AAP professors promote "Pacem in Terris" in summer film series

​AAP professors Sarah Trembanis, David Teague, and Chanele Moore will be participating in a summer film series/colloquium event in Wilmington from July 11 to Aug. 15. The series is sponsored by Pacem in Terris, a Wilmington-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting "positive peaceful change on the local, national and global level." Pacem in Terris, founded in 1967, is hosting the film series to mark its 50-year anniversary. 

The series includes six of "the best peace and justice films of the last 50 years": Selma  (2014), Gandhi  (1982), To Kill a Mockingbird  (1962), Do the Right Thing  (1989), Schindler's List  (1993), and Dead Man Walking  (1995). Trembanis, Teague, and Moore will join three other UD professors in leading post-screening discussions about the films' places in history and their relevance to today's audiences. The series is being held at Westminster Church, 1502 W. 13th St., Wilmington. Films will be screened at 7:00 p.m. and admission is free.

On July 11, the first night of the series, Dr. Sarah Trembanis, professor of history and faculty coordinator at the Dover AAP campus, will be discussing Selma, the critically acclaimed 2014 historical drama focusing on the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to secure equal voting rights for African-Americans in 1965. "Selma provides a more nuanced view of the 1965 voting rights march and the civil rights movement," Trembanis says. "Martin Luther King is portrayed as fully human, committed to peace and social justice, yet struggling with uncertainty and the weight of conflicts inside and outside of the movement. Selma celebrates the ways in which individuals have sacrificed in order to bring a greater degree of justice and peace." 

​Dr. David Teague, professor of English at the Wilmington campus, will be discussing To Kill a Mockingbird, the celebrated 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee's 1960 novel, on July 25. "To Kill a Mockingbird, especially in its novel form, has provoked moral and ethical epiphanies in three generations of Americans," Teague says. "The film boils the story's moral dimension down to its component parts and presents them in black and white, literally and figuratively, and what I find interesting, and hope to talk about, is how the ethical center of the movie, its vision of evil and of sacrifice for the greater good, has moved to a different place for each succeeding generation of watchers." 

​Dr. D. Chanele Moore, professor of sociology at the Wilmington campus, will be discussing Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee's critically acclaimed 1989 film about racial tension — and eventual violence — on a sweltering day in Brooklyn. "It's a powerful movie about the sensitivities and complexities of race and racism," Moore says. "It pushes us to to think about the boundaries of our pride, rights and responsibilities when dealing with race in our communities." Do the Right Thing and Moore's discussion will be featured on Aug. 1.