From the Chicano movement, to the Black Panthers, United Farm Workers, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, people of color have fought for and enacted social change throughout the history of the United States. Unfortunately, our collective struggle along with our contributions to fighting inequality in this country have been left out of textbooks.
In order to combat this erasure, we teamed up with Skylight Pictures on a monthly film series. Hosted by UnionDocs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we screen documentaries that recount the triumphs of political movements led by people of color. Each program will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers alongside activists currently involved in organizing for social change. We hope the BK@24fps #Resist Film Series will provide lessons from the past and present while giving the audience hope that, in the face of a Trump presidency, they have the power to change the future.
Over the last three months, the #Resist Film Series has focused on immigration activism, the evolution of the trans movement, and the United Farm Workers struggle to get fair labor conditions. This time, the selected works show how history, quite often, repeats itself. With the current political climate of ICE raids and a planned Mexican border wall, it’s hard not to believe that we’re back in the 1960s, a decade fraught with its own racial and political battles. July’s slate of films looks at two short documentaries that demonstrate how, alongside the fight for gender equality and the Civil Rights Movement, the Latinx community was staging its own revolution.
#Resist: Learning From the Young Lords starts with a screening of the 1996 film Pa’lante, Siempre Pa’lante: The Young Lords, Iris Morales’ documentary exploring the militant voice of Puerto Ricans and other Latino/as in the U.S. who came together to protest for better living conditions and the independence of Puerto Rico during the Vietnam War. We’ll also see a brief excerpt of the newsreel El Pueblo se Levanta looking at East Harlem in the ’60s and the community’s need for better health and education.
A discussion with director Iris Morales and comic book artist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez (who served as the art director on Morales’ film) will follow the screening. Miranda-Rodriguez will also spotlight his graphic novel La Borinqueña about a Puerto Rican superheroine and talk about how he’s blended making art and social justice activism to create artivism.
Join us for #Resist: Learning From the Young Lords on July 13 from 7:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $10. Reserve your ticket on Union Doc’s website. Add your friends to the Facebook Invite.