Event Series

Our events stand at the intersection of culture, current affairs, and ethics, encouraging discussion about the way these matters influence society and the artistic imagination. We aim to bring people into a thoughtful setting where human rights and issues of social justice come to life, through several different formats.

Our Conversations feature public intellectuals, artists, government leaders, writers, activists, and many more, who come together in dialogue over timely cultural and political issues.

Two of our film-oriented categories, the Film Series and our widely-beloved annual International Short Film Competition, both use film as a powerful and expressive way to explore current events and the cultural climate of our time. Our newest series, Conversations on Essential Cinema: A Virtual Film Club, looks back on films that have influenced cinema and the culture surrounding it, and breaks them down in conversation with special guests.

With a more narrow focus on law, Trials & Error provides intimate conversations on important trials that have captured the public’s attention, while Law of the Land dissects the Supreme Court’s major rulings of the past year. One of our more recent projects, Theater of Law, features a dramatic reading of an ancient Greek tragedy–the murder trial of Orestes in Aeschylus’ Eumenides–performed by a rotating cast of stellar actors. The play presents the first trial by jury in Western culture and is followed by a discussion with the audience about the origins of justice, the end of blood vengeance, and the adoption of the rule of law.