‘Why We Fight’ filmmaker is next Distinguished Lecturer

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Eugene Jarecki

Documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki is the next speaker in Northwest’s 2008-’09 Distinguished Lecture Series. Jarecki’s appearance on campus is scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17, in the Performing Arts Center. Admission is free.

Sponsored by Campus Activities with support from the Office of the Provost, the annual series brings nationally and internationally prominent writers, thinkers, artists, scholars and public figures to campus, where they share insights and experiences during free lectures open to all members of the University community and the general public.

Jarecki is an award-winning dramatic and documentary filmmaker and visiting senior fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute.

After training at Princeton as a stage director, he turned to cinema in 1992, and his first short film, “Season of the Litterbees,” premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival before winning both a Student Academy Award and the Time-Warner Grand Prize at the Aspen Film Festival.

His most recent work, “Why We Fight,” won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. He also directed the award-winning film, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger.”

Remaining Distinguished Lecturers for the current academic year include:

Arun Gandhi, peace activist (8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, Performing Arts Center).

Gandhi is the founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and the grandson of statesman and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Born and raised in apartheid-era South Africa, Arun Gandhi was sent at age 12 to live with his grandfather in India, where he observed first-hand the profound national campaign for liberation through nonviolent means.

The younger Gandhi went on to lead successful economic and social reforms in India before coming to the United States and founding the institute.

In seeking to continue his grandfather's legacy, Gandhi has worked to provide insight into one of history's most influential leaders while stressing the importance of non-violent political and social change.

John Bul Dau, Sudanese war survivor (8 p.m. Monday, March 16, Performing Arts Center).

Featured in Christopher Quinn's documentary, “God Grew Tired of Us,” Dau has experienced trials and hardships that most Americans would find difficult to imagine.

Born in war-torn Sudan, Dau became one of 27,000 “lost boys” driven from their villages when the government began attacking the ethnic minority population in the southern part of the country.

Forced to walk to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, he faced starvation, disease and violence before humanitarian efforts brought him to the United States.

Currently studying public policy at Syracuse University, Dau has helped raise thousands of dollars in relief funds for his native country in the hope that Sudan will “become a place where people are welcome and hope is restored."

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For more information about the Distinguished Lecture Series and other programs sponsored by the Office of Campus Activities, go to www.nwmissouri.edu/campusactivities or call Angel McAdams Prescott, director of campus activities, at 660.562.1226 (ext. 1226 on campus).

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone: 660.562.1704
Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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