The 1970s was one of cinema's most turbulent and transformative decades - a period when Hollywood tore up its own rulebook and reinvented what movies could be. Across four evenings, this series traces that decade through four defining genres: the paranoid thriller, the horror film, the disaster film, and the birth of the modern blockbuster.
Each night stands alone, but together they trace the arc of a decade that began in distrust and ended in wonder.
Each session combines a lecture illustrated with film clips, contextual notes on the world events that shaped each genre, and a Q&A to close. Clips per evening will be drawn from both Hollywood and world cinema.
- Conspiracy & Political Thrillers: Paranoia in the Watergate Era - Kennedy. Vietnam. Watergate. Three events in a decade that turned paranoia from a symptom into filmmakers' response - and gave rise to a genre convinced that power cannot be trusted. This opening night sets the tone for the series: a decade that stopped believing the official story.
- New Wave Horror: Art Cinema Meets Terror - The decade that gave the world The Exorcist, Suspiria, Alien and Don't Look Now also produced something stranger – horror made by art-house directors who treated dread as a serious subject. This session traces how a new breed of filmmakers reshaped the genre and laid the groundwork for the horror we watch today.
- When the Earth Shook: The Disaster Film - Earthquakes, infernos, sinking ships and computers running amok. This session looks at the classic disaster spectacle alongside the decade's deeper anxiety: a world beginning to fear it might be the architect of its own catastrophe.
- Lightning in a Bottle: The Blockbuster - A shark movie nobody trusted. A space opera every studio turned down. A small-time boxer with a shot at the title. None of them were built to be a phenomenon - they became one anyway. The series closes with the birth of the modern blockbuster, and the films that changed the industry forever.
