Film Screening: Dirt (USA, 2003)
May 15, 2026 - 6:00 pm
Segal Theatre
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Film screening followed by a Q&A Session
“Mexican actress Julieta Ortiz as an undocumented Salvadoran maid lights up Nancy Savoca’s “Dirt,” an audience-grabber as tightly condensed and emotionally resonant as its title. The flip side of “Maid in Manhattan,” Savoca’s zilch-budget, DV-lensed “kitchen sinker” owes nothing to Cinderella and even less to Jennifer Lopez-esque mystique (though pic boasts sumptuous old-money Gotham interiors that Hollywood set designers would kill for). Despite nitty-grittiness, film zings along with an energy, determination and spirit that are anything but depressing. With proper handling, Showtime has a strong shot at arthouse/indie play before as-yet unspecified cable run.” VARIETY review.
Jerry W. Carlson (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is professor and a historian of narrative forms with special expertise in narrative theory, the history of the novel, global independent film, and the cinemas of the Americas. From 2013 to 2022 he served as Chair of the Department of Media & Communication Arts at The City College CUNY. In addition, at the CUNY Graduate Center he is a member of the doctoral faculties of French, Comparative Literature, and Film & Media Cultures and a Senior Fellow at the Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies. He has lectured at Stanford, Columbia, Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (Cuba), the University of Paris, and the University of Sao Paulo, among others. His current research is focused on how film and prose fiction from the Global South portray the histories and legacies of slavery, imperialism and colonialism. Moreover, he is an active producer, director, and writer with multiple Emmy Awards. As a Senior Producer for City University Television (CUNY-TV), he created the series City Cinematheque about film history, Canapé about French-American cultural relations, and Nueva York (in Spanish) about the Latino cultures of New York City. As an independent producer, his work includes the Showtime Networks production Dirt directed by Nancy Savoca and Looking for Palladin directed by Andrzej Krakowski. In 1998, he was inducted by France as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques.
Curator & Moderator: Jerry W. Carlson, Senior Fellow, The Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies & Professor, The City College & Graduate Center, CUNY
TO REGISTER send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu
