Colby-Sawyer College to Screen Academy Award-Winning Film 'Precious' About Teen's Struggle to Overcome Abuse, Incest
NEW LONDON, N.H. – Colby-Sawyer College will present “Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire,” an Academy award-winning film that unflinchingly follows the brutal journey of an illiterate, pregnant Harlem teenager's struggle to overcome incest and abuse.
The film will be screened on Monday, March 29, at 7 p.m., in Wheeler Hall of the Ware Campus Center. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. “Precious” is rated R.
Co-produced by Oprah Winfrey and writer, producer and actor Tyler Perry, and directed by Lee Daniels (producer of “Monster Ball”), “Precious” first made waves at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize. Sundance awarded a Special Jury Prize to comedian Mo'Nique, who also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her first dramatic role as Precious' relentlessly abusive mother, Mary.
Awarded an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, the film portrays the eventual spiritual and physical liberation of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) from the den of horrors she calls home for the first 16 years of her life. In her interior life, Precious wants to be in a music video and on a magazine cover. In reality, she is a junior-high school student and the mother of a child with Down syndrome who is pregnant by her HIV-positive and drug-addicted father for the second time.
After transferring to an alternative school, Precious finds inspiration from her new teacher (Paula Patton) and inadvertently reveals to her social worker (Mariah Carrey) the abuse and incest she is suffering at home. Following a climactic confrontation with her mother soon after the birth of her second son, she takes the first steps that separate her from the abusers who call themselves her family. Ultimately, Precious shows that she – that everyone – holds the power to rise above her circumstances and emerge as a person who is strong, beautiful and loved.
To learn about other upcoming events at Colby-Sawyer College visit www.colby-sawyer.edu/events
Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts and sciences college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with professional experience.
Colby-Sawyer College, 541 Main Street, New London, N.H. 03257 (603) 526-3000
