VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Ezra Edelman, director of the Oscar-winning documentary “O.J.: Made in America,” will discuss subjects and themes covered in his film Saturday at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Nicholas Forster, visiting lecturer and scholar in the Departments of African American Studies and Film Studies at Yale University, will moderate the conversation and a question-and-answer session with Edelman, beginning at 3 p.m. at the Grace Street Theater, 934 W. Grace St. A screening of the second half of the documentary will begin at noon. Refreshments will be available during intermission at 1:30 p.m.Admission is free and open to the public, but registration is required at https://www.showclix.com/event/OJAPR22PARTII.

“O.J.: Made in America” explores issues of race and celebrity through the life of O.J. Simpson, whose trial for the murder of his wife brought attention to the stark divide between white and black America in the mid-1990s.

“Students today do not know O.J. in the same way we understand him or the significance of the trial and the racial climate of America in which that trial took place,” said Teto Elsiddique, instructor in the VCU Department of Painting + Printmaking, who organized the event as part of a class on race and American history built around the film. “This documentary has a lot to do with the present.”

The event is presented by the VCU School of the Arts’ Inclusion Infusion Initiative in collaboration with the VCU Department of African American Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences, VCU Athletics and the Afrikana Film Festival.