Detroit's Spectacular Decline on Film, Director Q&A

Film director Rachel Grady to speak following screening of her award-winning film DETROPIA, September 25, 2015

Documentary about Detroit was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance

ALBANY, NY (09/10/2015)(readMedia)-- Rachel Grady, codirector of the award-winning film, DETROPIA (2012), a visually-stunning exploration of the disintegration of the city of Detroit that David Denby of the New Yorker called, "the most moving documentary I've seen in years," will speak following a screening of the film on Friday, September 25, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. [note early start time] in Page Hall on the University at Albany downtown campus, 135 Western Avenue, Albany. Free and open to the public, the event is sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute in conjunction with UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice's Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series.

More:  http://readme.readmedia.com/Film-director-Rachel-Grady-to-speak-following-screening-of-her-award-winning-film-DETROPIA-September-25-2015/11828634

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Vivien Ng and James Acker at the Movies

Vivien Ng (pictured here) will join James Acker at Page Hall on Friday 10/19 at 7:30 PM to lead audience discussion following a screening of The Execution of Wanda Jean, a documentary about the first African American woman to be executed in modern times, and a finalist for the Grand Jury Prize of the Sundance Film Festival.

Vivien Ng is chair of the UAlbany Women's Studies Department and the first president of the National Women's Studies Association (1993-4). More on Vivien:  http://www.albany.edu/womensstudies/fac-ngv.shtml

James Acker is Distinguished Teaching Professor of the School of Criminal Justice and author of the standard textbook, Criminal Procedure: A Contemporary Perspective (1999, now in its 3rd edition, 2012). More on Acker: http://www.albany.edu/scj/james_acker.php

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Two Minute Standing Ovation at Sundance

Sam Pollard, director of Slavery by Another Name, received a two-minute standing ovation earlier this week at the Sundance Film Festival competition according to Cherie Saunders of the Eurweb Electronic Urban Report:

"Sundance audiences are embracing the work (with one woman so overcome with emotion during a post-screening Q&A with Pollard that she was unable to speak)." More.

The film will be screened on 2/3 with a talkback by the screenwriter, Sheila Curran Bernard, and the Pulitzer-winning author of the book, Doug Blackmon.

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Blackmon Leaves the Wall St. Journal

Douglas Blackmon, Pulitzer-winning author who visits the Writers Institute on February 3rd, is leaving the Wall St. Journal, where he is Senior National Correspondent, in order to head a presidential policy institute at the University of Virginia, where he will also be a lecturer in media studies.

In Albany, Blackmon will discuss his new discuss his new documentary film, Slavery By Another Name, based on his 2008 book. The film is one of only 16 documentaries (out of thousands of entries) selected for the upcoming 2012 Sundance Film Festival competition.

Link here to New York Times article on his departure.

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