Film, Panel Events to Accompany 'Betrayed' Production
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Three events will accompany the Williams College '62 Center for Theatre and Dance's presentation of the award-winning play "Betrayed," April 16-17.The film "Lioness" will be screened on Monday, April 13, at 7 p.m. at Images Cinema on Spring Street. The screening (run time 81 minutes) will be introduced by Magnus Bernhardsson, professor of history at Williams College, and be followed by discussion with filmmakers Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers.
Bernhardsson teaches courses on the Iraq, Iran, the modern Middle East, and on U.S. relations with the Middle East.
"Lioness" relates the story of women serving as Army support soldiers, part of the first program in American history to send women into direct ground combat. The film describes them as being equipped with inferior training compared to their male counterparts but with equal fervor to service. It details the struggle of these young women in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq war as well as their return home as part of this country's first generation of female combat veterans.
On Tuesday, April 14, at 7 p.m., associate professor of art Liza Johnson will moderate a panel titled "War Stories: Artists, Filmmakers, and Scholars Consider the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." The event will take place in the '62 Center's Directing Studio.
The panel will feature Michael Rackowitz, associate professor of art theory and practice at Northwestern University, McLagan, and journalist and "Betrayed" playwright George Packer. The event is made possible by the W. Ford Schumann '50 Program in Democratic Studies.
Director and producer Edet Belzberg's 2008 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection "The Recruiter" (run time 86 minutes) will be screened at Images on Monday, April 20, at 7 p.m. The film will be introduced by Bernhardsson and be followed with postscreening discussion with the filmmaker.
"The Recruiter" follows one Army recruiter's struggle to enlist new soldiers in his hometown of Houma, La. Through protagonist Sgt. 1st Class Clay Usie, one of the most successful Army recruiters in America, the film offers a perspective on the drama surrounding enlistment. The sergeant sets his sight on four teenagers with varying rationales for national service.
For more information, call 413-597-2425. All events are free and open to the public.
