June 3, 2019
Documentary films by UW faculty members Jeff Shulman, David Shields to screen
Two University of Washington faculty members have films screening in Seattle in coming days — both with strong connections to the city.
Jeff Shulman, professor of marketing in the UW Foster School of Business, is both producer and co-director, with filmmaker Steven Fong, of “On the Brink,” a documentary about gentrification over the years in Seattle’s Central District.
The Foster School and LANGSTON Seattle will host a red-carpet premiere of “On the Brink” at 4 p.m. June 9, at the historic Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Ave. S. in Seattle. The film will be followed by a Q and A with members of the cast and crew. Tickets are $20 and doors open at 3:30 p.m.
There will be another screening at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at the Northwest African American Museum, 2300 S. Massachusetts Street in Seattle, also followed by a discussion. Tickets are $10, available online.
“Seattle’s Central District was the largest enclave of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest. The once-thriving community now finds its very existence threatened by change, which is tearing apart the social fabric of their neighborhood,” production notes state. “With few African Americans left in the Central District, can they overcome the course of change before their community and its rich history vanish? ‘On the Brink’ tells a universal story of a struggle to hold on to a sense of community in the face of change, and finding hope in a time of despair.”
In a Seattle Times story about the film and the Central District, Shulman told writer Tyrone Beason that he and Fong made the film “to acknowledge the pain of the people who are still there by showing them stories of people who feel the same way.” Watch a trailer of the film.
“Lynch: A History” at SIFF
English professor and best-selling author David Shields wrote, produced and directed “Lynch: A History,” an 84-minutes video collage about iconoclastic NFL star and former Seattle Seahawk Marshawn Lynch and his use of silence as a form of protest by remaining seated during pre-game performances of the Star Spangled Banner.
The film is loosely based on Shields’ book “Black Planet” and documents and celebrates what Shields calls “Lynch’s attempt to be true to himself in a capitalist, racist society that wants to exploit him and that he wants to both exploit and oppose.”
“Lynch: A History,” an official documentary selection of the Seattle International Film Festival will be shown today, June 3, at 7 p.m. and at 3:30 p.m. June 5 at the SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N. in Seattle.
- Update: Another showing has been added for 9 p.m. June 9 at Pacific Place Cinemas in Seattle.
Advance tickets are sold, but tickets may be available at the door. Tickets are $15 for the June 3 showing, $11 for the June 5 showing. Watch a trailer of the film.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • David Shields • Department of English • film • Foster School of Business • Jeff Shulman
