MIMI PICKERING, a social justice documentary filmmaker with Appalshop since 1971, will be visiting the University of Texas and Department of Radio-Television-Film from Monday, Feb. 15 to Tuesday, Feb. 16. Her visit will include a class presentation on media programs and a screening of her film The Buffalo Creek Flood, both of which are open to the public.
SCHEDULE:
Monday, February 15
2 – 3 p.m.
CMA 3.112
New Media Literacy class presentation on Appalshop’s community media and youth media programs, and innovative approaches to the demand for rural broadband. Public invited.
Tuesday, February 16
6 – 7:30 p.m.
Studio CMB 4D
Screening followed by discussion. The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975, 40 minutes) chronicles the 1972 disaster which killed 125 people and left 4,000 homeless when a coal-waste dam collapsed at the head of a hollow in Logan County, West Virginia. Buffalo Creek Flood was cited by the Library of Congress when it was named to the National Film Registry for preservation as a “powerful documentary” that “represents the finest in regional filmmaking, providing important understanding of the environmental and cultural history of the Appalachian region.”
Clips from a work in progress (20 minutes, co-director Anne Lewis) Anne Braden: Southern Patriot for 60 years an organizer, agitator, activist, journalist, author, teacher, mentor, feminist, and a most dedicated and effective fighter against racism and political repression, hailed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 Letter from the Birmingham Jail. Funded by the Southern Humanities Media Fund.
About Mimi: Mimi Pickering has been making films and videotapes with Appalshop since 1971. Her documentaries often feature women as principle storytellers, focus on injustice and inequity, and explore the efforts of grassroots people to deal with community problems and work for change. The stories are told primarily through the voices and images of those most directly involved or affected by the issues. She is especially interested in the interplay and dynamics associated with combining traditional cultural aesthetics with social change agency.
Mimi is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Kentucky Arts Council Fellowships, as well as media production grants from the American Film Institute and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. In addition to her production work, she directs Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative, which works with grassroots groups and public interest organizations to develop and implement communication strategies in support of social and economic justice organizing.
A few links:
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/mimi_pickering
http://appalshop.org/buffalo/bcf.htm
http://appalshop.org/buffalo/filmmaker.htm
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