Lipscomb’s HumanDocs film series continues quest to educate

Lipscomb’s HumanDocs film series continues quest to educate

To co-curator Ted Parks, Lipscomb’s documentary screening series HumanDocs means far more than an earned chapel credit. Now, students who attend an installment of the series, typically nestled in a time-friendly slot on a Wednesday night, do earn a credit, but like most chapel opportunities, the impact goes far beyond the met requirement. The HumanDocs film screening series aims to teach its attendees about issues facing our world through the art of the documentary, which fits right in with the genesis of the documentary form. “My sense is that documentary has always been a form that has had an alternative distribution to commercial film,” Parks said, “and it’s always, from what I know about it, been used to raise consciousness about issues.” Parks says that at the beginning of the documentary, filmmakers were more able to pursue the issues and topics that they were passionate about because of the leniency of not working within the confines of commercial requirements. “Documentary filmmakers are not in it to make a buck,” Parks said. “They’re in it because they want to tell a story that they think will impact the world, and I really like that part of documentary film in contrast with commercial filmmaking.” Parks, an associate professor, said that HumanDocs was born out of his Hispanic Cinema class. He would have students volunteer at the Nashville Film Festival as part of the course, which got Parks wondering if Lipscomb could forge a more formal bond with the festival. “I wanted to try to develop a closer relationship between Lipscomb and the Nashville Film Festival, so talking to my colleague and...

Lumination’s Nashville Film Festival Recap – Part One

The Nashville Film Festival is still currently underway at the Green Hills 16 Theater by school, and I’ve been given the chance to see a few movies as the semester winds down. Here’s a few thoughts on the films that I’ve been screening. LUNARCY! In the chipper documentary Lunarcy!, filmmaker Simon Ennis showcases individuals who, in some way, shape or form, gear their lives in accordance to the moon. Among the film’s many subjects, we spend a great deal of time with Christopher Carson, a lunar devotee with a dream of getting a one-way ticket above, Alan Beam, a former astronaut who now prefers to paint about his time in the sky and Dennis Hope, the supposed ‘President of the Moon.’ For much of its runtime Lunarcy! is a sheer joy to watch. It’s clear that Ennis is fascinated by his subjects, regardless of how naïve or silly their aims may appear. It’s easy to initially write-off the focal points as hollow daydreamers, but Ennis digs deep into why someone would hang their aspirations on something as far-fetched as living on or owning something that’s hundreds of thousands of miles away – which works wonders for the end product. Instead of being a novelty, Lunarcy! turns into something more – an intimate portrait about why we dream. The film fights for the idea that no matter how unobtainable your aims are, they’re justified because they’re a part of you. Lunarcy! is a gem that deserves mainstream attention. DIE THOMANER: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF THE ST. THOMAS BOYS CHOIR LEIPZIG Die Thomaner: A Year in the Life of...