Name: Speaking Truth to Power: How Entertainment Can Tackle the Thorniest Social Issues (and Change the World)
Start: 2017-10-28T12:30:00-0500
End: 2017-10-28T13:45:00-0500

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Speaking Truth to Power: How Entertainment Can Tackle the Thorniest Social Issues (and Change the World)

No one needs a reminder that social issues in America and worldwide are at a boiling point. In the words of Oscar Wilde,“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” Whether it’s a laugh, a jump scare, or just a really good story, you can engage and provoke a debate through entertainment and that is the privilege and responsibility of the artist. This panel discusses how film and television can reveal truth and change minds under guise of entertaining the audience. Or did someone tap a teacup?
This panel is co- presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Educational Initiatives and ScreenCraft Media

Moderators

S. Craig Watkins

Moderator

S. Craig Watkins is a Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, in the Moody College of Communication. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan. Craig has written three books that examine the media entertainment industry. His work considers, for example, the... Read More →

Panelists

Effie Brown

producer Dear White People, In the Cut, Real Women Have Curves, Project Greenlight

Effie T. Brown is an award winning film and television Producer, known for her highly acclaimed, multi-platform repertoire as well as championing inclusion and diversity in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera.Through her company, Duly Noted Inc., Brown has produced several... Read More →

Reggie Rock Bythewood

creator Shots Fired; writer Notorious, Get on the Bus

Reggie Rock Bythewood grew up in the Bronx, NY. He attended the High School of Performing Arts and received a BFA in theater from Marymount Manhattan College. As a teen, he acted in the soap opera Another World alongside Morgan Freeman and Joe Morton. After acting in the John Sayles... Read More →

Barbara Stepansky

writer Flint; 2013 Nicholl Fellow

Barbara Stepansky is a 2013 Nicholl Fellow and an award-winning independent writer/director. Her work was short listed for the Academy Awards, garnered the DGA Diversity Award and the Student Emmy and was featured on the Black List. She is the recipient of the Mary Pickford Foundation... Read More →

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