Season begins September 15 with Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – August 28, 2012 – ITVS, Nashville Public Television and the Nashville Public Library are proud to announce the 2012-2013 season of Community Cinema Nashville. Now in its fifth season, the free screening series presented in partnership with Hands on Nashville and the Nashville Film Festival kicks off Saturday, September 15 at the downtown Nashville Public Library with Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Maro Chermayeff. This landmark documentary miniseries (based on the bestselling book of the same name by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn) follows six actress-advocates — America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde — as they travel to Africa and Asia and meet inspiring, courageous individuals who are confronting oppression and developing real, meaningful solutions.
Community Cinema Nashville this year takes on diverse issues from current news headlines, such as As Goes Janesville, Brad Lichtenstein’s three-year chronicle about the debate over the future of America’s middle class, a debate that has become a pitched battle over unions in the normally tranquil state of Wisconsin; Macky Alston’s Love Free or Die, a portrait of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay elected bishop in the high church traditions of Christendom, whose 2003 elevation in the New Hampshire diocese ignited a worldwide firestorm in the Anglican Communion; and Soul Food Junkies, Byron Hurt’s personal look at the black community’s love affair with soul food, its significance, and its health consequences.
This year, the series continues to align its programming with the Women and Girls Lead campaign — a multiyear public media initiative to focus, educate, and connect citizens worldwide in support of the issues facing women and girls — now nearing the end of its second year. Women and Girls Lead programs featured this season include:
Solar Mamas, by Jehane Noujaim, introduces the women of India’s Barefoot College, which provides rural women living in poverty with an education that empowers them to make their communities self reliant and sustainable; Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines traces the fascinating evolution and legacy of the original comic book Amazon, Wonder Woman, reflecting society’s anxieties about women’s liberation; and Revolutionary Optimists, by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen, takes a look at a teacher who empowers the children of Kolkata’s slums to become leaders in improving their own community’s health.
ITVS Community Cinema Nashville, coordinated by Allison Inman, began in 2008 and has steadily built to an audience ranging from 70-200 per screening, with dozens of community partners contributing each month to reception activities and panel discussions. The monthly screening series features upcoming selections from the Independent Lens season, which airs locally on Nashville Public Television. Over 90 cities across the country participate in the Community Cinema program, making a real contribution on a range of current social issues by connecting communities with organizations, information, and the opportunity to get involved.
The complete 2012-2013 slate of films is below. Films begin at 3:00 p.m. and are preceded by a reception at 2:30 p.m., at the downtown main branch of the Nashville Public Library unless also otherwise noted.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2012
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
by Maro Chermayeff, Jamie Gordon and Mikaela Beardsley
This special Community Cinema screening will preview one of six stories featured in the upcoming PBS mini-series based on Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s best-selling book. In the episode on Sex Trafficking, Kristof and actress Meg Ryan meet Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who sold herself into slavery as a young girl and who is now a world-renowned leader in the anti-trafficking struggle. Following the film, representatives from End Slavery Tennessee will discuss efforts to stop sex trafficking in Nashville and holistically care for trafficking survivors.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2012 (Reception at 5:45 p.m. / Screening at 6:15 p.m.)
As Goes Janesville
by Brad Lichtenstein
America’s middle class is dwindling, and the debate over how to save it is nowhere fiercer than in the normally tranquil state of Wisconsin. In Janesville, as jobs disappear and families are stretched to their breaking point, citizens and politicians are embroiled in an ideological battle about how to turn things around.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2012
Solar Mamas
by Jehane Noujaim
Rafea — a 30-year-old Jordanian mother of four — is traveling outside of her village for the first time to attend a solar engineering program at India’s Barefoot College. She will join other poor women from Guatemala, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Colombia in learning concrete skills to create change in their communities.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2012
Beauty is Embarrassing
by Neil Berkeley
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2012 Nashville Film Festival, Beauty Is Embarrassing is the funny, irreverent and inspiring story of one of America’s most important artists, Wayne White. Raised in Tennessee, Mr. White has spent the last 30 years making his indelible mark on pop culture. From his humble roots as a puppeteer in Nashville to his work as one of the creators of the “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” TV show to his current life as a darling in the fine art world, White has inspired millions of people across the country. The film chronicles the vaulted highs and the crushing lows of an artist focused on making every day a chance to create.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2013
Soul Food Junkies
by Byron Hurt
Soul food lies at the heart of African American cultural identity. The black community’s love affair with soul food is deep-rooted, complex, and in some cases, deadly. Soul Food Junkies puts this culinary tradition under the microscope to examine both its significance and its consequences.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2013
The Powerbroker
by Bonnie Boswell
Whitney M. Young, Jr. was one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders of the civil rights era. As executive director of the National Urban League, he took the struggle for equality directly to the powerful white elite, gaining allies in business and government, including three presidents.
SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2013
Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines
by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
Trace the fascinating evolution and legacy of the original comic book Amazon, Wonder Woman. From her creation in the 1940s to the superhero blockbusters of today, pop culture’s representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.
SATURDAY , APRIL 20, 2013 (Presented at the Nashville Film Festival, Regal Green Hills Stadium 16)
The Island President
by Jon Shenk, Bonni Cohen and Richard Berge
Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed is confronting a problem greater than any world leader has ever faced — the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. His is the most low-lying country in the world; a minor rise in sea level would literally erase it from the map.
SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2013
The Revolutionary Optimists
by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen
Amlan Ganguly teaches the children of Kolkata’s slums to become leaders in improving their own community’s health and sanitation. Using street theater, dance, and data as their weapons, the children have cut malaria and diarrhea rates in half, increased polio vaccination rates, and turned garbage dumps into playing fields.
SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2013
Love Free or Die
by Macky Alston
Love Free or Die is about a man who has two defining passions that the world cannot reconcile: his love for God and for his partner Mark. The film is about church and state, love and marriage, faith and identity — and openly gay Bishop Eugene Robinson’s struggle to dispel the notion that God’s love has limits.
ITVS COMMUNITY CINEMA is a monthly screening series featuring upcoming selections from the Independent Lens season. Presented in partnership with local public television stations and leading community organizations, ITVS Community Cinema holds preview screenings in over 90 cities across the country making a real contribution on a range of current social issues by connecting communities with organizations, information, and the opportunity to get involved.
ABOUT ITVS AND INDEPENDENT LENS
ITVS is a leading funder and presenter of award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens on Tuesday nights at 10 PM on PBS. Independent Lens is jointly curated by ITVS and PBS and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding provided by PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.
