Monthly Archives: March 2015

Production still from ‘The Princess of Piombino’, filmed at the famed Villa Aurora in Rome (site of ancient Gardens of Sallust), home of Prince Nicolo’ and Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. Directed and filmed by Sean Feuer ’14 and Adam Nawrot ’14; co-directors Gabriela Elise ’15 and Shaodi Huang ’16

Rutgers Rome Stories is a student-directed series of four films, each of which seeks to animate an aspect of the idea of the Eternal City. You can see the projects—two theatrical trailers for feature-length documentaries to be released in 2015/6, and two short documentaries now complete—at the website classics.rutgers.edu/rome-stories.

Here Rutgers undergraduate filmmakers explore a Papal family’s efforts to preserve their iconic urban villa (The Princess of Piombino); the memories of an Italian princess whose father invented radio (My Father, Electromagnetic); the reflections of a legendary Italian director and producer of film and opera on the creative process (Zeffirelli); and that of a Baltimore hair stylist who unlocks a fashion secret of the ancient Romans (The Hair Archaeologist: Janet Stephens). Continue reading →

GreekFest 2015 organizer Rutgers Classics professor Emily Allen-Hornblower opens the proceedings. Credit: Ella Wallace

On the brisk and sunny morning of Friday 6 March 2015, following yet another major snowstorm, groups of graduate students in Classics from Columbia University, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University braved delays and mild chaos at New York, Philadelphia, and Princeton’s train and bus stations in order to make their way to New Brunswick and meet up with their peers from Rutgers’ Classics department at Brower Commons on College Avenue.

The goal? To spend the day examining Rhesus, a highly unusual and intriguing play traditionally attributed to Euripides but now thought to have been composed in the late 4^th century BCE.

This annual gathering was part of an ongoing tradition known as GreekFest; its counterpart, the Corridor LatinFest, was hosted by NYU in the fall. These annual gatherings bring together graduate students from all five universities—along with some of their faculty—to look at a (collectively chosen) minor ancient (Greek or Latin) text. Continue reading →

Talk about taking it to the next level. Over the past year and a half the Rutgers Department of Classics (School of Arts & Sciences) and Rutgers Center for Digital Filmmaking (Mason Gross School of the Arts) have been collaborating on four separate student-directed films that treat the idea of Rome from one angle or another.

Here’s one of them: The Hair Archaeologist. In this short-format documentary film SAS student Jenny Kim ’16 with the help of John Riggio ’16 offer up a five and a half minute profile of noted experimental archaeologist Janet Stephens.  Continue reading →