April 30, 2008

Scene from "Food to Fuel"

 • Student documentaries about life in Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Eight short films made by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) students will receive a public screening 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at the UAB Heritage Hall, Lecture Hall 102, 1401 University Blvd. The event is free and open to the public.

The students made their films as part of an ethnographic filmmaking course offered jointly by the UAB Center for Urban Affairs, the UAB School of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the UAB University Honors Program. All of the films average 7-8 minutes. Ethnographic research deals with the description of a specific culture or human social phenomenon. Students in the course produce short documentaries about people and communities in Birmingham. The film screenings will feature the following:

"Birth Right" by Emily Jackson of Gadsden and Neeta Kirpalani of Asheville, N.C.; a documentary on the practice of midwifery in Alabama

"Food to Fuel" by Rachel Thompson and Jim Warnock, both of Birmingham; Thompson and Warnock highlight the biodiesel programs in Birmingham and Hoover.

"Hopheads" by Paul Sholly of Moody and Jonathan Sutton of Birmingham; a grassroots advocacy group of beer connoisseurs is the focus of this film.

"Making the Most at Hoover: Female Minority Achievement Council" by Jerald Appling of Eufaula and David Bala of Montgomery; this film features a group of female, African-American scholars at Hoover High School.

"Positive" by Joshua Vazquez of Hoover and Stephen Webb of Madison; a short documentary about UAB's 1917 Clinic that provides treatment for people living with HIV

"Saved: The Story of the Watercress Darter" by Ingrid Pfau and Linh Tran, both of Birmingham; a film about the relationship between a church and environmentalists to save a small, endangered fish

"Under One Roof" by Tyler Godsy of Huntsville and Chris Lee of Dothan; a film about an early learning center that services children with autism

"The Whole-Way House" by Nejla Harris of Syracuse, N.Y., and Logan Talbot of Gadsden; a documentary about the Lovelady Center, a residential facility in Birmingham for women transitioning from prison or recovering from addiction