Batavia library welcomes documentary film director

Jeffrey Chown, professor and documentary film director, will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, at the Batavia Public Library, 10 S. Batavia Ave. Chown’s presentation, “The Sixties and Advertising … Brought to You by Mad Men,” is a New Lyceum Lecture Series program.

Chown will examine the post-World War II rise of American advertising, as reflected in the cable TV show “Mad Men,” and how it reflected and enacted societal changes, including the status of women in the workplace, the Baby Boomer generation, Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement and more.

Chown is currently a Distinguished Teaching professor in the Department of Communication, Northern Illinois University. He is the author of “Hollywood Auteur: Francis Coppola,” a critical survey of Coppola’s films, and has written and directed several documentaries, including “Lincoln and Blackhawk,” which appeared on Chicago’s PBS Channel 11.

His documentaries “Barbed Wire Pioneers: Inventing a Community” and “John Peter Altgeld: The Eagle Remembered” both won awards at the Silver State Documentary Festival. In 1999, he received a Studs Terkel Humanitarian Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.

Chown holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Michigan and is a former Fulbright Scholar.

This New Lyceum Lecture Series program, presented by the Batavia Public Library, is free; however, registration is required.

For details or to register, call (630) 879-1393 and select option 2, or register online at BataviaPublicLibrary.org.