By Farris Willingham, Staff Writer
The OCU Film Institute will explore the theme of compassion in Black Orpheus, the first of eight foreign films in the 2011-12 film series.
The film will be featured at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25 in Kerr-McGee Auditorium in Meinders School of Business, said Harbour Winn, professor of English and director of Center for Interpersonal Studies Through Film and Literature.
It will be free and open to the public, he said.
“Every year, there is a different theme, and it comes from a book,” Winn said. “This year, for example, the theme title is ‘Compassion: The Radical Challenge.’ ”
Black Orpheus introduces this theme in the film series, he said.
“It is filled with continual dance and music—a carnival extravaganza, a wonderful film for a university with great schools of dance, music, and theater,” Winn said. “In retelling the story of the memorable Greek myth of Orpheus’ love for Eurydice as well as the grief each feels, the series theme of compassion will emerge clearly.”
The theme was taken from Karen Armstrong’s book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, where she explores the concept of compassion, he said.
“It is paradoxically complex and simple, moving beyond sympathy, feeling sorry for someone, moving beyond condescension, moving toward accepting another person for who they are, being able to walk in their shoes and feel what their experience of life is,” Winn said.
“The films will explore different ways that people succeed or don’t succeed or succeed less than they could.”
The theme has to be broad enough so that it can extend to a variety of films, he said.
“The films are chosen in a couple of ways,” Winn said. “This coming spring, there will be an evaluation form in which participants contribute to suggestions for the book that will be used, for the theme the following year, as well as titles of films.”
And every year, the most requested films are included as long as they connect with the theme, he said.
“Our goal is to have films from eight different countries and to have films that are not as likely to have been available,” Winn said.
Discussions follow every film, and 30 to 40 people stay to participate, he said.
“They are as vibrant and alive as a classroom discussion, if not more so,” Winn said. “There are often people who have come from these countries.”
Controversy often occurs, he said.
“My role is simply to facilitate to help the dialogue happen, to help it flow and to avoid one person monopolizing,” Winn said. “When it gets heated, I to try to calm it down.”
Emily O’Connor, photography/English senior, said she always enjoys the film series.
“The film series are set up so that it makes you consider the subject, the films themselves and the directing,” she said. “I think it’s good for the public to have that opportunity to have a forum and have a place to hold it.”
It’s great to have something to talk about, O’Connor said.
“I hope that a lot of people come and I hope there are good discussions,” she said. “On a wider level, I like the community discussions.”
The OCU Film Institute has to pay for the right to show the film, Winn said.
“It could be anywhere from 200 to 300 dollars, just to be able to screen the film beyond a classroom to a public audience,” he said.
The Film Institute has three sources of financial support: an OCU Film Institute endowment, an Oklahoma City Community Foundation endowment and a Center for Interpersonal Studies endowment. Jeanne Hoffman Smith, one of OCU’s trustees, originally endowed the center, Winn said.
“She was looking for a way that she could enrich OCU, as well as foster her values, so she endowed the center to provide a place at the university where film could be championed,” he said.
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