Race Flicks
Race Forward in co-curation with Working Films, a national leader in the use of documentary for social change, is pleased to present 2016 Facing Race’s, Race Flicks. This year’s Race Flicks focuses on creating impact with film. The films selected have been, or could be, used strategically by activists, organizers, and nonprofits in the work for racial justice.
Friday (11/11)
Ovarian Psycos is a film that intimately chronicles a misfit crew of women of color, who ride at night through streets deemed dangerous in Eastside Los Angeles, and use their bicycles to confront the violence in their lives. At the helm of the crew is founder Xela de la X, a single mother and poet M.C. dedicates her time to recruiting an unapologetic group.
By: Joanna Sokolowski, Kate Trumbull-LaValle
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice explores the experiences of 18 African American Olympians almost 80 years ago, who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to win hearts and medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The athletes represented a country that considered them second class citizens and competed in a country that rolled out the red carpet in spite of an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism.
By: Deborah Riley Draper
Actor and former teacher Jesse Williams journeys to St. Petersburg, Florida, notorious for being the unlikely epicenter of the student achievement gap and school-to-prison pipeline. Williams investigates how resegregation has led to a massive educational and criminal justice divide for the students — and witnesses the community’s efforts to confront the school system and close the gap. “The Class Divide” is a segment of the new EPIX original docs-series America Divided, created by Solly Granatstein, Lucian Read and Richard Rowley and executive produced by Norman Lear, Shonda Rhimes and Common.
By: Richard Rowley, Rebecca Teitel, Jesse Williams
Saturday (11/12)
THE CONVERSATION: A series of short films about race in America
by Michèle Stephenson
When it comes to race relations in America, there has been no shortage of rhetoric, rage and accusations, but too few attempts have been made to elevate the conversation beyond superficial remarks. Comprised of shorts, The Conversation Series avoids a single narrative, with each piece exploring a different facet of societal perceptions that provide honest and surprising insight into the reality of our social systems.
FIRST LIGHT
by Adam Mazo & Ben Pender-Cudlip
Courtesy: Upstander Project
First Light documents the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first such task force in US history to investigate issues important to Native Americans. The Commission was dedicated to uncovering and acknowledging the truth about what happened to Wabanaki children and families involved with the state's child welfare system.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/140817010
LAST DAY OF FREEDOM
by Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman
Last Day of Freedom, is a richly animated personal narrative, and tells the story of Bill Babbitt’s decision to stand by his brother in the face of war, crime and capital punishment. The film is a portrait of a man at the nexus of the most pressing social issues of our day – veterans’ care, mental health access and criminal justice.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/49610192
Arrested at 16 and tried as an adult for kidnapping and robbery, Eddy Zheng served over 20 years in California prisons and jails. Ben Wang’s BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY paints an intimate portrait of Eddy—the prisoner, the immigrant, the son, the activist—on his journey to freedom, rehabilitation and redemption.
By: Ben Whang