SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. — Penn State Schuylkill’s popular community enrichment cinema course will return this fall, offering participants the chance to explore the evolving role of comedy in film.
Titled "Media, Manipulation, and the Demise of Public Discourse," the course will examine how humor has changed over time. Each of the three sessions will feature a pre-screening lecture, a film showing, and a guided discussion analyzing the events depicted, the directors’ choices, and the cinematic techniques used.
Fall 2026 Film Schedule
Monday, Sep. 21 — "Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella)" (Roberto Benigni, 1997)
This Academy Award-winning film blends comedy and drama as an Italian Jewish father uses humor and imagination to shield his young son from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, convincing him that their imprisonment is part of an elaborate game.
Monday, Oct. 19 — "The Farewell" (Lulu Wang, 2019)
After her beloved grandmother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, a Chinese American woman returns to China for a family gathering secretly designed to say goodbye to the family matriarch. When it becomes apparent that her grandmother is the only one unaware of the diagnosis, she struggles to keep the secret while navigating the tension between cultural traditions and personal beliefs.
Monday, Nov. 9 — "American Fiction" (Cord Jefferson, 2023)
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, a novelist and English professor, finds that his work is dismissed because it is not considered "Black enough." To satirize the publishing industry's stereotypes and hypocrisies, he writes a novel under a pseudonym. Its unexpected success forces him to embrace a false identity while confronting difficult questions about authenticity, race, and artistic integrity.
The course will be taught by D.J. Higgins, assistant teaching professor of film/video and music at Penn State Schuylkill. Higgins earned a doctorate in modern languages from Middlebury College and is an award-winning filmmaker whose credits include several short films.
For more information or to register, visit sl.psu.edu/cinema.