“Juno” and other recent youth-themed films, w/guest Tim Shary

Returning as my guest will be Tim Shary, director of the Film and Video Studies Department at the University of Oklahoma. We’ll be discussing recent notable youth-themed films such as JunoAcross the Universe, and The Great Debaters. In relation to these particular movies, we’ll also examine everything from how teenage pregnancy has been depicted on screen, to the relationship between music and youth films over the years (i.e. Saturday Night FeverBreakin’, and Swingers, the latter of which helped kick off the swing-dance craze in the mid ’90s). We’ll also take a look at the popular sub-genre of “rags-to-riches” films where underdog students band together to accomplish a goal, a la Hoosiers and Stand and Deliver. [Originally broadcast on WLUW’s Under Surveillance in April 2008.]

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Kevin Fullam is a writer and researcher, with extensive experience in fields ranging from sports analytics to politics and cinema.
In addition, he has hosted two long-running radio series on film and culture, and taught mass media at Loyola University.
Episodes of his two shows, Split Reel and Under Surveillance, are archived on the Radio page.