Screening Time: Saturday, May 3, 4:30 PM, Charles Theatre 5

Director: Hans Canosa

Cast: Will Lyman, Cady McClain, Alexander Chaplin, Andrew van den Houten, Kate Super

Country: U.S.
Year: 2002
Running Time: 80 min
Format: Beta SP

Set at Harvard during the days leading up to the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, Alma Mater presents the interweaving stories of an ensemble of characters as their lives reach turning points mirrored by the nation’s loss of innocence. Professor Arthur Knight, whose claim to fame is that he was Kennedy’s freshman year roommate, has a stalled career and a marriage that is falling apart. His wife, Gwen, suspects him of having an affair, though she has no clue it’s with his male teaching assistant.

Meanwhile, scholarship student Charlie Green lies about his Jewish background to fit in with the Harvard elite while pursuing Molly, the girl he has a crush on. Molly has no intention of simply accepting her expected role as a good wife, but her ambitions of becoming a writer are dismissed due to sexist attitudes.

Alma Mater, winner of the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival, is marked by strong performances to go along with assured writing and directing. The film captures the unique time and place with more than just the costumes and decoration. The setting becomes a character that influences the actions of others and allows the impact of this momentous instant in American history to be fully realized in the powerful climax.

--Dan Krovich

Presented By: Hans Canosa and G. L. Zevin

Hans Canosa grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household that forbade art, theatre, and film, though he spent his teen years sneaking away to see plays and film at every opportunity. His parents disowned him when he attended the secular and “dangerous” Harvard College, but he thrived there setting the record for directing the most plays as an undergraduate in the history of the college. After graduation, he attended New York University’s film school where he directed award-winning short films. In the fall of 2001, he directed his New York stage debut, Berlin, at the Tribeca Playhouse to great acclaim. Alma Mater is his first feature film as a director.

G.L. Zevin, a graduate of Harvard College, has written five screenplays, four of which have been option. Alma Mater is the first to be produced. She also wrote Berlin, her New York Stage debut as a writer.