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 will 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.
Within his first weeks in office, Trump moved forward on requesting funds to build a wall on the Mexican border and executing a travel ban. With devastating ICE detentions being widely reported, the threat to immigrants on and off US soil has reached a critical point. For this reason, our first screening on Thursday, April 13 will focus on immigration activism.
Our April program called #Resist: Learning from the DREAMers includes an excerpt of the powerful documentary Immigration Battle, and the poetic short film Dreams Awake, along with a stop-motion animated short from the Dreamer Generation web series.
These films will set the stage to discuss the DREAM Act, its failure to pass in Congress, and explore how a group of young immigration activists forced the national conversation on policy reform forward resulting in Obama’s Executive Order known as DACA.
We will be joined by filmmakers Michael Camerini, Shari Robertson, and William Caballero; along with Make the Road’s Yasmine Farhang for a discussion following the program. This post-screening Q&A will offer those in attendance concrete actions they can take to join the immigrant rights movement.
In the months to come, we’ll announce the film titles for future screenings. Keep an eye out for more information on our May 11 program focusing on the LGBTQ rights movement, the June 8 screening centering on United Farm Workers, and our July 13 event on the Young Lords.
Join us for #Resist: Learning from the DREAMers on April 13 from 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $10. Reserve your ticket on Union Doc’s website. Add your friends to the Facebook Invite.