films

Paper Tigers Focuses on Traumatized Youth

Illinois State University will host a free public screening of Paper Tigers, a documentary examination of traumatized youth, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Bone Student Center Braden Auditorium.

An expert panel discussion will follow the screening. Register online at www.cvent.com/d/qfqw0z. Not In Our Town is partnering in the presentation.

Paper Tigers is an intimate look into the lives of selected students at Lincoln High School, an alternative school that specializes in educating traumatized youth. Set amid the rural community of Walla Walla, Washington, the film closely examines the inspiring promise of trauma informed communities—a program that is showing great promise in healing youth struggling with the dark legacy of adverse childhood experiences. These potentially traumatic childhood events can have lasting effects on later-life health and well-being.

This film is co-hosted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Illinois Education Association Affiliates Region 14 and Region 62 (IEA), Bloomington Education Association (BEA), Bloomington Education Support Personnel (BESP), Unit Five Education Association (UFEA), Unit Five Support Professionals Association (UFSPA), ISU Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association (ISU NTTFA), ISU’s chapter of the Student Education Association (SEA), and the ISU College of Education.


Actor-Director Esposito to Keynote ISU Black History Cultural Dinner

Award-winning actor, director, and education advocate Giancarlo Esposito will be the guest speaker at the Black History Cultural Dinner at 5 p.m. Wednesday, February 24, in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center.

Tickets for the dinner are available online. Tickets are $20, or one swipe of a meal plan for Illinois State students. Tickets are available online only, and will not be sold at the door.

During the dinner, Esposito will share his journey as an actor and an artist with a will to succeed despite the hurdles many people of color face while trying to break into “the industry.”

The event is sponsored by Illinois State’s University Housing Services, Campus Dining Services, the Association of Residence Halls, Hewett-Manchester Student Association, East Campus Diversity Coalition, and MECCPAC, a Dean of Students’ Diversity Initiative.

Gospel-Hill.jpg

Esposito is a celebrated television, film, and stage actor, whose career spans decades and includes more than 60 films. Television audiences know him best for his iconic portrayal of drug kingpin Gustavo “Gus” Fring in AMC’s award-winning series Breaking Bad, for which he won the 2012 Critics Choice Award and earned a 2012 Emmy nomination. Other notable roles include Spike Lee films such as School Daze and Do The Right Thing, as well as Rabbit Hole, The Usual Suspects, Smoke, and The Last Holiday.

In 2007, through his production company, Quiet Hand Productions, Esposito made his feature directorial debut with the film Gospel Hill. He also co-starred with Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Julia Stiles, Taylor Kitsch, and Samuel L. Jackson. Quiet Hand Productions aspires to make “conscious content” films that focus on the inspirational.

For additional information, contact Michelle Halpin at 309-438-8611.

Latino Heritage Month Events Encompass Arts, Politics, Policy, History

Illinois State University continues its observance of Latino Heritage Month Wednesday with a screening of the documentary Empire of Dreams at 7 p.m. in Felmley Hall Annex, room 133.

Following the screening, there will be a Q&A session, facilitated by Professor of Politics and Government Carlos Parodi. All documentary showings are sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program, Milner Library, and Conexiones Latinas de McLean County.

Ana Roncero-Bellido

Ana Roncero-Bellido

Meanwhile, Ana Roncero-Bellido will present “Latinas Anónimas: Articulating a Transnational Feminist Rhetorics of Solidarity Through Testimonio,” at 1 p.m., Friday, October 2, in Williams Hall , room 314.

Roncero-Bellido, a Ph.D. candidate with Illinois State’s Department of English, will present her research on the use of testimonio to theorize the complexity of Latina identity. By focusing on the anonymous testimonios written by The Latina Feminist Group (TLFG), she seeks to understand how testimonio becomes a form of healing and a space of solidarity.

The event, which is part of the Conversando Entre Nosotros: LALS Brown Bag Series Lecture, is sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program.

Then, enjoy arts in an afternoon of Latino music, poetry, and visual art with the Latino Arts Celebration at 1 p.m. Sunday, October 4, at the University Galleries in Uptown Normal.

Cellist Adriana Ransom will perform a recital featuring works of Gaspar Cassado (Spain), Mario Lavista (Mexico), and Leo Brouwer (Cuba), intertwined with literary readings from Spain, Mexico, and Cuba.

Works by Latino alumni artists will also be on display as part of the University Galleries’ Alumni Spectacular. The event is sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program, and the School of Music.

Immigration issues and immigration policy are in the spotlight as a central issue in the current presidential campaign debates. An immigrant rights and U.S. immigration policy panel will be at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 7, in the Jaime Escalante Room of the Vrooman Center, in between Hewett and Manchester halls.

This panel has been organized with the expressed purpose to gather state and local community leaders to address the lack of immigration reform and the problems that this entails for immigrant families and communities.

Panel members include:
Fred Tsao (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights)
Jennifer Carrillo (Illinois People’s Action)
Carlos Parodi (ISU Department of Politics and Government)
Maura Toro-Morn (ISU, Latin American and Latino/a Studies)

The panel is sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program, the Department of Politics and Government, and the Conexiones Latinas de McLean County.

Anahi Russo-Gullido of the Metropolitan State University of Denver will host a Skype talk for the first of the Queer Talks Series. Her talk, titled “Negotiating Marriage and Polyamory in Queer Mexico City” will be at noon on Thursday, October 8, in the Vrooman Center, room 104.

Professor of Spanish James J. Pancrazio will give a talk titled “Rewriting, Invention, and Plagiarism: the Case of Enriqueta Faber, and the Writing of Transvestism” at 1 p.m. Friday, October 16, in Williams Hall, room 314.

Pancrazio will share a comparison of the literary versions of the case of Faber, the 19th century transvestite that resided in Cuba, in effort to show that each generation rewrites or recreates the image of the transvestite according to their own historical and ideological circumstances. The event, which is part of the Conversando Entre Nosotros: LALS Brown Bag Series Lecture, is sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program.

A screening of the documentary “Peril and Promise” will be 7 p.m. October 21, in Felmley Hall Annex, room 133. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A session, facilitated by Professor of Psychology Rocio Rivadeneyra. All documentary showings are sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program; Milner Library; and Conexiones Latinas de McLean County.

Hollywood actor Carlos Ponce will be the featured speaker at the Latino Cultural Dinner at 5 p.m. Tuesday, November 3, in the Brown Ballroom.

Carlos Ponce

Carlos Ponce

Ponce is known for his roles in Rio (2011), Spy (2015), and Couples Retreat (2009), and more recently known for his ABC show Cristela. During a Q&A session with Professor Rocia Rivadeneyra, Ponce will be sharing his experiences being a Latino actor in Hollywood.

Tickets will be available closer to the event. Visit Housing.IllinoisState.edu to purchase tickets. The cost is one meal swipe for meal plan participants and $20 for individuals without meal plans.

The Latino Cultural Dinner is sponsored by Campus Dining Services, the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program, and the ISU Association of Residence Halls, The University Housing Services, Waterson Area Government, Waterson Diversity Coalition, Multi-Ethnic Cultural and Co-Curricular Programming and Advisory Committee.

Author of Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago Lilia Fernandez will give a talk titled Was the City Black and White? A History of Latinos in Mid-Century Chicago at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 11, in Stevenson Hall, room 101.

Fernandez, of The Ohio State University, Department of History, will share research from her new book and speak on the presence of Latinos in mid-20th century Chicago, the dynamics they witnessed, the social change they championed, and the way they came to understand their place in the black and white metropolis.

The event is sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program and the Department of History.

LGBT Film Festival Explores Sports, Tab Hunter, Family Secrets

The 2015 Your Normal LGBT Film Festival kicks off Oct, 15 with an examination of gay and transgender athletes, continuing through the weekend with two dramas and the story of actor Tab Hunter.

The annual festival, featuring top current films dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues and attitudes, is sponsored by the Normal Theater and the Prairie Pride Coalition. All films start at 7 p.m.; admission is $7 at the box office.

Thursday, October 15

Game Face

The award-winning documentary GAME FACE tells the parallel story of Fallon Fox, MMAs first transgender pro fighter, and Terrence Clemens, a young, ambitious and talented college basketball player in Oklahoma, who happens to be gay. NBA player Jason Collins, NFL player Wade Davis, NCAA Division 1 basketball player Kye Allums and triathlete Chris Mosier also appear in the film.

Run Time: 95 min

Release: 2015

Director: Michiel Thomas

Friday, October 16

All About E

Beautiful, sexy e seems to have it all. A popular DJ at the top Sydney gay nightclubs, e has her pick of the girls. Matt, her flamboyant manager and best friend, makes her stunning outfits and creates a stylish home for them both. Life is sweet.

Too scared to come out to her traditional migrant parents, e married Matt, a gay Irish dress designer, to give him a visa and provide cover for her sexuality. e and Matt go on the run pursued by Johnny and his thugs. To avoid certain death there is only one safe place to go: outback Australia and into the arms of e’s ex, Trish. She has to give her family the chance to accept who she really is and find the courage to live her dreams.

Run Time: 93 min

Release: 2015

Director: Louise Wadley

Saturday, October 17

Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party

The film tells the tale of two teenage boys, preacher’s kid Henry Gamble and his friend Gabe, who has a sleepover the night before Henry’s seventeenth birthday pool party. Typical teenage boy chat quickly turns sexual, and it’s silently implied that Henry, on a search for identity, has a crush on Gabe. As dawn arrives on the day of the party, Henry’s mom Kat wakes in a state of limbo, middle-aged, with a secret. A little while later, Pastor Bob is making breakfast, and they are joined by Henry’s 19-year-old sister Autumn, home from college for the party. Later that afternoon, as guests arrive - both from the church, as well as Henry’s own “secular” friends - and day turns to night, Henry carefully navigate the religious strictures and sexual secrets of his community, as do the adults and teenagers of the party, all struggling to tread the public and private, and their longing, despite themselves and their faith, for earthly love.

Run Time: 87 min

Release: 2015

Director: Stephen Cone

Sunday, October 18

Tab Hunter Confidential

7:00PM

The story of matinee idol Tab Hunter from teenage stable boy to closeted Hollywood star of the 1950s. Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood’s ultimate male heartthrob. In dozens of films – and in the pages of countless movie magazines – Tab’s astonishing looks and golden-boy sex appeal drove his fans to screaming, delirious frenzy, making him the prototype for all young matinee idols to come. He earned his stripes as an actor to become a major movie star and recording artist. Punctuating Tab’s on screen presence will be rare film clips and provocative interviews with friends and co-stars including John Waters, Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Portia de Rossi, Noah Wyle, Connie Stevens, Robert Osborne, and dozens more.

Run Time: 90 min

Release: 2015

Director: Jeffrey Schwarz