Film Review and Discussion

I am a big fan of using film, literature, and music to convey academic information to students regarding topics that come up in class. Having shown several film clips and trailers in class, I've been approached by a few students wanting to do some sort of film showing and discussion related to topics of my research. I won't be able to take on such an effort this semester, but I have decided to post trailers to these films and provide my own response and discussion questions so that, if students would like to view the films on their own, we may have a discussion over the blog or email.

The following are several films that I will be discussing. The first is Tsotsi (2006), the story of a thug (tsotsi) from SOWETO in South Africa who makes a life-changing decision and confronts trauma from his past.

The second film is a an adaption Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country. This book fundamentally changed the way I thought about the world and my role in it (and I was only a junior in high school). Set in South Africa, the story is about the struggle of ending apartheid and mending the broken pieces of two lives that find themselves unexpected intertwined.

Finally, I'd like to show The First Grader, a film based on the true story of an illiterate 84-year-old Kenyan veteran who wishes to take advantage of Kenya's newly-instituted free education policy.

Once I review these films and provide discussion questions, I hope to gain some feedback from students regarding other films they would like to discuss (I have about six others in mind). This was a successful practice in my role at Indiana University, so I hope that everyone who's following and checking in will enjoy it as well. As always, feedback is welcome.