PEP Event: Seats at the Table Film Discussion

Prison Education Partnership (UMA)

Register to gain access to the documentary from March 11-24. Film discussion is on March 25 at 2pm featuring Maine justice-impacted voices.

From March 11th - March 24th, UMA&#x27;s Prison Education Partnership (PEP) is providing access to Seats at the Table (see trailer and synopsis below). On March 25th, PEP is hosting a virtual film discussion, featuring a diverse panel of justice-impacted current and former students to provide their thoughts and answer questions. This event is co-sponsored by UMA&#x27;s DEI council.

Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to the event page. The event page will provide you with the film access information and the zoom information for the discussion. Trailer7-minute trailer: https://rosaliafilms.com/press-kit/ (the video is embedded in the press kit)SynopsisSeats at the Table is a feature documentary film by Chris Farina (Rosalia Films) which depicts a unique college class which brings together university students with residents at a maximum-security juvenile correctional center through the study of Russian literature. University of Virginia Lecturer Andrew D. Kaufman founded the course Books Behind Bars: Life, Literature and Leadership in 2009. Each spring semester a combination of young correctional center residents and university students meet once a week for 10 weeks to analyze and discuss the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and others, with an aim toward exploring the urgent life questions these works elicit: What makes for a happy life? How can I be true to myself? What is my responsibility to others? Given that I’m going to die, how should I live? This film is a portrait of the 2016 class.The literature is the prism through which the classmates share their most intimate human stories, discussing their lives openly and honestly. This is not a situation where the university students are controlling the discussions, or “teaching” the residents. The university students are not Russian Literature majors, so they are as new to the readings as are the residents. Instead, each group learns so much from the other, and through that process each group’s stereotypical views are replaced by a much more nuanced understanding of the other set of students as they form strong relationships with distinct individuals which belies their original preconceptions. These interactions become the catalyst for both groups to learn from one another while forming powerful relationships that break down the initial stereotypes they have as they begin this class. The classmates come away transformed by this singular educational experience, empowered to pursue lives of greater purpose and inspired by the discovery of their shared humanity.Award-winning filmmaker Chris Farina (past films include World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements) has been drawn to telling the stories of individuals whose profound contributions to their community have often gone unnoticed. Seats at the Table explores the relationship between education and transformation, revealing the humanity behind institutional stereotypes, both collegiate and correctional. This film situates itself in that common space of inquiry, observing the learning unfold and capturing the process of lives beginning to change. Through the power of film this seminal classroom experience will become an inspiration for educators, policy-makers and general audiences worldwide. The film reveals the intellect, courage, and humanity of students at both correctional centers and universities, and will thus demonstrate the immense potential in our youth that needs to be developed. Seats at the Table will serve as a tool for stimulating replication of this type of program by sharing the story of this particular class while expanding the audience’s very understanding of what it means to be human.

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PEP Event: Seats at the Table Film Discussion

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PEP Event: Seats at the Table Film Discussion

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