If you’ve ever taken a class from a professor who has been teaching it on a regular basis for a long time, you’ve probably found that it can be lifeless, the result of repetition that whittles away its edge. That’s not the case with the Buffalo Film Seminars, which grew out of a UB film class taught by Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian, who moved the screenings to the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre and opened them and the discussions to the general public. While next week brings the twelfth installment of the BFS, none of the 14 films have been screened in any previous edition. And while it’s a film lover’s dream to be able to see The Seven Samurai (Feb. 7), pictured, or Wings of Desire (April 11) on a big screen, the BFS also offers films that are difficult to see in any format, including the seminal 1934 Chinese film The Goddess (Jan. 24), the first postwar German film The Murderers are Among Us (Jan. 31) and Abel Gance’s gargantuan Napoleon, which opens the series on Tuesday (Jan. 17) at 7pm. For a complete list visit buffalofilmseminars.com.

Tuesday, January 17 at 7pm. Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre,

639 Main St. (855-3022). $8 general, $6 students

(season tickets available)