Social Justice Film Festival

Saturday, October 15, 2011
Showings at 1 PM & 3 PM

Science Teaching & Student Services (STSS) Building

222 Pleasant Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Free snacks will be provided.

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1PM SHOWTIMES:

Beauty Mark: Body Image & the Race for Perfection (CC)
Women's Center
STSS 118

How do our families influence our relationship with our own bodies? How do American pop culture’s standards of beauty get inside our heads? In what ways can sport andthe drive for fitness actually make us sick rather than healthy? In this film, Diane Israel examines American culture’s unhealthy fixation on thinness, beauty, and physical
perfection.

Murderball
Disability Services & Disability Student Cultural Center
STSS 230

Rugby-playing quadriplegics compete for the Paralympic gold medal in this documentary about an amazing sport -- and the strong-willed athletes who participate in full-contact rugby using specially designed wheelchairs. This gritty film includes humor as honesty reveals their lives both on and off the playing field.

‘Bama Girl
Housing & Residential Life
STSS 330

A young black woman’s quest to become Homecoming Queen at the University of Alabama, one of the great Deep South institutions. She is running against not only 15 co-eds, but a strictly segregated Greek system, internal black politics, and, most ominously, a secret all-white group called ‘The Machine’ that has been controlling campus politics at the University for most of the past century. This is a film about the light and the dark sides of tradition—and a fascinating glimpse into electoral politics that mirrors many of the challenges we face today.

Transgeneration: Four College Students Switching More Than Their Majors (CC)
Housing & Residential Life
STSS 412

What is it like to be a man trapped in a woman’s body? How does a woman become a man and vice versa? Transgeneration, a dramatic and mesmerizing eight-part series, is a year-in-the-life look at four college students who are juggling the challenges of academia with their commitment to transition from their birth gender.

People Like Us: Social Class In America
Community Service & Learning
STSS 220

It’s the 800-pound gorilla in American life that most don’t think about: how do income, family background, education, attitudes, aspirations, and even appearance mark someone as a member of a particular social class? People Like Us shows how social class plays a role in the lives of all Americans, whether they live in Park Avenue penthouses, Appalachian trailer parks, bayou houseboats, or suburban gated communities.

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3PM SHOWTIMES

Very Young Girls  (CC)
Aurora Center & Breaking Free
STSS 220

The title reflects the fact that in the United States the average age of entry into prostitution is just thirteen. The film takes us into the work of a former sexually exploited youth-turned-activist named Rachel Lloyd, who started the New York City organization GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services) to help victimized young women escape their pimps and find another way of life. We meet teen aged girls at different stages of this transition. Some have been so psychologically manipulated by their pimps that they feel compelled to return. Others have successfully broken with their pasts. As we come to know these girls better, they emerge as well-rounded individuals full of unexpected laughter and insight.

Tough Guise (CC)
Aurora Center
STSS 118

While the social construction of femininity has been widely examined, the dominant role of masculinity has until recently remained largely invisible. Tough Guise is the first educational video geared toward college and high school students to systematically examine the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the U.S. at the dawn of the 21st century. In this innovative and wide-ranging analysis, Jackson Katz argues that widespread violence in American society, including the tragic school shootings in Littleton, Colorado, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and elsewhere, needs to be understood as part of an ongoing crisis in masculinity.

Running on Empty
Active Minds & University Counseling & Consulting Services
STSS 230<

Many people think that an eating disorder is all about food or body image - but is it? Others think they know what someone with an eating disorder "looks like" but do they? Such assumed beliefs often mask the potentially life-threatening impact of an eating disorder on someone's health.  The Award winning "Running on Empty: Can you tell who has an eating disorder?" attempts to correct the misconceptions and stigma about this mental illness, and help those struggling receive the help and hope necessary for recovery.

Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible (CC)
Social Justice Minor
STSS 330

Description: Mirrors of Privilege is a brilliant documentary and a must-see for all people who are interested in justice, spiritual growth and community making. It features the experiences of white women and men who have worked to gain insight into what it means to challenge notions of racism and white supremacy in the United States.

New Muslim Cool
Housing & Residential Life
STSS 412

When the FBI raids his mosque, Puerto Rican American Muslim hip-hop star Hamza Perez confronts the post-9/11 world and challenges himself. He starts reaching for a deeper understanding of his faith and discovers new connections with Jews, Christians, and others from all across the American spectrum. Follows Hamza’s journey through the streets, projects and jail cells of urban America—to surprising places in a world that never stops changing.