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Movies, community events among highlights of MLK events
Jeff Unger,
News Bureau
217-333-6248
Released
1/4/2007
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
A screening of “After Innocence,” including a discussion
with the director of the 2006 film, will be the kick-off event of this
year’s University of Illinois commemoration of the life of the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The free public showing will begin at 7 p.m. Jan. 18 at the Virginia
Theatre, 203 W. Park St., Champaign. The week-long commemoration runs
through Jan. 24.
Jessica Sanders, who directed the movie that tells the true story of
seven men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after
DNA evidence proved their innocence, will participate in question-and-answer
after the movie. U. of I. speech
communication professor Stephen Hartnett also will take part in
the discussion.
On Jan. 20, a community event for families, “Justice and Activism:
Then
and Now,” will take place beginning at 2 p.m. in the lobby of
the Krannert Center for the Performing
Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, and will include a reception
as well as hip hop dance demonstrations, music, hands-on activities
and a performance by the Douglass Center Drum Corps. The event is free
and open to the public.
“American Blackout,” a film that won a special jury prize
at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, will be shown Jan. 23 beginning
at 7 p.m. in the main lounge at Allen Hall, 1005 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana.
The movie chronicles the recurring patterns of voter disenfranchisement
from Florida 2000 to Ohio 2004 while following the story of Cynthia
McKinney, a member of Congress from Georgia. She not only took an active
role investigating voting irregularities, but also made news after publicly
questioning the Bush administration about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The screening is free and open to the public.
A complete schedule of events is posted online.
