Race, family and a high seas adventure story – Battle Creek Enquirer

This image released by Disney shows characters Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson, right, and Moana, voiced by Auli'i Cravalho, in a scene from the animated film, "Moana." (Disney via AP)(Photo: Disney, AP)

On the surface, the Disney animated film "Moana" is an adventure story about a young girl on an ocean voyage who encounters powerful gods and mystical objects.

The organizers of a Friday evening screening are hoping that a deeper look at the 2016 film might reveal more about ourselves than the characters on the screen.

The Kellogg Community College Center for Diversity and Innovation along withRace Conscious Families BC are holding a free dinner and screening of the film, which will be followed by creative workshops for adults and kids who want to talk or create art about their own knowledge or lack of it of their ancestors, a theme featured in "Moana."

KCC Director of Admissions Meredith Stravers came up with the idea after seeing the film and reflecting on her own ancestry and how earlier generations impact people's lives today.

"The movie for me, personally, prompted me to begin thinking about those things deeper than I already was," Stravers said, "and I just wondered how many other people were probably in that position of not really thinking about that."

The Center for Diversity and Innovation, which works to promote an understanding of race in the Battle Creek area, has held film screenings before, thoughthey've mostly been documentaries.

Filmscan have the power to influence how people see themselves and others, said Emily Joye McGaughy, a trainer at the center.

"That can be used for great things, and that can be used for not great things," McGaughy said. "If theyre being used for liberation and bringing about equity in our society, its probably because the story line is doing things like complexifying our notions what it means to be a human being."

Film is often an art form "that allows us to see deeper into something you may not be aware of or not identify withand something that we may identify with and didnt know we did," Stravers said.

McGaughy pointed to the 2016 documentary "13th" as one of the best examples of a film impacting how people think about race, in that instance, how race comes into play in the American incarceration system.

"We can sit and teach people these concepts, or they can witness them and then we can teach," McGaughy said. "It makes it alive and real time for people."

The workshops after the movie include a quiet one for adults who want to write or just think about their own experiencesand another that will be a conversation.

The kids' workshopsfeatureartists who will helpthem create art or use theater skills to make their bodies show what they're thinking.

Organizers hope the event brings families of multiple generations.

McGaughy said the community "has a ways to go" when it comes to confronting issues of race without getting defensive, but she's seen change.

"Ive seen a huge shift particularly in the way it relates to race, in large part because the work that CDI is doing and the work that Kellogg Foundation has been sponsoring locally around raising consciousness around race," McGaughy said.

Contact Andy Fitzpatrick at 269-966-0697 orafitzpatrick@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter:@am_fitzpatrick.Hear him on "The Jump Page" atsoundcloud.com/thejumppage.

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Race, family and a high seas adventure story - Battle Creek Enquirer