WICHITA, KAN — Wichita Association for the Motion Picture Arts/Tallgrass Film Festival announces February’s Tallgrass Third Thursday screening: CSA: The Confederate States of America, directed by Kevin Willmott, University of Kansas Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies. The screening takes place at 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18 in the CAC Theater at Wichita State University’s Rhatigan Student Center and is immediately followed by a panel discussion. This event is co-sponsored by the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, and is free as part of the public programs offered in conjunction with the exhibit, Crossroads: The Art of Gordon Parks and the film series accompanying that exhibit: Black Films that Challenge/Black Films that Matter.

What if the South had won the war? What if politicians promised a black for every home? What if Martin Luther King, Jr. had been born a slave? Through the lens of a Ken Burns-style mockumentary, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) provides a revisionist history of the United States in which the South won the Civil War and where Lincoln is forced to flee to Canada in blackface. By using fabricated movie segments, old government information films, television commercials, news breaks, along with actual stock footage from our own history, a provocative and humorous story is told of a country which, in many ways, frighteningly follows a parallel with our own. New Times writes, C.S.A. is “easily the nerviest film about race, religion, and U.S. imperialism ever made.” The film premiered in 2004 at the Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize at the Bend Film Festival in 2005. C.S.A. is presented by filmmaker Spike Lee and was distributed in 2004 by IFC Films. Fro more information visit: http://www.csathemovie.com/

PANEL – DISCUSSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING FILM
Moderated by Carla Eckels, news producer and local host at KMUW 89.1 FM, with panelists:
Reuben Eckels, founder/pastor of Wichita’s New Day Christian Church
Jean Griffith, WSU assistant professor of English
Randal Jelks, KU associate professor of American Studies
Rupert Pate, actor (Confederate States of America) and historian
Kevin Willmott, film director and associate professor of Film and Media Studies,
University of Kansas

The film series: Black Films that Challenge/Black Films that Matter is curated by Professor Kevin Wilmott in celebration of Crossroads: The Art of Gordon Parks and includes three films shown on Thursdays in February on the Wichita State University campus:

Thursday, Feb 11, 6 p.m.
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
210 McKnight Art Center West, WSU School of Art and Design
Introduction and post-screening Q&A with Kevin Willmott, veteran filmmaker and associate professor of film and media studies at the University of Kansas

Set in 1970s Chicago, black nationalist Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook) joins the C.I.A. There he learns guerrilla warfare techniques. With that training, he leaves the C.I.A. to found the Freedom Fighters — a group of violent and nonviolent activists working to ensure the freedom of blacks in the United States.

Filmed and released during a time of continuing racial violence, the movie’s title refers to the early days of affirmative action and the policy of making a token black employee very conspicuous for all to see. This politically charged and culturally relevant film was quickly removed from theaters after its 1973 release and was only recently released on DVD.

Thursday, Feb 25, 6 p.m.
Nothing But a Man (1964)
210 McKnight Art Center West, WSU School of Art and Design.

Reputedly the favorite movie of Malcolm X, Nothing But a Man portrays a devil-may-care young man who falls for a grounded young woman and their on-again/off-again relationship. Tame by contemporary standards, the film is set in the South of the 1960s where an economic system continued to keep many enslaved both financially and emotionally. Although created more than four decades ago, Nothing But a Man speaks to issues of manhood today and captures the black male experience on film. A breakthrough film in 1964, it is still relevant today. One of the top 100 must-see black films, Nothing But a Man was winner of the San Giorgio prize at the 1964 Venice Film Festival.

The Ulrich Museum galleries are open from 5-6 p.m. before each film screening. Crossroads: The Art of Gordon Parks is on view through April 11. For more information, call 316-978-3664 or visit www.ulrich.wichita.edu/gordonparks.