John Jeffcoat, a 1994 Denison alumnus whose first feature film effort as a director grew out of his student experience studying abroad and his current life in Seattle, will return to campus to screen "Outsourced" at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 7, in Slayter Hall Auditorium (200 Ridge Rd.). The film is a cross-cultural comedy about a customer service call center manager who loses his job and must travel to India to train his own replacement.

Jeffcoat has spent 10 years championing Seattle's independent film scene and finds it slightly ironic that his debut feature film was shot mostly on location in Bombay. But it was hearing stories in Seattle of local companies shipping jobs to India and asking their soon-to-be-unemployed American workers to train their Indian replacements, that got his creative mind working. As a student, he had lived in a Nepalese village where he was asked if he plowed with oxen. He says, "I returned to the states with a very different take on my native land. I was finally able to see America for the first time as a foreigner."

Screenwriter George Wing, who recently enjoyed some success with his script for the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore comedy "50 First Dates," joined Jeffcoat on the project and they both pitched the script in Hollywood, where studios balked at the idea of Jeffcoat as director. Not willing to give up directorial control, the pair found Seattle-based Shadowcatcher Entertainment prepared to help fund the film with Jeffcoat behind the camera.

"Outsourced" was named Best of the Fest at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and recently won the Audience Award for Best Feature at both the Indian Film Festival of L.A. and the Cinequest Film Festival in the heart of the Silicon Valley, a region in which outsourcing is a looming threat.

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Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- John Jeffcoat '94 returns to campus to screen his film, "Outsourced"; 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 7, Slayter Hall Auditorium (200 Ridge Rd.). Free and open to the public. Call (740) 587-6746 to confirm information.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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