Spring 2012 FILMS

Time:  12:00-2:00 p.m.
All held on Wednesdays
Location:  Center for Community, third floor, Suite N320

Center for Multicultural Affair (CMA) invites CU to this Spring’s Exploring Diversity Film Series and our After Hours Film Series. Bring your multicultural lens to informal conversations that explore diversity & collegiality with others.  Films selected are based on current events and issues impacting our communities.  For more information, contact Cleo Estrada, 303-492-5668.

Exploring Diversity Film Series Theme for Spring:  

*Celebrating Black History Month:

February 8                       
The Language You Cry In
An amazing scholarly detective story reaching across hundreds of years and thousands of miles from 18th century Sierra Leone to the Gullah people of present-day Georgia in the United States.
                                   
February 15                       
The Help
A story about women in the 1960s South who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project — one that breaks society’s rules and puts them all at risk.

*The Nature of Violence in our Communities:

February 22                       
 Dirty Pretty Things
A medically trained Nigerian immigrant works as a taxi driver and a hotel concierge, but still lives on the edge of poverty and discovers a shady business operation in London’s seedy underworld.

February 29            
Bread and Roses
Two Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize.
                                   
March 7                       
Bordertown
A journalist investigates a series of murders near American-owned factories on the border of Juarez and El Paso.

March 14                       
Thousand Pieces of Gold
In 1880's China, a young daughter is sold into marriage by her impoverished father.  She ultimately finds her own way in this strange country (Idaho) filled with white demons.                          
                                   

*Oppressing Workers  (a CMA & Buffalo Can Challenge event)

April 18                       
Mardi Gras:  Made In China
Following the life-cycle of Mardi Gras beads from a small factory in Fuzhou, China, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and to art galleries in New York City.  Explores how toxic products directly affect the people who both make and consume them.

CMA After Hours Spring Film Series  
For more information, contact Jane Elvins at 303-492-5816

Jan. 30      American Outrage
5:30-7:30, C4C Room N320 (CMA Lounge)
Sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Affairs

Join us for light snacks and a free screening of this documentary about two Shoshone ranchers, Carrie and Mary Dann, who fought the U.S. government for 35 years for their land rights and their human rights. You will leave inspired, angry, and better educated about how Native Americans as a population are denied the same opportunities open to others in this country.
Facilitator: Jane Elvins, Center for Multicultural Affairs

Feb. 13       The Long Walk Home
5:30-7:30, C4C Room N320 (CMA Lounge)
Sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Affairs

Join us for light snacks anda free screening of this narrative film about a Montgomery, Alabama housewife in the mid-1950’s (Sissy Spacek) and her African American domestic worker (Whoopi Goldberg) who move from employer/employee to loyal friends with a common interest in social and individual progress. The story is set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. You may see interesting    
comparisons to the stories told in The Help.
Facilitator: Jane Elvins, Center for Multicultural Affairs

Mar. 5        A Better Life
5:30-7:30, C4C Room N320 (CMA Lounge)
Sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Affairs

Join us for light snacks and a free screening of this powerful narrative film about an undocumented Mexican immigrant struggling to support himself and his son in contemporary LA. The son seems to be moving toward joining a gang, and the father must persuade him that there is a better life to be had though he himself is having a hard time finding that.
Facilitator: Jane Elvins, Center for Multicultural Affairs

Mar. 19        Vincent Who?
5:30-7:30, C4C Room N320 (CMA Lounge)
Sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Affairs
This is a documentary about the brutal murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit in 1982. The case has become a symbol of the long-standing oppression against Asian Americans in this country, yet it has been overlooked in many educational writings and other resources. Facilitator: Jane Elvins

April 9             CMA After Hours Film Series – “People Like Us: Social Class in America”
5:30-7:30pm.,  C4C room N215
To finish the series, we’ll watch and discuss this fascinating, sometimes funny, sometimes heart-breaking documentary which explores how we shape the concept of social class in this country. Though we think of ourselves as a classless society where all have equal opportunity to climb the ladders of social and economic success, is that the reality of everyday lives in the U.S.? Light snacks will be provided. Open to everyone. Facilitator: Jane Elvins