Scene and Unseen: Facing Race Through Film
Scene and Unseen: Facing Race Through Film

Scene & Unseen: Facing Race Through Film

February 8-9, 2019
St. Paul’s Chapel

This conference will use film as a vehicle to engage in conversations about structural racism, both past and present, and faith. Participants will explore how cinema can reveal entrenched inequities, foster dialogue, and ignite transformation towards healing and reconciliation. These conversations in our faith communities aren’t optional; they are the gospel.

Watch Trinity’s Theologian-in-Residence, the Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, talk with Dr. Greg Garrett about the intersection of faith, film, and racial justice you can expect to find at Scene & Unseen .

 
 
 

In lieu of Trinity Institute, in 2019 Trinity Church Wall Street’s Faith Formation & Education and Justice & Reconciliation departments are co-hosting this important conference in 2019. We welcome past Trinity Institute participants to attend or stream this event on-demand.

Register Now

 

Keynote Speaker

Melissa Harris-Perry, Ph.D, professor and Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University and founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center

 

Professor Melissa Harris-Perry is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University. There she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center and Wake the Vote. She is an award-winning author and sought after public speaker.

 

 

Collaborators/Speakers

  • The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, theologian and author, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God; Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Seminary

  • Greg Garrett, PhD, Professor of English at Baylor University and author, The Gospel According to Hollywood

  • Catherine Meeks, PhD, Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing and editor of Living into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America

  • Michael B. Gillespie, Associate Professor of Film at The City College of New York, CUNY and author of Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film

  • Stanley T. Talbert, Ph.D. candidate, Union Theological Seminary, writer

  • Lisa L. Thompson, Assistant Professor of Homiletics, Union Theological Seminary, New York and author of Ingenuity: Preaching as an Outsider

  • Melanie DeMore, vocal activist

 

Schedule of Events

Friday, February 8
Film Screening & Panel Discussion - Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing

Released thirty years ago, this Academy Award-nominated film ultimately asks its audience how we can know and do the right thing in the face of ignorance, oppression, and the threat of violence. The panel will explore the film theologically, culturally, and politically.

The Friday event is free and open to the public.

AGENDA (subject to change):

6:00 pm - Welcome and Opening Remarks

6:15 pm - Screening: Do the Right Thing

8:15 pm - Panel Discussion
Kelly Brown Douglas, theological perspective
Greg Garrett, cultural perspective
Melissa Harris-Perry, political perspective
Moderator: Michael B. Gillespie (City College of New York)

9:00 pm - Adjourn

Saturday, February 9
A full day of talks, panels, and reflection groups

These events will explore how the primary narrative medium of our time can inform and nurture preaching, action, and formation.

AGENDA (subject to change):

9:00 am - Registration Opens | Continental Breakfast, St. Paul's Chapel

10:00 am - Welcome & Warmup (song & prayer) - Melanie DeMore (Vocal Activist)

10:15 am - Keynote: Melissa Harris-Perry

10:45 am - Theology and Film Panel 
Kelly Brown Douglas (Episcopal Divinity School)
Greg Garrett (Baylor University)
Stanley Talbert (Union Theological Seminary)
Q&A

11:30 am - Break

11:45 am - Table Group reflections on the morning's presentations

12:30 pm - Lunch 

1:15 pm - Preaching Film & Race
Lisa Thompson (Union Theological Seminary)
Q&A

2:00 pm - Race & Reconciliation
Catherine Meeks (Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing)
Q&A

3:00 pm - Table Groups

4:00 pm - Break 

4:15 pm - Where Do We Go from Here?
Kelly Brown Douglas & Greg Garrett
Dialogue and Q&A

Closing Remarks

5:00 pm - Adjourn

Reception, Film Screening & Panel Discussion – Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal’s Blindspotting

The evening begins with a reception including appetizers and beverages (wine & non-alcoholic offerings) and an opportunity to network with fellow conference participants and speakers, followed by a screening and panel discussion of the 2018 film Blindspotting. This critically acclaimed film offers a story about friendship and the intersection of race and class set against the backdrop of rapidly gentrifying Oakland.

AGENDA (subject to change):

5:15 pm - Reception | Make connections, continue the conversation

6:15 pm - Welcome and Opening Remarks

6:30 pm - Screening: Blindspotting

8:00 pm - Panel Discussion
Kelly Brown Douglas, theological perspective
Greg Garrett, cultural perspective
Melissa Harris-Perry, political perspective
Moderator: Michael B. Gillespie (City College of New York)

8:45 pm - Adjourn

Registration

  • A sliding scale for registration is offered for those participating in the full conference ($100-$300). For groups of 4 or more, student discount codes, or payment by check, please contact christianformation@trinitywallstreet.org.

  • For those who wish to attend only the Saturday evening reception, film screening, and panel discussion, tickets are $40.

  • Discounted room blocks have been arranged with local hotels.

Education