Students screen films

The Thai Pavilion at Olbrich Gardens, the Supermax prison, and the Wisconsin fish fry tradition will be among the topics of student documentaries to be screened Dec. 13-14.

The screenings will showcase films made this semester in classes taught by Tony Buba, the noted documentary filmmaker and current Arts Institute interdisciplinary artist in residence at UW–Madison.

The films to be show this week were produced as part of two classes, “Documentary Video: Exploring Wisconsin Life” and “Personal Documentary Film and Video Workshop.”

Both screenings are scheduled at 7:30 p.m., 4070 Vilas Hall, (Cinematheque), 821 University Ave. Admission is free, but seating is limited and on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Buba’s residency is sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts in collaboration with the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Wisconsin Public Television.

Based in Pittsburgh, Buba has made more than 20 films exploring working-class issues and his Italian-American roots in and around his hometown since 1974. His award-winning “Struggles in Steel: A Story of African-American Steel Workers (1996)” premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast nationally on PBS. For more information on the screenings, call 262-2277.