Finger Lakes Film Trail Programs
A series of linked events highlights three Ithaca women writers—Grace Miller White, Maude Radford Warren, and Ruth Sawyer Durand—whose literary works inspired silent films during the early days of the film industry.
An opening reception, downtown theater tour, panel presentations, and a silent film screening focus on the critical role women played in the early movie business, not only as writers, but as directors and producers, and of course as serial queen stars and movie ticket buyers.
Let’s talk about race.
To appreciate where we are today in terms of racial relations and civil rights, we—as individuals, as a community, and as a nation—must have a better understanding of how, historically, we got here. Pairing historic race films with lectures by film experts, Race Films/Race Matters: Starting Conversations About Race in America is an attempt to do just that.
You can join the Finger Lakes Film Trail in using race films as a starting point for necessary, informative, and provocative conversations about race, racial tension, and racial discrimination in America today.
Let’s make some noise.
Making Noise About Silent Film: Conversations About Cinema, Culture, and Social Change examines the social and cultural impact of early film and explores the way that silent cinema helped to define racial and gender attitudes, shape contemporary thought and public opinion, and foment social change in the early decades of the twentieth century.