News release from the University of Saint Francis:
Pulitzer winner wants feedback at USF film preview
(March 21, 2011) – Fort Wayne native and Pulitzer prize-winning photographer and filmmaker David Turnley wants to pack the house with people interested in giving responses to his latest film, “Shenandoah, PA,” on Monday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the North Campus Auditorium at the University of Saint Francis.
The Fort Wayne event is the first world screening of Turnley’s new work. The USF School of Creative Arts (SOCA) is hosting the early screening as part of its Closer Look Lecture Series, supported by Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“Shenandoah, PA” was chosen for a Contemporary Issue Documentary Grant from the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by actor Robert Redford and dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences. Through its programs, the Institute seeks to discover, support, and inspire independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. Turnley’s film was among 18 other feature-length documentaries chosen for the grant from a field of 750 submissions from 111 countries.
The film is in the post-production phase, and the USF audience will preview it before its release. Following the film, Turnley, who also teaches documentary film making at USF this semester, will participate in a feedback session with viewers.
“Shenandoah, PA” documents the story of four white football players from the film’s namesake town, charged with beating undocumented Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez to death. Turnley focuses his storytelling eye on a deeply-felt portrait of a community on trial. Turnley won a Pulitzer for his coverage of all the revolutions in 1989, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and Tiananmen Square in China, and has been runner-up for the prize four other times. He has won the World Press Picture of the Year twice, the prestigious Robert Capa Award for Courage and four Overseas Press Club awards. His first film, “The Dalai Lama: At Home in Exile,” produced by CNN, was awarded the 2001 Cine Golden Eagle and nominated for an Emmy. He was awarded Best Documentary at the Miami International Film Festival for the film “La Tropical,” shot in Cuba.
For more information, contact SOCA at 260-399-7700, ext. 8001.
The University of Saint Francis, founded in 1890 as a comprehensive university in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, offers more than 60 undergraduate and 13 graduate programs in five schools: The School of Health Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, Keith Busse School of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership, School of Professional Studies and School of Creative Arts. More than 2,300 students from a broad geographic region attend USF for its academic excellence. The university has a regional campus in Crown Point, Ind.
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