Eleven years ago, writer/director John Hughes died of a heart attack on a Manhattan street corner. The man behind classic 80s teen films, like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, had been called “the voice of a generation.” To our programming coordinator, Tim Anderson, he was more than that. “Hughes was the J.D. Salinger of my lifetime,” says Anderson, “a single man, who chronicled the painful transition of adolescence.” Hughes’s films are touchstone reminders of what it is like to be awkward and socially inept as we all have tried to navigate the labyrinthine hallways of High School, USA. We look forward to taking you on a journey through teenage truth – perhaps not everyone’s truth, but the truth of a bunch of kids (and a computer-generated female Frankenstein) from the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois.

Larger than life, and blessed with a magical sense of serendipity, Ferris Bueller is a model for all those who take themselves too seriously. One spring day, toward the end of his senior year, Ferris (Matthew Broderick) gives in to an overwhelming urge to cut school and head for downtown Chicago with his girl (Mia Sara) and his best friend (Alan Ruck), to see the sights, experience a day of freedom and show that with a little ingenuity, a bit of courage and a red Ferrari, life at 17 can be a joy. Featuring Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey, it’s of the most iconic films of the 80s, and one of writer/director John Hughes’ best.