Commemorative Film Screening: The Pawnbroker

Grand Valley will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Sidney Lumet’s ground-breaking drama, The Pawnbroker, with a free screening and discussion.

Film screening March 18, 7:30 p.m.
Loutit Hall room 102
Allendale Campus

The film will be introduced by film historian Annette Insdorf of Columbia University. Based on Edward Lewis Wallant’s 1961 novel, The Pawnbroker (1964) is the story of Sol Nazerman, a concentration camp survivor whose traumatic memories are often triggered by the desperate people who come to his Harlem pawn shop. Starring Rod Steiger in an Academy-Award-nominated performance, The Pawnbroker is the first Hollywood film to examine the Holocaust from a survivor’s perspective.

Annette Insdorf lecture
The Pawnbroker: A Cinematic Language to Represent the Holocaust
March 19, 4 p.m.
Loutit Hall room 102

Insdorf  is the author of Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, which remains the foundational text in the field. She has also written books on Francois Truffaut, Polish cinema, and most recently a study of Philip Kaufman. Her wide-ranging work includes television appearances, audio commentary on dvds, jury work at important film festivals, and since 1983, hosting Reel Pieces at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y, a program which has attracted such guests as Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, Pedro Almodovar, Woody Allen, and Al Pacino.

Both events are sponsored by the Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment, Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Frederik Meijer Honors College, and the School of Communications.

For more information, contact Professor Rob Franciosi, at 331-3069, or [email protected].