Past Avenali Lectures

Dušan Makavejev, Director & Screenwriter

“You Never Know Who Has a Frog in the Pocket”
Avenali Lecture
| Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Dušan Makavejev is a Serbian film director famous for his films of former Yugoslavia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Known for blending fiction with reality and drama with humor, Makavejev’s work often contains experimental elements and has been considered controversial for its eroticism and sharp criticism of Eastern European politics.

Elaine Scarry, English, Harvard University

“The Problem of Vivacity”
Avenali Lecture
| Alumni House

Elaine Scarry is Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and General Theory of Value for the Department of English at Harvard University. Her research encompasses many topics, including 20th-century Drama; the 19th-century British novel; theories of representation; language of physical pain; and the structure of verbal and material making in art, science, and the law.

Jonathan Miller, Director, Writer, & Producer

“Moving Images: Film and Narration”
Avenali Lecture
| Wheeler Auditorium

Sir Jonathan Miller, CBE, is a British physician, theatre and opera director and television writer and producer.