Sidney Lumet was a child actor with the Group Theater, a Depression-era collective that laid the foundation for decades of political art to follow on stage, television, and cinema screens. This lecture will be a celebration of Lumet’s film career, starting with the legendary 12 Angry Men (1957) and coming to a triumphant conclusion with the powerful Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead fifty years later.
Our film focus for the evening will be Lumet’s Network, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026. This film was wildly misunderstood upon its release in 1976 but has subsequently (and sadly) proven to be increasingly relevant as our concepts of news and entertainment become further entangled. A limited number of DVDs are available for circulation for viewing prior to the talk.