HumanDocs is an opportunity for Lipscomb students and the community to become aware of true stories going on in the world. The series surfaced thanks to the efforts of the university’s College of Art and Sciences to inspire students to make the world a better place.
Dr. Ted Parks is a Spanish professor at Lipscomb University and is responsible for HumanDocs. He explains how these documentaries often show how issues such as domestic violence or sex trafficking begin. The documentaries feature individual stories revealing the wicked aspects of society.
“Good documentary film tells a story,” Parks says, “It tells a compelling human story that makes you care about the people involved.”
Lipscomb’s purpose with HumanDocs is to awaken students to the many concerns present in today’s society that are usually invisible to many people.
The movie shown in January was titled “Sun Kissed” and Parks says it’s a good example of a compelling story.
The film is about Dorey and Yolanda Nez. They are a Navajo family in New Mexico whose children have developed a rare genetic disease that makes their skin hypersensitive to sunlight.
This disease only shows up at a rate of one in a million in a general population, but in the Navajo reservation, it was one in 300,00. After tracing the Navajo history, the Nez family discovered this was the result of what it is called the “Long Walk,” a cruel campaign from 1864.
“Sun Kissed” brought to light a veiled matter for the Navajo reservation and the rest of the world. This documentary is one of many that HumanDocs presents in order to bring notice to important issues.
As a Christian university, Lipscomb seeks to open the eyes of its students to situations such as what the Nez family had to face. It is more than a film; it is an expression of faith, according to Parks.
“[HumanDocs] is an expression of what I think is best about Lipscomb and that is that we are an institution that supports and nurtures a faith that says that Christians are supposed to be active in the world and to stand up for what they believe is right even when society, maybe even the prevailing culture in the universities, go the other way,” Parks said.