The Reel Culture Film and Speaker Series Continues to Engage Students
The Reel Culture Film and Speaker Series of Learning Enrichments headlines with prominent speakers and intriguing films meant to inform and motivate people to think more critically about their surroundings.
Speakers and film showing take place in the Eagle Room of the Town & Country Campus every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. beginning September 3 unless otherwise specified. Students, faculty, staff, and the community are invited to attend.
September 3rd @ 12:30 p.m.- Local Issues
Human Trafficking in Houston? Houston Rescue and Restore - (Mission/Organization)
Speaker with Film:Steven M. Goff, Coalition Manager for HR&R
What exactly is Human Trafficking? Where does it take place; how does it happen; and what happens to the victims before and after the rescue? Volunteer opportunities described for the "Houston Human Trafficking Awareness Week"- September. www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking
September 10th @ 12 30 p.m.presented by Dr. Patricia Daugherty, Anthropologist/Sociologist
Film:The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. (2004) 96 minutes. . "Documentary about the impact of the Afghan war on civilians focusing on Mir, an energetic 8-year-old boy who lives with refugees in the ruins of the giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Filmed & directed by Phil Grabsky.
September 17th @ 12:30 p.m.presented by Mr. Tom Smith, Texas Public Citizen
Film & Speaker: Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars. (2007) 30 minutes.
Narrated by Robert Redford, the film follows the story of Texans fighting a high-=takes battle for clean air and centers around the unlikely partners— mayors, ranchers, lawyers, cities, citizens, green groups, and CEO’s—that came together to oppose the construction of 18 coal-fired power plants in Texas.
Update with Q & A following film.
September 24 th @ 12:30 p.m.
Film: 'At the Death House Door. (2008) 96 minutes
Question & Answer with Reverend Carroll Pickett, retired "death row" chaplain from Hunstville
& David Atwood, Founder, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Award-winning film follows career of Pastor Carroll Pickett who served 15 years as the death house chaplain and presided over 95 executions, including the world’s first lethal injection. Film's directors are Steve James ("Hoop Dreams") and Peter Gilbert ("Vietnam: Long Time Coming")
October 1st @ 12:30 p.m.
"The Light Within: The Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer". Presentation by Author Lois M. Ramondetta, M.D. physician and associate professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Story of a unique friendship told by the co-authors, Lois Ramondetta, physician and Deborah Rose Sills, patient. Books available for purchase and signing.
October 8th @ 12:30 p.m.moderated by Northwest College Faculty Helen Jones.
Film: The Promise of Preschool. (60 minutes) followed by Q&A with Stephen McCormick, currently 1st & 2nd grade teacher in Spring Branch I.S.D. Compelling John Merrow documentary on question of early childhood schooling policy. Is starting public school in kindergarten too late? Four cases presented: from private Montessori nursery school, to an impoverished inner city program; to a French ecole maternelle; and an experimental program in Georgia.
October 15th @ 12:30 p.m. presented by Professor Donna Rhea
Film: Hacking Democracy. (81 minutes)
Documents American citizens investigating anomalies and irregularities with 'e-voting' (electronic voting) systems that occurred during America's 2000 and 2004 elections, especially in Volusia County, Florida. Nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.
October 22nd @ 12:30 p.m.
Film "The Visitor". 2008 (100 minutes)
Filmmaker Tom McCarthy's poignant and often funny film. Disclosing post-9/11 realities of the immigrants living in the U.S. Chance encounter of a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor transforms his empty life as he becomes engaged with strangers, their visa issues, humanity and music.
October 29th
John Pilger Retrospective - 40 Years of Documentary Film Making
3 Films
@ 11:00 a.m.
Welcome To Australia. 1999 (50 minutes)
With focus on sports and the Sydney Olympics, John Pilger and Alan Lowery take a look at Australia's Aborigines who are still excluded, impoverished and mistreated, while their part in the brilliant history of Australia's sports successes goes virtually unrecognized. Multiple International Awards.
@ 12:30 p.m.
Inside Burma: Land of Fear. updated 1998 (52 minutes.)
John Pilger goes undercover in one of the world's most isolated, and extraordinary countries, Burma, which Amnesty International calls 'a prison without bars'. They discover slave labour preparing for tourism and foreign investment. Multiple International Awards.
@ 1:30 p.m.
South Africa: Apartheid Did Not Die. 1998 (59 minutes)
John Pilger describes how economic apartheid has become a model for much of the world and resistance to it has begun again in the country where apartheid was said to be in the past. Multiple International Awards.
TUESDAY!!! November 4th @ 1:00 p.m.
John Pilger - QUESTION & ANSWER for Houston Students!
Speaker: International/ Award-winning Journalist, Documentary Film-Maker.
One of only 2 appearances in Houston bringing to a close, "Houston's John Pilger's Retrospective: 40 years of Documentary Film-Making"
November 12th @ 12:30:00 p.m.
Film: Body of War 2007 (87 minutes)
Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week! A naked and honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man. Intimate & transformational feature documentary film about the face of war today. Produced/ directed by Phil Donahue & Ellen Spiro/ Karen Bernstein co-producer.
For more information about The Reel, please contact Dr. Ann Bragdon, Anthropology/Sociology Faculty for HCC Northwest at 713-718-5642 or ann.bragdon@hccs.edu.
