"Greetings from a failure, to all the successful people" Opening dedication from the film Supermarket (1990), Directed by Mohamed Khan

Recorded history bears multitudes. There's the most shared or oft-repeated version, written primarily by the winners- be they conquerors of war, business, or love and then there's the losing side. The narrative that is usually pushed to the side, and is only dug up and brought to light by the enterprising souls among us. Those who are deeply suspicious of the mainstream and popular and who have perhaps experienced more than once the diminishing specter of failure

But what does being a loser mean, truly In an age wherein facile moral equivalencies abound, and information about endless global tragedies travel faster than lightening, it is often difficult to delineate the lines between the underground and "over"ground, which in turn muddies the waters of opposing narratives. Sometimes, the powerful don the cloak of victimhood to win at the ballot, while the true losers get lost in the shuffle.

Commercial cinema has primarily become the domain of outsized superheroes, and larger than life personalities. Which is all in good fun, but film as an art form truly shines when it focuses on the outsiders in our midst; people who are constantly on the losing side of history-whether through some fault of their own, or a social system of inequity that ensures their subjugation. This doesn't mean, however, that an impenetrable pall of depression and bleakness hangs over these films. On the contrary, they are often hilarious usually genuine, and always illuminating. Because, sometime being called a loser is just shorthand for describing someone who refuses to buy into the fairytales sold by society at large.

This fall, our program is devoted to exploring various strains of "loserdom" and outsiders of all kinds in cinema. From a group of young, disenchanted Egyptians in Romantika (1996), to a pair of hapless B-horror filmmakers in American Movie (1999), and a down on his luck boxer in Fat City(1972), the films featured run the gamut from stark social commentary to comedy, romance, and sports They are diverse in both genre as well as the Groups of people they attempt to represent. Their commonality lies in the fact that they highlight the stories of people and experiences that are at risk Of complete erasure