Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

BSU stirs up emotion with documentaries

Despite starting an hour late and having low attendance, the Black Student Union (BSU) had its first movie night for Black History Month.

But when no one had the movies “Emmett Till” and “Four Little Girls,” officers scrambled to find another movie in the University Center’s movie collection to watch. Within an hour, BSU President Taylor Johns was able to find the movies online that they were going to originally show. Six were in attendance, four of whom were officers. 

“It was miscommunication between [BSU] and Student Activities,” Janelle Pratt, a sophomore criminal justice major, said.

“Four Little Girls” is a documentary directed by Spike Lee about the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four African-American girls.  The movie showed archival photos of the four victims that were continuously being displayed on the screen during interviews.

“It was dramatic for me to see that people would go that far to kill children,” Auja Jones, a junior broadcasting and digital media major, said.

“The pictures of the bodies were very touching,” Jones said.

Jones said that what amazed her the most was that people back then were strong enough to fight without violence.

“‘Four Little Girls'” was very informative of that time period,” Johns said. “There were a lot of bombings going on at the time. The KKK was not punished at the time this incident happened.”

Racism might not be as prominent today than it was back in that time period. 

“We are better, but we’re not there yet. There is always room for improvement,” Jones said.

After the showing of “Four Little Girls,” they showed a seven minute movie clip of “Emmett Till.”

According to movies.msn.com, “Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black teen from Chicago, was visiting relatives near the town of Money, Miss., in August 1955. After leaving a small grocery store, Till allegedly whistled at the white woman behind the counter. Though he did not know it at the time, the teenager had broken a cardinal rule in the Jim Crow South ? and within a few days, his battered and mutilated body was found in the Tallahatchie River. Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, insisted that Till’s body not be cosmetically altered by the undertaker, but that the boy’s ravaged and befouled corpse be displayed in an open coffin for all to see.”

“It was my favorite document about the civil rights,” Pratt said. “They [the victims] were young and did not know what was going on.”

“I saw the movies before,” Charles Batts, a junior dance major, said. “In 1997, I had nightmares.”

Watching the movie again, a lot of questions were answered except for one.

“Why did they kill innocent children in the safest place?” Batts asked.

Such questions could have many different responses and for the rest of the movie nights in February, BSU plans to have discussions in addition to the event and plans to send Facebook invitations.

“We will ask questions like, ‘What did it mean to you? What did you think of the movie? What are your feelings? Does it make you do anything different? Does it give you any ideas?'” Cliff Green, a senior business management major, said.

For the next movie night BSU will be showing “Bamboozled” on Feb. 10 at 9:30 p.m. in room 212 at the University Center.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Point Park Globe Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *