Director Stephen Gyllenhaal and co-producer Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal are promoting their new film Grassroots with sneak previews and post-screening discussions at college campuses across the country, and Duke is one of the next stops on their list.
Organized by Duke senior Andrew Hartman and co-sponsored by the Vice Provost for the Arts and Freewater Presentations, a free preview of Grassroots will be held in Griffith Film Theater on Tuesday, Nov. 8. The screening of Grassroots, which tells the story of disheartened journalist Phil Campbell (Jason Biggs) and his role in the eccentric Grant Cogswell’s (Joel David Moore) unlikely campaign for Seattle City Council, is an opportunity to bring both an entertaining film and an important message to Duke’s campus, Mr. Gyllenhaal said.
“It’s about getting active and going out and participating in local politics,” he said. “There have been so many loud voices and so much controversy in national politics, but not really a dialogue. We’re interested in creating a real dialogue, left, right and center. You know, democracy with a smile.”
The Gyllenhaals will be present for a post-screening discussion and workshop immediately following the preview, where they will encourage students to voice their ideas about political activism and discuss the tools students would need to run for local office, Stephen Gyllenhaal said. Although plans have not yet been finalized, Mrs. Gyllenhaal added that the two hope to gather a panel of leaders of Duke student organizations to help create a dynamic question and answer session between them and the audience.
“It’s a serious issue, but you can laugh a little bit because that gives everyone the energy to face a more complex future,” Mr. Gyllenhaal said. “You [Duke students] had better have a little humor, because it’s more your future than anyone else’s at this point.”
The ground-up approach the Gyllenhaals are using to spread the word about their film before it hits theaters in the spring of 2012—from the college tour to a blog to a twitter feed—is one of the primary reasons Vice Provost for the Arts Scott Lindroth supported Hartman’s idea to bring Grassroots to Duke.
“The idea of an independent filmmaker getting his work out by taking it on a college tour was very appealing,” Lindroth said. “I had not heard of the film so I went online and looked it up, and what I saw was just fantastic. It looked like it would be very provocative and very funny.”
Hartman, who heard about Grassroots through a friend who attended the screening at Yale about a month ago, agreed that the event will be a highlight for the arts at Duke.
“Bringing people like Stephen and Kathleen to Duke and giving students who are interested in directing the opportunity to meet them will be such a great experience,” he said. “I grew up in New York City and would go to the theater and museums all the time, so I don’t think you can ever have too much going on. There could always be more of the arts at Duke.”
Mr. Gyllenhaal, however, thinks that the film has something to offer to all Duke students, particularly in light of grassroots movements across the United States, from the Tea Party movement to Occupy Wall Street, and the upcoming local and national elections in the spring.
“Hopefully the film brings self-empowerment and real hope about the future,” Mr. Gyllenhaal said. “Between now and the spring of 2012 is when people decide to run for mayor or sheriff or county clerk or dog catcher, or anything at all. We want people to just mix it up and cause some trouble. This is the time to be doing it.”
Grassroots will be shown Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the Bryan Center’s Griffith Film Center. The film and post-screening discussion are free and open to the public.
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