Producer and Global Activist Joslyn Barnes Opens 2009-2010 Gannett Series at RIT

Louverture Film’s creative vision of film in support of economic and social justice will be one focus in a presentation by noted activist filmmaker Joslyn Barnes who opens the 2009-2010 Caroline Werner Gannett Project’s “Visionaries in Motion III” at 8 p.m. Sept. 21 in Rochester Institute of Technology’s Webb Auditorium.

Barnes, the co-founder of Louverture with actor Danny Glover, has earned prominence for her social issue fiction and documentary films, which include the Academy Award nominated Trouble the Water and the drama Bamako, nominated for a Ceasar Award, the French Oscar. Prior to going into films, Barnes served as a consultant and program officer for the United Nations, focusing on food security, gender equity and civil rights.

Her visit to campus will include an informal afternoon session with film students and an evening talk. Film screenings of Trouble the Water and Bamako both precede and follow her presentation. For the schedule of screenings visit www.cwgp.org.

“Joslyn Barnes and Louverture are distinctively revolutionary in contemporary film production,” notes Mary Lynn Broe, founder of the Caroline Werner Gannett Project and the Gannett Professor of Humanities at RIT. “They have opened new film possibilities and continue to build infrastructures throughout the developing world, particularly in Africa and the Global South. The work of both Joslyn Barnes and Danny Glover makes visible local and indigenous filmmakers who so often have been voiceless and powerless in the North American film industry.”

Her visit to RIT is a keen opening to our 2009-2010 season. Beyond the remarkable award-winning record of films produced by Louverture, Joslyn Barnes knows the importance of filmmakers who are dedicated to understanding local stories and cultures in which people sustain themselves, their fictions, histories and identity.”

Broe created the Caroline Werner Gannett Project in 2006 and, with the interdisciplinary Gannett Working Group, brings to campus international scholars, authors and artists in lectures, colloquia and workshops that explore new connections across the sciences, technologies, social sciences and humanities. All Gannett events are free and open to the public.

WHAT: “Imagination and the Cinema of Resistance”

WHO: Joslyn Barnes, film producer, activist and co-founder of Louverture Films

WHEN: 8 p.m. September 21

WHERE: Webb Auditorium, Booth Building, RIT campus