The ACT Human Rights Film Festival: 21st Century Expression of the CSU Land Grant Mission

 

Dr. Greg Dickinson, Chair and Professor, CSU Dept. of Communication Studies will discuss the origin, success, and evolution of the ACT Human Rights Film Festival at Colorado State University as a compelling and relevant expression of the 21st Century land grant mission. From the beginning, land grant universities wove together training and research in applied arts with world-class experiences in the liberal arts and sciences. Today, the liberal arts are central to how students, communities, and citizens experience the land grant mission. Drawing on a deep rhetorical tradition, the ACT Human Rights Film Festival uses the power of film to engage audiences in learning and understanding what it means to be human. The week-long festival seeks to connect and transform lives across a wide variety of human rights and social justice issues. 

Human rights film festivals occur around the world, from Geneva and Glasgow to Melbourne and Mumbai. They are galvanizing cultural events. Very few occur in the United States, and none in Colorado.The ACT Human Rights Film Festival is born out of expertise in the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University in the area of media and visual culture. 

Human rights film festivals bring together, educate, and create a forum for dialogue among artists, filmmakers, citizens, scholars, advocates, and students on social justice issues of every kind. ACT will focus on the issues of LGBTQ rights, human trafficking, the fight for democracy, disability rights, homeless and more – issues which touch our community at a local and global scale.
 
Greg Dickinson is chair of the Department of Communication Studies. He is an award winning teacher and scholar. He has received the College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Teaching Award and the CSU Alumni Best Teacher Award. He writes about ways the buildings and human landscapes engage viewers and users on questions values, beliefs, and action. He has published in numerous communication, cultural studies, and rhetoric journals on coffee shops, shopping malls, museums, and gentrified urban spaces. His book Suburban Dreams: Building and Imagining the Good Life was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2015, and he is completing a co-authored book on the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Along with Scott Diffrient, Carol Busch, and the Department of Communication Studies, he is the producer of the Act Human Rights Film Festival.