For more information and to download the application, visit our Campus Grants site.

The first film, Gran Torino (2008), will be screening Monday, January 14. It features actor-director Clint Eastwood as disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski. The story follows his growing friendship with his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski’s prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino. The post-film discussion will be led by Professor Marianna Torgovnick (English Department and Arts of the Moving Image). Torgovnick’s research and teaching expertise relates to film and media studies, cultural criticism, religion, and contemporary American issues.

On Monday February 11th, Le fils (The Son) (2002) will be shown. In this award-winning Belgian-French mystery film, themes of compassion and justice unfold in unexpected ways. The story follows Olivier, a carpentry instructor at a vocational school, who is still recovering from the murder of his only son five years earlier and the subsequent dissolution of his marriage. When a new student applies to join his class, Olivier initially refuses but then secretly begins following the boy.

The last two films in the series are selections from the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. Brother Number One (2011) will be screened Monday, March 18. The director of the film, New Zealander Rob Hamill, tells the story of his brother’s death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. It explores the violence of the regime and its followers, killing nearly 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Thirty years later, Rob Hamill has a rare chance to take the stand as a witness at the Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal. In this documentary,  Rob retraces his brother’s final days, meeting survivors who tell the story of what countless families across Cambodia experienced at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

The award-winning and international festival favorite Habibi (2011), by director Susan Yousef, will show April 8. The film follows young lovers Qays and Layla, university students in the West Bank who are forced to return home to Khan Yunis, Gaza. In conservative Khan Yunis, their relationship can only be sustained through marriage, but Qays is too poor to con­vince Layla’s father that he can provide for his daughter. As the couple struggles to be together, Qays paints verses from the classical Sufi poem Majnun Layla all over Khan Yunis, a rebellious act that angers Layla’s father and the local self-appointed moral police. Lyrical and passionate, Habibi depicts a reality where personal happiness must be weighed against society’s opinions, and a choice sometimes made between one’s people and one’s heart.

All films begin at 7:00pm
Griffith Theater, Bryan Center
Free admission, parking passes, and movie snacks

The series is sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics and presented by Screen/Society at Arts of the Moving Image and the Center for Documentary Studies.

This issue features articles discussing the many ways ethics crosses borders and boundaries, cultural, political, and social. Highlights include a reflection on privilege and interconnectedness in South Africa, an article examining whether elitism in science is actually a good thing, and an article reviewing the frequent interplay between social and religious imperatives in political life.

We’ll post an electronic version of the magazine online soon. Pick up your copy in the offices of the Kenan Institute for Ethics in West Duke Building, in the publication racks in the Bryan Center, and other spots around campus.

Have an idea that’s not totally fleshed out? Send the Encompass team an email; if the concept has promise, we’ll be happy to workshop the article with you. We’ll be accepting submissions until October 17^th. Email your article to encompassmag@gmail.com.

Interested in joining the Encompass team? We’re always looking for new editors and designers to join in. Email the Encompass editors-in-chief for more info.

Click here for an application. Contact Christian Ferney for more information.

Due to multiple requests for additional time, we’ve decided to give artists the rest of Spring Break plus a few days to send in submissions for this year’s What Is Good Art? Competition. The new deadline is March 14th at 11:59pm. Artists who have previously submitted works are welcome to revise and resubmit submissions if they would like to do so. See full contest guidelines and submission instructions here.