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Posts published in “Arts and Culture”

Eclectic Entertainment: Exploring Smith’s Library Resources

Speaking to friends, family and from personal experience, it has become increasingly evident that, perhaps as a way to cope, our days are now being spent in the bottomless inertia of the internet. Alongside the multitude of mainstream media, Smith offers more off-kilter online options for helping students through this pandemic.

Student Filmmakers Find Community at 26th Annual Five College Film Festival

Despite the bitter cold plaguing Western Mass last week, over 155 college students, faculty and community members found their way into a packed screening room at Amherst College for the 26th annual Five College Film Festival. The two hour collection of videos were artistic, eclectic, experimental and occasionally abrasive. But regardless of the films’ conceptual or technical ability, there was an infectious and radiant wealth of appreciation and support from everyone within the space.


Pianist Jiayan Sun to Hold Benefit Concert for Hubei Charity Federation

Thursday, Feb. 27, the Sage Chamber Music Society presents Schubertiade VI: A Benefit Concert. Smith professors Joel Pitchon (violin), Volcy Pelletier (cello), and Jiayan Sun (piano), will perform works by Franz Schubert and collect donations in support of the Hubei Charity Federation.

‘Parasite’ First International Film to Win Best Picture — But Is It Too Late for the Oscars to Be Redeemed?

This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded South Korean film “Parasite” with its top prize, resisting their usual favorites -- Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, flashy war movies -- and just barely avoiding total irrelevance. The political black comedy was nominated for six awards, winning Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, and, most notably, Best Director and Best Picture.

The Genre-Savvy Fun of “Knives Out”

“Knives Out,” directed by Rian Johnson and theatrically released on Nov. 27, contains a scene in which a character describes the film’s forbidding mansion setting as “practically […] a Clue board.” It is an unexpected but wholly appropriate moment. A whodunit murder mystery inspired heavily by “Clue,” “Knives Out” isn’t interested in shying away from its modern time period or in denying its genre roots. Part homage and part subversion, “Knives Out” relishes the way it plays with audience expectations, seeming to welcome comparison to other works.