FILM PRODUCER TO SPEAK AT CWC

On Thursday, September 25th, in the Health and Science Center (HS 100) at 6:00 p.m., Central Wyoming College welcomes film producer Dr. Elinor Burkett, UW Senior Visiting Scholar in Global Studies to lead a discussion on the film iThemba.

Imagine a country like Zimbabwe where more people die of AIDS, malnutrition and lack of medical care each week than are killed in Afghanistan, Iraq or Darfur. Where hospitals operate without doctors, urban neighborhoods suffer months without water, and unemployment tops 90 percent. Then imagine navigating that country from a wheelchair, without functioning hands, or with some other disability in a culture where the disabled are seen as cursed. You don’t have to imagine. iThemba takes you there in a rich verite tapestry about the band Liyana, eight edgy young musicians who negotiate their country’s chaotic political waters, economic collapse and deep-seated prejudices with humor and grit.  The films producer, Dr. Elinor Burkett, is the Senior Visiting Scholar in Global Studies at the University of Wyoming for Fall 2014. An experienced university professor and journalist, she has lived or worked in 13 countries and currently divides her time between homes in Zimbabwe and upstate New York. She’s been telling stories for four decades, from Cuba to Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan to Zimbabwe, as a historian and documentary filmmaker, a reporter for the Miami Herald, in nine books of non-fiction, and scores of articles in America’s leading magazines. For more information about the film visit:  http://loliandrex.com/.

This talk is sponsored by the Center for Global Studies, the Global & Area Studies Program, the University of Wyoming Outreach School, the Humanities Council, the respective Wyoming Community Colleges, and the International Studies Student Club. For more information about this talk please contact the Global & Area Studies Program at (307) 766-3423 or Dr. Jean Garrison at garrison@uwyo.edu.