WSIU Community Cinema: Connecting People and Issues Through Film

When: Last Saturday of Each Month, September 2012-June 2013, at 2:30pm (no film in December due to holidays)
Where: Carbondale Public Library, 405 West Main

WSIU Public Broadcasting and the Carbondale Public Library are proud to present the 2012-13 season of Community Cinema, a civic engagement initiative featuring free monthly films from the PBS series Independent Lens, which brings to light unforgettable stories about unique individuals, underrepresented communities, or pivotal moments in history.

Carbondale is among more than 100 cities nationwide participating in the project, which is designed to bring communities together to discuss and get involved in contemporary social issues.

Each event will feature a film screening, followed by a general discussion led by local facilitators and guest speakers with a personal connection to the topics raised in the films. Participants are encouraged to continue the discussion on WSIU-TV's Facebook page at facebook.com/wsiutv.

WSIU would like to thank the Carbondale Public Library for their continued assistance with this important community engagement project.

For more information about WSIU's Community Cinema screenings, contact Vickie Devenport at (618) 453-6148 or vickie.devenport@wsiu.org.

Community Cinema is a service of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

May 25: The Revolutionary Optimists

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.

June 29: Love Free or Die

Love Free or Die is about a man whose two defining passions 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.

September 29: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

A landmark series based on the book by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide follows celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde as they travel to six countries and meet inspiring, courageous individuals who are confronting oppression and developing real, meaningful solutions through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. Facilitators: Jenn Freitag, Prevention Educator for Rape Crisis Services, Women's Center-Carbondale, and Shannon Lindsay Toth, a doctoral student in Women's Studies at SIU Carbondale.

October 27: As Goes Janesville

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 following the closure of the town's century-old General Motors plant and families are stretched to their breaking point, citizens and politicians are embroiled in an ideological battle about how to turn things around.

November 24: Solar Mamas

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 poor women like her from Guatemala, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Colombia to learn concrete skills to change their communities.

January 26: Soul Food Junkies

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.

February 23: The Powerbroker

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.

March 30: Wonder Woman! The Untold Story of American Superheroines

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.

April 27: The Island President

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.