Documenting Justice Film Screening Features Work of UA Students

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility and the department of telecommunication & film at The University of Alabama will host the second annual Documenting Justice Film Screening on Tuesday, April 29, at 7 p.m. at the Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa.

The film screening will be the culmination of a year’s work by UA students (who are not film majors) who have come together for a two-semester, specialized interdisciplinary course. Focusing on stories of justice and injustice in Alabama, Documenting Justice students learn how to use film to document and analyze culture and social experience, and to communicate about issues of concern to the state.

The screening will consist of six short documentary films produced by 12 undergraduate and graduate students.

Topics of the films to be screened include:

• The stories of five American veterans and a look at what happens when they leave the combat zone and return home.
• The Tuscaloosa City Schools’ recent rezoning decisions and their impact on students, parents and communities.
• Legendary musician Willie King has a mission: to inspire a new generation to find and foster healthy communities through the tradition of Blues.
• A portrait of motherhood behind bars and a literacy program that helps inmate mothers connect to their children.
• How can a high-poverty school become outstanding? The success story of E.D. Nixon Elementary School in Montgomery.
• A portrait of Cullman, Ala.: race, history and progress.

“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 and begin to explore the ever-expanding dimensions of cultural and social experience.”

Documenting Justice is a signature initiative of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, which began in fall 2005 as a result of a gift from Mignon C. Smith to establish a university-based ethics program that would support the study of ethics and develop projects to nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship.

Admission for this event is free and it is open to the public.

For more information, contact Allison Stagg in CESR at 205/348-6490 or go online to http://cesr.ua.edu/.