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For many of us PBS fans, there’s a certain kind of pleasure in watching a good Ken Burns documentary, especially for the archival footage that brings historical topics to life and transports us to another time. Archival footage helps add context to a documentary’s interviews with scholars and talking heads. But more importantly, it can help us visualize the lived experiences of regular folk as well as the presidents, generals, and the ones holding the power, and it give us a variety of vantage points. How do filmmakers find this footage, and how do they make careful, appropriate use of this footage to help us have a richer view of history?
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A lot of our museums and cultural institutions are doing double duty these days they’re cautiously beginning to open their doors and offer socially distant programming, but they’re also taking care of those of us who still feel more comfortable with online events. The National Civil Rights Museum has reopened, but its virtual programming remains vibrant and highly topical. This week, on Tuesday at 6 :30pm you can catch an online screening of “The Vanishing Trial,” a documentary that investigates the trial penalty. “Trial Penalty” is the term used to describe the substantially longer prison sentence a person receives if they exercise their right to trial instead of pleading guilty. The documentary reveals how the trial penalty has led to the shocking disappearance of one of the most fundamental individual rights and the explosion in America’s prison population. Throughout the film, you’ll hear the perspectives of national experts, including former federal judge
“Spotlight on Lifelong Learning” with Laura Loth, is a weekly look at some of the exciting public conversations upcoming around Memphis. Laura Loth is a professor at Rhodes College.
You may have asked yourselves more than a few times this week what in the world is this 2021 purgatory we’re living in, with the pandemic, boil alerts, and burst water mains in Memphis. If anyone comes to mind when we think about hell, it’s medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who moved on 700 years ago this month. On Thursday at 5 pm, the University of Memphis presents a talk on Dante and American Popular Culture with Elizabeth Coggeshall of Florida State University and Dennis Looney of the Modern Languages Association. Coggeshall will discuss her website called
“Spotlight on Lifelong Learning” with Laura Loth, is a weekly look at some of the exciting public conversations upcoming around Memphis. Laura Loth is a
It’s the back to school season, and as the spring semester gears up across Memphis and Shelby County, the number of talks, courses, and lifelong learning opportunities available to us will expand exponentially. Rhodes College has just announced its spring line up of online courses for adults at the Meeman Center for Lifelong Learning. They’re offering their largest and most comprehensive slate of classes ever. Beginning in February, twenty-one separate courses will be taught via Zoom. Each course is three or four sessions in length most meet once a week. And courses begin in February, March, or April.