Educator of the Year
So for the last two months or so, I've been presenting a weekly film screening at Dixie State. The films are shown in a good-sized auditorium with stereo sound and a video projector. The screenings are open to the public and I do not charge admission. Most of the films are from my personal collection of DVDs, and I receive no compensation for the screenings.
My initial motivation for starting the film series was, I admit, entirely selfish. I was impressed by the projectors available in most of the classrooms at Dixie and started plotting ways to utilize them after class hours to watch movies I liked with a good sound system and a larger-than-TV screen. I started asking around my department if anyone else would be interested in some kind of weekly film screening. Then I was told that a former instructor at Dixie named Bob Dalton had initiated a similar program several years ago, and had carried it on for some 20 years.
I agreed to prepare a list of films and honor Dalton's legacy by naming the screenings after him. Thus began the 2006 Bob Dalton Film Series.
The screenings have never drawn in a large number of people, but I have developed a small but loyal audience, largely composed of retirees from the community. I've learned of a budding film buff club in St. George and have fielded many phone calls from people wondering where they can go to see something besides the predictable crap Hollywood spews forth every week. I have been pleasantly surprised to find a true hunger for quality films in the St. George community. Within a few weeks of starting the series, I was asked to appear on a live interview program for KCSG-TV, a small local station.
The goal of the series, such as it is, is to provide a range of foreign and independent films that are not widely known but are deserving of a larger audience. The series has included the following films so far:
Grand Illusion (1938)
Beauty & the Beast (1946)
The 400 Blows (1959)
The Naked Kiss (1964)
The Red Violin (1999)
Walkabout (1971)
And the Ship Sails On (1984)
As you can see from the list, I've tried to offer a variety of English and non-English language films from different time periods.
Here is the announcement I sent out over campus e-mail yesterday about this week's film:
The 2006 Bob Dalton Film Series continues this Thursday night with a screening of the 1997 film, "The Life of Jesus," beginning at 7:30 PM in the Dunford Auditorium. The screening is open to everyone.
Bruno Dumont's directorial debut follows the life of 20-year-old Freddy and his gang of mean-spirited friends who battle boredom and aimlessness in Northern France, generally by making harmless trouble for local Arab immigrants. But when an Arab man proposes to Freddy's sometime girlfriend, violent racism erupts. "The Life of Jesus" won the French Prix Jean Vigo in 1997 for Best First Feature.
"The Life of Jesus" runs 96 minutes. The film is not rated, but contains scenes of violence and sexuality equivalent to an R-rating. The film is presented in French with English subtitles.
So far, so good. Then, shortly after sending the announcement, I received this in my mailbox:
Chazzbot,
I object to an "equivalent to an R-rating" film being shown on campus. Art can be instructive, informative, and uplifting without degrading content which is "equivalent to an R-rating".
France is a wonderful and beatiful place with an abundance of art in many, many forms, but some of the French people have a low regard for morality. We as instructors CAN bring the beauty and appreciation of art in its many forms to the Dixie State College campus without bringing the ILLUSTRATION of immorality. We, as instructors on campus have an obligation to uplift our students and open their minds and we CAN do this while encouraging high moral and ethical standards. In fact the communities in which we live EXPECT us to instruct while encouraging high morals and ethical standards.
I am asking that you replace this Screening with some other film that reflects our community standards.
Thank you for your support.
Nick L, CPA, MBA
Adjunct Instructor
Department of Business.
Where to begin? The author's sterotyping of the French (with no mention, naturally, of his countrymen's own "low regard for morality")? The expectation that higher education be tailored to the moral standards of the community? The gall of requesting a change to a film program the author has never, to my knowledge, attended? The ignorance of MPAA rating protocals regarding foreign films? The author's severly limited definition of art? The block capitals? What can you say to attitudes like this coming from a man who teaches college-level students?
That's not even mentioning the underlying assumption that college students and community members are too stupid to make up their own minds about what they choose to see, or that a free film screening is enough to overthrow their pre-established values. If their values are that weak, then they have more problems than being subjected to the equivalent of an R-rating. And if college students (or anyone for that matter) never have their values challenged, then what's the point of having any values in the first place?
I hate to assume that the title of this particular film has anything to do with Nick's passionate objections to it, but it seems odd that he's chosen to offer his objections to R-rated films in my series just two weeks before the series comes to an end.
And in case you think I'm the only educator on campus dealing with this kind of provincialism in regard to film screenings at Dixie State College, check out this story on another campus screening.
Anyway, I'll continue my series until the end of the semester. I don't expect to ever see Nick there, whether or not I happen to show a film that he finds acceptable (based on its MPAA rating, of course, not on any inherent qualities the film may have). Nor do I expect to change the attitudes most of the school's administration seems to share. But at every screening, beneath the film's soundtrack, I listen for the telltale pop of some viewer's head coming out of the ground to see something they've never seen before. Maybe a Frenchman. Maybe an idea.
My initial motivation for starting the film series was, I admit, entirely selfish. I was impressed by the projectors available in most of the classrooms at Dixie and started plotting ways to utilize them after class hours to watch movies I liked with a good sound system and a larger-than-TV screen. I started asking around my department if anyone else would be interested in some kind of weekly film screening. Then I was told that a former instructor at Dixie named Bob Dalton had initiated a similar program several years ago, and had carried it on for some 20 years.
I agreed to prepare a list of films and honor Dalton's legacy by naming the screenings after him. Thus began the 2006 Bob Dalton Film Series.
The screenings have never drawn in a large number of people, but I have developed a small but loyal audience, largely composed of retirees from the community. I've learned of a budding film buff club in St. George and have fielded many phone calls from people wondering where they can go to see something besides the predictable crap Hollywood spews forth every week. I have been pleasantly surprised to find a true hunger for quality films in the St. George community. Within a few weeks of starting the series, I was asked to appear on a live interview program for KCSG-TV, a small local station.
The goal of the series, such as it is, is to provide a range of foreign and independent films that are not widely known but are deserving of a larger audience. The series has included the following films so far:
Grand Illusion (1938)
Beauty & the Beast (1946)
The 400 Blows (1959)
The Naked Kiss (1964)
The Red Violin (1999)
Walkabout (1971)
And the Ship Sails On (1984)
As you can see from the list, I've tried to offer a variety of English and non-English language films from different time periods.
Here is the announcement I sent out over campus e-mail yesterday about this week's film:
The 2006 Bob Dalton Film Series continues this Thursday night with a screening of the 1997 film, "The Life of Jesus," beginning at 7:30 PM in the Dunford Auditorium. The screening is open to everyone.
Bruno Dumont's directorial debut follows the life of 20-year-old Freddy and his gang of mean-spirited friends who battle boredom and aimlessness in Northern France, generally by making harmless trouble for local Arab immigrants. But when an Arab man proposes to Freddy's sometime girlfriend, violent racism erupts. "The Life of Jesus" won the French Prix Jean Vigo in 1997 for Best First Feature.
"The Life of Jesus" runs 96 minutes. The film is not rated, but contains scenes of violence and sexuality equivalent to an R-rating. The film is presented in French with English subtitles.
So far, so good. Then, shortly after sending the announcement, I received this in my mailbox:
Chazzbot,
I object to an "equivalent to an R-rating" film being shown on campus. Art can be instructive, informative, and uplifting without degrading content which is "equivalent to an R-rating".
France is a wonderful and beatiful place with an abundance of art in many, many forms, but some of the French people have a low regard for morality. We as instructors CAN bring the beauty and appreciation of art in its many forms to the Dixie State College campus without bringing the ILLUSTRATION of immorality. We, as instructors on campus have an obligation to uplift our students and open their minds and we CAN do this while encouraging high moral and ethical standards. In fact the communities in which we live EXPECT us to instruct while encouraging high morals and ethical standards.
I am asking that you replace this Screening with some other film that reflects our community standards.
Thank you for your support.
Nick L, CPA, MBA
Adjunct Instructor
Department of Business.
Where to begin? The author's sterotyping of the French (with no mention, naturally, of his countrymen's own "low regard for morality")? The expectation that higher education be tailored to the moral standards of the community? The gall of requesting a change to a film program the author has never, to my knowledge, attended? The ignorance of MPAA rating protocals regarding foreign films? The author's severly limited definition of art? The block capitals? What can you say to attitudes like this coming from a man who teaches college-level students?
That's not even mentioning the underlying assumption that college students and community members are too stupid to make up their own minds about what they choose to see, or that a free film screening is enough to overthrow their pre-established values. If their values are that weak, then they have more problems than being subjected to the equivalent of an R-rating. And if college students (or anyone for that matter) never have their values challenged, then what's the point of having any values in the first place?
I hate to assume that the title of this particular film has anything to do with Nick's passionate objections to it, but it seems odd that he's chosen to offer his objections to R-rated films in my series just two weeks before the series comes to an end.
And in case you think I'm the only educator on campus dealing with this kind of provincialism in regard to film screenings at Dixie State College, check out this story on another campus screening.
Anyway, I'll continue my series until the end of the semester. I don't expect to ever see Nick there, whether or not I happen to show a film that he finds acceptable (based on its MPAA rating, of course, not on any inherent qualities the film may have). Nor do I expect to change the attitudes most of the school's administration seems to share. But at every screening, beneath the film's soundtrack, I listen for the telltale pop of some viewer's head coming out of the ground to see something they've never seen before. Maybe a Frenchman. Maybe an idea.
posted by Chazzbot at 8:29 AM
2 Comments:
McCuskey? Actually, I'm hoping that somewhere Adam Zamora is reading my blog and finds me worthy.
Frankly, it astonishes me that this discussion is actually a discussion at all, and that Nick L. has a job teaching college students. Baffling.
A few nights ago, over drinks with some friends, I pointed out that most LDS faithful do not watch R-rated movies. They looked at me, blinked a few times, and said, "But the Mormon adults can watch them, right?"
Cheers to you, Chazzbot, for doing what you do. Fight the good fight.
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