CAL Film Series Spring 2025
NAU and the Flagstaff community are invited to come together in front of the big screen for the College of Arts and Letters Film Series.
Discussions and screenings take place most Tuesdays at 7 PM in Cline Library Assembly Hall
All screenings are free and open to the public.
Each classic movie will be preceded by a short introduction from NAU faculty and followed by a community discussion.
The film series promotes understanding and appreciation of cinema through Northern Arizona University and the greater Flagstaff community. The CAL Film Series blends well-known audience favorites along with lesser-known films, as well as a mix of genres, directors, and actors.
This semester we are focused on directors who were on the outside of the industry in some way—the outsiders of film.
The film series is made possible with the support of the College of Arts and Letters, and NAU’s Cline Library, and under the direction of professors Paul Helford and Paul Donnelly.
Free weeknight parking is available for community members behind Cline Library and requires a special free permit.
January 27 | 7 PM
RoboCop
Directed by Paul Verhoeven | 1987
A murdered police officer is resurrected as RoboCop, an all-powerful law enforcing cyborg, in director Paul Verhoeven’s ultraviolent, subversively funny action social satire that critiques corporate power, technology, policing, and media sensationalism, redefining the sci-fic action genre and spawning sequels, merchandise, and lasting pop-culture recognition.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
View the trailer here.
February 10 | 7 PM
Killer of Sheep
Directed by Charles Burnett | 1978
Writer-director Charles Burnett’s episodic film offers tenderness, frustration, and resilience in the face of economic struggles in its story about a slaughterhouse worker who does work he hates to support his LA family. Receiving limited exposure when released, it has become a landmark of independent and African American cinema with its humanistic portrayal of working-class life, earning preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
View the trailer here.
February 24 | 7 PM
pirates of the Caribbean
Directed by Gore Verbinski | 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean storyboard artist and NAU alumnus, James Ward Byrkit, will be here to introduce the film and present storyboards from the second in director Gore Verbinski’s phenomenally successful fantasy swashbuckler film series. Here Johnny Depp’s celebrated Captain Jack Sparrow must find the heart of Davy Jones, captain of the flying Dutchman ghost ship.
ABC News: A-
View the trailer here.
March 17 | 7 PM
Rashomon
Directed by Akira Kurosawa | 1950
In Japanese with English Subtitles.
In Kurosawa’s hugely influential film, a samurai is found dead, and four witnesses—the bandit accused of killing him, the samurai’s wife, a woodcutter, and the samurai speaking through a medium—offer clashing accounts of the event. Each character’s version reflects their personal motives and distortions. Rashomon was the director’s first international hit and stars his frequent collaborator Toshiro Mifune.
Rotten Tomatoes 98%
View the trailer here.
March 31 | 7 PM
Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai
Directed by Jim Jarmusch | 1999
Forest Whitaker plays a solitary hitman who lives by the samurai code and serves a low‑level mobster who once saved his life. When a job goes wrong the mafia turns on him, forcing him to defend himself while remaining loyal to his principles. Writer/Director Jarmusch skillfully blends the styles of mafia films and samurai films, and the soundtrack is the first produced by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA.
Rotten Tomatoes 84%
View the trailer here.
April 14 | 7 PM
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Directed By Jacques Demy | 1964
In Demy’s Cannes Film Festival Palm d’Or winning film, a young couple in Cherbourg—Geneviève, played by Catherine Deneuve and Guy, played by Nino Castelnuovo—fall deeply in love before he leaves for military service in Algeria. Their separation, financial pressures, and family expectations reshape their futures. The film unfolds entirely in sung dialogue and utilizes vivid color to heighten its bittersweet romantic tragedy.
Rotten Tomatoes 97%
April 28 | 7 PM
The Wicker Man
Directed by Robin Hardy By | 1973
Edward Woodward plays straight-laced Christian police sergeant Neil Howie who is sent to investigate a missing girl on a remote Scottish island. The island’s pagan inhabitants maintain that they don’t know anything about the girl, but Howie suspects that they are hiding something. Christopher Lee plays the island’s charismatic leader, Lord Summerisle. Cinefantastique magazine dubbed this seventies cult classic, “The Citizen Kane of horror movies.”
Rotten Tomatoes 91%