Artists in Person

The four films in this year’s diverse and wide-ranging program of masters

projects from the Graduate School of Journalism can be seen as pairs of

films in dialogue, illuminating seemingly conflicting points of view and

exposing the underlying tensions and complexities in journalistic narratives

and human-interest expositions.

In Whose Interest? (David Kaplowitz, MJ ’02, 27 mins), a polemical look

at the casualties of U.S. foreign policy after World War II, acutely resonates

in the aftermath of 9/11, while Afghan Elvis (Matthew MacLean, MJ ’02,

27 mins) documents an aspect of that aftermath: it presents the trials,

both political and spiritual, of local Afghan American youths struggling

to understand and appreciate the rich artistic and musical heritage of

a country with a volatile history.

In Good Faith (Kelly Davis, Megan Lardner, MJ ’02 22 mins), investigating

the effects of the construction of a Nissan manufacturing plant on property

owners in Canton, Mississippi, is paired with Celestial Real Estate (Yvonne

Kennedy, MJ ’02 , 24 mins), which explores problems of property and commerce

in a strikingly different way-by looking at the burial industry, the selling

of plots and ceremonies.-Nima Bassiri

Curated by Nima Bassiri, a graduate student in the Department of Rhetoric

and Film Studies, and Kim Smith, an undergraduate student in the Department

of Anthropology.