SamWeb
My Sam
E-mail
Global Center To Tackle Race Of ‘Dear White People’
Nov. 13, 2014
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
“Dear White People,” the winner of the 2014 Sundance Festival’s Special Jury Award, has taken the film industry by storm this year.
The first feature film by writer and director Justin Simien, “Dear White People” follows a group of African American students as they navigate campus life and racial politics at a predominantly white college in a sharp and funny satire of race relations and cultural identity, according to the movie info on RottenTomatoes.com, which scores the film at a “certified fresh 91 percent” critic rating and a 71 percent of audience rating, with an average of 3.7 stars out of 5.
Sam Houston State University’s Global Center for Journalism and Democracy will tackle some of these pervasive issues and themes during a screening and panel discussion of the film on Dec. 3.
The screening will be held at Huntsville’s Cinestar Cinema, beginning at 6:30 p.m. It will be followed by a panel discussion.
“One of the center’s missions is to bring attention to important subjects; with news stories such as Ferguson making headlines, race relations is an important news topic, and we hope to facilitate a lot of good discussions through our activities,” said Kelli Arena, executive director for the GCJD.
As part of the event, the center will pay for 125 SHSU students to attend the film. The remaining approximately 65 seats will be open for ticket purchases for other Bearkats or Huntsville community members.
In addressing the importance of diversity, tolerance and understanding, the GCJD will also bring a graffiti artist to campus that week and will hand out T-shirts and orange ribbons in support of diversity. The center will also team up with the Houstonian to create a special insert on race, with articles written by GCJD students who will also create an exhibit in the Lowman Student Center Art Gallery Dec. 3-4.
New York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri praised “Dear White People” for its lack of fear “to polemicize” as the characters navigate their “fragile” positions of constructed identities.
“We can relate to their dilemmas: the expectations of parents and of peers, the horror of not having anyone to turn to, the anxiety that you’ll be judged for not being enough of whatever it is people assume you are,” Ebiri wrote. “All of these characters are hiding something, and while much of what they’re hiding relates to race in some way, scratch a little deeper and you have tried-and-true, broad existential unease — the fear that, without belonging somewhere, you’ll be left to twist between the winds.”
Students interested in attending the free screening can reserve a voucher by emailing gcjd@shsu.edu and picking up the voucher in Dan Rather Communications Building Room 201.
ickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Transportation will also be available to students who need rides to the Cinestar Cinema.
For those who don’t reserve among the first 125, tickets will be available for $5 through Cinestar Cinema.
- END -
This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office
Associate Director: Julia May
Manager: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in the 115 Administration Building
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.
