Image: Friday, March 25 at 4:00pm Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical Belfast intertwines romanticized visions of his family and childhood with the real-world troubles of Northern Ireland in 1969. Belfast has earned the Best Screenplay prize at the Golden Globes and seven Academy Award nominations, among other festival honors. This roundtable discusses the political context along with ways Branagh’s movie employs stylized performances, evocative music, and black-and-white cinematography, to tell a personal, nostalgic, and powerful coming-of-age tale. Roundtable panelists include two Irish-born professors, Nicholas Allen, director of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, and Peter O’Neill of Comparative Literature, both of whom have written extensively about Irish literature and culture. The roundtable also features media historian Kate Fortmueller and cinematographer Sanghoon Lee, both from the Grady College’s Entertainment and Media Studies Department, and composer Tom Hiel from the School of Music. Richard Neupert of Theatre and Film Studies moderates, and the audience will be invited to join the conversation and ask questions of the roundtable panelists. Advance registration for the event, which will be conducted via Zoom webinar, is required and available here.
