FILM

HCC Northwest presents The REEL Culture Spring 2011 Film & Speaker Series at the Spring Branch Campus. This series headlines with prominent speakers and intriguing films meant to inform and motivate people to think more critically about their surroundings.

All programs are on Wednesday and begin at 12:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Faculty members will introduce films and lead critical evaluation/discussion. Guest speakers will be available for questions and answers following presentations. Book-signing opportunities are provided as appropriate.

Spring 2011 REEL Schedule:
February 16th through March 30th
12:30 p.m.
In the Eagle Room @ Spring Branch Campus
HCC Northwest College 1010 West Sam Houston Parkway North 77043

Week 1. February 16 Wednesday
12:30 p.m. Film
Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun (86 minutes) 2008

“Zora Neale Hurston, path-breaking novelist, pioneering anthropologist and one of the first black women to enter the American literary canon (Their Eyes Were Watching God), established the African American vernacular as one of the most vital, inventive voices in American literature. This definitive film biography, eighteen years in the making, portrays Zora in all her complexity: gifted, flamboyant, and controversial but always fiercely original.”*

Introduction/ Discussion with NWC English Professor M. Douglas-Jones

* http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0221&s=zora.

Week 2. February 23 Wednesday
12:30 p.m. Film
Not Just a Game: Power, Politics and American Sports (62 minutes) 2010
How true is it that sports and politics don’t mix? Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin argues in this powerful new documentary based on his bestselling book The People’s History of Sports in the United States that American sports have long been at the center of some of the major political debates and struggles of our time. Tour the good, the bad, and the ugly of American sports culture in this provocative documentary.

Introduction/ Discussion with NWC Faculty Panel Professors: Donna Rhea (Government); Anthony Pearson (Sociology); and Chris Patke (History).

See MEF Study Guide: http://www.mediaed.org/wp/study-guides.

Week 3. March 2nd, Wednesday
12:30 p.m. Film
Gasland (99 minutes) 2010.

Documentary by Josh Fox reveals that “fracking”* or the hydraulic fracturing used in natural gas production has un-intended and dangerous consequences for the environment and human health. “If a film can ever enact social change, which is rare, the potency of “GasLand” suggests that this may be that film.”

* http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking.

Introduction/ Discussion with NWC Physical Science Professor William Askew

HCC Spring Break – Campus Closed March 14 -20

Week 4. March 23rd Wednesday
12:30 p.m. Film & Film Makers
Colores del Carnaval Dominicano (55 minutes) 2011

Presentation of the folkloric carnaval of the Dominican Republic (the oldest in the Americas) filmed in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Unique soundtrack and a visual feast of images featuring customs, elaborate masks and costumes and music of the folkloric carnaval. The creativity and subversive nature of carnaval performance is explored in the context of the blending of three cultures over the centuries.

Introduction/ Discussion – Directors/ Editors Donna Pinnick & HCC Web-designer Ruben Duran

http://www.colonialzone-dr.com/traditions-carnival.html

Week 5. March 30th Wednesday
12:30 p.m. Speaker
What is that? PMF?

NWC English Professor, Dr. Melissa Miller-Waters

MORE INFORMATION Dr.Ann Bragdon HCC-NWC Anthropology ann.bragdon@hccs.edu  713-718-5642.