A film screening by Cornell Cinema.

M, a university dropout low on money and luck, volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother, in the hope of pocketing an inheritance. However, winning Grandma's favor is no easy feat. She proves to be a tough nut to crack—demanding, exacting, and exceedingly difficult to please. To add to the drama, he's not the only one gunning for the inheritance. M soon finds himself embroiled in a gripping competition, where he must go to great lengths to become the apple of Grandma's eye before time runs out, all in pursuit of a life-changing, multimillion-dollar inheritance.

Directed by Thai filmmaker Pat Boonnitipat, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies offers a candid and comedic take on life, love, and family affairs.

Cosponsored by the Southeast Asia Program at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Special thanks to Fulbright visiting researcher Vince Ha.

Part of Cornell Cinema's "Worth a Watch" series. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment. In Thai with English subtitles.

1 Fabric, 4 Continents, 200 Years of History

Wax Print (2018) traces the vast and multi-stranded global history of a fabric that has become an iconic symbol of Africa worldwide. The documentary follows British-born filmmaker and fashion designer Aiwan Obinyan on beautiful, transnational two-year journey, in search of the untold story of how wax print fabric came to symbolize a continent, its people, and their struggle for freedom.

Each wax print has a pattern, identity, and origin story embodied in the cloth. Obinyan traces how the fabric’s bright bold patterns and colors have been transformed by colonial encounters and become a significant part of the heritage of the African diaspora. The film also details an Indonesian, English, and Dutch history of the fabric, while bringing forth issues of fast fashion and mass-produced wax print copies.

The screening is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Weaving Threads of Belonging: Cloth, Identity and Political Change in Africa and its Diasporas,” now on view in the Rachel Hope Doran ’19 & CF+TC Display Vitrines, Terrace Level at the Human Ecology Building.

The exhibit is created by students who were enrolled in HIST 2452/6452 – Dress, Cloth and Identity in Africa and the Diaspora with Professor Judith Byfield and is presented by the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (CF+TC). Both the course and the exhibit provide a different lens through which to explore and encounter African societies, their histories and dress cultures.

Free admission! Sponsored by the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection, the Cornell Public History Initiative, the Department of History, and the Africana Studies and Research Center.

Part of our "Campus Collaborations" series. Courtesy of Documentary Educational Resources.

Any poem, any language! The Language Resource Center celebrates National Poetry Month. Sweet Poetry is an evening event in April named for enjoying tasty treats while sharing poems in different languages.

Join us on Wednesday, April 9, 2025 at 5:30 pm in the Klarman Hall Atrium. During the event, Cornell community members are invited to watch live poetry recitations in multiple languages. The event booklet, available digitally, includes transcriptions of each poem along with approximate English translations.

We look forward to an amazing lineup of poetry readings/signings this April and are excited to celebrate National Poetry Month together!

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Asian Studies, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of Romance Studies.

If you are interested in reading or signing a poem at the event, reach out to LRC Engagement and Outreach Coordinator, Ashley Griffith

Join us for a screening and discussion of the documentary No Other Land, which recently won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.

The film follows Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, who has been filming and fighting his community’s expulsion by Israeli forces since childhood.

After he crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, the two work together to document the gradual destruction of Masafer Yatta, the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: while Basel lives under a military occupation and Yuval moves through the world unrestricted and free.

The film, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists between 2019 and 2023, was co-created as an act of creative resistance and a search for a path towards equality and justice.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion reflecting on how what is happening in Palestine fits into global questions of dispossession, displacement, and land sovereignty.

Paul Kohlbry, Postdoctoral Associate in Department of Anthropology

Natalie Melas, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature

Sabrina Axster, Migrations Postdoctoral Fellow

Deborah A. Starr (moderator), Professor of Modern Arabic and Hebrew Literature and Film in the Department of Near Eastern Studies

The event is cosponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Studies, the Jewish Studies Program, and the Migrations Program, part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and the Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative.

Part of our "Doc Spots" series. Courtesy of Michael Tuckman Media. In Arabic, English, and Hebrew with English subtitles.