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Students from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh will present and screen six short documentaries on social and environmental issues related to the Oshkosh area at the 2nd annual “Capturing Community.”

The event will be held Monday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in Reeve Memorial Union Theater. It is sponsored by the UW Oshkosh Sociology Club and the Social Justice Club.

The films are the result of a student project created for a sociology, communications and environmental studies interdisciplinary course offered at the UW Oshkosh.

This year’s documentaries include and will examine:

  • Cultivating a Cooperative – A look at  grassroots-plans to start a food cooperative in the city of Oshkosh.
  • A Community in Action – Examines how students and community members have helped make an impact in past elections and presents how students and community members can participate in future elections.
  • Down and Up: A Single Mothers Story – An inspiring story of how a single mother working two part-time jobs while raising four children is struggling to obtain her degree from UW Oshkosh.
  • Chasing Arrows – A look at how the waste management system operates in Oshkosh and how the system and recycling program is different from many other areas.
  • Fishing For A Change – Explores past problems the Lake Winnebago water system has faced and explains actions taken that have led to a healthier lake ecosystem.
  • The Invisible Divide: Race Relations – The neglected story and experience of minority students attending UW Oshkosh on a 90 percent Caucasian campus.

Paul Van Auken, environmental studies and sociology professor at UW Oshkosh, feels the issues being presented will interest both students and community audiences.

“It would be an interest to anyone who is concerned with things socially and environmentally going on and pertaining to the Oshkosh community,” Van Auken said.  “All the topics being covered relate in some way to the Oshkosh area.”

April Young, a senior majoring in environmental studies and sociology at UW Oshkosh, helped work on the film Fishing For a Change.

“It is important because people can see what is actually going on in their community,” Young said.  “If you’re going to live in this community you should be aware and involved in what’s going on within in it.”

Following the showings, there will be time for a question and answer session.

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