Dear friends of Semester Cinema,
We've begun preparations for our next iteration, set for Winter/Spring 2026, and are working through some exciting developments. In addition to new college partnerships and a strong first round of student recruitment, we've narrowed down the contenders for our next script to two pieces: Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People and Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.
Written in 1882, An Enemy of the People tells the story of Dr. Thomas Stockmann, a physician who discovers that the water supply to his town’s newly built bathhouse is contaminated. He acts immediately to inform his community of this urgent matter of public health, and he sets out to expose the truth in the local newspaper - but he faces opposition from local leaders, including his brother, the mayor, who are concerned that the revelation of the scandal could upset the status quo and even wipe the town from the map.
Environmental concerns, whistleblowing, community, family, risk-taking for something larger - and democracy are at the forefront of the play and are particularly relevant topics today, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic - climate and water problems. The challenge is to make it all resonate as something powerful and fully original.
In 2023, Enemy of the People had two revivals: one in London's West End starring Matt Smith (Dr. Who), and another on Broadway, which was directed by Tony Winner Sam Gold (Fun Home) and won Jeremy Strong (Succession) the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Dr. Stockmann.
Ibsen, who also authored A Doll's House and Peer Gynt, is considered one of the most influential playwrights in Western literature and is known as “the father of realism”. He is the most frequently performed dramatist after Shakespeare - and was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Red Harvest is a 1929 thriller set in a small town consumed by gang violence and a labor dispute. The novel follows Hammett's recurring detective character "The Op," who is called in to look into police force corruption by a local reporter, only to find him murdered upon arrival. The Op remains in town to investigate, thrusting himself into the town's political turmoil and, in the process, threatening his own life and sanity.
The story has yet to be made into a film, though there have been several attempts since its publication. Bernardo Bertolucci wrote an adaptation in the 70s that had Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty up for the lead role, but the project never went through. Martin Scorcese was also drawn to it.
Hammett's writing has been a major source of inspiration for the Coen Brothers and Akira Kurosawa, whose film noir Yojimbo was inspired by another of his novels, The Glass Key. Clint Eastwood's character in Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and the other works in the Dollars Trilogy was inspired by The Op.
We're excited by the creative and intellectual opportunities and challenges both of these stories present for our students and crew. We are looking forward to announcing our decision by Thanksgiving.
Wishing you all the best as we head into the holiday season!
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