The Center for Interfaith Engagement (CIE) at Eastern Mennonite University presents the film series “Across Cultures: Profiles in Courage and Resilience,” featuring 12 films of various genres, including fiction and documentaries, about human rights, environmental and social justice leaders.
The series is moderated by Dr. Bob Bersson, visiting Jewish scholar at CIE. The films will be shown on Wednesdays beginning at 7 p.m. at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Room 123. The first film showing is Jan. 13, 2016. Admission is free and all are welcome.
Each showing is preceded by Bersson’s introductory remarks and followed by analysis and a question-and-answer session with experts from the local community.
“This series is centered on conflict but featuring international persons and groups who have shown remarkable courage and resilience in working for peace and justice through non-violent means,” Bersson said. “These films were chosen for cinematic excellence, but also to provide inspiration and models of success and progress, large or small, in our world which often seems so dark and resistant to change.”
“CIE is pleased that Professor Bersson is prepared to lead another series this spring following the very successful one on Israel/Palestine that he taught the past two years,” says CIE Executive Director Ed Martin. “The films this spring will have more of an interfaith emphasis about persons working for justice and peace, usually from a faith basis, in a variety of situations and locations.”
The series includes films about well-known figures such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Aung San Suu Kyi, Martin Luther King and Rigoberto Menchu, as well as interfaith leaders Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa, of the Muslim-Christian Interfaith Mediation Centre in Nigeria, and Utah college student Tim DeChristopher, who successfully bid for thousands of acres of Utah wilderness to save it from industrial destruction.
Other films, based on historical accounts, tell the story of the Bosnian-Serbian conflict of the 1990s (“No Man’s Land”) and a Jesuit priest’s missionary expedition in Canada (“Black Robe”). The final selection is the 2004 comedy “A Day without a Mexican,” which highlights the contributions of Mexican citizens and workers in California.
About the moderator
Bersson is a James Madison University emeritus professor who founded the Interfaith Initiatve for Peace and Justice in Harrisonburg in Harrisonburg. He returns to CIE after leading spring semester film series on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in 2014 and 2015. To that, he brought not only his critical lens, but also personal experience in the region.
Bersson taught modern and contemporary art history, aesthetics, art criticism and art appreciation at James Madison University for 20 years. He has studied Hebrew and Arabic and visited Israel/Palestine several times, where he has family and friends.
After he retired from JMU in 2003, he spent 14 months in Egypt (2006-09), where he learned firsthand about various Muslim and Christian cultures of the region. Because of his work in local interfaith activities, he has strong connections to diverse communities in the central Shenandoah Valley.
Film schedule
1/13: Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982, Part 1, 90 min). Respondent: Carl Stauffer, assistant professor, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University.
1/20: Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982, Part 2, 100 min). Respondent: Carl Stauffer, assistant professor, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University.
1/27: Water (Deepa Mehta, 2005, 117 min). Respondent: Nancy Klancher, assistant professor of philosophy and religion, Bridgewater College.
2/3: Mother Teresa: In the Name of God’s Poor (Kevin Connor, 2002, 92 min). Respondent: Ron Copeland, executive director, Our Community Place, Harrisonburg.
2/10: The Lady: The True Story of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (Luc Besson, 2011, 128 min). Respondent: Jayne Docherty, program director and professor, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University.
2/17: The Imam and the Pastor (Alan Channer, 2006, 39 min) and An African Answer (Alan Channer, 2010, 38 min). Respondent: Barry Hart, professor, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University.
2/24: Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois, 2010, 123 min). Respondent: Deacon Fred LaSpina, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and James Madison University.
3/2: No Man’s Land (Danis Tanovic, 2002, 97 min). Respondent: Barry Hart, professor, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University.
3/16: Black Robe (Bruce Beresford, 1998, 101 min). Respondent: Deacon Fred LaSpina, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and James Madison University.
3/23: When The Mountains Tremble with “Filmmakers’ Commentary” (Pamela Yates, Thomas Sigel, Peter Kinoy, 1983, 90 min). Respondent: Burton Buller, independent filmmaker.
3/30: King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis (Ely Landau, Sidney Lumet, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1970, Part 1, 90 min). Respondent: Stan Maclin, founder and president, Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, Harrisonburg
4/6: King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis (Ely Landau, Sidney Lumet, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1970, Part 2, 90 min). Respondent: Stan Maclin, founder and president, Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, Harrisonburg
4/13: Bidder 70 (Beth Gage, George Gage, 2013, 73 min). Respondent: Cathy Strickler, Climate Action Alliance of the Valley.
4/20: A Day without a Mexican (Sergio Arau, 2004, 100 min). Respondent: Isabel Castillo, community organizer, “Dream Act” proponent, and graduate student, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University.
For more information, email interfaith@emu.edu