10.01.2003
The Path to Power
This October, the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection joins the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the Center for Humanities and Arts, and the George Foster Peabody Awards to present "The Path to Power," a special series of screenings from the Peabody Awards Collection.
The screenings will take place on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 in the Seney-Stovall Chapel on 201 North Milledge Avenue.
Members of the UGA community and television producers associated with the works shown will lead a discussion following each screening. These events are free and open to the public.
October 7
Construction of Government
The Crossing
October 14
Campaigning
60 Minutes - "It's the People, Stupid!"
Vote for Me: Politics in America. The Political Education of Maggie Lauterer
October 21
Governing
Biography Close-Up: So, You Want to be President. Mario Cuomo and George Bush
Comedy Central's Indecision '96 - Presidential PSA's
The Bush White House: Inside the Real West Wing
October 28
Deconstruction of Government
Bringing Down a Dictator
::::Event Descriptions::::
Tuesday, October 7, 2003, 7:00 p.m. - The Construction of Government
Jeff Daniels as George Washington. Photo from Arts &Entertainment, http://www.aetv.com/
The Crossing - 2000 Peabody Award Winner
Based on historian Howard Fast’s novel, this engaging and dramatic film brings General George Washington’s legendary crossing of the Delaware to life. In a role that depicts America's first president as a daring strategist, Jeff Daniels plays the resolute General George Washington during America's darkest period of the Revolutionary War. At Christmastime in 1776, warned by Congress and his disheartened advisors to retreat from the fast approaching British Army, the unwavering general leads his greatly diminished, frozen, bedraggled, starving troops across the Delaware River and into Trenton in a surprise attack on the elite, Hessian garrison. In their premier skirmish as aggressors, the Continentals win handily without losing a single man, thus marking the turning point in America's fight for independence.
Peabody entry number: 2000076 ENT.
The discussant for our Construction of Government screening is Dr. Allan Kulikoff, Abraham Baldwin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the University of Georgia. Dr. Kulikoff teaches courses in Southern History, Early American History, and agrarian history, and is researching aspects of class identity in early America. Dr. Kulikoff he has a strong interest in the public perception of the Founding Fathers and its relationship to academic history.
Tuesday, October 14, 2003, 7:00 p.m. - Campaigning
From"Vote for Me." (Peabody Archive)
60 Minutes - "It's the People, Stupid!"
Most people know that political polling and public opinion research plays a huge role in American Presidential politics. What most people don't know is that it's used not so much to measure the public opinion but to influence and manipulate it. Political pollsters working for the White House and the Republican Party shaped the recent impeachment debate using exactly the same techniques perfected on Madison Avenue to sell potato chips or automobiles. Every word and phrase uttered by the President and by his surrogates on the TV talk shows, and by Republican officials and legislators was tested in advance. It goes on all the time, but hardly anyone had ever seen the process at work until this 60 Minutes segment was aired in 1998.
Peabody entry number: 98144 NWT.
Maggie Lauterer, from "Vote for Me." (Peabody Archive)
Vote for Me: Politics in America - 1996 Peabody Award Winner
A rollicking ride on the American campaign trail, VOTE FOR ME: POLITICS IN AMERICA travels from the smallest local precincts all the way to the White House to explore what it really takes to run for public office in this country. The segment we'll see, "The Political Education of Maggie Lauterer," is the saga of a folk singer-turned-local TV reporter-turned-Congressional candidate in the mountains of North Carolina, as she has to learn what to do to get a majority of her district to vote for her. VOTE FOR ME ends up being a warmly humorous anti-cynical look at the American system, warts and all.
Peabody entry number: 96014 DCT.
The discussant for our Campaigning screening is Paul Stekler, Peabody Award-winning producer of "Vote for Me." Dr. Stekler has a doctorate in Government from Harvard University and has won numerous awards for his work as a documentary film producer.
Tuesday, October 21, 2003, 7:00 p.m. - Governing
Image from The Biography Channel, http://www.biography.com/
Biography Close-Up: "So, you want to be President" - Mario Cuomo & George Bush
Why would anyone want to be President of the United States? This is the intriguing question that Harry Smith asked Mario Cuomo, George and Barbara Bush, and other distinguished guests during this insightful program. We'll see the Bush and Cuomo interview segments, woven together with footage of the current race and of races past. This compelling program gives us a feel for what these men and their families endure in attempting to become President of the United States, taking taking a direct, honest look at the men who led our nation and those who might have.
Peabody entry number: 2000242 DCT.
The White House, 1906, from the Library of Congress American Memory site. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
"The Bush White House: Inside the Real West Wing"
With more than a dozen cameras and largely unfettered access to the staff and offices of the West Wing, an NBC News team lead by Tom Brokaw spent a full 24-hour cycle with the President and his top advisors. Of course, the administration was aware the cameras were present -- and of course, preparations were made for the day. But there is only one West Wing, and the world did not stop. The President and his staff could not control the flow of events, whether it was the explosion of questions about the Enron affair, or the latest suicide-bombing in Israel, which occurred as the Israeli Defense Forces Chief-of-Staff was sitting outside the National Security Advisor's office in the West Wing. Americans watching this documentary were able to get a true sense of how their government receives and responds to information in a dangerous and rapidly changing world.
Peabody entry number: 2002016 DCT.
Comedy Central, Indecision 96 voting public service announcements
George Bush, Dan Quayle and Gerald Ford will provide a moment of comic relief in tonights screening by way of these public service announcements from 1996. Each man lampoons the comedian who satirized him, while also urging everyone to vote.
Peabody entry number: 96058 ENT.
The discussant for our Governing screening is Robert Rhudy, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. Robert Rhudy earned his master's degree at Yale University and recently spent a term studying at Oxford University. He has taught UGA's course on the presidency, as well as courses in constitutional law and American government.
Tuesday, October 28, 2003, 7:00 p.m. - Deconstruction of Government
The symbol for Otpor (Resistance), the movement that toppled Milosevic.
Bringing Down a Dictator - 2002 Peabody Award Winner
On October 5, 2000, the final dramatic hours of the Serb struggle against Slobodan Milosevic captured headlines and cover stories around the world. But the "Butcher of the Balkans" defeat was incorrectly billed as a one-day revolution; what the global media failed to recognize was the year-long anti-Milosevic campaign waged by Serbian resistance in partnership with pro-democracy and human rights groups. Using exclusive footage and conversations with the principal players, BRINGING DOWN A DICTATOR reveals to the public what major news organizations did not -- the spectacular defeat of Milosevic, not by force of arms, as many had predicted, but by a brilliant nonviolent strategy of honest elections and massive civil disobedience laced with humor and risk. By exploring how the Serb people's success was hastened by technical and financial assistance from the U.S. and European Union, the film also presents American audiences with a model for a foreign policy in support of popular democratic forces which uses strategic nonviolent actions -- rather than bombs -- in the quest to remove authoritarian regimes.
Peabody entry number: 2002033 DCT.
The discussant for our Deconstruction of Government screening is Jack DuVall, Director of the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict. Over the past two years, he has spoken to a variety of groups about the ideas and issues raised in Bringing Down a Dictator. He is also the co-author, along with Peter Ackerman, of the book A Force More Powerful (New York: St. Martin's, 2000).
Programs screened by Media Archives are also available for viewing in the University of Georgia Libraries Media Department.
For more information, contact the University of Georgia Libraries Media Department at 583-0212 or Mary Miller, mlmiller@uga.edu
