FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Sep 16, 2008

Film Historian and Author Jack Stevenson to Screen Classic Silent Film Häxan Sept. 23

KEUKA PARK, N.Y.—Jack Stevenson, film historian and author, will screen the classic silent film Häxan and provide commentary Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Gannett Room of Lightner Library on the Keuka College campus.

Part of the College’s Values and Ethics Series, the event is free and open to the public.

In 2006, Stevenson published Witchcraft through the Ages: The Story of Häxan, the World’s Strangest Film, and the Man Who Made It, the only book written about the film. An American living in Denmark since 1993, Stevenson has written extensively about Danish film subjects (including a book about Lars von Trier for The British Film Institute in 2002), and for Witchcraft he drew heavily on the original Danish source material. He taught film study and cinema operations courses at The European Film College between 1995 and 1998 and has lectured internationally.

Häxan, a macabre 1922 masterpiece, stands as the most extreme and controversial work of silent cinema—and one of the most visionary. A perennially revived cult favorite, it often materializes around Halloween and still manages to enchant modern viewers. It was a work of obsession created in mysterious circumstances and its Danish director, Benjamin Christensen, led a life that was almost equally as mysterious.

The version of Häxan that will be shown at Keuka is the 1968 “English sound version,” with narration by William Burroughs.

Keuka College is the national leader in experiential, hands-on learning.

Office of Communications, Keuka College, Keuka Park, New York 14478

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