Nerd Nite 3: lights, camera, nerds will take place on Feb. 15 at the Star Bar at Pachamama’s.
Doors at 7:30, Speakers at 8:00
Room capacity is 50 people!
featuring:
A Century of Film or: We’ve Spent One Hundred Years Collectively Sitting in Front of Screens Getting Stupider (And Smarter, and Stranger, and Inspired)
by Justin Runge
If black and white movies seem strange to a majority of Millenials, the films of the silent era might as well be the work of sentient, self-aware robo-dinosaurs. Thing is, entertainment hasn’t changed much since the advent of the moving image: before millions tuned in to watch a Kardashian get a pedicure, people crowded into dark rooms to watch French people walk home from work, and Thomas Edison was charging a nickel for twenty seconds of cockfighting before anyone ever uploaded a cute cat video to YouTube—even Eadweard Muybridge’s Horse in Motion could be considered the prototypical animated GIF. And while pre-Talkies share much with modern flicks, they also have identities all their own—weird, racy, trashy, lavish, outlandish, and dreamlike ones. Silent film and its orbiting incarnations deserve to be enjoyed, appreciated, and nerdily obsessed over because they exactly are—and totally aren’t—like anything else playing at your multiplex or on your iPad.
Justin Runge holds a bachelor’s in English and theatre from Nebraska Wesleyan University, and a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Alabama, where he augmented his education with courses in film and work in video production. A lifelong film fan, he saw his first silent, Erich von Stroheim’s Greed, at ten years old, and his passion hasn’t ebbed: last March, he proposed to his girlfriend during a screening of Frank Borzage’s 7th Heaven at the Topeka Silent Film Festival.
Dressing for Debauchery: The Costumes and Masks of Mardi Gras
by Alison Heryer
Mardi Gras has long been an opportunity for people to let loose and costumes and masks often provide revelers with the perfect disguise. Learn the history behind some of this eccentric attire and get tips on what to wear for your upcoming Fat Tuesday festivities.
Alison Heryer teaches at Kansas City Art Institute and designs costumes for theatre, film, and print. Her interests include masks, spectacle, site-specific performance and making fancy doughnuts with her husband, Jason.
There and Back Again: The Adaptive History of Cabaret
by Adam Lott
Adam will discussing Cabaret, in all it’s many iterations and all the contradictions and similarities therein.
Adam Lott was born in Nebraska, but has lived in Kansas his whole life. He hardly ever drinks, and he never lies. You can trust him implicitly, love him unconditionally and let him into your life without fear or reservation. He also owns a cat.
