The Cinema Studies Institute celebrates its 50th anniversary with a screening series of films picked by notable CSI alumni. Screenings will be followed by a discussion between the alumni and a CSI faculty member.
The Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. Enormously successful in Jamaica, the film also reached the international market and has been described as “possibly the most influential of Jamaican films and one of the most important films from the Caribbean”.
Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian writer. Her debut novel River Mumma has been listed as one of the best fiction books of 2023 on numerous platforms, including CBC Books, Indigo Books, Kobo Books and The Walrus.
Reid-Benta’s debut short story collection Frying Plantain was longlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and it was shortlisted for the 2020 Toronto Book Award, the 2020 Trillium Book Award, the 2021 White Pine Award and the 2020 Evergreen Award.
Her picture book, Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas, will be published in 2025.
Zalika completed a Major in Cinema Studies in 2012.
Moderator, Kass Banning is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream with the Cinema Studies Institute.