Rice student-produced documentary ‘Mentality’ to screen Jan. 12

The many faces and meanings of masculinity are the focus of “Mentality,” a feature-length documentary a group of Rice undergraduates produced this past fall. A free public screening of “Mentality” will take place at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 12 at the Rice Media Center’s Rice Cinema Film Theatre. Doors open at 5:30 for a reception in the Rice Media Center gallery.

The documentary was produced by 23 students for Masculinities, a course offered by the Department of Anthropology and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality. The course familiarized students with several decades of academic conversations about masculinity and gender from a variety of perspectives, including feminist theory and its relationship to men’s studies, popular literature on gender and the feminist critique of the science of sex differences.

Drawing on both expert and lay voices from across campus and Greater Houston, the 60-minute documentary explores issues such as gender socialization of youth, hip-hop masculinities, ideologies of strength in sports and stereotypes around sexual violence and depression.

“The film project was designed as engaged research in gender: a collective project that would cultivate connections between students’ daily lives and concerns and the intellectual labor of the class readings and discussions by putting gender at the center of the conversation,” said Brian Riedel, the course’s instructor and a professor in the practice of humanities. “I also wanted us to have fun making something together.”

The event was organized with the support of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality and Rice Cinema.

For more information about the documentary, visit http://www.facebook.com/events/809138945826020.