Community Cinema
Illinois Public Media has joined with the Independent Television Service (ITVS) to bring you Community Cinema in 2011. Community Cinema will feature monthly screenings of independent documentaries shown on WILL-TV followed by a discussion facilitated by a community group or organization with interest in the topic. All screening discussions are free and open to the public.
All films will be shown with closed-captioning for the hearing-impaired. A sign language interpreter will sign the pre-and-post film discussion.
Film: Bhutto
Community Screening/discussion date: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 6:30pm
Venue: Robeson Room A&B at Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green Street in Champaign, IL
Broadcast date: May 10, 2011 at 9pm
Program description: Bhutto chronicles the life of one of the most complex and fascinating characters of our time. Hers is an epic tale of Shakespearean dimension. It’s the story of the first woman in history to lead a Muslim nation: Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto was born into a wealthy landowning family that became Pakistan’s dominant political dynasty. Often referred to as the “Kennedys of Pakistan,” the Bhuttos share a painful history of triumph and tragedy, played out on an international stage. Educated at Harvard and Oxford, and with an eye on a foreign service career, Benazir’s life changed forever when her father, Pakistan’s first democratically elected president, chose Benazir to carry his political mantle over the family’s eldest son. In the late '70s, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown and executed by his handpicked Army Chief, Benazir swore to avenge her father and restore democracy — or to die trying. Benazir Bhutto may have broken the Islamic glass ceiling, but she was wed in a traditional arranged marriage to then-Karachi playboy Asif Ali Zardari. Her two terms in power saw acts of courage and controversy as she eradicated polio and stood up for women, while fighting the male-dominated political elite, and a nervous military leadership, while battling accusations of corruption and scandal. In 2007, with the South Asian country in turmoil and under the thumb of yet another military dictator, Benazir was called back onto the world stage as Pakistan’s best hope for democracy. With her assassination she transcended politics, but left a legacy of simmering controversy and undeniable courage that will be debated for years.
Film: Welcome to Shelbyville
Community Screening/discussion date: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 6:30pm
Venue: Robeson Room A&B at Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green Street in Champaign, IL
Broadcast date: May 24, 2011 at 9pm
Program description: Welcome to Shelbyville is a glimpse of America at a crossroads. In this one small town in the heart of America's Bible Belt, a community grapples with rapidly changing demographics. Just a stone's throw away from Pulaski, Tennessee (the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan), longtime African American and white residents are challenged with how best to integrate with a growing Latino population and the more recent arrival of hundreds of Muslim Somali refugees. Set on the eve of the 2008 Presidential election, the film captures the interaction between these residents as they navigate new waters against the backdrop of a tumultuous year. The economy is in crisis, factories are closing, and jobs are hard to find. The local Tyson chicken plant is hiring hundreds of new Somali refugees, and when a local reporter initiates a series of articles about the newcomers, a flurry of controversy and debate erupts within the town. Just as the Latino population grapples with their own immigrant identity, African American residents look back at their segregated past and balance perceived threats to their livelihood and security against the values that they learned through their own long struggle for civil rights. As the newcomers — mostly of Muslim faith — attempt to make new lives for themselves and their children, leaders in this deeply religious community attempt to guide their congregations through this period of unprecedented change. Through the vibrant and colorful characters of Shelbyville, the film explores immigrant integration and the interplay between race, religion, and identity in this dynamic dialogue. The story is an intimate portrayal of a community’s struggle to understand what it means to be American.
Film: Two Spirits
Community Screening/discussion date: Saturday, June 11, time TBA
Venue: Art Theatre, 126 W. Church St., Champaign, IL
Broadcast date: June 14, 2011 at 9pm
Program description: Filmmaker Lydia Nibley explores the cultural context behind a tragic and senseless murder. Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the nadleeh, or 'two-spirit,' who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits. In relating Fred's story, Nibley reminds us of the values that America's indigenous peoples have long embraced.
Film: More Than a Month - ITVS
Community Screening/discussion date: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 6:00pm
Venue: Robeson Room A&B at Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green Street in Champaign, IL
Broadcast date: TBA
Program description: More Than a Month Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African-American filmmaker, sets out on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. He stops in various cities, wearing a sandwich board, to solicit signatures on his petition to end the observance. He explains that relegating Black History Month to the coldest, shortest month of the year is an insult, and that black history is not separate from American history. Through this thoughtful and humorous journey, he explores what the treatment of history tells us about race and equality in a “post-racial” America.
His road trip begins in Washington, D.C., crisscrosses the country during Black History Month 2010, and ends with an epilogue one year later. Each stop along the journey explores Black History Month as it relates to four ideas: education, history, identity, and commercialism.
Tilgman’s campaign to end Black History Month is actually a provocative gambit to open a public conversation about the idea of ethnic heritage months, and whether relegating African American history to the shortest month of the year — and separating it from American history on the whole — denigrates the role of black people and black culture throughout American history. But it is also a seeker’s journey to reconcile his own conflicting feelings about his own identity, history, and convictions.
More Than a Month is not just about a yearly tradition, or history, or being black in America. It is about what it means to be an American, to fight for one’s rightful place in the American landscape, however unconventional the means, even at the risk of ridicule or misunderstanding. It is a film is about discovering oneself.
Film: Revenge of the Electric Car - ITVS
Community Screening/discussion date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 6:00pm
Venue: Robeson Room A&B at Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green Street in Champaign, IL
Broadcast date: TBA
Program description: Revenge of the Electric Car In Revenge of the Electric Car, director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. Without using a single drop of foreign oil, this new generation of car is America's future: fast, furious, and cleaner than ever. With almost every major car maker now jumping to produce new electric models, Revenge follows the race to be the first, the best, and to win the hearts and minds of the public around the world. It's not just the next generation of green cars that's on the line. It's the future of the automobile itself.
Film: Hell and Back Again - ITVS
Community Screening/discussion date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 6:00pm
Venue: Robeson Room A&B at Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green Street in Champaign, IL
Broadcast date: TBA
Program description: Hell and Back Again: What does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home — injured physically and psychologically — and build a life anew? In Hell and Back Again two overlapping narratives are intercut — the life of a Marine at war on the front, and the life of the same Marine in recovery at home — creating both a dreamlike quality and a strikingly realistic depiction of how Marines experience this war.
The story follows the U.S. Marines Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, as they launch a major assault on a Taliban stronghold in Southern Afghanistan. Within hours of being dropped deep behind enemy lines, Sergeant Nathan Harris's unit is attacked from all sides. Cut off and surrounded, the Marines fight a ghostlike enemy and experience immense hostility from displaced villagers. Frustration grows on both sides, as any common ground, or success, seems elusive.
The parallel story begins with Sergeant Harris's return home to his wife in the U.S., after he is severely injured. He's in terrible physical pain, and becomes addicted to his pain medication. But his psychological pain may be worse, as he attempts to reconcile the immense gulf between his experiences at war, and the terrifying normalcy of life at home. These two stories intertwine to communicate both the extraordinary drama of war and the no less shocking experience of returning home, as a whole generation of Marines struggles to find an identity in a country that prefers to be indifferent.
Film: Strong! - ITVS
Community Screening/discussion date: Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 6:00pm
Venue: Robeson Room A&B at Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green Street in Champaign, IL
Broadcast date: TBA
Program description: Strong: A formidable figure, standing at 5'8" and weighing over 300 pounds, Cheryl Haworth struggles to defend her champion status as her lifetime weightlifting career inches towards its inevitable end. Strong! chronicles her journey and the challenges this unusual elite athlete faces, exploring popular notions of power, strength, beauty, and health.
