September is a full month for films of significant content and purpose. Three different VCU Libraries-sponsored screenings can open minds to new ideas through nonfiction filmmaking. 

• Sept. 6, 6-9 p.m. Southern Justice is the theme for the 2017 Southern Film Festival. Its opening night offers Gender Revolution, which explores the fluidity of gender and sexuality, and how transgender issues are altering the nature of day-to-day interactions. Newscaster Katie Couric takes us on a journey to discover the dynamics of gender in our world, and promotes understanding the personal and the political issues behind the headlines. Gender Revolution includes interviews with activists, doctors, families and individuals, and it highlights Virginia native Gavin Grimm, a transgender student whose case is currently in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Following the screening, Grimm and Bill Farrar of the Virginia ACLU join for a discussion. More about the Southern Film Festival The film will be shown in the Lecture Hall, James Branch Cabell Library. Please register.  
• Sept. 14, 5-7:30 p.m. Oxyana tells the harrowing story of a small Appalachian town devastated by addiction and the human and community turmoil of the opioid epidemic. The screening will be held in the Larrick Student Center on the MCV Campus as part of the documentaries on health topics, organized by Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences and University Student Commons and Activities. Dinner is provided this evening thanks to University Student Commons and Activities. After the screening, a discussion will be led by Ericka L. Crouse, PharmD, BCPP, BCGP, FASHP, FASCP, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science, VCU School of Pharmacy. Dr. Crouse has extensive clinical experience treating addicts. 

         The story told in Oxyana is playing out in communities nationwide. The impact of Oxycotin and black tar heroin is the subject of the VCU Common Book,  Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.  Journalist Sam Quinones’ Dreamland chronicles the rise in painkiller addiction in the United States, and how the opioid epidemic is devastating communities and leaving thousands dead. In Virginia last year, 1,133 fatal overdoses were attributed to heroin, fentanyl and other opioids. This screening is one of the first universitywide Common Book events for the new academic year. 

• Sep. 21, 5-8 p.m. Spotlight, the critically acclaimed commercial film about the Boston Globe's search for the truth about the Catholic church's cover-up of sexual abuse of children, will be shown as part of VCU Libraries' which explores concepts of truthtelling and fiction. 

Questions? Please contact the VCU Libraries Events Office at (804) 828-0593.