BETHEL — An Academy Award-winning director will visit Gould Academy at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31, to screen his film and take questions from the audience.
Director Ross Kauffman, who won the Academy Award for best documentary and the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award in 2005 for his film “Born into Brothels,” will screen the film in Bingham Auditorium. There will be a question-and-answer session at 9 p.m. in the Sanborn Family Library in Hanscom Hall. The screening is free and open to the public.
“Born into Brothels” is a film about photographer Zana Briski, the nonprofit organization Kids with Cameras, and how they attempted to teach the art of photography to children who live in the red-light district of Calcutta, India.
Tucker Kimball, director of communications for Gould Academy, said the efforts of senior Madison Hertzog got Kauffman to speak at the school.
“It’s a great example of student activism,” Kimball said.
Hertzog said in the news release that the idea of inviting Kauffman to Gould Academy stemmed from her AP Composition Class with English teacher Dave Bean.
“She became interested in bringing the issues of gender equality and education as an economic driver to Gould” after reading the book “Half the Sky,” Bean said.
Hertzog later connected the themes from “Half the Sky” to Kauffman’s film, and decided to try to bring him to the school.
“I thought his film would connect with art students and the art department,” Hertzog said. “I thought it would connect with ninth-graders who travel abroad for Four Point, and I thought it would enlighten the Gould community.”
Hertzog turned to Bean and Director of College Counseling Brooke Libby, who are friends of Kauffman, for help in bringing him to Gould Academy.
“After Madison connected the ideas in ‘Half the Sky’ and ‘Born into Brothels,’ she came to ask me about the film and my friendship with Ross,” Libby said in the news release. “I knew that Ross would want to help. When Madison and I reached out to him, he said yes immediately.”
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