Inaugural guided tour to rediscover Princeton’s town and campus through cinema. Generously funded by the National Humanities Center and offered as part of the Princeton French Film Festival.
As part of the third edition of the Princeton French Film Festival, we're delighted to offer the inaugural Princeton Cinematic Guided Tour, an opportunity to rediscover Princeton's town and campus through film following an itinerary that will be shared with those who register. The tour is wheelchair-friendly, includes visuals shown on an electronic tablet, and lasts about 1 hour. The meeting point is next to Princeton University's FitzRandolph Gate.
Since at least the beginning of the sound film era in the 1920s, the town and campus of Princeton have always attracted major and emerging filmmakers who found, in its exceptional architecture, evolving landscapes, and historical campus, a unique background for their stories. From Frank Tuttle’s Varsity (1929), one of the first sound films produced by Paramount Pictures, to Christopher Nolan’s recent and internationally acclaimed Oppenheimer (2023), not forgetting an impressive range of lesser-known cinematic works as well as the local arthouse (Princeton Garden Theatre) built in 1920, Princeton has a rich, varied, yet unfortunately unexplored history of cinema that was often at the intersection of major historical, cultural, and intellectual events.
This program is part of the Princeton French Film Festival, supported by GradFUTURES Professional Development at Princeton University, and offered as contribution to the 2025 Being Human Festival (US)'s exploration of landmarks. This collaboration between the Princeton Public Library and Princeton University, "Centennial Landmarks of Literature and Cinema in Princeton" brings into focus Princeton’s legacy as a center of literary and cinematic culture during the last century. Four programs put on by our organizers will explore what it means to reach the landmark of a centennial recognition. Two walking tours explore one hundred years of literature and of cinema in the Princeton area. Two special events unpack how a century of literary celebrity resonates in the present, both in the life and experience of James Baldwin and in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most celebrated title, "The Great Gatsby." These four programs investigate how, at the passing of a century, places and persons can become landmarks, and how we live our lives among them.
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In partnership with humanists and humanities organizations across the country, the National Humanities Center is supporting 16 public events across the US. These community-focused events, organized and presented by local artists, scholars, and educators, highlight the incredible breadth of the humanities and demonstrate how they add depth and meaning to our lives, help us understand ourselves and one another, and provide context for the complex world around us. The American edition of the Being Human Festival, begun in 2024, is the latest international expansion of the Being Human effort, launched in the United Kingdom in 2014.
