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Joseph M. Conte

~ Professor of English, University at Buffalo

Joseph M. Conte

Category Archives: Events

Lost Identity in the Sonora Desert

13 Monday Oct 2014

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Buffalo Humanities Festival

UB Spectrum

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, the Buffalo Humanities Festival began the “Migration Nation: Moving Stories” with “Who is Dayani Cristal?,” a documentary looking at the journey immigrants make along the U.S.-Mexican border. Derek Drocy, The Spectrum

Lost identity in the Sonora Desert

“Who is Dayani Cristal?” film starts the Buffalo Humanities Festival

By SHAROL SHAMSOR

On September 30, 2014

Arizona Border Police found a decomposing, unidentifiable male body deep in the Sonora Desert. Underneath the deceased man’s shirt, officers found the words “Dayani Cristal” tattooed on his chest.

On Thursday, the story of immigrants’ journeys crossing the American border made its way from the West Coast to UB’s Center for the Arts. UB screened the documentary “Who is Dayani Cristal?” as part of the preliminary events for the first Buffalo Humanities Festival. The documentary, which won an award for cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013, followed Humanities Festival theme of “Migration Nations: Moving Stories.” The screening also hosted a discussion to talk about the significance of the documentary.

The film, directed by Marc Silver, follows a nameless migrant who tried travel to American from Honduras. In the end, the man perished in the sun-blistered Sonora Desert in the Southwestern United States. The tattoo was the only clue to his identity.

Tanya Shilina-Conte, a UB professor with Ph.D. in English, introduced the film and said the United States-Mexico border is the most frequently crossed border in the world. She said attempting to cross is “not worth” risking anyone’s life. The Sonora Desert is located in the western part the United States-Mexico border, connecting Mexico with Southeastern California and Southern Arizona. Within the past decade, the Sonora Desert has been the most traveled route along the United States-Mexico border.

“The Sonora desert’s extreme climate, temperatures reach as high as 180 Fahrenheit and then [drop] suddenly to 50 Fahrenheit,” make it “one of the deadliest stretch of land on the planet,” Shilina-Conte said.

The extreme temperatures, however, do not deter people trying to cross the border. “[The] economic needs and desires continue to beckon people to take the ultimate risk,” she said.

Joseph Conte, an English professor at UB and Shilina-Conte’s husband, held a one-hour discussion after the film screening ended. Conte began the discussion by reminding viewers of one of the film’s most powerful quotes from a friend of the nameless migrant. The quote questioned the United States’ billion-dollar investment in the United States-Mexico border, claiming it was an inanimate and dead investment and the money could instead be used to help human beings.

To hone the issue of immigration back to Buffalo, Conte also spoke of the apples at Wegmans. He said he wondered who would stop to think of the migrant workers who gather the fruits. He asked who would even realize the blue-collar labor face is “brown” in the United States.

The audience’s commentary on blue-collared immigrants sparked a discussion centered on xenophobia, a dislike or fear of people from other countries.

The documentary had shots of a “mass grave” – lockers in a morgue containing ashes – present in the United States. The ashes are of the unidentified illegal immigrants who attempted to cross the United States-Mexico border but died because of the journey across the desert, Conte said.

“I don’t want to be associated with a mass grave,” Conte said. “I don’t want the United States to have the mass grave of people on our hands or under our feet.” Conte said if America’s investment toward U.S.-Mexico border wall keeps growing, attempts to cross the wall could lead to more deaths.

The screening ended and many of the participants left with plenty to think about – an impact that Shilina-Conte intended.

After the discussion ended, Conte said it was a “very spirited discussion of the crisis of immigration” and “we are trying to understand for ourselves what roles we play in that drama as Americans.”

“I think that most of us would prefer to not think about [immigration],” Conte said. “But the crisis and the conditions, that are described by ‘Who is Dayani Cristal?’ are the crisis and the conditions that all of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents, faced at some point in the past. I guess you could say that a film like this, raises the consciousness of us, as Americans, as to the cost of migration and immigration.”

Paolo Antypas, a junior communication major, thought the film screening was an important part of the Buffalo Humanities Festival as well as to the world because of refugee problems in Syria and Iraq.

“The discussion at the end, not only helped us give our points out but also listen to the other’s points,” Antypas said. “And the most important thing is to get an opinion and conceptualize what you believe is the right way to go about solving something like this.”

UB Spectrum Interview after Screening of Who Is Dayani Cristal?

04 Saturday Oct 2014

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Buffalo Humanities Festival, Gael Garcia Bernal

Sharol Shamsor graciously reported on our screening and discussion of Who Is Dayani Cristal? for the UB Spectrum. It didn’t seem like the post-screening discussion of the immigration crisis and rising fatalities along our border with Mexico lasted an hour–but it may have been that long after Sharol interviewed us for this piece.

http://www.ubspectrum.com/news/view.php/849972/Lost-identity-in-the-Sonora-Desert

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

 

Buffalo Humanities Festival Talk

29 Monday Sep 2014

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Buffalo Humanities Festival

As part of the day-long series of talks, musical performances, dance, and world foods in the Buffalo Humanities Festival, I presented “Immigration Literature and the Alien Nation,” featuring three generations of Russian emigre writers, Anzia Yezierska, Vladimir Nabokov, and Gary Shteyngart.

Immigration Literature and the Alien Nation

Immigration Literature and the Alien Nation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Humanities Festival Reception

Humanities Festival Reception

Gary Shteyngart Reading, Albright Knox Art Gallery

29 Monday Sep 2014

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Buffalo Humanities Festival, Gary Shteyngart, Tanya Shilina-Conte

The highlight of the Buffalo Humanities Festival was the reading and on-stage interview (with David Schmid) of the very funny and engaging Gary Shteyngart. Shteyngart read from his memoir, Little Failure.

Screening and Discussion of Who Is Dayani Cristal?

29 Monday Sep 2014

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Buffalo Humanities Festival, Gael Garcia Bernal

As part of the Buffalo Humanities Festival, Tanya Shilina-Conte and I screened Who Is Dayani Cristal? starring Gael Garcia Bernal and directed by Marc Silver, on Thursday, September 25. The large and receptive audience engaged in a very spirited discussion of our country’s failed immigration policies and the 2,000 confirmed deaths of migrants in the Sonora Desert since 2000. “Dayani Cristal” was but one whose desiccated body could be identified. The film tells his story.

Dayani Cristal Post-Screening Discussion

Dayani Cristal Post-Screening Discussion

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Buffalo Humanities Festival Book Group at Betty’s Restaurant

23 Tuesday Sep 2014

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Buffalo Humanities Festival, Gary Shteyngart

The Buffalo Humanities Festival Book Group met to discuss Gary Shteyngart’s memoir, Little Failure, at Betty’s Restaurant on Monday evening, September 22nd. Thanks so much to Erik Seeman, Humanities Institute Director, Betty’s Restaurant, and our guests for an engaging and amusing discussion of immigration, Jewish parenting, and childhood in the former Soviet Union.

Book Club at Betty's

Book Club at Betty’s

Book Club at Betty's

Book Club at Betty’s

 

Book Club at Betty's

Book Club at Betty’s

 

Acclaimed Author Gary Shteyngart Comes to Buffalo – Uses Humor, Pathos to Explore Immigrant Experience

19 Friday Sep 2014

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Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Humanities Festival, Gary Shteyngart

Sep 17, 2014 Posted in Buffalo Rising
Author: Erik Seeman

Buffalo’s literary community is abuzz about Gary Shteyngart’s upcoming appearance Friday, September 26, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

“Gary Shteyngart is one of the smartest, most original, and funniest writers in America,” says novelist Mick Cochrane, professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College. “For readers and students of literature here in Buffalo to have the chance to see and hear him as part of the Humanities Festival is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My students and I couldn’t be more excited.”

Shteyngart, author of three popular novels and the New York Times–bestselling memoir Little Failure, speaks at the Albright-Knox at 8:00pm on the 26th. The event features a reading, on-stage interview, and book signing. A limited number of VIP tickets are available for a wine-and-cheese reception with the author, beginning at 7:00pm.

Shteyngart’s visit kicks off the first Buffalo Humanities Festival, presented by the University at Buffalo Humanities Institute in cooperation with Canisius College, Niagara University, SUNY Buffalo State, and SUNY Fredonia.

The Festival continues the next day with talks, music, conversations, films, and food, at the Burchfield Penney Art Center and SUNY Buffalo State. The Festival’s theme is “Migration Nation: Moving Stories.” Tickets for all events are available at buffalohumanities.org.

Born to a Russian-Jewish family in Leningrad in 1972, Shteyngart migrated to the United States seven years later. His three novels – The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (2002), Absurdistan (2006), and Super Sad True Love Story (2010) – all explore the immigrant experience using dark humor and powerful storytelling.

But many critics feel that his memoir, Little Failure, is his greatest achievement. Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth, calls Little Failure Shteyngart’s “finest book yet.” The Los Angeles Times says it is “as vivid, original, and funny as [anything] contemporary U.S. literature has to offer.”

Readers interested in discussing Little Failure in advance of Shteyngart’s appearance are invited to join the Humanities Festival Book Group on Monday, September 22, from 7:30pm to 9:30pm at Betty’s Restaurant, 370 Virginia Avenue. Joseph Conte of UB’s English Department leads the conversation. Tickets, available on the Festival website, are $8 each and include drinks and light fare.

The Buffalo Humanities Festival Book Group Gathers to Discuss Gary Shteyngart’s Little Failure

13 Saturday Sep 2014

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Gary Shteyngart, Humanities Festival Book

Sep 9, 2014 Posted in Buffalo Rising

On Monday, September 22nd, the public is invited to the first ever Humanities Festival Book Group for an engaging discussion of Gary Shteyngart’s New York Times bestselling memoir, Little Failure, at Betty’s restaurant, 370 Virginia Street, from 7:30 to 9:30pm. The Los Angeles Times calls Little Failure “an ecstatic depiction of survival, guilt, and perseverance… as vivid, original, and funny as [anything] contemporary U.S. literature has to offer.” UB Professor of English Joseph Conte will be on hand at Betty’s to lead the discussion, and light fare and drinks will be served. The cost of the event is $8, and tickets are available at buffalohumanities.org.

Gary Shteyngart will be speaking later that same week at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery on the evening of Friday, September 26th as the keynote speaker of this year’s first annual Buffalo Humanities Festival, “Migration Nation: Moving Stories.” “In the Humanities Festival Book Group, we invite members of the public to really dig in to this moving and hilarious book about Shteyngart’s experiences growing up as a Russian Jewish immigrant in New York. It is also a terrific way to warm up for the Buffalo Humanities Festival,” stated Erik Seeman, Director of UB’s Humanities Institute.

Little Failure is available for purchase at Talking Leaves Bookstore as well as at most major bookstores. Tickets for the Humanities Festival Book Group and for all Festival events can be purchased at the buffalo humanities festival website.

Super-Sad-Love

Film Screening: Who is Dayani Cristal? (2013)

04 Monday Aug 2014

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Humanities Festival Book, Professor Joseph Conte, Tanya Shilina-Conte

Thursday, September 25, 5:00-7:00pm

Film Screening: Who is Dayani Cristal? (2013), directed by Marc Silver, starring Gael García Bernal

Location: Screening Room, 112 Center for the Arts, UB North Campus

Introduction: Dr. Tanya Shilina-Conte, UB Department of Media Study

Post-screening Discussion: Professor Joseph Conte, UB Department of English

Free and open to the public

Synopsis: August 3, 2010, Pima County, Arizona. Deep in the sun-blistered Sonora desert, border police discover a decomposing male body. Lifting a tattered T-shirt, they expose a tattoo that reads “Dayani Cristal.” Who is this person? What brought him here? How did he die? And who—or what—is Dayani Cristal? Marc Silver’s masterful documentary assembles the answers to these questions using beautifully realized dramatic sequences with famed actor Gael García Bernal. Who Is Dayani Cristal? tells the story of one migrant who found himself in that deadly stretch of desert known as “the corridor of death” and how one life becomes testimony to the tragic results of the U.S. war on immigration.

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Joseph Conte

Professor of English
University at Buffalo

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