WEDU's Community Cinema Returns January 23rd with Screening of Soul Food Junkies

Jan. 14, 2013 - PRLog -- Community Cinema, a national documentary screening series sponsored locally by WEDU, West Coast Florida’s leading PBS station (www.wedu.org/cinema) and Independent Television Service (ITVS) presents a screening of Soul Food Junkies on the Dade City Campus of Pasco Hernando Community College on Wednesday, January 23rd at 6:00pm. The screening event is free and open to the public.

In Soul Food Junkies filmmaker Byron Hurt sets out on a historical and culinary journey to learn more about the soul food tradition and its relevance to black cultural identity. Hurt’s exploration was inspired by his father’s lifelong love affair with the high-fat, calorie-rich traditional soul food diet and his unwillingness to give it up even in the face of a life-threatening health crisis. Hurt discovers that the relationship between African Americans and culinary dishes like ribs, grits, and fried chicken is culturally based, deep-rooted, complex, and often deadly.

Through candid interviews with soul food cooks, historians, and scholars, as well as with doctors, family members, and everyday people, Soul Food Junkies puts this culinary tradition under the microscope to examine both its positive and negative consequences. Hurt also explores the socioeconomic conditions in predominantly black neighborhoods, where it can be difficult to find healthy options, and meets some pioneers in the emerging food justice movement who are challenging the food industry, encouraging communities to “go back to the land” by creating sustainable and eco-friendly gardens, advocating for healthier options in local supermarkets, supporting local farmers' markets, avoiding highly processed fast foods, and cooking healthier versions of traditional soul food.

WHAT: FREE screening of Soul Food Junkies and discussion moderated by PHCC's Director of Multicultural Student Affairs and Equity Services, Mr. Imani Asukile.

WHO: Presented by ITVS Community Cinema, WEDU and Pasco-Hernando Community College. PST Auditorium, Room E-130

WHEN: January 23rd at 6:00pm, followed by discussion.

RSVP: This screening event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and RSVP is requested online at www.wedu.org/cinema

About the Filmmaker
Byron Hurt  (Producer and Director) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, published writer, anti-sexism activist, and lecturer. Hurt is also the former host of the Emmy-nominated series, Reel Works with Byron Hurt. The Independent named him one of the "Top 10 Filmmakers to Watch" in 2011. His most popular documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was later broadcast on Independent Lens. In 2010, MSNBC's TheGrio.com named Beyond Beats and Rhymes one of the "Top 10 Most Important African-American Themed Films of the Decade." Hurts's writings have been published in several anthologies and in the media he has been covered by: The New York Times, O Magazine, AllHipHop.com, NPR, CNN, Access Hollywood, MTV, BET, ABC News World Tonight, Black Enterprise, C-Span, and many other outlets.

About ITVS Community Cinema
ITVS Community is the national community engagement program of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. Through Community Engagement Campaigns in support of groundbreaking, independent films, our innovative educational product ITVS Community Classroom and our flagship community outreach program Community Cinema, ITVS Community works to bring communities together and connect them with information, resources and opportunities for education, engagement and positive change. ITVS Community builds on our 15-year legacy of community engagement activities and makes public broadcasting into a powerful resource for individuals, communities and organizations working on key social issues around the country. For more information visit: http://www.communitycinema.org

About Independent Lens
Independent Lens is an Emmy® Award-winning weekly series airing on PBS. The acclaimed anthology series features documentaries united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of independent filmmakers. Presented by Independent Television Service (ITVS), the series is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding provided by PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation. The senior series producer is Lois Vossen. More information is at www.pbs.org/independentlens. Join Independent Lens on Facebook at www.facebook.com/independentlens.

ABOUT WEDU
WEDU is west central Florida’s leading PBS station and public media company reaching 16 counties through media platforms including on-air programming and online experiences that broaden horizons, transport and transform and open gateways to new ideas and new worlds. Financially supported by the community, the organization offers a wealth of award-winning inspirational, educational and enlightening content over a variety of multi-media platforms including: television programming, station’s website, wedu.org and various social media platforms, monthly member magazine Premiere, educational outreach activities and a myriad of special events.  WEDU’s focus on the local community has resulted in the station being regarded as a beacon of trust for men, women and children of every walk of life no matter their age, ethnicity or socio-economic status. WEDU is a treasured community resource; a window to the world for the homebound and a vital educational source for the youngest members of society.  WEDU prides itself on its position in the Tampa Bay community as a leader, partner, informed citizen and a member of PBS, the most trusted institution in America (Harris Interactive Trust QuickQuery, February 2012).

For more information, program schedules or to support WEDU visit wedu.org; WEDU Public Media on Facebook and Twitter or call 813.254.9338.

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