Film Theorist, Video Artist Toufic to Lecture at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Writer, film theorist and video artist Jalal Toufic will present talks on Nov. 17 and 18 as part of the fall semester "Wednesdays at 4 PLUS" literary series at the University at Buffalo.

Toufic is the author of five books, including "(Vampires): An Uneasy Essay on the Undead in Films," "Over-Sensitivity," "Forthcoming" and "Undying Love or Love Dies." He has taught at the California Institute of the Arts, University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Southern California.

He will give a talk on "Saving the Living Human's Face and Backing the Mortal" at 4 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Poetry/Rare Books Room, 420 Capen Hall on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. Toufic will discuss "The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster" at 4 p.m. on Nov. 18 in the Poetry/Rare Books Room.

Both lectures will be free and open to the public.

Toufic is at the core of a small, but determined, group of Lebanese artists who promote an intellectually rigorous, critically engaged and ultra-contemporary cultural practice in that country. He argues that after a disaster of momentous proportions, such as the war in Lebanon, culture is withdrawn and inaccessible and must be resurrected.