Black History Month Film Festival

Screenings and Discussions with Professor Sharon Monteith and Professor Zoe Trodd, American & Canadian Studies

"The Help" (2011) - October 8th, 6pm

"Freedom Song" (2000) - October 9th, 6pm

Free Admission

Please join us to mark Black History Month at Nottingham with a mini film festival across two nights. Following screenings of two very different movies about the Civil Rights Movement, Professors Sharon Monteith and Zoe Trodd will debate the films' depictions of civil rights, black history and social justice, inviting audience questions and discussion. What versions of history do these two films offer? Is it a problem that a white woman is the central figure in the Oscar-winning film "The Help"? How is this part of a wider tendency in Hollywood to focus on white hero figures and the black characters who need their help? Is the film really a depiction of interracial friendship? Does the smaller-budget film "Freedom Song," for which former SNCC members acted as consultants, avoid or repeat this Hollywoodization of history? Why do any of these versions of history matter to contemporary social justice issues? Professor Sharon Monteith is a leading expert on the depictions and memory of the civil rights movement, including in film. Professor Zoe Trodd writes about African American protest, including the memory of earlier movements. For more information please contact claire.henson@nottingham.ac.uk or zoe.trodd@nottingham.ac.uk.