Lawrence University News

APPLETON, WIS. -- The Tournees Festival returns to Lawrence University in mid-January with its mix of award-winning French cinema. Five films will be shown three times each during the month-long festival, which was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture.

The films, in French with English subtitles, will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium on the Lawrence campus. Admission is $3. An informal discussion session led by a faculty member of the Lawrence French department will be conducted following each Saturday evening screening.

Launched in 1995 by the French-American Cultural Exchange and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Tournees festival provides colleges and university access to new French films that are normally only distributed in major cities. Lawrence was awarded a grant to serve as a Tournees film series host institution for the second straight year.

The films and dates are as follows.

Jan 10, 11, 12 "Paris, je t'aime" ("Paris, I Love You"), 2006, 116 min., rated R

A patchwork of 18 short films by major international directors each shot at a different locale in Paris. Featuring such notable actors as Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, Elijah Wood, Ben Gazzara and Catherine Deneuve, each film explores the fragile relationships that bind people who have recently met as well people who know each other well. Among the various narratives that make up this portrayal of Paris is a man torn between his wife and his lover and a father who grapples with a complex relationship with his daughter.

Jan. 17, 19, 20 (No showing on Jan. 18) -- "La Moustache," 2005, 86 min., Not rated

Winner of the International Critics Award (FIPRESCI Prize) at the Chicago International Film Festival, the film follows the torment of a man who impulsively shaves off the moustache he's worn his entire adult life. Hoping to surprise his wife and friends, he's stunned when they insist he's never had a moustache. While he thinks it's all a charade, he eventually explodes in frustration. His wife and his friends suspect he's gone crazy and conspire to have him committed to a psychiatric facility.

Jan. 24, 25, 26 -- "Daratt," 2006, 96 min., Not Rated

Set in Chad following a devastating civil war, the film follows young Atim, whose father was murdered before his birth during the conflict, as he seeks revenge on his father's killer. Instead of finding a cold-blooded murderer, Atim meets a charitable baker who seeks redemption through religion. Atim can not bring himself to kill the man in cold blood, so he goes to work for him as his assistant, creating a strange and complex relationship. The film received the Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.

Jan. 31, Feb. 1, 2 -- "A tout de suite" ("Right Now"), 2004, 95 min., Not Rated
Lili, an impulsive, 19-year-old living in Paris meets a mysterious, young Moroccan man with whom she falls instantly in love. After learning of his involvement in a botched bank robbery, she flees Paris with him and his two friends, embarking on a cross-continent escape through Spain, Morocco and Greece. As the police close in, Lili is abandoned and left penniless in Athens. She eventually returns to Paris hoping to pick up the pieces of her life, but never quite recovers.

Feb. 7, 8, 9 -- "Indigenes" ("Days of Glory"), 2006, 120 min. Rated R
Told through the stories of four courageous men, the film relates the forgotten role of the 20,000 Africans and 130,000 natives of North Africa who were recruited to help liberate France in World War II. Known as "Indigenes," and often sent to the front lines of the battlefield, the soldiers faced tremendous racism both in the military and French society, forcing them to struggle for equality at every turn. The film received the 2007 Lumiere Award for best screenplay and the Cesar Award for best writing.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Dance, movement, theater, text, live music, contemporary pop songs and improvisation will be incorporated in Milwaukee-based Wild Space Dance Company's performance of "Balancing Forces" Friday, Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. in Lawrence University's Stansbury Theatre.

Tickets for the performance, at $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, can be purchased at the Lawrence University Box Office in the Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, 920-832-6749. The performance is free for Lawrence faculty, staff and students.

The work, which explores the wildly dynamic convergence of balance and the forces that hold or release us from that state, was created through a collaborative process that drew upon choreography and movement concepts from several company dancers.

"I wanted to explore a new process for developing work that would more fully engage company members as choreographers while maintaining an ensemble approach to creating an evening long work" said artistic director Debra Loewen.

"Balancing Forces" features the work of 1998 Lawrence graduate Seth Warren-Crow, who composed several new selections for the project and provides a blend of sampled music and text from various artists with live accompaniment during the performance.

Founded in founded in 1986, Wild Space Dance Company has served as a company-in-residence at Lawrence since 2000. Hailed as "richly imaginative and witty" by the New York Times, Wild Space is known for site-specific works and artistic collaborations.

APPLETON, WIS. -- People and places of the rural Midwest and works from the founding artists of the Die Brucke movement of German Expressionism will be featured in the latest exhibition at Lawrence University's Wriston Art Center galleries. The exhibition runs Jan. 18 - March 9.

Photographers Julie Lindemann and John Shimon, both assistant professors of art at Lawrence, will jointly deliver the exhibition's opening lecture Friday, Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. A reception will follow the address, which is free and open to the public.

Portraits of everyday people and panoramas of rural landscapes from the Midwest assembled for "J. Shimon & J. Lindemann: Sentimental and Specific" will be exhibited in both the Hoffmaster and Kohler galleries. The exhibition also will include an installation of vintage film projectors and numerous cast-off televisions featuring films and videos of their many and varied subjects.

Collaborators since the mid-1980s, Lindemann and Shimon have focused their cameras on the remote corners of the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin's Manitowoc County. Among their photographic projects are "Animal Husbandry," "Midwestern Rebellion" and "Pictures of Non-Famous People." Their 2004 book, "Season's Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree," received national media attention, including a segment on "CBS Sunday Morning."

Prints from Lawrence's La Vera Pohl German Expressionism Collection will be shown in the Leech Gallery. The display will include the work of painters Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

Wriston Art Center hours are Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday from noon - 4 p.m. The gallery is closed Mondays. For more information, call 920-832-6621 or visit http://www.lawrence.edu/news/wriston/.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Social commentator, actress and comedienne Nancy Giles will be the keynote speaker at the 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Monday, Jan. 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel. The theme for this year's event is "Dr. King's Legacy: What is our Responsibility?"

The celebration, co-sponsored by Lawrence and the organization Toward Community: Unity in Diversity, is free and open to the public. WFRV-TV CBS 5 is a media partner for the event.

"I'm proud of the way the Lawrence University Diversity Center has worked tirelessly toward developing and sustaining relationships with our fellow Fox Valley community members and organizations," said Erik Farley, assistant dean of students for multicultural affairs. "It is an honor to be a part of a community event that not only highlights the importance and benefits of multicultural thinking and actions, but makes a conscious effort to involve representatives from various constituencies in the planning process. The annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration is indeed the product of those kind of concentrated efforts."

Giles, a native of Queens, N.Y., and a graduate of Oberlin College, is best known for her perceptive, provocative and funny social observations on race, feminism and sexism for the award-winning program "CBS Sunday Morning."

She began her performance career with Chicago's famed Second City improv troupe and has since worked regularly in television, film, radio and the theatre. She appeared in nearly a dozen television series, including recurring roles on the Emmy-winning "China Beach" and "Delta," as well as guest roles on "Law and Order," "Spin City" and HBO's "Dream On."

Giles also has appeared in 10 movies, among them Clint Eastwood's "True Crimes," Woody Allen's "New York Stories" and Mike Nichols' "Working Girl." She worked on New York City radio's "The Jay Thomas Morning Show" as the host's sidekick and earned two Gracie Awards for "best talk show/radio" for her work as co-host of Philadelphia's "Giles and Moriarity" program.

In addition to Giles' address, the program will include a performance by the Appleton North High School choir and a audience participation rendition of the African-American national anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" led by Lawrence junior Sirgourney Tanner.

Highlighting the event will be the presentation by Toward Community of the annual Jane LaChapelle McCarty Unity in Diversity Award to an area individual who has made great strides in bringing different people in the community together.

Winning essays addressing the question "Dr. King's Legacy: What is our Responsibility" written by area students will be read as part of the celebration.

"The King Celebration affords us all an opportunity to deepen our knowledge of and appreciation for an extraordinary man and his work," said Jeff Kuepper, Toward Community: Unity in Diversity representative. "King's emphasis on social justice and non-violence continue to speak as a challenge to us today."

A sign language interpreter will be present for the program and a reception for all in attendance will follow.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Ladies and gentlemen, start your (search) engines.

Once again, copious amounts of insignificant knowledge and advanced Internet skills will be put to the test when the 43rd edition of Lawrence University's annual Great Midwest Trivia Contest -- the country's longest-running salute to all things trivial -- kicks off Friday, Jan. 25.

The 50-hour marathon of minutia that simultaneously challenges the brains and tickles the funny bones of hundreds of players on campus and around the country with its grab-bag of questions, eclectic music and off-beat humor, begins anew at precisely 10:00.37 p.m. and ends at midnight Sunday, Jan. 27. For the third year running, the contest will be webcast on WLFM, the Lawrence campus radio station, at www.lawrence.edu/sorg/trivia.

During the contest, questions of varying point values are asked in three-minute intervals via the Internet while teams call in their answers to the WLFM studios.

From its armadillo mascot to its first-place prizes unfit for even the cheesiest white elephant exchange, the trivia contest is steeped in tradition. Following one of the more time-honored ones, Lawrence President Jill Beck will open the weekend's trivial pursuit by asking the contest's first question, which, also by tradition, is always the final question of the previous year.

After two years as a participant and one year as a mere master, James Prichard carries the coveted mantle of "Grand Master" for this year's contest.

"You're the most important person on campus for 50 all-too-short hours," said Prichard, a senior from Northfield, Minn. "President Beck gets to ask the first question, but then she has to abdicate to the trivia masters for the next 49 hours and 57 minutes."

After some gentle tweaking, Prichard promises a 2008 contest that will run "smoother than ever. We've really worked on the logistics."

Prichard is hoping to make more of a connection this year between current students playing on campus and the legions of trivia fans participating throughout the Fox Cities and beyond by offering some new "theme hours" during the weekend that focus on landmark events from previous year's contests.

"I think some of the people who have been playing trivia for a long time will really appreciate it and enjoy it," said Prichard. "And I hope current students get a little better sense of some of the long traditions of the contests."

Two trivia teams have dominated the contest in recent years the way the Boston Celtics once ruled the NBA and UCLA owned college basketball. Amid whispers of retirement, the Bank of Kaukauna juggernaut, winners of seven straight off-campus titles, returns with its high-tech collection of computers with multiple direct connections and load balancing routers, a customized data management repository and even its own specialized score management system.

Employing a considerably less technological tack, the Yuai community has racked up five straight on-campus crowns. With a team typically numbering around 20 -- both current students as well as past team members who make a late January trek back to campus -- the Yuais approach to its trivia rivals is simple and straight forward according to team member Robby Sutton: destroy.

"Most of us take trivia very seriously," said Sutton, a junior from Appleton. "My trivia needle is definitely on fanatical. That's where it needs to be or else we lose.

"Remember," Sutton added, "it's all fun and games, unless it's trivia. Then it's war."

The Lawrence trivia contest still serves as a mid-winter siren call to Appleton for many die-hard players, but the switch to a webcast format has turned the contest into a world-wide event. Last year answers to questions arrived from as far away as Europe and Japan.

The contest has undergone its share of changes, mostly technological, since making its debut in 1966 as an alternative for students who didn't participate in an academic retreat with professors. But one thing that hasn't changed over the past four-plus decades is the no. 1 rule of the entirely student-run contest: have fun.

"It's a project that you can really get into," said Prichard, explaining why he devotes so much of his time to planning and organizing the contest, as well as writing a fair number of its questions. "It's easy to become consumed by it.

"If at the end of the weekend, everyone who played, everyone who just listened in for a while, all the volunteers who asked questions and answered phones can say they had a great time, then we'll be able to say 'mission accomplished.'"

While no team came up with the correct answer to last year's final brain teaser -- the traditional "Super Garruda" -- any trivia team worth its clever name will pick up an easy 100 points when that same question reopens this year's contest. Make a note: Francis Scott Key, Mary Pickersgill, Major Armistead, Rebecca Young, Carolyn Pickersgill, and Neighborhood Cat are the six caricatures framed on the wall of the children's interactive learning room in the Jean and Lillian Hofmeister building of The War of 1812 Museum.

APPLETON, WIS. -- The Bank of Kaukauna captured its eighth consecutive off-campus title over the weekend in Lawrence University's 43rd Great Midwest Trivia Contest. With 1,325 points, The Bank finished comfortably ahead of runner-up Six Feet Under, which tallied 1,210 points. Subprime Iowans were third with 1,160 points. The win was the 10th in the past 12 years for the Kaukauna-based team, which received a broken telephone signed by all the trivia masters as a first-place prize.

Bucky's made it six straight wins among on-campus student teams, edging Morgan Freeman and the North Side, 1,168-1,113. Finishing third on campus was 1972 Soviet Baskyetbol with 1,029 points. Bucky's was awarded a Batman stocking for its win.

A total of 366 questions were asked during the 50-hour contest that ended at midnight Sunday, Jan. 27. Twelve on-campus and 72 off-campus teams participated during the weekend.

No team was able to answer this year's "Super Garruda," the contest's final question, which asked: "In the 'Citadel of Opportunity' section of 'An Invitation to the International Olympic Committee to celebrate the XIX Olympiad at Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.,' there is a photograph of a girl wearing a sign around her neck. This sign bears the name of what notable figure?" The answer was Josephine Baker.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University's Black Organization of Students will host the seventh annual Celebration of Black Heritage dinner and program Saturday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. in the Buchanan Kiewit Recreation Center gymnasium. The theme for this year's event is "Coming From Where I'm From: Celebrating the African Diaspora at Lawrence."

The event includes an ethnic dinner, followed by a program featuring poetry readings, singing and traditional dances from Africa and Jamaica performed by students. Members of BOS also will share stories of their personal experiences.

Tickets, at $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under, are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749. Tickets also will be sold at the door for $12 the night of the event. For more information, contact the Lawrence University Diversity Center, 920-832-7051.

APPLETON, WIS. -- British-born author, award-winning journalist and noted conservative political blogger Andrew Sullivan examines the U.S. political landscape Tuesday, Feb. 5 in a Lawrence University convocation.

Sullivan presents "American Politics: A View from Home and Abroad" at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton. Sullivan also will conduct a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in the Coffeehouse of the Lawrence Memorial Union. Both events are free and open to the public.

A senior editor at The Atlantic and a columnist for The Sunday Times of London, Sullivan was among the first mainstream journalists to experiment with blogging. Known for its insights on current events and people in the news, Sullivan's blog, "The Daily Dish" on the homepage of The Atlantic.com, has become one of the country's most widely read political blogs, helping establish Sullivan as one of America's most influential intellectuals.

Sullivan has written three books, including "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back." Published in 2006, it traces the shift in political conservatism from a narrowly defined political philosophy to a concept dominated by religious fundamentalism.

His first book, 1995's "Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality," examined gay rights from four perspectives -- prohibitionist, liberationist, conservative and liberal. In his second book, "Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival," Sullivan presented a series of essays on the deep connections between homosexuality and friendship.

Educated at Oxford and Harvard universities, Sullivan began his journalism career as an intern at The New Republic magazine while still a student. In 1987, he was appointed an associate editor at TNR, the youngest in the magazine's history, and four years later was named its editor-in-chief.

Under Sullivan's editorship, The New Republic earned a reputation as one of the nation's most lively and controversial journals of opinion, addressing issues of race relations and gay rights. AdWeek recognized Sullivan with its Editor-of-the-Year Award in 1996.

During his career, Sullivan also has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine. He has appeared frequently on "The Chris Matthews Show" and NPR's "Talk of the Nation" as well as many other public affairs programs, among them "Meet the Press," "Nightline" and "Face the Nation."