Speaker: Shana Cooperstein, Anne Arundel Community College

A vampire bat feeds on a live guinea pig, Count Orlok--a vampire from F.W. Murnau's popular horror Nosferatu (1922)--stands in a doorway, an array of marine life appears before our eyes: Jean Painlevé's Le Vampire wavers between Surrealist montage and nature documentary. The sequence is not as noncontroversial as it may seem. His 9-minute film unfolds onto some of the most pressing political issues in mid-century France. Join me to discuss how cinematic vampires have served as a vehicle for cultural and political expression.

Dr. Shana Cooperstein specializes in the art of the long nineteenth century, particularly as this concerns the material practices of artistic production, representational theory, and the history of scientific imaging. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art History at Anne Arundel Community College.