Film Screening: Los Olvidados (1950)
September 23, 2025 - 6:00 pm
Segal Theatre
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Film screening followed by a Q&A Session
Los olvidados (1950) – Directed by Luis Buñuel
In the slums of Mexico City, a group of impoverished children struggles to survive amid crime, neglect, and despair. The story follows Pedro, a boy torn between his desire for a better life and the corrupting influence of Jaibo, an older delinquent recently escaped from juvenile detention. As Pedro’s attempts to stay honest are met with betrayal, violence, and indifference from both family and society, the film becomes a stark, unflinching portrait of systemic poverty and moral decay. With its blend of realism and surreal imagery, Buñuel’s masterpiece challenges sentimental depictions of childhood, offering instead a brutal yet deeply human exploration of fate and injustice.
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
