Film invites question about human spirit

Summer is a time for vacations, reading, and lazy evenings. And, this summer gives us a time to think about the human spirit.

ASU’s Project Humanities is sponsoring its first Summer Film Series, with the theme “Are we losing our humanity?”

The next film in the series, “The Human Experience,” will be screened at 6 p.m. June 20 (Wednesday) at South Mountain Community Library, 7050 S. 24th St., Phoenix. Following the film, there will be a discussion with ASU faculty and community scholars. The event is free, and refreshments will be served.

“The Human Experience,” produced by Grassroots Films of Brooklyn, N.Y., is the story of male siblings who travel the world in search of the answers to the burning questions: Who am I? Who is Man? Why do we search for meaning?

Their journey brings them into the middle of the lives of the homeless on the streets of New York City, the orphans and disabled children of Peru, and the abandoned lepers in the forests of Ghana, Africa. What the young men discover changes them forever.

Through one-on-one interviews and real life encounters, the brothers are awakened to the beauty of the human person and the resilience of the human spirit.

The series is presented in partnership with ASU Center for Film, Media, and Popular Culture, ASU Emeritus College Faculty of the Humanities, Phoenix Public Library, and Seek First Entertainment.

The final film in the series, “Baraka,” a non-narrative film directed by Ron Fricke with an environmental theme, will be shown on Tuesday, July 17, time and location TBA.

Project Humanities will kick off its regular fall semester programming with a forum at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. addressing the same thematic question, “Are we losing our humanity?” with a panel of experts from various fields on Friday, Sept. 7, followed by the bi-annual Project Humanities Kickoff Week, Sept. 10-14.

Project Humanities, housed in the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, is a university-wide initiative with the goal of showing the importance and range of interactions among humanities research and programming and other areas of scholarship and human endeavor. Project Humanities is directed by Professor of English and Associate Vice President Neal A. Lester.

For more information on Project Humanities, go to http://humanities.asu.edu/ or contact Patrick Reid, Patrick.reid@asu.edu or (480) 727-7030.