Contact: Harold Waters
Posted October 2012
Dr. Jennifer Elkins will be hosting the "Documentaries & Dialogue" Film Series each Monday, from October 8-November 5 at 4:45 PM in the Tucker Student Lobby. The documentaries which will be screened focus on issues of race, gender, and socioeconomic class in modern culture and are sure to stir spirited discussion in the forums that will follow each film. The film schedule includes:
October 8th: Welcome to Shelbyville | Trailer: Click Here
Synopsis:
Set in the heart of America's Bible Belt, this film focuses on a small Southern town as they grapple with rapid demographic change and issues of immigrant integration. The film captures the complexity of the African American, Latino White and Somali subjects as their lives intertwine against the backdrop of a crumbling economy and the election of a new president.
Post-screening discussion led by Dr. Larry Nackerud.
October 15th: Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 | Trailer: Click Here
Synopsis:
During the rise of The Black Power Movement in the '60s & '70s, Swedish television journalists documented the unfolding cultural revolution for their audience back home, having been granted unprecedented access to prominent leaders such as Angela B. Davis, Stokely Carmichael and Black Panther Party founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Now, after more than 30 years in storage, this rarely seen footage spanning nearing a decade of Black Power is finally available. Using a combination of found 16mm footage shot by Swedish filmmakers, music and contemporary audio interviews with artists, activists, musicians and scholars this film examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the United States as seen in a light completely different from the narrative of the American media at the time. Post-screening discussion led by
Dean Maurice Daniels & Dr. Obie Clayton.
October 22nd: Family Affair | Trailer: Click Here
Synopsis: At 10 years old, Chico Colvard accidentally shot his older sister in the leg. This seemingly random act detonated a chain reaction that exposed unspeakable realities and shattered his family. Thirty years later, Colvard ruptures veils of secrecy and silence again. As he bravely visits his relatives, what unfolds is a personal film that's as uncompromising, raw, and cathartic as any in the history of the medium. Driving the story forward is Colvard's sensitive probing of a complex dynamic: the way his three sisters survived severe childhood abuse by their father and, as adults, manage to muster loyalty to him. These unforgettable, invincible women paint a picture of their harrowing girlhoods as they resiliently struggle with present-day fallout. The distance time gives them from their trauma yields piercing insights about the legacy of abuse, the nature of forgiveness, and eternal longing for family and love. Post-screening discussion led by Dr. Jennifer Elkins.
October 29th: Trouble the Water | Trailer: Click Here
Synopsis: This film takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. The day before the storm makes landfall, 24-year old aspiring rap artist Kimberly Roberts turns a Hi-8 video camera on herself, her husband Scott and their neighbors stranded in New Orleans. "It's going to be a day to remember", she says as the winds howl. With no means to evacuate, she records their harrowing ordeal when the nearby levee fails and deadly floodwaters engulf their home and community. The film opens with this chilling footage, and follows the couple's 2-year journey as they face armed soldiers, bugling bureaucrats and an uncertain future. Trouble the Water tells a redemptive tale of two self-described street hustlers who become heroes – two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning. Explores issues of race, class, and the relationship of government to its citizens, issues that continue to haunt America, years after the levees failed in New Orleans.
Post-screening discussion led by second-year MSW student Fenwick Broyard and other TBA faculty.
November 5th: Good Hair | Trailer: Click Here
Synopsis:
Chris Rock visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of the black community in this exposé of comic proportions that only he could pull off. A raucous adventure prompted by Rock's daughter approaching him and asking, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair", GOOD HAIR shows Chris Rock engaging in frank, funny conversations with hair-care professionals, beauty shop and barbershop patrons, and celebrities including Ice-T, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Dr. Maya Angelou, Salt-N-Pepa, Eve and Reverend Al Sharpton – all while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter's question. Post-screening discussion led by Dr. Jennifer Elkins and other TBA faculty.
