Skip to main content
Intellect

Russia, Georgia and Ossetia topic of BYU lecture Sept. 24

Featuring documentary filmmaker Dodge Billingsley

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Dodge Billingsley will present “Ossetia in Perspective: Georgia Plays Russian Roulette” at a Global Awareness Lecture Wednesday, Sept. 24, at noon in 238 Herald R. Clark Building at Brigham Young University.

Billingsley, who recently returned from the Caucasus region, began covering war in 1993, eventually founding Combat Films and Research in 1997. In 2002, his film “House of War” documented the battle for Qala Jangi fortress in Afghanistan where he was one of a few foreigners on hand at the prisoner revolt that took the life of CIA agent Mike Spann. He is currently co-writing a book and documentary on the operation commissioned by the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office.

He also co-wrote, produced and directed “Immortal Fortress: A Look Inside Chechnya’s Warrior Culture,” a film that took him into the war-torn breakaway region of Chechnya to document the insurgent perspective. Billingsley has also produced programs for the Discovery and History Channels.

Billingsley received a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University and a master’s degree in war studies from King’s College Department of War Studies in London.

This lecture will be archived online. For more information on David M. Kennedy Center events, see the calendar online at kennedy.byu.edu.

Writer: Brady Toone

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

Wildflowers not wildfires: How BYU and Provo City are helping to restore Rock Canyon Trailhead

July 10, 2025
At Rock Canyon Trailhead in Provo, Utah, BYU researchers are fighting fires with flowers. By replacing a problematic weed called cheatgrass with wildflowers, students and faculty are working to protect and restore one of Provo’s most popular hiking spots.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Wildfires in residential areas are on the rise; why hydrants and the water system behind them were never meant to stop those fires

July 01, 2025
BYU professor Rob Sowby teaches and studies environmental engineering, urban water infrastructure and sustainability. He has particular expertise in the planning, design, construction and operation of public water systems. That expertise has been increasingly important (and regularly sought out) in the wake of apocalyptic wildfires that have taxed those public water systems.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Meet the BYU math student helping make wildfire predictions faster and smarter

June 25, 2025
Using machine learning and math, a BYU student improved a key tool firefighters rely on during wildfire season
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=