Come attend the free screening of “Best of Enemies” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the Sheldon Museum of Art, followed by a panel discussion. This NET screening, in partnership with UNL’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications, captures the legendary 1968 presidential debates between two famed intellectuals and ideological opposites: leftist Gore Vidal and neoconservative William F. Buckley.
Their televised sparring shaped a new era of public discourse in the media, demarcating the moment TV’s political ambition shifted from narrative to spectacle. Directed by Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alum Morgan Neville (“Twenty Feet from Stardom”), “Best of Enemies” spotlights the birth of the highbrow blood sport practiced by today’s ever-present pundit television.
A panel discussion will follow the “Best of Enemies” screening moderated by Barney McCoy, associate professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Panelists include: Ron Hull, NET special adviser and emeritus professor of broadcasting, UNL; Kevin Smith, chair of political science and professor, UNL; Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Willa Cather professor of political science and associate dean for faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences, UNL; Lloyd Ambrosius, Samual Clark Waugh distinguished professor of international relations and professor of history, UNL; and Jake Kirkland, emeritus assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs in UNL’s Office of Academic Success and Intercultural Services (OASIS).