September 25, 2012
Viewing and Discussion with filmmaker and
WNYC Political Reporter Bob Hennelly
St. John’s
University’s PARTICIPATE ’12 civic-engagement initiative presents a
viewing of the Academy Award-Nominated documentary
Street Fight followed by a discussion
with the filmmaker, Marshall Curry, and WNYC Investigative
Journalist, Bob Hennelly, on Monday, October 1 at 6:30 p.m. in
the Belson Moot Court Room in St. John’s School of Law.
2012 marks 10
years since the Newark, NJ Mayoral race between then Mayor Sharpe
James and then Council Member Cory Booker. This event will
take a close look at that election and explore the deeper
socio-political issues of race, ethics and campaigning in modern
urban politics, through a viewing and Q&A with Curry and
Hennelly.
Street Fight, winner of
the Audience Awards at the Tribeca, AFI/Discovery SilverDocs and
Hot Docs Film Festivals, chronicles the bare-knuckles race for
Mayor of Newark, N.J. between Cory Booker, a 32-year-old Rhodes
Scholar/Yale Law School grad, and Sharpe James, the four-term
incumbent and undisputed champion of New Jersey politics.
Fought in Newark's neighborhoods and housing projects, the battle
pits Booker against an old style political machine that uses any
means necessary to crush its opponents. Street
Fight tells a gripping story of the underbelly of
democracy where elections are not about spin-doctors, media
consultants, or photo ops. Sometimes, we discover, elections are
won and lost in the streets.
This event is free of charge and open
to the public.
Marshall Curry shot, directed and edited
Street Fight and was the Director and
Producer, as well as one of the Cinematographers and Editors of the
feature documentary, Racing Dreams. Both
films are included in the top 30 of Rotten Tomatoes' list of Best
Reviewed Documentaries. His newest documentary is titled:
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation
Front. All three of Curry's films have been a part of
the American Documentary Showcase, a program sponsored by the US
State Department to share the art and practice of documentary
filmmaking with the international community.
An award-winning
investigative journalist, Bob Hennelly has reported on a wide gamut
of major public policy questions ranging from immigration and
homeland security to power outages and utility mergers. His written
work has appeared in the New York Times, the Village Voice, the
Christian Science Monitor, the Miami Herald, the Detroit Free
Press, and dozens of other magazines and newspapers. He has acted
as a consultant/reporter for “60 Minutes” and been featured on
C-Span's “America and the Courts” as well as on C-Span's
“Washington Roundtable.”
The St. John’s University PARTICIPATE program, a
University-wide annual initiative to promote and increase greater
civic awareness, engagement and participation in the political
process, began during the Fall Semester in 2008 when students at
St. John’s became engaged in the historic 2008 Presidential
Election. Since that time, the University has maintained and
expanded the PARTICIPATE program annually sponsoring: Voter
Registration Drives, Candidate Forums and other academic lectures
and events that promote greater civic engagement and work to create
better informed and more active voters within the University
community.
For more information on St. John’s PARTICIPATE
program, visit www.stjohns.edu/participate.
Follow us at www.twitter.com/STJ_Participate.
For media inquiries, please contact Elizabeth
Reilly, Associate Director of Media Relations, by calling (718)
990-5789, or by e-mail to reillye@stjohns.edu. Follow
us on Twitter at @StJohnsUMedia.