by Jamin Craig | Nov 12, 2014 | News Slider
Lipscomb University’s HumanDocs Film Series picks up again this week with the political documentary, “Silenced”. The film follows three whistleblowers: one in the NSA, another in the CIA and the third in the Department of Justice. These three people saw questionable practices being committed by the government and decided to draw attention to them. It is a story of dealing with the backlash of government superiors when calling attention to a potentially bad practice. Ted Parks, one of Lipscomb’s Spanish professors and head of the Lipscomb Human Docs Film Series, says these three people did not agree with the moral values of the government system put in after Sept. 11, 2001. Specific issues covered in the film include civil liberties and the use of torture and waterboarding. Parks goes into detail about what a whistleblower actually does. “A whistleblower is a person in some kind of organization who sees practices that are illegal or unethical or out of character with the institution,” Parks said, “And because of that, feels like he or she has to call attention to those practices with the hopes that they get stopped.” “It’s a very precarious position to be in, because often your superiors may be the ones involved in these practices, and you just as a personal conscience say ‘Hey, this is not right, and I can’t keep doing this.’” After the film screening, Parks will introduce a panel of guests to reflect on the film with a question and answer session. The panel will include an ethicist, an attorney representing whistleblowers, a counselor and a political science/history professor. “I’m really grateful that...
by Cory Woodroof | Oct 6, 2014 | News Slider
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...
by Carter Sanderson | Jan 21, 2014 | News Slider
HumanDocs returns Wednesday night to begin their spring slate with the PBS Point-of-View film Homegoings. The screening will take place in 8:30 p.m. in Ward Hall. As Black History Month is just around the corner, Homegoings focuses on Isaiah Owens, a funeral director in Harlem, and his experiences through his work in the community. Ted Parks, a Spanish professor and curator of the HumanDocs program, speaks on behalf of the challenging questions that will be covered on Wednesday night. “How do we integrate the end of life into life itself in a culture that prefers not to talk about death?” Parks said would be something to consider. “Can a person’s passing really be a time of celebration as well as mourning?” Following the film, there will be a panel for a brief discussion including people such as Joy Samuels, Jackie Conwell, Greg Rumburg and Donnetta Hawkins. “Our panel includes social workers and psychologists who have not only worked professionally with grieving people, but have experienced loss themselves,” Parks said. “I think Wednesday night will not only be a chance to see an engaging documentary, but to think about who we are, the hope we have and the preciousness of life.” HumanDocs will host another film in February, tentatively selecting Inequality for All, a close look at the growing income gap in the United States. It is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 8:30 p.m., in Shamblin Theatre. Both screening are free and open to the public. Photo courtesy of...
by Janice Ng | Sep 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
Lipscomb University’s HumanDocs film series, hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, will be presenting a free public screening of I Learn America, a documentary about five teenage students adapting to life in America, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. in Shamblin Theatre. The screening is part of the Tennessee Rights Coalition’s Welcoming Week, an event that highlights the contributions of immigrants to American Communities. The coalition’s Welcoming Tennessee Initiative served as an inspiration to Welcoming America, a nationwide effort to make America a friendlier place. Lipscomb’s HumanDocs is a social-justice series that aims to create a more just, peaceful and inclusive university and city. “[This film] reflects the series’ goal of looking at important issues of social justice – in this case, immigration and welcoming others, even when their language, culture, or beliefs differ from ours,” series coordinator and Lipscomb Associate Professor of Spanish Ted Parks said. The documentary from Jean-Michel Dissard and Gitte Peng looks at the lives of five teenage immigrants – Brandon Garcia, a 15-year-old Guatemalan who crossed the border to reunite with his mother after 10 years, Itrat Shah, a 17-year-old devout Muslim from Pakistan who came to America to join her father after the passing of her mother, Sandra Staniszewska, a 17-year-old tomboy from Poland, Jenniffer Vasquez, a inseparable best friend of Sandra and from the Dominican Republic and Sing Pi, a shy 18-year-old from Myanmar with limited English comprehension. I Learn America follows the five students closely for a year at the International High School at Lafayette, a Brooklyn public high school dedicated to newly arrived immigrants from all over the world. The students learn how to...
by Jael Teme | Mar 17, 2013 | News Slider
HumanDocs is an opportunity for Lipscomb students and the community to become aware of true stories going on in the world. The series surfaced thanks to the efforts of the university’s College of Art and Sciences to inspire students to make the world a better place. Dr. Ted Parks is a Spanish professor at Lipscomb University and is responsible for HumanDocs. He explains how these documentaries often show how issues such as domestic violence or sex trafficking begin. The documentaries feature individual stories revealing the wicked aspects of society. “Good documentary film tells a story,” Parks says, “It tells a compelling human story that makes you care about the people involved.” Lipscomb’s purpose with HumanDocs is to awaken students to the many concerns present in today’s society that are usually invisible to many people. The movie shown in January was titled “Sun Kissed” and Parks says it’s a good example of a compelling story. The film is about Dorey and Yolanda Nez. They are a Navajo family in New Mexico whose children have developed a rare genetic disease that makes their skin hypersensitive to sunlight. This disease only shows up at a rate of one in a million in a general population, but in the Navajo reservation, it was one in 300,00. After tracing the Navajo history, the Nez family discovered this was the result of what it is called the “Long Walk,” a cruel campaign from 1864. “Sun Kissed” brought to light a veiled matter for the Navajo reservation and the rest of the world. This documentary is one of many that HumanDocs presents in order to bring...
