The CEPE Film Screening: Prophecy (1979)

This two-part event is an introduction to the work of Dr. Kali Simmons.

• Watch the 1979 ecohorror film, Prophecy, on Tues. March 14th at 7:30pm in Olin 102
• Discuss the film and Dr. Simmons’s article “‘The environment is us’: Settler Cartographies of Indigeneity and Blackness in Prophecy” on Thurs, March 16, 9:45am in Olin 214. The CEPE has a print copy of the article available for each registered participant. Sign up!

More information:

This special two-part tie-in event is offered to onboard folks to the vital theoretical work Dr. Kali Simmons is producing and to the sorts of films she’s critiquing in that work. The Screening for the film “Prophecy” will be in Olin 102 on Tuesday, March 14th from 7:30-9:30PM. Dr. Simmons will give her public lecture “The Ones Who Did Not Die: Indigenous Killers, Final Girls, and Captivity Narratives” on Wednesday, April 12 at 5:30pm in Valders 206.

The first part of the series is a nighttime screening of John Frankenheimer’s 1979 ecohorror film, Prophecy. As Dr. Simmons notes, Prophecy warrants close analysis because it is a rare film narrative that tries to feature contemporary Indigenous people resisting the land grabs and wanton pollution of a logging corporation. What’s fascinating is how, even as the film aspires to be politically engaged, it significantly rehearses and reinforces the ideologies of structural racism in league with ecological devastation. Please note: Prophecy is a horror film. It includes some violence and gore–let’s just say that PG in 1979 is not PG in 2023, not by a longshot.

The second part of the series is a discussion of Prophecy and Dr. Simmons’s article “‘The environment is us’: Settler Cartographies of Indigeneity and Blackness in Prophecy,” published in 2021. This session will take place on Thursday, March 16th, during shadowblock. Participants will discuss the film by exploring their own responses to it and the arguments Dr. Simmons builds and bolsters. This article is readily accessible to folks who are curious and smart but may not have advanced experience or degrees in film studies. The CEPE has a print copy of the article available for each participant who registers on The CEPE book group page.