Spotlight on Africa film series continues this week Monday, April 23, 2012
Current Point Park graduate student Panther Bior (center) at the 2006 Los Angeles premiere of the film 'God Grew
Tired of Us,' with co-producer Catherine Keener and executive producer Brad Pitt. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc/Getty Images)
The Spotlight on Africa film and event series finale is this weekend at Point Park. The series is part of a multi-disciplinary collaboration of the University's organizational leadership, global cultural studies and cinema production programs.
Staging Hope
An Afternoon with Melissa Fitzgerald
Sat., April 28, 2 p.m., JVH Auditorium Thayer Hall
Presentation followed by screening of Staging Hope: Acts of Peace in Northern Uganda (Uganda/USA, 2010, 100 min.), refreshments and Q&A with the producer.
Melissa Fitzgerald is an American actor, producer and activist who co-founded Voices in Harmony, a non-profit organization that works with at risk teens on a mentoring theater program. Her work also includes travel to northern Uganda as a volunteer with the International Medical Corps.
Other events in the Spotlight on Africa series included:
An Evening in Celebration of Panther Bior
Tues., April 17, 6:30 p.m., University Center 212
Screening of God Grew Tired of Us (Sudan/USA, 2006, 86 min.), a Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary, and a celebration recognizing the achievements of Point Park graduate student Panther Bior.
God Grew Tired of Us follows Bior and two fellow Sudanese "Lost Boys," in 2001 as they begin new lives in Pittsburgh.
By 2007, Bior had earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from Point Park. This May he will complete a master's in organizational leadership from the University's School of Business.
An Afternoon with Kimi Takesue, director and cinematographer
Sun., April 22, 1:30 p.m., University Center 212
Presentation and screening of Where are you taking me? (Uganda/USA, 2010, 72 min.) and Q&A
Kimi Takesue is an award-winning filmmaker and the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Filmmaking. In 2010, she was awarded her second artist fellowship from the New York Foundation in the Arts. Her films have been televised in the U.S. and screened at over 200 film festivals and museums.
Bright Noon Pictures
An Evening with Yao B. Nunoo and Deron Albright
Tues., April 24, 6:30 p.m., University Center 212
Screening of The Destiny of Lesser Animals, Sibo ne kra Dabo ne kra (Ghana/USA, 2011, 89 min.), followed by refreshments and Q&A with director/producer and lead actor.
Deron Albright received a Senior Fulbright Scholarship to teach filmmaking at the National Film and Television Institute in Accra Ghana and simultaneously produced his directorial, feature debut film with Ghanaian-born screenwriter and actor, Yao B. Nunoo. Point Park cinema faculty member Dede Maitre was a producer and post supervisor on the film.
Learn more
Spotlight on Africa is a collaborative project of the cinema production program in Conservatory of Performing Arts, the global cultural studies program in the School of Arts and Sciences, and the organizational leadership program in the School of Business. For more information, contact Assistant Professor Dede Maitre, Assistant Professor Dwight Hines or Assistant Professor Helena Knorr.