September 11, 2007

Award-winning filmmaker to speak at SIUC

by Eric Welch

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Award-winning documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki next week will deliver the annual Michael and Nancy Glassman Distinguished Lecture at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Jarecki will discuss his 2005 documentary, "Why We Fight," on Tuesday, Sept. 18, at 7:30p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium, with a reception following. Both the lecture and the reception are free and open to the public.

Jarecki will address issues brought up in the film, which won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. "Why We Fight" takes a critical look at the politics of war, specifically the connection between the military and American companies that profit from war, coined the "U.S. military-industrial complex" by late President Dwight Eisenhower.

The Princeton graduate's other works include "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" (2002), winner of the 2002 Amnesty International Award, "The Opponent" (2001), and "Season of the Lifterbees" (1993).

In addition to his work in film, Jarecki is the founder and director of the Eisenhower Project, which studies the driving forces of American foreign policy. He is also a visiting senior fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.

There will be two showings of "Why We Fight" on Sunday, Sept. 16, at 3 and 7 p.m. in Davis Auditorium in the Wham Education Building.

The Michael and Nancy Glassman University Honors Lecture Series is underwritten by a generous endowment from Nancy Kreftmeyer Glassman and her late husband, Michael L. Glassman, both SIUC alumni.