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Digital Cinema — A Guided Film Club

Digital Cinema — A Guided Film Club

Most theater projectors around the world no longer shoot light through celluloid reels but rather cast a beam from files on a hard drive. Chemistry has been supplanted with math; silver halide crystals swapped for silicon sensors. Editors compile footage into bins and assemble cuts on timelines instead of threading film strips on a flatbed. How did we get from then to now? And where do we go from here?

In this guided film group, we will explore the digital revolution and its impact on (and with) the art of moving images. Film programmer and academic Spencer Everhart will join Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic Joshua Polanski (therewillbenogodsleft.com) to interrogate the diverse landscape of digital cinema. Using a wide range of work from around the world to trace a history from the pre-computer era to the AI-infected present, this group seeks to form definitions of digital cinema, better understand the malleability of the digital image, develop a shared vocabulary of digital cinema, and dive deep into key topics like screenlife (Transformers The Premake), machinima (Rehearsals for Retirement), revolutionary documentary (Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege), the essay film (What if Barry Bonds had played without a baseball bat?), and much more!

This film club will feature brief introductions to relevant topics, films, filmmakers, or contexts from one or both of the moderators. Most of the 90 minutes will be spent in large group conversations on the selected titles. We want to learn about these films together with you and invite participants to show up full of curiosity and prepared to bring their full selves to the meetings. 

Each meeting will have recommended (not required) short readings and required viewings. All films will be reasonably accessible to view from home at free or low costs. Each group meeting will be scheduled for 90 minutes over Zoom. 

All scheduled viewings are subject to alteration with club interest and changes to availability. 

Meeting 1: Digital Landscape: Intro in Shorts (January 17 from 6 to 7:30 EST)

  • Electronics in the World of Tomorrow (1964, dir. Erkki Kurenniemi)
  • UFOs (1971, dir. Lillian Schwartz)
  • Anthem (1992, dir. Marlon Riggs)
  • Rehearsals for Retirement (2007, dir. Phil Solomon)
  • YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls (2011, dir. James Benning)
  • This House Has People In It (2012, dir. Alan Resnick)
  • Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old, and So Was the Nakba (2018, dir. Razan AlSalah)
  • Go Nigel (2023, dir. Jane Evelyn & Elaine Fuentes)
  • File Explorer (2026, dir. Cheung Tin Yu)
  • Jia Zhangke’s Dance (2026, dir. Jia Zhangke)

Meeting 2: The Digital Turn (January 31 from 6 to 7:30 EST)

  • Love & Pop (1998, dir. Hideaki Anno)
  • The Celebration (1998, dir. Thomas Vinterberg)

Optional Viewings: Russian Ark (2002, dir. Alexander Sokurov)

Meeting 3: 2000s Commercial / Popular Digital Cinema (February 14 from 6 to 7:30 EST)

  • Miami Vice [Theatrical Cut] (2006, dir. Michael Mann)
  • Speed Racer (2008, dir. the Wachowskis)

Optional Viewings: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002, dir. George Lucas)

Meeting 4: Experimental Digital Cinema (February 28 from 6 to 7:30 EST)

  • Butterfly (1986, dir. Nam June Paik)
  • Monster Movie (2005, dir. Takeshi Murata)
  • Light is Waiting (2007, dir. Michael Robinson)
  • Leviathan (2012, dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
  • How Not To Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File (2013, dir. Hito Steyerl)
  • Emergence Collapse (2021, dir. Rainer Kohlberger)

Meeting 5: Alternative Paths (March 14 from 6 to 7:30 EST)

  • Transformers The Premake (2014, dir. Kevin B. Lee)
  • What if Barry Bonds had played without a baseball bat? (2017, dir. Jon Bois)
  • Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege (2021, dir. Abdallah Al-Khatib)

Meeting 6: New Directions and the Future (April 4 from 6 to 7:30 EST)

  • We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021, dir. Jane Schoenbrun)

Optional Viewings: s01e03 (2020, dir. Kurt Walker)

Cost: $35 for new group members or $20 for previous No Gods Left group members (Political Documentary & Discursions in Time).

To register, send me (Joshua) a PayPal or Venmo payment with the message “Digital Cinema — A Guided Film Club + [your email here].”

About Spencer Everhart

Spencer Everhart is a film programmer and academic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received his Master's Degree in Cinema & Media Studies from York University in Toronto. Currently an Adjunct Professor in the film/video program at Grand Valley State University, he also helps curate screening events as Vice President of the Grand Rapids Film Society, co-edits/publishes the GRFS newsletter, serves on the selection panel for Open Projector Night, and is president of the Chiaroscuro International Film Series.

About Joshua Polanski

Joshua Polanski is a film and culture writer currently based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His interests include the technical elements of filmmaking & exhibition, slow & digital cinemas, and non-English language cinema industries. He is an individually accredited Tomatometer critic and a member of both the Michigan Movie Critics Guild and GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. His blog on Baltic cinema is the only recurring and active blog on Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian cinema in English. 

To register, send me (Joshua) a PayPal or Venmo payment with the message “Digital Cinema — A Guided Film Club + [your email here].”

All paid group members may also receive a complimentary paid subscription to paywalled content on There Were No Gods Left. To receive yours, please add the note “Upgrade” to your payment information via Venmo or PayPal.