constructions)

Nov 27: No Man's Land (98 min. 2001) Plot summary: After various skirmishes, two wounded soldiers, one Bosnian and one Serb, confront each other in a trench in the no man's land between their lines. They wait for dark, trading insults and even finding some common ground; sometimes one has the gun, sometimes the other, sometimes both. Things get complicated when another wounded Bosnian comes to, but can't move because a bouncing mine is beneath him. The two men cooperate to wave white flags, their lines call the UN (whose high command tries not to help), an English reporter shows up, a French sergeant shows courage, and the three men in no man's land may or may not find a way to all get along.