Posts tagged Ringhaver Student Center
Former film exec speaks to Flagler College audience
Oct 12th
A standing-room only audience was treated to a lecture on Oct. 4 by David Kirkpatrick, former President of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures as well as President of Production of both Walt Disney and Touchstone Pictures.
Kirkpatrick began his lecture, entitled “Our Magic Kingdom and the Five Artists Who Shaped It,” with an impressive montage of some of the films he has been involved with over his career including Forrest Gump, Pretty Woman as well as the franchises of Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Beverly Hills Cop among others.
“Magic is interesting because it can change your universe,” said Kirkpatrick, who has won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe award as a producer, the latter of which he brought to pass around to the audience.
Kirkpatrick went on to discuss artists such as J. M. Barrie, J.K. Rowling, Lew Wallace, Jerry Siegel and George Lucas and how the group used magic to tell their stories and shape popular culture.
When his lecture ended, Kirkpatrick answered questions for the audience of Flagler students, faculty and staff and offered advice in the realms of acting, writing, directing and animation.
But his most interesting piece of advice breached an entirely different art form.
“Write a letter,” Kirkpatrick told the audience. “If you’re interested in working with someone, write them a letter. It’s a dying art and a wonderful way to get noticed.”
Kirkpatrick’s lecture in the Gamache-Koger auditorium in the Ringhaver Student Center was presented by the entertainment industry learning community of Flagler College.
Source: Flagler College
Students to host Refugee Awareness Day at Flagler College
Oct 5th
After an intensive summer course on war and genocide in Africa, students Ron Carr and Bridget Cogley, seniors at Flagler, decided to create a refugee awareness day for the college and surrounding community of St. Augustine.
“For a project in the class, we worked with World Relief of Jacksonville, who resettle refugees,”
said Carr. “After we put together a documentary about African refugees, Dr. John Young suggested we put on an event with local refugee organizations.”
And that is just what they’ve done. On October 18th, Carr and Cogley will host a series of events in the Gamache-Koger Theater in the Ringhaver Student Center at Flagler College for a community-wide refugee awareness day.
“Very few people realize we have significant refugee populations here in north Florida,” Carr explained. “They are becoming our neighbors and fellow American citizens. Their stories are incredible and they are part of a greater American story.”
Through the event, Carr and Cogley hope to provide Flagler the opportunity to build relationships between the college and local organizations that reach out to refugees.
“As a college, we should devote our time to bringing people out of crisis and into new lives here in Florida,” said Carr.
The events in the Gamache Theater will be as follows:
1:30pm – Administrative leaders and refugees from Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and World Relief will speak and share problems of refugee resettlement with Flagler students and the public
3:30-6:30pm – A screening of the documentary “The Last Survivor,” will be featured, along with an exhibit of Flagler clubs such as Model UN, Political Guild, Phi Alpha Theta/History Club and Human Rights
7:30pm – A faculty panel on accountability in the global refugee crisis, with Dr. Vanden Houten (mediator), Dr. John Young, Dr. Brenda Kauffman, Dr. Rachel Cremona and Dr. Tina Jaeckle
The event is free and open to the public. The Ringhaver Student Center is at 50 Sevilla St. For more information, contact Ron Carr at RCarr146@flagler.edu.
Source: Flagler College
Constantine Santas to examine the films of David Lean
Sep 27th
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have something in common. They’ve both cited one man as a major source of inspiration in their work: the great David Lean.
Lean has long been recognized as one of the greatest film directors of all time, known for such classic epic films as “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago” and “A Passage to India.”
Lean has long been recognized as one of the greatest film directors of all time, known for such classic epic films as “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago” and “A Passage to India.”
On Wednesday, October 17 at 7 p.m. Dr. Constantine Santas will discuss his latest book “The Epics of David Lean” in the Gamache-Koger Theater in the Ringhaver Student Center at Flagler College. Santas is professor emeritus and former chair in the Flagler Department of English. He is also the author of “Responding to Film” and “The Epic in Film: from Myth to Blockbuster.”
Santas has long been fascinated with the epic film and with Lean’s work in particular. And with good reason: widely regarded as one of cinema’s most accomplished directors, David Lean twice received the Academy Award for best director, and two of his films, “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Lawrence of Arabia” won the Oscar for best picture. Both are featured on the American Film Institute’s Top 100.
But despite the awards and accolades for these motion pictures, many critics often look more favorably upon the smaller films that Lean produced earlier in his career, and in recent years his reputation as a director has diminished. In his newest book, Santas seeks to restore these now undervalued epics to the elevated esteem they once held. He argues that the epics show a progression and refinement of Lean’s work and that they are thematically broader and feature more complex characterization than his earlier films. In his talk at Flagler, he will provide background material on the production of each epic; examine insights into structure, characters, techniques, and themes; and look into the relationship between the films and their literary sources.
“The idea for this book started back in the 1990s, when I read a paper on ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai,’ at a Flagler Colloquium, sponsored by the English Department, under Professor Carl Horner,” remembers Santas. “I was drawn by the artistic values of the epics of David Lean, several of which I taught in my film classes regularly. One particular aspect of the epics that gave me food for thought was that all of them were derived from literary sources. That fact motivated me to connect literature, T.E. Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” for instance, which became the basis for “Lawrence of Arabia,” with film studies.”
Santas credits an ongoing fascination with the epics, as well as the assistance of the Flagler community, with helping him to write the book. “I believed that there were universal values in all the epics, and I was more convinced that this was so as I progressed in my research, considerably aided by the librarians at Flagler College,” he says. “I express my gratitude to them, to my colleagues, and especially to my students at Flagler over the years for keeping the flame alive.”
The reading and discussion will be held in the Gamache-Koger Theater at the Ringhaver Student Center at 50 Sevilla Street. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodations, please contact Lynn Francisco at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice. Call (904) 819-6339 or visit www.flagler.edu/our-community/events/writers-in-residence for more information.
Source: Flagler College
