‘Chappelle’s Show’ director Rusty Cundieff to speak March 30

‘Chappelle’s Show’ director Rusty Cundieff to speak March 30 March 23, 2006Jaime Winne Alvarezjlwinne@syr.edu

Former Comedy Central “Chappelle’s Show” director Rusty Cundieff will join Professor Richard Dubin March 30 at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications for the second annual “Conversation on Race and Film.” The pair will appear at 7:30 p.m. in Studio A, Newhouse II. The conversation is free and open to the public, and audience participation is encouraged. Paid parking will be available in University Avenue Garage.

Actor, writer, director and producer Cundieff has spent years in Hollywood’s comic trenches. Most recently, he directed Comedy Central’s controversial, wildly successful and recently departed sketch comedy “Chappelle’s Show,” which starred comedian Dave Chappelle. His acting credits include Robert Townsend’s “Hollywood Shuffle” and Spike Lee’s “School Daze.” He was also a correspondent on Michael Moore’s Emmy Award-winning “TV Nation.”

Cundieff’s comedy goes beyond the joke, to provoke thought and evoke deeply rooted feelings about race and culture in American life. He wrote the film “House Party II” and wrote and directed the classic 1994 hip-hop mockumentary “Fear of a Black Hat,” in which he also starred. The film chronicles the rise and fall of the “gangsta” group known as NWH — “Niggaz Wid Hats.” A free screening of “Fear of a Black Hat” will take place March 29 at 7:30 p.m. in Room A1 of Newhouse I.