March 31, 2015 @ 6pm 

 

This Talk Show presentation will feature actors/actresses who have played roles of all sizes in films, commercials and television programs. They will reflect on what it means to represent people and social types, and on the backgrounds and ambitions which have guided them in this work. Accompanying the discussions will be video compilations featuring dozens of performances by type-cast small part players in Hollywood of the classic age. In these compilations we see gestures repeated and stereotypes taking form. 

 

Will Straw is Professor in the Department of Art History and Communications Studies at McGill University and currently Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.  He is the author of Cyanide and Sin : Visualizing Crime in 50s America  (Andrew Roth Gallery, 2006) and co-editor of several volumes including Circulation and the City:  Essays on Urban Culture (with Alexandra Boutros) and Formes Urbaines (with Anouk Bélanger and Annie Gérin.)  His current research focuses on film extras, sensational periodicals and the urban night.