Community Cinema Nashville Schedule

Nashville Public Television, ITVS, and the Nashville Public Library announced their 2012 to 2013 season of Community Cinema Nashville today. Films begin at 3:00 p.m. and are preceded by a reception at 2:30 p.m., at the downtown main branch of the Nashville Public Library unless also otherwise noted. See below for the full program:

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2012

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
by Maro Chermayeff, Jamie Gordon and Mikaela Beardsley

This special Community Cinema screening will preview one of six stories featured in the upcoming PBS mini-series based on Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s best-selling book. In the episode on Sex Trafficking, Kristof and actress Meg Ryan meet Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman who sold herself into slavery as a young girl and who is now a world-renowned leader in the anti-trafficking struggle. Following the film, representatives from End Slavery Tennessee will discuss efforts to stop sex trafficking in Nashville and holistically care for trafficking survivors.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2012

As Goes Janesville
by Brad Lichtenstein

America’s middle class is dwindling, and the debate over how to save it is nowhere fiercer than in the normally tranquil state of Wisconsin. In Janesville, as jobs disappear and families are stretched to their breaking point, citizens and politicians are embroiled in an ideological battle about how to turn things around.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2012

Solar Mamas
by Jehane Noujaim

Rafea — a 30-year-old Jordanian mother of four — is traveling outside of her village for the first time to attend a solar engineering program at India’s Barefoot College. She will join other poor women from Guatemala, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Colombia in learning concrete skills to create change in their communities.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2012                                                                                

Beauty is Embarrassing
by Neil Berkeley

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2012 Nashville Film Festival, Beauty Is Embarrassing is the funny, irreverent and inspiring story of one of America’s most important artists, Wayne White. Raised in Tennessee, Mr. White has spent the last 30 years making his indelible mark on pop culture. From his humble roots as a puppeteer in Nashville to his work as one of the creators of the “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” TV show to his current life as a darling in the fine art world, White has inspired millions of people across the country. The film chronicles the vaulted highs and the crushing lows of an artist focused on making every day a chance to create.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2013 

Soul Food Junkies
by Byron Hurt

Soul food lies at the heart of African American cultural identity. The black community’s love affair with soul food is deep-rooted, complex, and in some cases, deadly. Soul Food Junkies puts this culinary tradition under the microscope to examine both its significance and its consequences.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2013

The Powerbroker
by Bonnie Boswell

Whitney M. Young, Jr. was one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders of the civil rights era. As executive director of the National Urban League, he took the struggle for equality directly to the powerful white elite, gaining allies in business and government, including three presidents.

SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2013

Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines
by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan

Trace the fascinating evolution and legacy of the original comic book Amazon, Wonder Woman. From her creation in the 1940s to the superhero blockbusters of today, pop culture’s representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.

SATURDAY , APRIL 20, 2013 (Presented at the Nashville Film Festival, Regal Green Hills Stadium 16)

The Island President
by Jon Shenk, Bonni Cohen and Richard Berge

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed is confronting a problem greater than any world leader has ever faced — the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. His is the most low-lying country in the world; a minor rise in sea level would literally erase it from the map.

SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2013

The Revolutionary Optimists
by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen

Amlan Ganguly teaches the children of Kolkata’s slums to become leaders in improving their own community’s health and sanitation. Using street theater, dance, and data as their weapons, the children have cut malaria and diarrhea rates in half, increased polio vaccination rates, and turned garbage dumps into playing fields.

SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2013

Love Free or Die
by Macky Alston

Love Free or Die is about a man who has two defining passions that the world cannot reconcile: his love for God and for his partner Mark. The film is about church and state, love and marriage, faith and identity — and openly gay Bishop Eugene Robinson’s struggle to dispel the notion that God’s love has limits.

ITVS COMMUNITY CINEMA is a monthly screening series featuring upcoming selections from the Independent Lensseason. Presented in partnership with local public television stations and leading community organizations, ITVS Community Cinema holds preview screenings in over 90 cities across the country making a real contribution on a range of current social issues by connecting communities with organizations, information, and the opportunity to get involved.

ABOUT ITVS AND INDEPENDENT LENS
ITVS is a leading funder and presenter of award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens on Tuesday nights at 10 PM on PBS. Independent Lens is jointly curated by ITVS and PBS and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding provided by PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information visit http://www.wnpt.org/communitycinema/