Emmy-winning documentary director, producer to visit


LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has invited an award-winning news director and producer as part of International Education Week at the Office of International Programs.

Andrew Tkach is the director of the Environmental Reporting Program at the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications in Nairobi, Kenya. He has more 25 years of experience producing documentaries and TV magazine reports, including for CNN and CBS’ “60 Minutes,” and he has won eight News and Documentary Emmys for his work.

Tkach will participate in two screenings of his films during his visit Wednesday, Nov. 14:

Noon, 318 Bailey Hall:

“Plastics Are Forever” (2017, 30 minutes) will be screened as part of KU’s Ujamaa Food for Thought Series. The film tells the story of conservation efforts by Kenyans to clean up their Indian Ocean coastline and recycle the plastic debris that clutters their white sand beaches. Tkach will lead a discussion about how environmental issues affect local communities after the screening. Light lunch will be provided.

7 p.m. 100 Stauffer-Flint Hall:

“Hunger for Truth” (2017, 76 minutes), followed by a Q&A with Tkach. The movie explores the dynamics between truth-telling and disinformation in the public sphere by telling the story of Rhea Clyman, a young Canadian reporter who traveled across the USSR in the 1930s when Stalin’s manmade famine was ravaging Ukraine. The film juxtaposes the historical event of the famine with today’s military conflict in eastern Ukraine.

These two screenings and discussions with Tkach have been co-organized by the Kansas African Studies Center, Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies and Center for Global & International Studies. Co-sponsors include the Department of Film & Media Studies, the Environmental Studies Program and the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications.

Fri, 11/09/2018

author

Justyna Beinek

Media Contacts

Justyna Beinek

Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies