International Film Series Debuts Sept. 19

The Jake Erhardt International Film Series debuts this year with a 2002 Brazilian film, "City of God," Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater in the McKelvey Campus Center.

"Roger Ebert calls director Fernando Meirelles' adaptation of Paulo Lins' book about street gangs battling for turf in the slums of Rio de Janeiro 'a masterpiece,'" said Dr. Deborah Mitchell, associate professor of English and coordinator of this event. "Leonard Maltin describes it as an 'arresting, and brutal mosaic of stories spanning three decades told with tremendous skill and creativity by Meirelles.' Meirelles brings the chaotic sprawl of this film into sharp focus by concentrating on the friendship of two young men who opt for vastly different futures as a drug dealer, the other as a photographer."

The International Film Series was named in honor of its founder, Dr. Jacob Erhardt, professor emeritus of German at Westminster College. Erhardt, who taught at Westminster from 1968 until his retirement in 2004, served as chair of his department from 1970-1986, was named the Language Educator of the Year by the Pennsylvania State Modern Languages Association, translated into English Robert Reitzel's Adventures of a Greenhorn, and was recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities as an outstanding member.

The event, which is part of a four-film series, is free and open to the public.

Contact Mitchell at (724) 946-7030 or e-mail dmitchel@westminster.edu for more information.

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