TCF Doc Film Selected by Mid-Atlantic Black Film Festival

• September 30th, 2010
• in TCF News & Notes

More about Not My Son:

Carolyn Johnson-Turner drives the car in which her son was shot to death. She wears buttons bearing his picture. She visits his grave almost every week. She doesn’t know who killed him, or why.  “I wake up every day in a nightmare, and I fight to go to sleep,” says Johnson-Turner, whose 20-year-old son Rodreckus was killed while parking his car.  She is one of many people who have lost a loved one in Birmingham.

Parents Against Violence Foundation (PAV) was founded on March 1, 2004, by Johnson-Turner as a result of the devastation she experienced when her son, Rodreckus, was shot and killed on November 22, 2003 while attending a birthday party.  According to Johnson-Turner, she will never recover from her son’s death. So in order to cope, she is on a personal mission to prevent other deaths.  At the same time, her activities serve as therapy to deal with the overwhelming grief.  Can Johnson-Turner and PAV really make a difference?  The core of Not My Son can be viewed as microcosm of the violent epidemic occurring in the nation’s urban areas.

“There are people behind Birmingham’s murder rates, lives that are changed forever.  Not My Son gives us a view of the lives that are changed forever by the violence that has become an everyday occurrence.   The answers to urban violence are not simple.   This documentary untangles some of the complexities associated with fighting crime through the stories of mothers who have turned their grief into action.” George Daniels, Professor of Journalism, The University of Alabama.

http://www.cptr.org/notmyson

TCF Prof’s Short Film Wins Audience Choice Award

• September 27th, 2010
• in TCF News & Notes

UA TCF Professor Adam Schwartz’s short documentary “Torch” won the Audience Choice award for Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, AL.

Schwartz co-wrote and co-produced the documentary with local Alabama filmmakers Robert Clay and R. Todd Campbell.  The 22-minute short focuses on the traffic safety light that the large cast iron statue Vulcan held from 1946 to 1999.  The light, which was prominently visible in Vulcan’s outstretched arm, would glow a neon green unless there was a traffic fatality in the Birmingham-Metro area, when it would glow red for 24 hours.  The film tells a comprehensive history of the light as well as examines the cultural impact that the light had on Birmingham residents over the years.

For more information about the film, click here.

For more on the 2010 Sidewalk Film Festival, click here.

Video Contest: Less Than You Think Campaign

• September 23rd, 2010
• in TCF News & Notes

The LessThanUThink campaign, a student-run public relations campaign combating binge drinking on college campuses. Our campaign kicked off our video contest last week, and we think the contest is a great opportunity for TCF students.

In our contest, ending October 11, we want students to create their very own 30-second LessThanUThink commercial. Contest winners will receive a flip cam for each member of their team and will receive a week’s worth of television spots during Tuscaloosa’s most-watched shows (Sportscenter, Jersey Shore, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Chelsea Lately and Seinfeld). Students can visit www.lessthanuthink.org/contests for an application packet with all details and rules.

Seeking TCF Student Videographers

• September 14th, 2010
• in Production Jobs

Are you graduating this year, or any time in the next few years? What will you put on your resume under experience? What sorts of material do you have for your reel? If these questions are making you think then you need to jump on the MANY special opportunities for TCF students to gain hands-on experience filming events that will help you build your reel at the same time.

We need videographers to film the following (equipment can be provided):

– Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce meeting focused on Latino issues in our community on Thursday, September 15 from 1-4:30

– Lecture in the business school on Tuesday, September 21
sections at 9 am, 11 am, and 3 pm

– Triathlon on UA Campus on Saturday, September 25th

– Palestine – A One Woman Show by Najla Said
Monday, September 20th at 7pm (The Ferguson Center Heritage Room)
Najla Said, daughter of the late Palestinian-American intellectual and activist Edward Said, is an award winning actress, comedian and writer.She has appeared Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally, as well as in film and television. She is a founding member of Nibras Theatre Collective, and one of New York Theatre Workshop’s “Usual Suspects.” In her one woman show, PALESTINE, Najla explores what it means to be both Arab and American. She gives us an insight into the Middle East and the Arab world from a unique perspective that is compassionate and witty.Her performance offers no remedies for Mideast tensions. For more information about this event, please see attached flyer and contact Stephanie Grimes at grs@as.ua.edu.

– Training sessions for a unit on campus. You will train UA students how to film/document their events

and LOTS of additional OPPORTUNITIES throughout the semester!

Please see Dr. Raimist in 430C or email rraimist [at] ua [dot] edu ASAP!