Below are three short readings from our panelists, offering personal thoughts and reflections on their experience with The Tree of Life. These essays are brief, concise, and approachable and have been provided to inspire further critical engagement with the film and to provoke reflections and questions for the panel discussion.

Filmmaker Kirby Atkins’ UnReview

(find out more about Kirby here)

Graphic Designer Ryan Pflasterer’s UnReview

(find out more about Ryan here)

Philosopher Greg Thornbury’s UnReview

(find out more about Greg here)

Panel Discussion, Reception and Screening of

‘The Tree of Life’

Sponsored by

the New City Arts Center,

Barefoot’s Joe and

the Society for Critical Imagination

Panel Discussion – 7pm | FREE

Reception (Dessert & Coffee) – 8pm | (Included in Admission Price)

Screening of ‘The Tree of Life’ – 8:30pm | $5

To make reservations, visit Event Registration.

“Language & Sounds: A Collaborative Night of Poetry”

Based on the life and aesthetic of John Keats, the film Bright Star supposes he might describe poetry as such:

“A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore; it’s to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out. It is an experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery.”

This Thursday evening is dedicated to the pure enjoyment of language and music of the imagination found in poetry. Please bring along any favorite poems to share.

Dearest Society,

“What is this war in the heart of nature?” so begins Terrence Malick’s third film – The Thin Red Line, and the epic visual journey of one of the last living great film auteurs. His other films include: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The New World and the forthcoming and much-anticipated Tree of Life.

Following on the heels of his research into the career and legacy of Terrence Malick, Andrew Norman will discuss his ideas about the affective possibilities of Malick’s distinctive cinema. Expect a flurry of philosophical dialogue and multi-media display of wizardry from Mr. Norman’s presentation.

See you there.

In the early part of the 20th Century artists all over the world busied themselves at deconstructing their art forms. Guitarists were built out of cubes, and urinals were turned into water fountains. Joining them were Groucho, Harpo, Chico, sometimes Zeppo and even less of the time Gummo — the Marx Brothers — deconstructing all of society to the point that it nearly fell down. On top of that, they were darn funny. On Thursday, Sept. 10 the Society for Critical Imagination presents “Duck Soup,” the Brothers’ best film, voted #6 on AFI’s greatest comedies list and #60 of the top 100 films of all time, all in glorious black & white. Craig Davis promises to offer up “mind-numbing trivia and other baloney,” so be sure to come and bring the popcorn.

8pm – Sept. 10th – The Worley’s Home

Dearest Society,

This summer I had the privilege to interact with Miroslav Volf, director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School, at the Christians in the Visual Arts biennial conference. In preparation for that conference, I was given his 1994 essay for Ex Auditu entitled “Soft Difference: Theological Reflections on the Relation Between Church and Culture in 1 Peter.”

I really enjoyed the experience and the opportunity, but most of all, this essay stands out as one the best pieces I’ve read on Christ and culture in years.

I encourage you to read the essay before we meet, and you can find it here:

http://www.yale.edu/faith/downloads/soft-difference-church-culture.pdf

Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie -
True Poems flee.
~Emily Dickinson

At the start of another semester’s worth of evenings at the Society for Critical Imagination, we will eat an ice cream cone to commemorate the last days of summer. Hopefully, we’ll have wondrous luck in replacing the words of Henry James’ saying: “Summer afternoon (evening) – summer afternoon (evening); to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

Inspired by a recent discovery of the journal Smith Magazine, we request that everyone bring a six-word memoir about their summer vacation.

Expect to take home a poster with the SCI calendar for Fall 2009.

See you in the backyard!

Read it online here.

Mr. Robbins (artist profile, teaching bio) has generated numerous projects (e.g. Talent, The Ice Cream Social, Lift) that blur the traditional distinctions between art and entertainment and life. Along the way, he has also authored several great books (e.g. The Velvet Grind, The Ice Cream Social, and soon to be published Concrete Comedy). This newest book, High Entertainment, will no doubt excite and amaze as well.

THANKS, David!

And, of course, you remember:

Dearest Society,

Tomorrow evening, Taylor Worley will present on the musical legacy of Elliott Smith. Entitled “The Redemptive Melancholy of Elliott Smith,” the presentation will focus on the brief but brilliant career of the post-punk songwriter and the enduring gravity of his melancholic work. The presentation will also include a few special guests offering live performances of Smith songs. It should be great time to reflect on Smith’s legacy and share his music afresh. See you there.

8pm @ the Worley’s
328 Westwood Ave.

The inestimable Craig Davis has agreed to postpone his film night presentation this week, so we can defer to a timely and important event hosted by UU’s Center for Politics and Religion:

“The End of Christianity in Iraq?”

On Thursday, April 23 at 7:00 in Harvey Hall, the Center for Politics & Religion will host Dr. David Michelson who will deliver a talk entitled “The End of Christianity in Iraq?”. Dr. Michelson will discuss the long history of Christianity in Iraq from Apostolic times through the rise of Islam to the present. He will also analyze the current crises faced by Christians in contemporary Iraq, with a particular focus on Iraq’s Aramaic speaking minority population.

David Michelson is an assistant professor in the History Department at the University of Alabama where he teaches Ancient and Early Medieval History with a focus on the history of Christianity in the Middle East. His current research focuses on the Syriac speaking churches of Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Prof. Michelson earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and has also studied in Oxford, Rome, and Turkey.

We strongly encourage you not to miss out on this very important conversation and hope to see you there!

Next week: Dr. Micah Watson presents “Nietzsche, the Christian, and the Open-Minded Life”