Film Philosophy

Noir emerged as a prominent American film genre in the early 1940s, distinguishable by its use of unusual lighting, sinister plots, mysterious characters, and dark themes. From The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Touch of Evil (1958), films from this classic period reflect an atmosphere of corruption and social decay that attracted such accomplished directors as John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles.

The Matrix conveys the horror of a false world made of nothing but perceptions. Based on the premise that reality is a dream controlled by malevolent forces, it is one of the most overtly philosophical movies ever to come out of Hollywood. These thought-provoking essays by the same team of young...

Thoughtful Cinema explores how films raise and suggest answers to philosophical questions through an in-depth analysis of how seven films engage with various philosophical traditions, ranging from the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to the twentieth and twenty-first century American philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson.

Take a magic-carpet ride through Disney's wonderful world of films and entertainment experiences and discover the wisdom within its most popular and enduring stories. 

If Lady Justice is blind, what guides her steps? Is justice, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder? Or are there objective criteria we can apply? What is the relationship between law and justice? Using works of literature, scenes from films, and actual cases as springboards for reflection and...

In this time between worlds and time between stories, we stand poised between a potential dystopia and an unimaginably beautiful future. Only a new Story of Value as a context for our diversity can change the vector of history towards a possible utopia. Movies are often the channel through which the voice of culture discloses itself. Hidden in the public texts of culture is a movement towards a new human and a new humanity. Understanding the hidden text of She—woven into the fabric of our public stories—is a key part of this new Story of Value.