Expanding students’ viewpoints

The Booth Library Films Series has shown students what life was like as a free-spirited child of the 1960s and a mill-worker turned prison guard so far this semester

Now, the series will show life through the eyes of a little person. The series will continue tonight with a presentation of Steven Delano’s “No Bigger Than A Minute” at 6:30 in Conference Room 4440 of Booth Library.

Faculty, students and members of the community are invited to attend the screening.

David Bell, the reference librarian in charge of the film series, said the purpose of these films is to allow students to look at the world from a different viewpoint.

“It’s a good way of showing people some aspect of life from another person’s perspective,” he said.

Bell said this theme came from the PBS film series “P.O.V.,” which has recently celebrated its 20th year on the air. The program provides the content of the library’s series.

The series has received numerous awards including 18 Emmy Awards, eight George Foster Peabody awards and three Academy Awards.

After each film showing in Booth, people are asked to discuss what they thought of the film and how it affected them.

Bell said these discussions have gone well so far and have been thought provoking and interesting.

“We’ve gotten some very good discussions going,” he said.

Bell and a committee of other librarians chose several films from the “P.O.V.” catalog and requested the program loan the films to the library for this semesters’ film series.

“P.O.V.” provides several other schools and institutions with this content for film series like the Booth series.

Bell said he and other committee members chose movies based on what they thought would interest a wide range of people.

Tonight’s film was chosen because it tied in with the popular television series “Little People, Big World” on The Learning Channel, and because it allows students to see what life is like through a little persons’ eyes.

Carl Lorber, head of references at Booth and a member of the film committee, said he appreciates the films because of the reality they present to viewers.

“I like these films because they deal with real people in real situations,” Lober said.

However, he also wanted to provide people with movies they might not have been exposed to before.

“We were just trying to find different things to show,” he said. “It’s good to show people there’s an alternative to the popular films in the theaters.”

Bell said the movie should provide viewers with an interesting look at the world from the perspective of a little person.

Booth Library plans to use “P.O.V.” films for their spring semester film series as well.