Fall 2016 Communication & Media Speaker Series Presents
Matthew W. Hughey, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut
"Racializing Redemption: The Content and Characters of White Savior Films"
Thursday, December 1, 2016
2435 North Quad
4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
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Recent research on the intersection of race and media representations
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describes a trend of progressive, even anti-racist, narratives that showcase close inter-racial friendships and camaraderie on the silver screen. Films in which one character saves or helps another from some unholy or disastrous plight are common; while these films present a stark change from the patently racist and on-screen segregationist history of Hollywood cinema, however, they are neither racially neutral nor without racist meanings. Specifically, many of these films are what critics call “White Savior Films" -- cinema in which implicit and explicit racial stereotypes are employed to structure the inter-racial interactions where one character labors to redeem another. In analyzing this genre, Professor Hughey will provide a framework for understanding both why and how modern cinema naturalizes the supposed cerebral rationality, work ethic, and paternalistic morality of select white characters while it normalizes people of color as primordially connected with nature, spiritually attuned, carnally driven, and/or possessive of exotic and magical powers.
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12 Years a Slave, Avatar, The Help, and The Last Samurai are among the films Hughey mentions in his research.
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LRCCS Film Series – “Night Scene”
After Film Discussion with S.E. Kile and Markus Nornes
Friday, December 2, 2016
Kraus Auditorium, 2140 Natural Science Building
7:00 p.m.
Please note -- This is a new time/location for this event
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Cui Zi’en’s "Night Scene" takes on one of the biggest taboos in contemporary China: male street prostitution. The gripping story follows a boy who discovers his father’s homosexuality and, in the process, discovers his own. “Night Scene” is a unique portrait of a twilight world in parks and clubs that veers between documentary and fiction. Cui Zi'en mixes real gigolos with actors, while making no strict distinction between homosexuals and prostitutes. It is an ambiguous, layered film, just as boundless as the lives of male prostitutes in China.
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The Institute for the Humanities Author's Forum Presents
"Movie Freak," A Conversation with Owen Gleiberman and Daniel Herwitz
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Gallery, Room 100 - Hatcher Graduate Library
5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
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Owen Gleiberman reads from his latest book, Movie Freak, followed by a conversation with Daniel Herwitz and
Q & A. Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic. He wrote for The Boston Phoenix and is best known as the founding movie writer for the then-startup Entertainment
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Weekly, where he was the lead critic for 24 years. Today, Gleiberman continues to write for BBC.com; he is also the chief movie critic for Variety, one of the most important jobs in the business of film criticism. Daniel Herwitz is the Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of Comparative Literature, History of Art, Philosophy, and Art & Design.
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SAC Honors Information Session
Thursday, December 8, 2016
SAC Conference Room, 6360 North Quad
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
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THIS WEEK'S FEATURED PHOTO
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Assistant to the Chair Mary Lou Chlipala artistically captures Professor Hugh Cohen in the limelight as he lectures on High Noon in SAC 236, The Art of Film
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