Hard Light Cinema is a new Richmond collective of cinephiles bringing arthouse and non-mainstream films to central Virginia. We’ll provide additional Italian films on UR’s campus around the inaugural Italian & French Film Festival scheduled for March 27–30. Hard Light as a microcinema focuses on repertory films and new international or indie films typically unavailable in standard movie theaters. From Spaghetti Westerns to Neorealist road films, this semester will feature Italian classics that deserve to be seen on the big screen.
Note: All showings start at 7 p.m. on campus in Jepson Hall 118.
Save-the-Dates! Join us for four days of Italian and French cinema on the University of Richmond campus and in the city. Check back soon for film titles, screening location details, and more.
Loren Waters (Cherokee/Kiowa) comes to UR to inspire our creativity. We’ll view her film, Tiger, that received the 2025 Sundance Film Festival,Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing, along with 6 other festival awards. As an award-winning filmmaker named to 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30, she is dedicated to serving Native youth and uplifting Indigenous communities. Waters says, “ Tiger highlights an Indigenous award-winning, internationally acclaimed artist and elder, Dana Tiger, her family, and the resurgence of the iconic Tiger t-shirt company.” Waters’ talk, film screening, and Q&A are open to general public.
This event is sponsored by Film Studies with A&S Dean’s Office funding. Waters will be in town as a featured artist for 9th annual Pochahontas ReFramed Film Festival, Nov. 20-23 at VMFA and VMHC. https://pocahontasreframed.com/
Film production students creations are featured in this short video compilation. "I've often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it's inside a frame." --Abbas Kiarostami
UR Film students enjoy festivals and screenings with faculty on campus as well as throughout the Central Virginia area. "Being at a film festival reminds me of the power of film. The power that we have in our hands. Telling specific stories about personal matters can start the debate that is needed today, and that connect you with realities that you had no idea were connected." Diego Luna
Maja White was promoted to professor of theatre & dance. She is a lighting and sound designer and has designed lighting for opera, theatre, and dance nationally and internationally. Her research falls in the study of how sustainable equipment and the evolution of technologies are changing the aesthetic of the live entertainment industry.
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Sonja Bertucci was promoted to associate professor of languages, literatures, & cultures. She is a filmmaker and her most recent feature-length documentary, The Diamond Couple (2024), is an intimate meditation on love, aging, and the transmission of memory. She is currently working on a new experimental project inspired by French writer Georges Perec’s Lieux.
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Sonja Bertucci, assistant professor of languages, literatures, and cultures (film studies), was awarded the Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking for the film The Diamond Couple at the 2024 Arizona International Film Festival.
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Françoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick, professor of French and film studies, has been awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture for her contributions in the artistic and literary field. Learn more.
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UR’s Italian and French Film Festival is featured.
Spiders travel to the Big Apple to meet alumni in creative careers, including at NBCUniversal, Amazon Ads, and the NBA.
Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival
RVA Environmental Film Festival
Mailing address:
Film Studies Program
217 Carole Weinstein International Center
211 Richmond Way
University of Richmond, VA 23173
Phone: (804) 662 3008
Fax: (804) 289-8313
Film Production Lab: 420 Weinstein Hall
Program Coordinator: Monika Siebert
Academic Administrative Coordinator: Lynn Hardwicke