A trip to the movies or turning on your latest Netflix binge program is sometimes more than mindless entertainment — especially when you feel like you really connect with the characters you see on screen. But is that a thing, and how can you feel as though you connect with an actor playing a role?

Dr. Aaron Taylor is a professor and Board of Governors Teaching Chair and the inaugural coordinator of the new Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Media Studies Program at the University of Lethbridge. He will be presenting the next Public Professor Series talk, Grasping at shadows: Our relationship with cinematic characters, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m. in the University of Lethbridge's Science Commons Atrium.

About the talk

Our capacity to connect with people we only ever meet onscreen is a puzzling matter. For example, what enables our feelings for screen characters, and are these feelings “real?” In what special way are actors equipped to bring them to life so convincingly? What happens when these figures are borrowed from other media — say, comic books? And what rights permit us to repurpose their gripping appearances in our social media conversations about them without fearing legal reprisal?

Drawing from two decades of media research on acting, superheroes, cognitive theory and copyright, Dr. Aaron Taylor will survey how and why people matter on the silver screen. Join us for a talk on acting, feeling and remaking, and rediscover your own delight in these “picture personalities.”