UA to Screen Documenting Justice Films at Bama Theatre

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility and the UA department of telecommunication and film will host the eighth annual Documenting Justice film screening at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, at the Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa.

The screening is free and open to the public.

The event will feature six short documentaries created by non-film majors who dedicated a year to learning how to document and analyze culture and social experience – and communicate about issues of justice and injustice in Alabama – through videography.

The screening will consist of six films exploring:

— The people and landscapes of coal mining through a look at the complex relationship among individuals, their environment and their livelihoods.

— The possibility of resident-led neighborhood revitalization amid threats of deterioration and displacement.

— The internal struggle of recovering from sexual assault while dealing with the stigma and adverse attitudes held by the general public.

— The journey of three deaf African-American individuals in Alabama as they grapple with issues of identity, race and disability.

— A church in Huntsville that helps people reconcile their religious and sexual identities.

— The psychological and emotional repercussions of unimaginative policies and attitudes toward dog overpopulation.

Working in pairs, 12 undergraduate and graduate students produced the documentaries as part of a two-semester course taught by an award-winning group of filmmakers. UA has offered the Documenting Justice course since 2006.

Documenting Justice is an initiative of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, which established university-wide programming supporting the development of projects that nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship.

“Ethical citizenship requires a strong sense of empathy and compassion,” said Stephen Black, director of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility. “Developing such qualities requires the ability to imagine what others see, feel and experience. A central focus of CESR, therefore, is the development of courses such as Documenting Justice in which students learn the personal stories of people outside their immediate sphere.”

Learn more about Documenting Justice and other initiatives at cesr.ua.edu.

Created in 2005, the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility established university-wide programming supporting the development of projects that nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship. UA’s strong commitment to civic engagement and its history of community-university partnerships also serve as a foundation for the center.

The center staff develops – and assist faculty members in developing – service-learning courses that engage community organizations in partnerships designed to both enhance academic goals and apply scholarly learning to salient community issues. The service experiences are integrated into the students’ academic curriculum, providing structured time for students to think, talk and write about what they did and observed.