Professor and historian Anthony Geist makes a special appearance to lead a post-film discussion following the screening of his 2006 film Souls Without Borders: The Untold Story of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. This inspiring 52-minute documentary tells the story of a group of 2800 young Americans who helped fight against fascism in the bloody Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The film explores the spirit of commitment that led this group of volunteers — known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade — to offer their lives for an ideal.

Drawing on in-depth interviews and previously unknown archival footage, Souls Without Borders follows the commitment of 12 Lincoln Brigade veterans from their origins in the Great Depression through Spain and World War II, McCarthyism and the Cold War, to their involvement with struggles for social justice today. This documentary includes extraordinary footage of the war and the seventy‐year history of the Lincoln Brigade, as well as interviews with some of the fifty survivors still living today.

Following the screening, Dr. Anthony Geist, the director of the film and Vice Chair of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives will lead a discussion, including information on volunteers from this area who fought in Spain as well as activism related to the Spanish Civil War at U-M and in the Detroit area. This event is cosponsored by the U-M Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

The U-M Library, in conjunction with Sundance Film Forward, presents "We Are the Giant."

In "We Are The Giant," ordinary citizens face the same moral questions that have defined revolutionary leaders across the ages, from Jefferson to Che to Mandela. With remarkable access, the film takes its audience inside the lives of six extraordinary people who grapple with the agonizing and universal dilemmas at the heart of all struggles for justice and freedom: whether to take up arms and fight, or to advocate change through peace and non-violence.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Greg Barker. This program is co-sponsored by The U-M Library, Sundance Film Forward, and the Ann Arbor District Library.

The U-M Library, in conjunction with Sundance Film Forward, presents a panel discussion on Open Access Activism, featuring director Brian Knappenberger. Knappenberger chronicled the story of programming prodigy and information-access activist Aaron Swartz, who forever left his imprint on the Internet with his development of the basic Internet protocol RSS, his co-founding of Reddit, and his open-access activism in the documentary The Internet's Own Boy.

Other panelists include U-M Library Lead Copyright Officer, Melissa Levine, and U-M University Counsel, Jack Bernard. This program is co-sponsored by The U-M Library, Sundance Film Forward, and the Ann Arbor District Library.

The U-M Library, in conjunction with Sundance Film Forward, presents The Internet's Own Boy. The film chronicles the story of programming prodigy and information-access activist Aaron Swartz, who forever left his imprint on the Internet with his development of the basic Internet protocol RSS, his co-founding of Reddit, and his open-access activism, which eventually ensnared him in a two-year legal battle that ended with his taking his life. The documentary is a personal story that shines a light on what we lose when we are tone deaf to technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Brian Knappenberger. This program is co-sponsored by The U-M Library, Sundance Film Forward, and the Ann Arbor District Library.

In the summer of 1975, 27 patients experienced respiratory failure and 11 patients died during a six-week period at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Ann Arbor. In June 1976, after an intense FBI investigation, officials charged two Filipina nurses — Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez — with injecting the patients with the muscle relaxant Pavulon.

Through interviews, archival news stories, and FBI documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, the hour-long, unrated film That Strange Summer reconstructs the investigation, trial and movement to release the two nurses, who were convicted of poisoning the patients.

Following the film, the award-winning director, Geri Alumit Zeldes, will lead a discussion on topics presented in the documentary. Zeldes is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University.

"Let's Have Some Church Detroit Style: The Hallelujah Singers" is a 92 minute documentary from director Andrew Sacks focuses on the Detroit-based choir The Hallelujah Singers, and its charismatic founder/director E. LaQuint Weaver.

Filled with dazzling visuals and glorious gospel music, the film explores the personal lives and aspirations of the gifted men and women of this Detroit community gospel choir, who energize a troubled city with spirited, passionate, and contemporary music.

A discussion will follow the screening, led by the film’s director Andrew Sacks and former WDET music host Rev. Robert Jones, Sr., who narrates and also appears in the film.