The University Libraries invites the university and local communities to learn more about the Highlander Research and Education Center as it celebrates its 75th anniversary. All programs in the Documentaries in Library series will be on Tuesday evenings at the Hodges Library’s Lindsay Young Auditorium from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM and are free and open to the public. The programs feature a documentary film showing and discussion lead by filmmakers, Highlander activists, and UT faculty.

Upcoming film on Tuesday, Nov. 13: Up the Ridge. Discussion Leader: Pam McMichael, Highlander Director
Up the Ridge is a one-hour television documentary produced by Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby. In 1999 Szuberla and Kirby were volunteer DJ’s for the Appalachian region’s only hip-hop radio program in Whitesburg, KY when they received hundreds of letters from inmates transferred into nearby Wallens Ridge, the region’s newest prison built to prop up the shrinking coal economy. The letters described human rights violations and racial tension between staff and inmates. Filming began that year and, though the lens of Wallens Ridge State Prison, the program offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts.

http://www.lib.utk.edu/mediacenter/docs/index.htm