Reel Stories Summer 2008 Series

Documentaries have long served as an educational tool able to inform people about different places or issues. Now, they are serving as a public forum for discussion of a wide range of social, cultural, economic and environmental issues.

The following three programs made up the summer 2008 Reel Stories Documentary Film and Discussion Series.

Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections
Spilled Milk: Our Milk, Our Farmers, Our Arkansas
Who Killed the Electric Car?

Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections
June 27, 2008

Uncounted showed how the election irregularities that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater irregularities in 2006. In both years, the reported vote differed substantially from exit poll results. The documentary also examined how simple it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S.

Panelists:

David Earnhardt, filmmaker and director
Jay Barth, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Politics, Hendrix College
Jeff Smith, Ph.D., Missouri State Senator

Spilled Milk: Our Milk, Our Farmers, Our Arkansas
July 25, 2008

This award-winning documentary examined how the shortage of Arkansas milk sold in the state, paired with an out-of-date bureaucratic process through which farmers receive pay, has caused Arkansas dairy farms to go out of business at a rate of three or more farms a month.

Panelists:

Brent Bailey, filmmaker and director
Johnny Hoyt, Arkansas State Representative
Woody Bryant, dairy farmer and chair of the Arkansas Milk Stabilization Board
Jodie Pennington, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture