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• 'Documented' filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas to open IU Media School speaker series

'Documented' filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas to open IU Media School speaker series

Investigative reporter Katherine Boo and photographer Carolyn Jones also coming to campus

• Sept. 2, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Media School will bring award-winning filmmakers and journalists to campus this fall as guests of its speaker series, which is free and open to the public.

Jose Antonio Vargas, writer and director of the documentary "Documented," a film that chronicles his life as a child immigrating from the Philippines to his decision to publicize his legal status, will open the series with a presentation at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 in Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St.

Vargas was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team at The Washington Post that covered the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. In 2011, he wrote about his undocumented immigrant status in The New York Times magazine, putting a personal face on a national issue. He also is founder of Define American, a nonprofit media and culture organization. "Documented" will be shown in the auditorium at 5 p.m., before Vargas' lecture.

Katherine Boo, an investigative journalist for The New Yorker, will speak at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 in Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union.

Boo is author of "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity," which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2012 and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2013. Her work as a reporter often has told stories of the disadvantaged and voiceless, and she is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and a National Magazine Award, among others.

She was a recipient of a MacArthur “genius" award in 2002. This talk is co-sponsored with the College Arts and Humanities Institute and the Kelley School of Business Common Read Program.

Another documentary filmmaker, Carolyn Jones, will wrap up the fall series with a presentation at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave.

As a breast cancer patient, Jones was awed by her nurses, one in particular to whom she credits her recovery. She was inspired to create "The American Nurse," a documentary that profiles five nurses working in disparate circumstances around the country and addresses the national issue of health care through their -- and their patients’ -- personal stories. The film will be shown at 5:15 p.m., and Jones will speak afterward.

The Media School Speaker Series formerly was a program within IU Journalism. The Media School launched July 1 and comprises the Department of Journalism, Department of Telecommunications and Department of Communication and Culture. The speaker series aims to give IU students and area residents the opportunity to hear some of the top media professionals in the country. Check out the website to read about previous guests.

Related Links

• The Media School