The Doc Talk Show: Ethical Choices

Stevie - clips and Q&A with filmmakers Steve James (director), Dana Kupper (cinematographer) & Adam Singer (producer / sound)

Producer & Host: Jeff Spitz

January 26th at 7 PM

Note: Zoom link sent on the day of the event:

Stevie (2002) is the controversial first-person voiced documentary that James released after his break out hit, Hoop Dreams (1994). This feature-length documentary (2.5 hours) begins with an innocent reunion in rural Illinois where James visits Stevie Fielding, a rowdy young man whom the filmmaker befriended through a big brother program during his college days. Going to discover what became of his cute "little brother" involves the filmmaker in an emotional journey through a tangled web of relationships. James reveals Stevie's violent home life, the various foster parents who tried to help him and his endearing relationship with devoted girlfriend Tanya who sees something special in him. When Stevie gets arrested and tried for child sexual abuse the camera keeps rolling. What is the verdict? What will become of Stevie?

Join Steve James, cinematographer Dana Kupper (Colum Alum), Producer / Sound Adam Singer and Doc Talk Show Host Jeff Spitz for a Zoom community event. The program will progress through film clips followed by your Q&A.

What are the ethical choices that James encountered as he filmed, edited and exhibited the film? What lessons did James and his crew learn on the job during this unpredictable and fraught production? Watch Stevie with this link: https://tinyurl.com/y63n48m2

The Doc Talk Show Producer and Host Jeff Spitz is a filmmaker and Associate Professor of Cinema & TV Arts at Columbia College Chicago. The Doc Talk Show is a monthly series of carefully curated themed shows with diverse non-fiction filmmakers. To date, The Doc Talk Show has presented over 175 filmmakers.

The Doc Talk Show is a program of Groundswell Educational Films, NFP.

Sponsors

Media Process Group, Periscope Post & Audio, Camera Ambassador, Columbia College Chicago

Advisor: Gordon Quinn, Founder and Artistic Director of Kartemquin Films