We are thrilled to welcome renowned director Alex Rivera to American University for a selection of events in October 2023 including panels, lectures, and discussions about his work.
Film Club Screening of Sleep Dealer
Tuesday, October 17, 2023, 8:20 pm
Kerwin Hall Room 2
We are kicking off our round of events featuring Alex Rivera’s with a film screening of his seminal work, Sleep Dealer. This event will feature an introduction by AU Cinema Studies Professor Paul Fileri. This event is free and open to the AU community. Hosted by the students of the AU Film Club. Seating is first come first serve.
“Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction, and Rasquache Futures”
Bishop CC McCabe Lecture Series
Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 5:30-7pm followed by a reception
Abramson Family Recital Hall, Katzen Arts Center
Alex Rivera will speak to American University’s College of Arts and Sciences for the 2023-24 Bishop McCabe Lecture Series. For over 25 years, Rivera has used science-fiction imagery to illuminate Latinx lives and politics. He will discuss how rhetoric and the recent and profound emergence surrounding ‘artificial intelligence’ have impacted his image-making and thinking about technology, labor, and power. Rivera will be joined by Professor David Vazquez and Professor Despina Kakoudaki for a panel discussion after his presentation.
For more information and to sign up for this event, please visit https://www.american.edu/cas/events/.
Sleep Dealer: Literature Colloquium
Wednesday, October 25, 2023, 9:30am-5pm
Butler Board Room (Butler Pavilion Room 600)
This all-day event will be comprised of student and faculty presentations about the film, a talk by director Alex Rivera about the making of the film, and a roundtable with Rivera and faculty from the Literature Department to conclude the event. Discussions will focus on Rivera’s work, the sociopolitical implications of the film, and its impact.
Director Alex Rivera will be in attendance! Refreshments will be served.
About Our Speaker
Alex Rivera is an award-winning filmmaker whose work explores themes of globalization, migration, and technology.
Rivera’s first feature film, Sleep Dealer, a cyberpunk thriller set on the U.S./Mexico border, won awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, and had a commercial theatrical release in the U.S, France, Japan, and other countries. In The New York Times A.O. Scott described Rivera as “a brilliant young director” and Variety named him one of “Ten Directors to Watch.”
Rivera’s second feature, The Infiltrators, won the NEXT: Audience Award and the Innovator Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Infiltrators uses documentary and scripted forms to tell the true story of Dreamers who ‘infiltrate’ a detention center to get immigrants out. The Hollywood Reporter raved “watching it is a thrill” and The New Yorker Radio Hour called the film “extraordinary and important.” The Infiltrators is currently being developed by Blumhouse Television as a scripted series.
Alex Rivera is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, Sundance Fellow, Creative Capital Grantee and was The Rothschild Lecturer at Harvard University. He studied at Hampshire College, lives in Los Angeles, and is an Associate Professor of Filmmaking Practice at ASU’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
To read further information on Rivera and to watch some of his works, please visit his website http://alexrivera.com/.