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SEIS Academic Forum Series
Forum on American Studies NO.18
Film Screening and Q&A
Film Title: Sacred Ground
Filmmaker and Speaker: Tim Gruenewald, Director of American Studies, University of Hong Kong
Venue: Room 115, SEIS Building, BFSU
Time: 3:00 – 5:00 pm, March 17 (Thursday), 2016
Film Synopsis
The feature documentary Sacred Ground (http://sacredgroundfilm.com) explores the connection between the Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial. Mount Rushmore is an icon of the United States, attracting millions of visitors each year whereas Wounded Knee, only a two-hour drive away, receives just a handful of visitors each day. Mount Rushmore is carved into the granite spires of the Black Hills, which are sacred to the victims of Wounded Knee and their descendants. Today, Wounded Knee is located in one of the poorest counties in the United States with social and economic standards comparable to those of developing nations. By contrast, Mount Rushmore is a hub of tourism and commerce. The film approaches contrasts and the complex web of past and present relationships between the two memory sites through visual montage and interviews with the people who live at, work at and visit each of the memorials. Sacred Ground was selected for the official competition in several film festivals in the United States and won the Independent Spirit Award at the Festival of International Cinema in Idyllwild, CA. （USA, Hong Kong, Germany, 2015, 90 min.）
About the Speakers
Tim Gruenewald is Assistant Professor and Director of American Studies at The University of Hong Kong. He is originally from Germany and has M.A. degrees in American and film studies from the University of Mannheim and from Emory University in Atlanta and received his PhD in Germanics from the University of Washington. He has published and lectured internationally on U.S. and German film, television, graphic novels, and remembrance sites. His feature documentary film Sacred Ground (2015) was an official selection in film festivals in Seattle, Athens, OH, and Idyllwild, CA, where it won the Independent Spirit Award. He is currently working on a book length study on national memorial museums in Washington, DC and New York City.
