2008 Woodie Awards
Documentary gets students "fired up" about globalization
Eirinn Disbrow
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: News
This past Tues., Feb. 5, the College presented a screening of the film Transnational Tradeswomen as part of the Fired Up Film Series, sponsored by the Center for Ethics along with the Media and Communication departments of both the College and Cedar Crest College. The film was shown in the Recital Hall of the Center for the Arts and had an excellent student turnout.
The Center for Ethics has worked with the Fired Up Film Series several times in the past because its documentaries raise provocative social, political, and economic questions.
The Fired Up Film Series was originally conceived by Dr. Jim Schneider, who taught at the College in the Media & Communication Department before he passed away in 2005. He put together the series to design a "fire up" dialogue about social issues that were not being addressed in the mainstream media.
Dr. Lora Taub, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Media and Communication, and Dr. Paul McEwan, Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Film Studies Program, co-direct the series along with Dr. Jim Brancatol, Schneieder's colleague from Cedar Crest College. They have been organizing this series at the College for the last three years so that Schneider's vision of a democratic media can live on.
Taub explains that Transnational Tradeswomen "tells an important untold story about globalization, a story untold by the commercial mass media." The documentary focuses on the role of women in Asia's construction industry and shows how modern technology and globalization can often have negative effects on gender equality.
The creator of the documentary, Vivian Price, was a former construction worker and spent a year documenting women in construction labor. She began wanting to erase any stereotypes Americans have of the delicate, submissive Asian woman but ended up focusing more on how development and mechanization are pushing women out of the industry. The documentary gives a unique perspective on social and economic progress by showing how new technology can at times limit oppurtunities for women in the workplace.
The Center for Ethics has worked with the Fired Up Film Series several times in the past because its documentaries raise provocative social, political, and economic questions.
The Fired Up Film Series was originally conceived by Dr. Jim Schneider, who taught at the College in the Media & Communication Department before he passed away in 2005. He put together the series to design a "fire up" dialogue about social issues that were not being addressed in the mainstream media.
Dr. Lora Taub, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Media and Communication, and Dr. Paul McEwan, Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Film Studies Program, co-direct the series along with Dr. Jim Brancatol, Schneieder's colleague from Cedar Crest College. They have been organizing this series at the College for the last three years so that Schneider's vision of a democratic media can live on.
Taub explains that Transnational Tradeswomen "tells an important untold story about globalization, a story untold by the commercial mass media." The documentary focuses on the role of women in Asia's construction industry and shows how modern technology and globalization can often have negative effects on gender equality.
The creator of the documentary, Vivian Price, was a former construction worker and spent a year documenting women in construction labor. She began wanting to erase any stereotypes Americans have of the delicate, submissive Asian woman but ended up focusing more on how development and mechanization are pushing women out of the industry. The documentary gives a unique perspective on social and economic progress by showing how new technology can at times limit oppurtunities for women in the workplace.