PASADENA-Geoffrey O'Connor, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and journalist will speak on Thursday, November 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Beckman Institute Auditorium as part of the Michelin Seminar Series. During an evening investigating the impact that images and culture can have on social, economic, and political events in the Brazilian Amazon, O'Connor will show excerpts from his latest documentary, Amazon Journal, and will discuss his book of the same title. The Michelin seminar is open to the public at no charge.
After 10 years exploring the heated political and cultural controversies in the Amazon, Geoffrey O'Connor knows more about the rain forest than many Brazilians. O'Connor-a journalist and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker-was working in the Amazon before the "Save the Rain Forest" campaign fired up a worldwide, political controversy in the late '80s. He was also one of the few who stayed to observe the catastrophic effects on the region when the campaign fizzled out in the early '90s, as the world media turned their attention elsewhere.
In addition to Amazon Journal, O'Connor has produced two other documentary films about Brazil and collaborated with Michael Moore for more than two years as a producer and director on the critically acclaimed BBC television series, TV Nation.
This seminar is the eighth in an ongoing series that augments the James Michelin Distinguished Visitor's Lecture series, established in 1992 by New York designer Bonnie Cashin in memory of her uncle, James Michelin, a consulting engineer, who had always hoped to attend Caltech. Both are designed to foster a creative interaction between the arts and sciences. The series has included composers, filmmakers, graphic artists, and an art restorer.