March 21, 2019 ALL

Today: Film Event: The Destruction of Memory

Filmmaker Tim Slade joins us for a screening and discussion of The Destruction of Memory, a documentary examining the ongoing assault against world cultures and the battle to save them.
Over the past century, cultural destruction has wrought catastrophic results across the globe. This war against culture has been steadily increasing. In Syria and Iraq, the “cradle of civilization,” millennia of culture are being destroyed. However, the push to protect, salvage, and rebuild has moved in step with the destruction. Legislation and policy have played a role, but heroic individuals have fought back, risking and losing their lives to protect not just other human beings, but our cultural identity—to save the record of who we are.

Based on the book by Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory tells the whole story—looking not just at the ongoing actions of Daesh (ISIS) and at other contemporary situations, but revealing the decisions of the past that allowed the issue to remain hidden in the shadows for so many years. Interviewees in the film include the former Director-General of UNESCO, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as diverse and distinguished international experts whose voices combine to address this urgent issue.

The film, the recipient to date of four film festival awards, continues its journey across the globe with a screening at John Carroll University on Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 pm in the Dolan Center Auditorium. This program is possible through the generous support and sponsorship of JCU’s Miller Chair in Classics, the Associate Dean for Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Ursuline College Historic Preservation Program.

The screening is free and open to the public. There will be a Q&A session immediately following the film, featuring filmmaker Tim Slade, Vast Productions USA, and Michele Stopera Freyhauf, MA, faculty in the department of Theology and Religious Studies. Freyhauf is also a provenance researcher at the Hahn Loeser law firm where she focuses on cultural heritage and art law.

For additional information or event questions, contact JCU’s Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures at language@jcu.edu.