9/11 Film Series: Sept. 11 - 16th

This fall is the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attack. With that in mind, a 9-11 Film Series will be screened on the Winona State University campus from September 11th - 16th.

All screenings are FREE and open the public. Films will be shown at 7pm in the Science Lab Center Auditorium (room 120, located between Pasteur and Stark Halls) on the Winona State campus.

The films included in the series were selected and assembled based on three questions: What happened on 9/11? What did we do in response? And what did that response do to us? The goal of these screenings is not to provide simplistic answers to these questions, but to use cinema as a platform from which to discuss how we conceive and understand the attack, our resulting attitudes and actions, and ultimately pry at the broader question: what does 9/11 mean? These are challenging questions with possibly even more challenging answers.

FILM SCHEDULE:
Sunday, September 11th: United 93
Directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum), this intense dramatization of the 9/11 attack focuses on the events aboard United Airlines flight 93. The film was named among the best pictures of 2006 by several critics and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. MPAA rating: R. 111 minutes.

Monday, September 12th: Osama
An Afghani film about a girl and her family living under the Taliban. This was the first Afghani film to be made after the Taliban were removed from power and it won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 2004 Golden Globes. MPAA rating: PG-13. 83 minutes.

Tuesday, September 13th: Restrepo
A documentary film about American soldiers stationed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. MPAA rating: R. 93 minutes.

Wednesday, September 14th: Taxi to the Dark Side
Called "one of the essential documentaries of the ongoing war" by The New Yorker, this film examines the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the United States in the War on Terror. The film won an Oscar and an Emmy for Best Documentary. MPAA rating: R. 106 minutes.

Thursday, September 15th: The Messenge
A wounded soldier (Ben Foster) is assigned to a Casualty Notification Team and partnered with an experienced soldier (Woody Harrelson) who instructs him on the procedures of his job. Coming Home for the September 11th generation. Harrelson was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. MPAA rating: R. 113 minutes.

Friday, September 16th: Four Lions
Compared by critics to Duck Soup and Dr. Strangelove, this dark comedy follows a group of bumbling terrorists who attempt to fulfill their dreams of martyrdom but constantly foil themselves due to their own stupidity. Fans of Life of Brian, The Daily Show, and Good Morning, Vietnam shouldn't miss it. MPAA rating: R. 97 minutes.

A webpage including links and trailers for the films can be found here.
There is also a Facebook event page here.

The 9-11 Film Series is sponsored by Sounds of Cinema, Winona State University's English Department, Communication Studies Department, Department of Housing and Residence Life, Department of Theater and Dance, Office of Inclusion and Diversity, Office of Student Life and Development, Philosophy Department, University Programming Activities Committee, Vittorio Colaizzi, Anne Plummer, and Jim Williams.

Go Ape on Sounds of Cinema

On Sunday, August 14th, Sounds of Cinema will dedicate an entire episode to The Planet of the Apes series. I will take a look at all of the films in the series, from the 1968 original to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The episode will also feature an interview with Eric Greene, the author of Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics and Popular Culture.

Melissa Harris-Perry on 'The Help'

In this clip from The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Melissa Harris-Perry discusses her objections to the new film, The Help. Her criticism highlights the perils of adapting history to the movie screen and the ongoing problems of representations of African American women in Hollywood films.

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