Americanist Dinner Forum: A Discussion about "The Neutral Ground"
AMCS and the Memory for the Future studio lab will host a Zoom discussion with filmmaker CJ Hunt about his recent documentary, The Neutral Ground. The film "documents New Orleans’ fight over monuments and America’s troubled romance with the Lost Cause. In 2015, director CJ Hunt was filming the New Orleans City Council’s vote to remove four confederate monuments. But when that removal is halted by death threats, CJ sets out to understand why a losing army from 1865 still holds so much power in America. A co-production of POV and ITVS, in association with the Center for Asian American Media. A co-presentation of Black Public Media and the Center for Asian American Media. Official Selection, Tribeca Film Festival.” A link to view the film will be distributed in advance of the event. Here is the trailer.
Joining CJ Hunt in discussion will be Sue Mobley, Director of Research at Monument Lab. A New Orleans based urbanist, organizer, and advocate, Mobley is Visiting Fellow for Arts and Culture at the American Planning Association, as well as a member of New Orleans’ City Planning Commission. She has served as Director of Advocacy at Colloqate Design and was Co-Director of Paper Monuments, a public art and public history project that invited residents to imagine new monuments for New Orleans. WashU’s own Geoff Ward, Professor of African and African-American Studies and Director of the WashU & Slavery Project, and Rebecca Dudley, Phd Candidate in Anthropology and AMCS Harvey Fellow, will also be part of the conversation.
This event is cosponsored by African and African-American Studies, Anthropology, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, History, Sociology, Architecture, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the Brown School.