Jerry Levitan is a Canadian best known as "the kid who interviewed John Lennon." He produced and starred in the animated short I Met the Walrus about his meeting with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Toronto, Canada in 1969. In July 2011 Levitan's latest animated film, Yoko Ono's My Hometown, had its world premiere at the Without Borders (Senza Frontiere) Film Festival in Spoleto, Italy to widespread acclaim. Levitan co-produced and directed the film with Terry Tompkins of The Eggplant Collective.    

This lecture will explore the definition of "film" in contemporary global technical culture, discussing the full-length feature and its relationship to its context, its impact on politics and culture both nationally and internationally, commercial "Hollywood" film and its involvement in global and local cultural, political and economic changes, and the way that the YouTube film, embedded in social networks like Facebook and Twitter, has become the medium that has the most immediate and accessible global impact. Mr. Levitan will be discussing the increasing function of film as a major catalyst for social change, both good and bad. Excerpts and stills from films will be screened.

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