SPH Gears Up for Film Festival

Winter 2007

It promises to be provocative, educational, and entertaining. Sound interesting? If so, join the School of Public Health as it celebrates National Public Health Week with a host of compelling films and engaging discussions that are sure to stimulate.

The third annual National Public Health Week film festival begins Monday, April 2, and goes through Friday, April 6. Activities will begin at 5:30 p.m. and take place on campus in the newly remodeled Mayo Memorial Auditorium.

Each night a different theme will be presented on topics that include aging, immigrant health, AIDS/HIV, climate change, and sex education. Experts will participate in panel discussions, as well as answer questions about the films and subject matter—audience interaction is encouraged.

Some of the films that will be screened include An Inconvenient Truth, the Oscar-winning documentary featuring former vice president Al Gore's quest to halt global warming; The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America; State of Denial, a film about AIDS/HIV set in South Africa; Living Old, a look at chronic illness in America; and a series of short sex education films. The sex ed films date back to the 1950s and move up to current times with Think MTV: Campus Guide to Safer Sex and Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque.

The film festival is free and open to the public. For more information about the festival, including directions to the theater and the themes for each night, visit www.sph.umn.edu/ filmfestevents.