The series theme: "A Light That Shines in the Darkness: Evil Egotism, and the Sacred in Film"
Jeffrey Stout, professor of religion at Princeton University, will deliver the Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary in a series of five lectures and five film screenings beginning Sept. 24.
The series is titled "A Light That Shines in the Darkness: Evil, Egotism, and the Sacred in Film," and will include screenings of films by Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Lars von Trier, Yasujiro Ozu, Nathaniel Dorsky, Stan Brakhage, and two rarely seen films by the late avant-garde filmmaker Gregory Markopoulos: his six-minute, 16mm 1968 film "Bliss," and a 30-minute preview excerpt from his 16mm eighty-hour masterwork "Eniaios," scheduled to premiere in June 2008 in Greece.
The schedule for film screenings and lectures is as follows:
Week 1: Monday, Sept. 24, First Screening: Alfred Hitchcock, "Shadow of a Doubt" (108 minutes, 16mm, 1943). Tuesday, Sept. 25, First Lecture: "In the Shadow of Darkness."
Week 2: Monday, Oct. 1, Second Screening: Frank Capra, "Meet John Doe" (122 minutes, 16mm, 1941). Tuesday, Oct. 2, Second Lecture: "Modern Horrors and Democratic Hope."
Week 3: Monday, Oct. 8, Third Screening: Lars von Trier, "Breaking the Waves" (159 minutes, 16mm, 1996, CinemaScope). Tuesday, Oct. 9, Third Lecture: "The Sacred Made Visible."
Week 4: Monday, Oct. 15, Fourth Screening: Yasujiro Ozu, "Tokyo Story" (35mm, 1953). Tuesday, Oct. 16, Fourth Lecture: "Now and Then."
Week 5: Monday, Nov. 5, Fifth Screening: Gregory Markopoulos, "Bliss" (6 minutes, 16mm, 1967); a preview excerpt from Gregory Markopoulos’s upcoming film, "Eniaios’ (approximately 30 minutes, 16mm, premiere scheduled for June 2008 in Greece); Nathaniel Dorsky, "The Visitation" (18 minutes, 16mm, 2002); and Stan Brakhage, untitled handpainted film known as "For Marilyn" (11 minutes, 16mm, 1992). Tuesday, Nov. 6, Fifth Lecture: "All Mean Egotism Vanishes."
The Monday film screenings will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the James Stewart Theater on the Princeton University campus, 185 Nassau St. The Tuesday lectures will begin at 7 p.m. in the Cooper Conference Room at the Erdman Center, 20 Library Place, on the Princeton Seminary campus.
Dr. Stout earned his doctorate in religion from Princeton University and joined the faculty in 1975. He is the author of "The Flight From Authority" (Notre Dame, 1981) and "Ethics After Babel" (Beacon, 1988). The latter won the award for excellence from the American Academy of Religion in 1989.
For more information visit http://www.ptsem.edu/lectureships/index.php or call 609-497-7760.

