January 18, 2011 Dehumanized Film Screening “Your Neighbor’s Son: The Making of a Torturer”  7 p.m. Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108 To secure your spot for this event please click here.

Could someone you know be a torturer?  Could you become a torturer?  

Renowned documentary filmmaker Jørgen Flindt Pedersen will be present for a screening of his classic film on how ordinary people are turned into torturers.  In this gripping documentary, torture victims and their torturers confront the issues with poignancy and candor.

Join us for a discussion following the film with the director and Michael Renov, Associate Dean at the School of Cinematic Arts and author of The Subject of Documentary.

January 20, 2011 Dehumanized Film Screening “My Brother's Keeper”  6 p.m. Doheny Memorial Library, Room 240 To secure your spot for this event RSVP to tcc@college.usc.edu.

"My Brother's Keeper," is a documentary portraying the travels and work of the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak. On his missions to countries around the globe he all too often finds clear evidence that torture is commonplace in today's world.

Nowak's job is fraught with obstacles. He must confront representatives of some of the world's most powerful governments and struggles with a UN system with several member states that are very critical of his work.

In the film survivors from China, Zimbabwe and Moldova tell their stories about torture used to create fear and obtain confessions - true or false. And a former US interrogation officer talks about how he tortured a detainee in Fallujah in Iraq, thereby destroying the values from his own upbringing, namely to be "my brother's keeper."

Join us for a discussion with the director and experts on human rights as well as a light reception following the film.

January 25, 2011 Conversations at Sunset  5 p.m. Tyler Prize Pavilion, Von KleinSmid Center To secure your spot for this event RSVP to tcc@college.usc.edu.

Speaker:
Michael Arbib
University Professor, Fletcher Jones Chair in Computer Science, and Professor of Computer Science, Biological Sciences, and Psychology

When we speak, our face and hands accompany the voice, and when we listen to rhythmic music we may want to dance. Yet our language and our music are very much products of our culture. What is it about the human brain that extends our capacity for embodied interaction with the world to include language and music, while learning so much that is culturally derived?

Events and details subject to change. For more information, email tcc@college.usc.edu.