• Discussant: Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman (directors).
• In English.
• 53 minutes.

Town Destroyer by Bay Area-based directors Alan Snitow & Deborah Kaufman explores the ways we look at art and history at a time of polarized national debate over the power of images, racism, trauma, and what should be taught in schools. The story focuses on a dispute over historic murals depicting the life of George Washington as a slaveowner, general, land speculator, President, and a man Native Seneca leaders called “Town Destroyer” after he ordered their villages destroyed during the Revolutionary War (1775-83). The murals, at San Francisco’s George Washington High School, were painted in 1936 by Russian-born American painter and professor of art Victor Mikhail Arnautoff (1896-1979), a student of world-famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). The film addresses current debates over trauma, student safety, and cancel culture. Do images trigger trauma in students? How should a changing society deal with controversial works of art? Do the intentions of the artist matter? Or just the impact on viewers? Is it censorship to destroy murals that show painful histories? What does our country owe people who have been historically wronged?

CineCulture is a film series provided as a service to Fresno State campus students, faculty and staff, and the broader community. CineCulture is also offered as a three-unit academic course (MCJ 179) in the Media, Communications and Journalism Department. The CineCulture Club promotes cultural awareness through film and post-screening discussions.

Screenings are held at 5:30 p.m. on Fridays in the Peters Education Center Auditorium (west of Save-Mart Center in the Student Recreation Center Building). All films screened on campus are free and open to the public. Parking is free (not enforced) after 4 p.m. on Fridays.