Peace films screen at Little Art

By Virgil Hervey

For six weeks at the end of summer, the Little Art Theatre will co-host a Dayton Peace Museum sponsored film festival with Dayton’s Neon Theater. Under the banner of the first annual ScreenPeace Film Festival, a selection of six films will explore the peace film as a genre. The proceeds will benefit the Dayton Peace museum.

The eclectic collection of movies, Ghandi, Broken Arrow, Joyeux Noel, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Hero, and Woodstock, will be shown at the Little Art Theatre at 12:30 p.m. on consecutive Sundays, starting on Sunday, Aug. 12. For many, it will be their first chance to see these classic films on the big screen.

According to the festival’s founding director Thomas Girvin, until now there has been no such thing as a peace film genre.

“War films and anti-war films have been important genres, but there is no peace genre per se,” said Girvin, who is a volunteer with the Peace Museum. “And where better to do it than the Dayton area, which is becoming a center for peace.”

The films, which range in age from the 1950s to 2005, cover the genres of science fiction, rock-and-roll, martial arts, the western, and the war movie. According to Girvin, they are entertaining movies that in their own way promote peace. In The Day the Earth Stood Still, aliens who come with good will land a flying saucer in the middle of Washington, D.C. When nervous soldiers fire on them, they realize that the people of Earth are not ready for peace.

Perhaps the only true “peace film” in the bunch is the biography of Mahatma Ghandi, the father of nonviolent protest. Girvin notes that the films were chosen for their “family friendly” qualities.

When Girvin called Little Art owner Jenny Cowperthwaite with his idea, she jumped on it, she said.

“I love the Peace Museum and what they are doing,” Cowperthwaite said. “I am happy to co-host this with the Neon. I’m glad they thought to include Yellow Springs.”

New events bring new faces to town, and Cowperthwaite appreciates any opportunity to interface with the larger community, she said.

“It’s like throwing a party, inviting people and telling them to bring a friend.”

Either Girvin or another film buff will give a 5–10 minute introduction before the screening of each film. Organizers also plan to provide a space and facilitators for discussion groups after the movies. Girvin himself, however, will be too busy to stay. In a scene reminiscent of the 1988 Italian movie Cinema Paradiso, he will take each film immediately after it is screened at the Little Art and drive it to Dayton to be shown at the Neon.

Girvin has lined up Jerry Holt, Antioch University McGregor Dean of Liberal Studies, to help with some of the introductions and discussion groups. Holt taught a McGregor MIIND series seminar last year titled “Produced and Abandoned: The Greatest Movies You Never Saw,” about how good movies came to be lost or deliberately suppressed. He is enthusiastic about ScreenPeace, especially the showing of his long-time favorite, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Global Gallery Manager Terry Pope, another self-described film expert, is also interested in being involved, Girvin said.

Girvin, who spent 15 years as a screenwriter in Hollywood, holds a master of fine arts in cinema production from the University of Southern California Film School and has done doctoral work in communications at Ohio State University. He currently teaches at the Cincinnati/Dayton campus of the University of Phoenix and plans to teach a course in peace cinema as a part of the peace studies program at Antioch College in the fall. The course will explore what might constitute the conventions of the peace film genre, he said.

Girvin is looking for support from local businesses. In addition to advertising opportunities ranging from $100 to $500, sponsorship for individual films at $1,000 a piece is still available. The India Foundation is sponsoring Ghandi, and the Veterans for Peace are sponsoring Joyeux Noel, he said. Girvin has advertising commitments from several local businesses, and Global Gallery and McGregor have indicated they will participate in sponsorship as well, he said.

There are plenty of opportunities for the Yellow Springs community to get involved in what he hopes will become an annual film festival. According to Girvin, WYSO has already been very helpful in plugging ScreenPeace. There may be a social event before the first screening, and there will be a wrap party at Peach’s after the festival, he said.

“I have done my part for six months as a film professional,” Girvin said. “Now it’s up to Yellow Springs to make something more out of it.”

Interested businesses and volunteers can reach Girvin at 937-434-1136. For more information on ScreenPeace, visit www.daytonpeacemuseum.org.

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com