From the articulate to the amputated, from the inspired to the impaled, hands have long been a gripping object for cinematic exploration. Tonight, we offer an historical close-up of a body part typically kept at arm's length. Sarah Cahill, a concert pianist and critic, will conduct this unusual clips show (with heavy-handed comments). "A hands-on look at the appendages that provide human beings with powers beyond our fellow mammals. Here, hands join in agreement, link to save lives, clasp in gestures of love. Hands get sliced off by machetes, lopped off in car crashes, and methodically hacked away, finger by finger. The laying on of hands offers the power to heal, and hands on piano keys perform astonishing pyrotechnics. Prosthetic hands take on a life of their own, and disembodied hands scuttle across floors to strangle their enemies. Hands act as instruments of cross-cultural and extra-terrestrial communication. Hands signal transformation, growing hairy and bestial. They show the first signs of aging, or regeneration. Hands are penetrated with stigmata, lead the body into the underworld, and point the way towards resurrection."- Sarah Cahill