UA’s Documenting Justice Course to Screen Films at Bama Theatre

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility and the UA department of telecommunication & film will host the 10th Annual Documenting Justice film screening at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, at the Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa. The screening is free and open to the public.

The five short documentaries that will premiere were created by non-film majors who dedicated a year to learning how to document and analyze culture and social experience – and communicate about issues of justice and injustice in Alabama – through videography.

Working in pairs, 10 undergraduate and graduate students produced the documentaries as part of a two-semester course taught by an award-winning group of filmmakers. UA has offered the Documenting Justice course since 2006.

Documenting Justice is a signature initiative of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, which established university-wide programming supporting the development of projects that nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship.

“Ethical citizenship requires a strong sense of empathy and compassion,” said Stephen Black. director of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility. “Developing such qualities requires the ability to imagine what others see, feel and experience. A central focus of CESR, therefore, is the development of courses, such as Documenting Justice, in which students learn the personal stories of people outside their immediate sphere.”

Learn more about Documenting Justice and other center initiatives at www.cesr.ua.edu.

About the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility

Created in 2005, the Center for Ethics & Social Responsibilityestablished university-wide programming supporting the development of projects that nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship. The University of Alabama’s strong commitment to civic engagement and its history of community-university partnerships also serve as a foundation for the center.

Center staff develop – and assist faculty members in developing – service-learning courses that engage community organizations in partnerships designed to both enhance academic goals and apply scholarly learning to salient community issues. The service experiences are integrated into the students’ academic curriculum, providing structured time for students to think, talk and write about what they did and observed.