News & Blog

Join Downtown Campus Library for a virtual film discussion, open to all UCF and Valencia students, faculty, and staff. We will be discussing A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, available for free streaming on Kanopy. This is not a group watching event, so watch the film beforehand and come ready to discuss. The discussion will take place on June 26th at 6:00pm on Zoom. Click here to sign up! On the day of the film discussion, we will email you a link to the Zoom meeting.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is a 2014 Iranian horror film. This visually stunning, melancholic film concerns a skateboarding vampire and the quiet city she terrorizes. Directed and written by Ana Lily Amirpour, this film is for anyone who is a fan of westerns, vampires, and things that go bump in the night.

From megalomaniac leaders to mass suicides, the word cult is an overwhelmingly negative one in popular culture. This series digs deeper by considering what draws people to such groups, how charisma is constructed, and how boundaries between religions and cults are delineated.  Each movie will be followed by a facilitated discussion by a religion and cultural studies faculty member.

Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
3:00pm – 5:00pm
John C. Hitt Library 223

Featuring never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.

Facilitated by Dr. Christy Flanagan-Feddon

TheTrials of Muhammad Ali
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
3:00pm – 5:00pm
John C. Hitt Library 223

The Trials of Muhammad Ali investigates its extraordinary and often complex subject’s life outside the boxing ring. From joining the controversial Nation of Islam and changing his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, to his refusal to serve in the Vietnam War in the name of protesting racial inequality, to his global humanitarian work, Muhammad Ali remains an inspiring and controversial figure.

Facilitated by Dr. Michael Mohammed Knight

Kumare
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
3:00pm – 5:00pm
John C. Hitt Library 223

A documentary about a man who impersonates a wise Indian Guru and builds a following in Arizona. At the height of his popularity, the Guru Kumaré must reveal his true identity to his disciples and unveil his greatest teaching of all.

Facilitated by Dr. Ann Gleig

Fall 2019 Movie series sponsored by the Religion and Cultural Studies Program and co-hosted by UCF Libraries.

Everyone is talking about HBO’s gripping new miniseries, Chernobyl which is a personal look at one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history. Have you been pulled into the story as well and want to know more?

UCF Libraries has a great collection of books and documentaries about the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Check these out and learn more about what happened and how it has shaped the use of nuclear power in the West.

Books

Chernobyl Record: the definitive history of the Chernobyl catastrophe by R.F. Mould

Chernobyl: a documentary story by Iurii Shcherbak

Chernobyl’s Wild Kingdom: life in the dead zone by Rebecca L. Johnson

Chernobyl: the hidden legacy by Pierpaolo Mittica

Chernobyl: the history of a nuclear catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy

The Truth About Chernobyl by Grigori Medvedev

The Lessons of Chernobyl: 25 years later edited by Elena B. Burlakova and Valeria I. Naydich (ebook)

Manual for Survival: a Chernobyl guide to the future by Kate Brown

Midnight in Chernobyl: the untold story of the world’s greatest nuclear disaster by Adam Higginbotham

Streaming Video and DVD

NOVA. Building Chernobyl’s megatomb produced and directed by Martin Gorst.

Chernobyl : Nuclear Meltdown from A&E Television Networks, LLC.

Children of Chernobyl produced by SIC TV.

Living under the cloud : Chernobyl today produced and directed by Teresa Metcalf (DVD)

Did you know Russia isn’t the only one who had a nuclear accident?

If you are curious about the United States’ own brush with nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1979, we have reading on that as well.

Three Mile Island: a nuclear crisis in historical perspective by J. Samuel Walker

Three Mile Island: prologue or epilogue? by Daniel Martin

Three Mile Island: the most studied nuclear accident in history: summary: report to the Congress by the Comptroller General of the United States

The Warning: accident at Three Mile Island by Mike Gray and Ira Rosen

Radiation nation: Three Mile Island and the political transformation of the 1970s by Natasha Zaretsky

TMI 25 years later: the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident and its impact by Bonnie A. Osif, Anthony J. Baratta, Thomas W. Conkling

The roads we travel in life are interesting and varied. One of the more complicated aspects happens at the intersection of Religion and Sexuality. Join UCF Libraries and the Religion & Cultural Studies Program for a series of films that examine what happens when religion and sexuality meet from the perspective of three different traditions.

 

“Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land”
Discussion facilitated by Kayla Symonds

Tuesday, September 25
2:30 – 4:30 pm
John C. Hitt Library 223

When many people think of Israel, it is often in terms of modern war or ancient religion. But there is much more to the Jewish state then missiles and prayers. In his debut as a documentary filmmaker, adult-film entrepreneur and political columnist Michael Lucas examines a side of Israel that is too often overlooked: its thriving gay community. Undressing Israel features interviews with a diverse range of local men, including a gay member of Israel’s parliament, a trainer who served openly in the army, a young Arab-Israeli journalist, and a pair of dads raising their kids. Lucas also visits Tel Aviv’s vibrant nightlife scene-and a same-sex wedding-in this guided tour to a country that emerged as a pioneer for gay integration and equality.

 

“A Jihad for Love”
Discussion facilitated by Dr. Michael Muhammad Knight and Dr. Cyrus Zargar

Tuesday, October 9
2:30 – 4:30 pm
John C. Hitt Library 223

Fourteen centuries after the revelation of the holy Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad, Islam today is the world’s second largest and fastest growing religion. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith, discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims.

 

“Fish Out of Water”
Discussion facilitated by Dr. Jeanine Viau

Tuesday, October 30
2:30 – 4:30 pm
John C. Hitt Library 223

Inspired by the experience of coming out as a lesbian to her sorority sisters during her senior year at Vanderbilt, filmmaker Ky Dickens explores the Biblical passages used to condemn homosexuality in this informative yet entertaining documentary. Interweaving whimsical animation with enlightening interviews from both within the lesbian and gay community and as well with theologians from across the country, Fish Out of Water breaks down seven key passages from the Old and New Testaments – from Adam and Eve to Sodom and Gomorrah and the Purity Codes – while confronting the debate over translation and historical context that affect today’s interpretations of the Bible.

Man on Mars: Mission to the Red Planet
Friday, August 24th
1:00 pm
John C. Hitt Library Room 223

Horizon goes behind the scenes at NASA to discover how it is preparing for its most ambitious and daring mission: to land men – and possibly women – on the surface of Mars. It’s over 40 years since Neil Armstrong made the first human footprint on the moon. But getting to the red planet would involve a journey of at least three years.

Horizon meets the scientists and engineers who are designing new rockets and space suits, and finding ways to help astronauts survive the perils of this long voyage. It turns out that having the ‘right stuff’ for a mission to Mars might not be quite what you expect.

 

Discussion immediately following the film led by Dr. Kevin Cannon, our own UCF Mars expert, on the topic of “Why Does Mars Exist, and Why Should We Go There?”

Mars, the small frozen desert planet, is the way it is and couldn’t be any other way…right? But what if we look back with billions of years worth of hindsight, and apply a bit of chance and probability. If we do so, we will find that Mars very easily might not have formed at all, or could have ballooned to the size of the Earth and evolved quite differently than it did. The discovery of thousands of exoplanets allows us to see how those alternate realities did play out around distant stars, and gives insight into our own red planet. But should we go to Mars? Is it worth the cost and risk, especially with so many pressing problems back here on Earth? The potential rewards are immense: a sustained human-led science campaign at Mars is the best chance we have of answering fundamental questions about the origin of life in the solar system, and determining how rare life is in the universe as a whole. The challenges and accomplishments associated with sending humans to Mars may also inject a bit of hope and existential meaning into a society that increasing needs it.

 

Knights Under The Stars Viewing Mars
Friday, August 24, 2018
8:30 – 10:30 pm
Memory Mall

All are welcome to drop by Memory Mall to take in a telescopic view of Mars during its wonderful viewing season, the best since 2003. We will set up several telescopes to give everyone a chance to see what’s going on on the surface of Mars. We will also have telescopes trained on Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn as well, for a multi-planet viewing bonanza. Some things to note:

• There is no need to stay for the whole two hours, nor any need to come right at 8:30. In fact, the wait times will probably be shorter later in the session.
• The event is on Memory Mall, not at the observatory itself.
• This observing session is weather-dependent, and we will announce on our website, Facebook, and Twitter about whether the clouds will allow us to hold the event.

 

Check out our guide for additional resources on Mars: guides.ucf.edu/mars