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Voting Booths Added Element for Civil Rights Film Series

Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson to visit Duke this fall

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Filmmaker Stanley Nelson will teach a master class for Duke students this fall in conjunction with the film series.

From an interstate bus ride into the segregated Deep South to the brutal murder of a young Chicago teen, documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson's body of work encompasses the most turbulent decades in American history.

Nelson, an Emmy Award winner and MacArthur "Genius" fellow, was selected as the 2014 Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Filmmaker. His films will be shown during the biennial Diamonstein-Spielvogel film series, culminating in a public conversation between Nelson and broadcast journalist/arts advocate Diamonstein-Spielvogel at 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Nasher Museum of Art. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. A reception will follow.

The film series leading up to the public talk begins Sept. 16, with a screening of "The Murder of Emmett Till" in the Richard White Lecture Hall and an introduction by actor/producer Mike Wiley. The series will continue with the Sept. 24 screening of "Jonestown: Life and Death of the People's Temple" in Griffith Theater; "A Place of Our Own" on Oct. 2 at the Hayti Heritage Center; and "Freedom Summer" on Oct. 7 at the Durham Public Library.

All screenings begin at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Voter registration booths at each screening will add another dimension to Nelson's work.

By documenting several facets of the 20th century black experience, Nelson has connected new generations of Americans to the civil rights movement of half a century ago, according to John Gartrell, director of the John Hope Franklin Research Center at Duke.

"Nelson just stood out to us because he wants to use his films to get conversations about voting rights, segregation and the legacy of Jim Crow started. He does not want people to see his movies because it's good from a business standpoint," Gartrell said. "He views his films as opportunities to educate and engage his viewers, especially younger audiences."

Diamonstein-Spielvogel, whose personal papers and vast library of video interviews are housed at Duke's Rubenstein Library, is a co-sponsor of the visiting filmmaker series, now in its third installment. Other co-sponsors of the series include the Duke University Libraries, Center for Documentary Studies, Screen/Society, and Program in Arts of the Moving Image.

Since 2010, the series has featured James Longley and Laura Poitras. The committee responsible for planning the series selects each visiting filmmaker based on the "political, economic, social or cultural urgency" of his or her work.

Following the four film screenings, Nelson will begin a two-day residency Oct. 16, including a brownbag discussion with faculty and students in the Center for Documentary Studies and a master class with students in the master of fine arts program.

Gartrell said he hopes students, faculty and community members will take an active interest in both Nelson's work and the social issues his films examine.

"We hope to have a packed house at all our screenings," Gartrell said. "Anyone who is interested in his work or the social activism and history documented in his films -- old, young, black, white, purple, brown -- can learn something."