Rick Bragg shares stories of dangerous reporting trips
Tuscaloosa News – March 8
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Rick Bragg, speaking Wednesday night at the University of Alabama during a fundraiser for a student-run magazine, discussed some of the more dangerous times in his career in journalism. Bragg recalled the time he was running through tear gas with supporters of Osama bin Laden waving “honest-to-God swords” on one side and the Pakistani Frontier Police on a truck with a .50-caliber machine gun on the other side. “You pay a small price at times (to get to report),” Bragg said. “If you’re a crusading journalist in Mexico, you’re living under a death sentence. Eastern Europe, same thing. You just don’t know when your life is going to end.” While reporting from war-torn areas is dangerous, Bragg said the stories generated can be the most fulfilling for a writer. “I like to write about people who stand on the trembling membrane between this world and the next,” Bragg said. “Because, in the end, those are the only stories worth writing about.” Bragg’s lecture was a fundraiser created by Alpine Living, a student-operated magazine offered as a class at UA. The magazine has covered an international locale in each of its four issues and its staffers will travel to Spain this month. The money raised by Bragg’s lecture will help pay for the magazine’s production prices and the cost of the trip to Spain.
Printing in 3D
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – March 7
New technology at the University of Alabama could soon be sitting next to your home computer. It takes two dimensional ideas and prints them out into 3-d objects. The University’s new 3D print lab has several models that layer plastic the way a normal printer lays down ink. It builds three dimensional objects from bottom to top. Theoretically, any plastic part you draw, can be printed out and used. Most of the material is the same plastic that’s used for Lego’s. Some of the models are on display right now at the Kentuck Museum in Northport.
UA to host national film festival featuring women filmmakers
Planet Weekly – March 8
The University of Alabama Women’s Resource Center (WRC) is to host LUNAFEST on March 11 in the Bama Theatre at 7 p.m. LUNAFEST is a national film festival that showcases short films by, for, and about women. This film festival is designed to raise awareness about women’s issues, highlight women filmmakers, and bring women together in their communities. “The University of Alabama is the only site to host LUNAFEST in the state of Alabama,” said Puneet Gill, coordinator of the film festival this year. “This festival helps to further WRC goals of offering counseling services to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking, as well as offer leadership programs to the UA community.” All proceeds of LUNAFEST will go toward the UA Women’s Resource Center and the Breast Cancer Fund. A silent auction will be held at 6:30 p.m. prior to showtime and will include donations from the West Alabama Quilters Guild, Pat’s Florist, Best Buy, and the UA Theatre Program. There will also be a chance to bid on a football signed by Nick Saban.
UA to host town halls on mental illness, education and liberty
Al.com – March 8
The University of Alabama will offer town hall meetings on subjects including mental health, education and public safety in a series sponsored by the Honors College. The UA Town Halls are free and open to the public. The next Town Hall is “Mentally Ill Patients: Who They Are; Where Did They Go; and Why Do I Care?” It will feature Jim Reddoch, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health, and Clayton Shealy, director of UA’s Psychology Clinic. That Town Hall is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, in Gallalee Hall, room 227.
Recap of day one at the 2013 National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – March 7
The 2013 National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament got underway Thursday at Lakeshore Foundation in Homewood…The No.2-seed University of Alabama team recorded a win in its opening game against Southwest Minnesota State 59-31. The Crimson Tide’s Ryan Hynes scored 18 points and was the game’s top performer.
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – March 7
Film to shed light on mitochondrial disease
Franklin Life (Tenn.) – March 7
In the face of the often challenging reality of raising a child with special needs, Ellen and Michael Hollis don’t allow time for sulking. This attitude is captured in the new documentary film, “Not a Statistic,” which profiles the Hollis family. Their three-year-old son, Hunt, suffers from mitochondrial disease, a chronic, genetic disorder occurring when the mitochondria of the cell fail to produce enough energy for cell or organ function. The 36-minute documentary film will premiere March 14, at the Franklin Theatre, 419 Main St., Franklin, at 7 p.m….Now “Not a Statistic,” by filmmaker Shelby Hadden, will shed light on the family’s daily challenges with the disease, their fight to find a cure and their passion to make a difference … The idea for the film started when Hadden, a telecommunication and film major at the University of Alabama, received a class assignment in Fall 2011 to write a treatment for a potential documentary. Hadden’s mother, Meggin, told her about the Hollis’ story, after meeting the family while training at the same Franklin fitness facility. After interviewing Ellen about Hunt about their family’s journey, Hadden’s professor approved the story idea. In June 2012, Hadden began filming the family’s every step. She accompanied them at Hunt’s doctor appointments, throughout his rigid therapy schedule and during everyday tasks such as running errands. “As a documentary filmmaker, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience,” said Hadden. “Ellen and Mike graciously brought me into every aspect of their lives as they raised Hunt.” Hadden finished filming with approximately 37 hours’ worth of footage, which she edited down.
Saddle up for Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Cowboy Jamboree’
Tuscaloosa News – March 8
Blue jeans, western shirts, spurs and cowboy boots are making their way center stage as the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra presents “Cowboy Jamboree.” The production ropes audiences into Frank Oden’s western poetry as part of its Family Discovery Concerts, tonight at 6 on the Moody Music Concert Hall stage. Founded in 1979, the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra is home to highly trained musicians ranging from Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham and Huntsville, along with faculty and superior students from the University of Alabama. The production will play to city and county school students throughout the day and later open its doors to the general public for the evening performance.
Dr. Betty Ruth Speir named UA’s Distinguished Alumnus in medicine
Al.com – March 7
A local doctor has received the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association, according to a news release. Dr. Betty Ruth Speir of Point Clear is considered by many to be a pioneer in her field of obstetrics and gynecology. She graduated from the University of Alabama in 1961 after completion of her first year of medical school, and she graduated from the Medical College of Alabama in 1963…Speir was chief resident of obstetrics and gynecology at Mobile General Hospital from 1967-68. She worked in private practice in Greenville, Ala., before moving her practice to serve patients in Fairhope, Point Clear and Mobile from 1968-2002.