The annual NAME Conference has featured an extensive screening of films on equity and social justice topics since the Detroit NAME Conference. During the year, films are screened by a committee of NAME members, who then select a broad range of multicultural selections for screenings at the annual NAME Conference. NAME Conferences have also included premiers, screenings of director's cuts and opportunities for direct interaction with the film makers.
Chair of the NAME Film Festival Committee is Robin Brenneman. The efforts of Robin and the committee members are greatly appreciated by the entire NAME community.
To make recommendations of films, or for additional information about the Annual NAME MC Film Festival email: mcfilms@nameorg.org
NAME 2024 MC Film Festival Selections
NAME was honored to screen the following films at our 29th Annual Multicultural Film Festival, November 13-17, 2024 during our annual international conference in Anaheim CA.
999: The Forgotten Girls.
Director and Producer: Heather Dune Macadam, Jane Schonberger, Beatriz M Calleja & Jay Heit. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2024. 85 minutes.
Edith Grosman was seventeen when Slovak officials ordered unmarried Jewish girls to register for work service. Filled with a sense of national pride, she joined hundreds of other innocent young women who were under the false impression their patriotic duty would benefit their families. Instead, they were deported to Auschwitz as expendable slave labor. The Slovak government paid the Nazis the equivalent of $3,000 to deport each girl. Through first-person testimony and rare archival material, we learn the little-known facts of the women’s camp in 1942 and how a handful of the girls managed against all odds to survive over three long years of hell on earth.
A Good Neighbor.
Directors/Producers: Maggie Hartmans & Brittany Zampella. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2023. 52 minutes.
This feature-length documentary follows Lucy Molina, a Latina single mother fighting against racism and climate change as she campaigns for city council in one of the nation’s most polluted zip codes. The film begins with Lucy in the car, giving one of her famous “Toxic Tours” of the 80216 zip code - named the most polluted zip code in America in 2018. As she drives by factories, highways, and the looming oil refinery - she speaks about her children’s illnesses: “I moved here because of that park for my kids” she says at one point, “I didn’t realize I was killing them.” Lucy’s family health struggles - leukemia, brain cancer, migraines, bloody noses, diabetes - combined with inaction from her local government, motivated her to run for city council. The film follows Lucy’s campaign as points to discuss larger issues like racism, sacrifice zones, climate policy, and health bias.. Lucy's intimate story highlights a global need for change, and creates empathy by putting a face to the realities of marginalized communities like Commerce City, Colorado.
Abortion and Women’s Rights 1970.
Directors/Producers: Catha Maslow, Jane Pincus, Mary Summers, and Karen Weinstein. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2023. 28 minutes.
This is the first documentary ever made about supporting abortion rights in the US. Available for the first time digitally, this film, made by women activists before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, allows women to tell stories about their illegal abortions. White, Black, and Latino organizers speak out about high rates of Black maternal mortality, forced sterilization, and drug testing on people of color. This film’s extraordinary archival footage reminds us of the conditions and demands that drove the movement for women’s and abortion rights fifty years ago. And inspires us to fight for reproductive justice today. The film provides a unique window into a critical moment in history that can be used in courses in women and gender studies, feminist studies, sociology, history, politics, law, health and medicine, film and media. It also provides ideal programming for campus and women’s centers seeking to promote thoughtful discussions about critical issues of our times.
Ainu: Indigenous People of Japan
Director & Producer: Naomi Mizoguchi. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2019. 61 minutes.
The director, Naomi Mizoguchi, started visiting Biratori, Japan, where many people with Ainu roots still live, in 2008 simply to get to know more about the Ainu. In 2015, she began recording because she felt the urgency of capturing the Ainu language and culture on film before they disappeared. Four Ainu elders tell the story of how Ainu people were forced to assimilate and hide all aspects of their Ainu identity. Thanks to their efforts, Ainu cultural traditions are thriving today. Viewers can see the Ainu collecting tree bark for clothes, rituals for natural deities, and songs and dances from hundreds of years ago. In addition to carrying on Ainu traditions, they also do community outreach by visiting schools and teaching students traditional farming methods. This is one of the only films in existence that captures modern-day Ainu life.
Baseball Harmony.
Directed by Joo-il Gwak, Amy Hutchinson. This film is available on youtube. 2022. 26 minutes.
Kim Young-do is a fatherly figure to many immigrants in America, embodying the hopes of those who came here for a better life. Much like Jackie Robinson, Young-do never knew his father. But on the baseball field, he was unstoppable, hitting homeruns like clockwork. He also excelled as a teacher and coach. However, life in America was a stark contrast. He toiled in low-paying jobs, always reminding himself that his sacrifices were for his children's future. Like countless fathers and grandfathers, his selflessness paved the way for his children's happiness. Baseball was Young-do's sanctuary, where his wit, charm, and leadership shone alongside his Afro-Korean heritage. Yet, he gave it all up to give his kids a fresh start in the U.S., shielding them from the bullying they endured in Korea. Now, after three decades, he reunites with his old teammates, who still cherish the impact he had on their lives. This documentary delves into themes of identity, discrimination, bullying, and love through Young-do's remarkable journey.
Bloodlines of the Slave Trade.
Directed by Marie Hancock. The Video Project. Videoproject.org. 2022. 73 minutes.
This film examines the lives of two people whose only connection is a genetic link to John Armfield, one of the most notorious slave traders of the 1830s. Rodney Williams, who is Black, and Susanna Grannis, who is white, each trace their ancestry back to their distant ancestor, detailing the diverging paths their lineages took. While their relationship to this past is fundamentally different, and they never meet in the film, they both share in the telling of the horrific domestic slave trade and the ongoing reverberations of slavery. The film also navigates the lesser known "second middle passage" referred to as the "domestic slave trade". Starting in Alexandria, VA, where two of the wealthiest and most infamous slave traders of the mid-19th century were headquartered, Williams journeys along the Natchez Trace where in all likelihood his ancestors walked before him. Concluding the journey at Angola State Penitentiary, a plantation owned by Isaac Franklin, Rodney narrates his family's history wherein the link between Black incarceration and the plantation system is explicit. Through the narratives of their families and the historical tour illuminates how histories develop, become calcified, and perpetuate through generations, and posits a more honest way to discuss and understand the story of America.
Building the American Dream.
Director: Chelsea Hernandez | Producers: Chelsea Hernandez & Marisol Medrano Montoya. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2019. 73 minutes.
Across Texas, an unstoppable construction boom drives urban sprawl and luxury high-rises. Its dirty secret: abuse of immigrant labor. This film captures a turning point as a movement forms to fight widespread construction industry injustices. Grieving their son, a Mexican family campaigns for a life-and-death safety ordinance. A Salvadorian electrician couple owed thousands in back pay fights for their children’s future. A bereaved son battles to protect others from his family's preventable tragedy. A story of courage, resilience, and community, the film reveals shocking truths about the hardworking immigrants who build the American Dream, of which they are excluded.
Call Me Human.
Directed by Kim O'Bomsawin. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2020. 77 minutes.
Innu writer Joséphine Bacon is part of a generation that has lived through significant changes in Indigenous traditions and colonialist displacement. Born in the Innu community of Pessamit, Bacon was sent to residential school at the age of five and spent fourteen years of her life there. Now, with charm, grace, and quiet tenacity, she is leading a movement to preserve her people’s language and culture. This film moves with Bacon across Canada — Montreal, Pessamit, and the tundra. In each place, Bacon shares reflections and stories, backdropped by the film’s stunning cinematography. The contrasts between city and wilderness mirror Bacon’s upbringing, creating a poignant sense of the displacement she and her generation experienced. The film offers a moving, inspirational meditation on the interconnectedness of language, earth, spirituality, and culture. Director Kim O’Bomsawin (Abenaki), tells an anti-colonialist story about revitalizing and preserving Indigenous languages, history, and culture.
Category: Woman.
Directed by Phyllis Ellis. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2022. 80 minutes.
After then 18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, her personal medicalâ¯records were leaked to the international media.⯠The public scrutiny of her body, driven by racism and sexism, brought into question her identity as a woman and as a a great champion. The International Amateur Athletics Federation (now World Athletics) ruled that certain female athletes must medically alter their healthy bodies in order to compete, and their naturally high androgen levels were deemed a performance advantage. The film follows four athletes forced out of competition by regulations that profile and target women athletes, and the subsequent devastation to their bodies, and livelihoods. But these individuals are emboldened by a conviction to stand up against this violation of their human rights. Filmmaker Ellis exposes an industry controlled by men putting women’s lives at risk while this policing of women’s bodies in sport remains, in a more nefarious way, under the guise of fair play.
Chi-town Guns.
Director & Producer: Dawn Alexander. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2022. 85 minutes.
This dynamic documentary, made by a mother of a young African American male, questions the staggering number of shootings in communities across the country, with a focus on Chicago. It shares the stories of the people involved in the reduction of gun violence, the perpetrators, and victims, in order to put forward solutions. The media has attempted to normalize gun violence, especially in Chicago by ignoring it, and generally only highlighting gun violence when mass shootings occur. The filmmaker says" Gun violence must stop now, and it is up to filmmakers such as us to shine a bright and enduring light on the violence. People are DYING!"
CodeSwitching: Race and Identity in the Suburban Schoolhouse: An Intimate Portrayal of Self-Identity, Race, Gender & Education.
Directed by Mike Mascoli. New Day Films. www.newday.com. (also available on Kanopy) 2020. 54 minutes.
An educated citizenry is said to be the backbone of democracy and a crucial bulwark in an increasingly interconnected and hyper-competitive world. Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act helped weave equal education for all into our shared social contract, but this promise has yet to be fully realized. Students who shuttle between their inner-city neighborhoods and the white suburban schools, in pursuit of a better education, find themselves swapping elements of culture, language, and behavior to fit in with their suburban counterparts – Acting or speaking differently based on their surroundings, called code-switching. For some students, “code-switching” has brought social and professional mobility. For others, the nature of code-switching has been harder to handle, causing anxiety and depression. The shuttling between Boston’s ethnic neighborhoods and predominantly white suburban schools has not been seamless, especially for girls. Too often, girls may face a heightened burden of both ostracization back home and feelings of isolation in their adopted schools. This had led to anxiety and depression and in extreme cases even attempted suicide.
Even the Women Must Fight.
Director: Karen Turner | Executive Producers: Phan Thanh Hao & Karen Turner Producers: Michael T. Barry, Jr & Suzanne Gottschang. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2023. 23 minutes.
Rare interviews with five female veterans of Ho Chi Minh's volunteer youth brigades, backed by archival footage from Northern Vietnamese combat cameraman, bring to life a new view of a long-contested war. These women's oral histories challenge images of Vietnamese women as passive objects of a male media and military machine. Proud of their service under fire, honest about their post war suffering, they add unique insights to ongoing debates about women in the military, and why their stories are so often overlooked when the memory work begins.
The Five Demands.
Produced and directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss. Docuseek. www.docuseek.com. 2023. 57 minutes.
This riveting story is about the student strike that changed the face of higher education forever. In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located in the heart of Harlem. Fueled by the revolutionary fervor sweeping the nation, the strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to the extended occupation of the campus, classes being canceled, students being arrested, and the resignation of the college president. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities. The film revisits the untold story of this explosive student takeover, and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and effect meaningful change.
Pretty Well Fed-Up: America’s Sit-In Movement.
Director: Sacha Shawky, NobleHeart Productions. 2023. 24 minutes.
On February 1, 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, four African American A & T college students sat down at the Woolworth’s whites-only lunch counter and demanded service. They were denied. This singular event sparked a national movement and a turning point in American history–a history which was rooted in the activism of those that had come before. The film explores the history of this movement–the citizens-turned-activists, the events and the unique role that the community of Greensboro, North Carolina played in the pursuit of social justice for all. There is also a companion nine volume multi-media social justice curriculum. The first volume of which details the life of the Honorable John Lewis and includes his own narration. The curriculum guide is available at www.Prettywellfedup.com/
Razing Liberty Square.
Director/Producer. Katja Esson. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2023. 86 minutes.
As rising seas threaten Miami’s luxurious beachfront, wealthy property owners are pushing inland to higher ground. Residents of the historically Black neighborhood of Liberty Square—the first segregated public housing project in the South—are the new target of an upcoming “revitalization” project due to their location 12 feet above sea level. This film by Academy Award nominated filmmaker is a character-driven verité documentary that weaves personal stories with the larger social justice narrative of climate gentrification. Foremost, it is about a community fighting to save itself from being erased in a rapidly changing Miami. The film begins in 2017, at the very time when the first homes of Liberty Square are razed to the ground to make way for a new $300 million mixed-income development. Initially, the community is hopeful this development will be different than past urban renewal projects, but it soon becomes clear it will be yet another instance in Miami’s long history of broken promises. Sharing the perspectives from residents, community advocates, teachers, developers, and politicians— with active resistance being led by neighborhood women, including a mother of seven who has lived in public housing all her life, the founder and principal of Liberty and a local environmental activist who educates her community about Climate Gentrification.
Unspoken Tears: Trauma Through Words.
Directed by Helene Magny. Produced by Nathalie Cloutier. Docuseek. www.docuseek.com. 2022. 52 minutes.
How can refugee children integrate into Quebec’s school system, given the unspeakable violence they’ve experienced? Following a psychologist specializing in conflict-related trauma, this film pays tribute to the admirable resilience and survival strategies of these “small adults,” whose spirit the bombs and camps have not completely crushed, at a time when it is vital to raise awareness in Western societies of migration-related issues and children’s rights.
999: The Forgotten Girls.
Director and Producer: Heather Dune Macadam, Jane Schonberger, Beatriz M Calleja & Jay Heit. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2024. 85 minutes.
Edith Grosman was seventeen when Slovak officials ordered unmarried Jewish girls to register for work service. Filled with a sense of national pride, she joined hundreds of other innocent young women who were under the false impression their patriotic duty would benefit their families. Instead, they were deported to Auschwitz as expendable slave labor. The Slovak government paid the Nazis the equivalent of $3,000 to deport each girl. Through first-person testimony and rare archival material, we learn the little-known facts of the women’s camp in 1942 and how a handful of the girls managed against all odds to survive over three long years of hell on earth.
A Good Neighbor.
Directors/Producers: Maggie Hartmans & Brittany Zampella. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2023. 52 minutes.
This feature-length documentary follows Lucy Molina, a Latina single mother fighting against racism and climate change as she campaigns for city council in one of the nation’s most polluted zip codes. The film begins with Lucy in the car, giving one of her famous “Toxic Tours” of the 80216 zip code - named the most polluted zip code in America in 2018. As she drives by factories, highways, and the looming oil refinery - she speaks about her children’s illnesses: “I moved here because of that park for my kids” she says at one point, “I didn’t realize I was killing them.” Lucy’s family health struggles - leukemia, brain cancer, migraines, bloody noses, diabetes - combined with inaction from her local government, motivated her to run for city council. The film follows Lucy’s campaign as points to discuss larger issues like racism, sacrifice zones, climate policy, and health bias.. Lucy's intimate story highlights a global need for change, and creates empathy by putting a face to the realities of marginalized communities like Commerce City, Colorado.
Abortion and Women’s Rights 1970.
Directors/Producers: Catha Maslow, Jane Pincus, Mary Summers, and Karen Weinstein. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2023. 28 minutes.
This is the first documentary ever made about supporting abortion rights in the US. Available for the first time digitally, this film, made by women activists before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, allows women to tell stories about their illegal abortions. White, Black, and Latino organizers speak out about high rates of Black maternal mortality, forced sterilization, and drug testing on people of color. This film’s extraordinary archival footage reminds us of the conditions and demands that drove the movement for women’s and abortion rights fifty years ago. And inspires us to fight for reproductive justice today. The film provides a unique window into a critical moment in history that can be used in courses in women and gender studies, feminist studies, sociology, history, politics, law, health and medicine, film and media. It also provides ideal programming for campus and women’s centers seeking to promote thoughtful discussions about critical issues of our times.
Ainu: Indigenous People of Japan
Director & Producer: Naomi Mizoguchi. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2019. 61 minutes.
The director, Naomi Mizoguchi, started visiting Biratori, Japan, where many people with Ainu roots still live, in 2008 simply to get to know more about the Ainu. In 2015, she began recording because she felt the urgency of capturing the Ainu language and culture on film before they disappeared. Four Ainu elders tell the story of how Ainu people were forced to assimilate and hide all aspects of their Ainu identity. Thanks to their efforts, Ainu cultural traditions are thriving today. Viewers can see the Ainu collecting tree bark for clothes, rituals for natural deities, and songs and dances from hundreds of years ago. In addition to carrying on Ainu traditions, they also do community outreach by visiting schools and teaching students traditional farming methods. This is one of the only films in existence that captures modern-day Ainu life.
Baseball Harmony.
Directed by Joo-il Gwak, Amy Hutchinson. This film is available on youtube. 2022. 26 minutes.
Kim Young-do is a fatherly figure to many immigrants in America, embodying the hopes of those who came here for a better life. Much like Jackie Robinson, Young-do never knew his father. But on the baseball field, he was unstoppable, hitting homeruns like clockwork. He also excelled as a teacher and coach. However, life in America was a stark contrast. He toiled in low-paying jobs, always reminding himself that his sacrifices were for his children's future. Like countless fathers and grandfathers, his selflessness paved the way for his children's happiness. Baseball was Young-do's sanctuary, where his wit, charm, and leadership shone alongside his Afro-Korean heritage. Yet, he gave it all up to give his kids a fresh start in the U.S., shielding them from the bullying they endured in Korea. Now, after three decades, he reunites with his old teammates, who still cherish the impact he had on their lives. This documentary delves into themes of identity, discrimination, bullying, and love through Young-do's remarkable journey.
Bloodlines of the Slave Trade.
Directed by Marie Hancock. The Video Project. Videoproject.org. 2022. 73 minutes.
This film examines the lives of two people whose only connection is a genetic link to John Armfield, one of the most notorious slave traders of the 1830s. Rodney Williams, who is Black, and Susanna Grannis, who is white, each trace their ancestry back to their distant ancestor, detailing the diverging paths their lineages took. While their relationship to this past is fundamentally different, and they never meet in the film, they both share in the telling of the horrific domestic slave trade and the ongoing reverberations of slavery. The film also navigates the lesser known "second middle passage" referred to as the "domestic slave trade". Starting in Alexandria, VA, where two of the wealthiest and most infamous slave traders of the mid-19th century were headquartered, Williams journeys along the Natchez Trace where in all likelihood his ancestors walked before him. Concluding the journey at Angola State Penitentiary, a plantation owned by Isaac Franklin, Rodney narrates his family's history wherein the link between Black incarceration and the plantation system is explicit. Through the narratives of their families and the historical tour illuminates how histories develop, become calcified, and perpetuate through generations, and posits a more honest way to discuss and understand the story of America.
Building the American Dream.
Director: Chelsea Hernandez | Producers: Chelsea Hernandez & Marisol Medrano Montoya. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2019. 73 minutes.
Across Texas, an unstoppable construction boom drives urban sprawl and luxury high-rises. Its dirty secret: abuse of immigrant labor. This film captures a turning point as a movement forms to fight widespread construction industry injustices. Grieving their son, a Mexican family campaigns for a life-and-death safety ordinance. A Salvadorian electrician couple owed thousands in back pay fights for their children’s future. A bereaved son battles to protect others from his family's preventable tragedy. A story of courage, resilience, and community, the film reveals shocking truths about the hardworking immigrants who build the American Dream, of which they are excluded.
Call Me Human.
Directed by Kim O'Bomsawin. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2020. 77 minutes.
Innu writer Joséphine Bacon is part of a generation that has lived through significant changes in Indigenous traditions and colonialist displacement. Born in the Innu community of Pessamit, Bacon was sent to residential school at the age of five and spent fourteen years of her life there. Now, with charm, grace, and quiet tenacity, she is leading a movement to preserve her people’s language and culture. This film moves with Bacon across Canada — Montreal, Pessamit, and the tundra. In each place, Bacon shares reflections and stories, backdropped by the film’s stunning cinematography. The contrasts between city and wilderness mirror Bacon’s upbringing, creating a poignant sense of the displacement she and her generation experienced. The film offers a moving, inspirational meditation on the interconnectedness of language, earth, spirituality, and culture. Director Kim O’Bomsawin (Abenaki), tells an anti-colonialist story about revitalizing and preserving Indigenous languages, history, and culture.
Category: Woman.
Directed by Phyllis Ellis. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2022. 80 minutes.
After then 18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, her personal medicalâ¯records were leaked to the international media.⯠The public scrutiny of her body, driven by racism and sexism, brought into question her identity as a woman and as a a great champion. The International Amateur Athletics Federation (now World Athletics) ruled that certain female athletes must medically alter their healthy bodies in order to compete, and their naturally high androgen levels were deemed a performance advantage. The film follows four athletes forced out of competition by regulations that profile and target women athletes, and the subsequent devastation to their bodies, and livelihoods. But these individuals are emboldened by a conviction to stand up against this violation of their human rights. Filmmaker Ellis exposes an industry controlled by men putting women’s lives at risk while this policing of women’s bodies in sport remains, in a more nefarious way, under the guise of fair play.
Chi-town Guns.
Director & Producer: Dawn Alexander. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2022. 85 minutes.
This dynamic documentary, made by a mother of a young African American male, questions the staggering number of shootings in communities across the country, with a focus on Chicago. It shares the stories of the people involved in the reduction of gun violence, the perpetrators, and victims, in order to put forward solutions. The media has attempted to normalize gun violence, especially in Chicago by ignoring it, and generally only highlighting gun violence when mass shootings occur. The filmmaker says" Gun violence must stop now, and it is up to filmmakers such as us to shine a bright and enduring light on the violence. People are DYING!"
CodeSwitching: Race and Identity in the Suburban Schoolhouse: An Intimate Portrayal of Self-Identity, Race, Gender & Education.
Directed by Mike Mascoli. New Day Films. www.newday.com. (also available on Kanopy) 2020. 54 minutes.
An educated citizenry is said to be the backbone of democracy and a crucial bulwark in an increasingly interconnected and hyper-competitive world. Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act helped weave equal education for all into our shared social contract, but this promise has yet to be fully realized. Students who shuttle between their inner-city neighborhoods and the white suburban schools, in pursuit of a better education, find themselves swapping elements of culture, language, and behavior to fit in with their suburban counterparts – Acting or speaking differently based on their surroundings, called code-switching. For some students, “code-switching” has brought social and professional mobility. For others, the nature of code-switching has been harder to handle, causing anxiety and depression. The shuttling between Boston’s ethnic neighborhoods and predominantly white suburban schools has not been seamless, especially for girls. Too often, girls may face a heightened burden of both ostracization back home and feelings of isolation in their adopted schools. This had led to anxiety and depression and in extreme cases even attempted suicide.
Even the Women Must Fight.
Director: Karen Turner | Executive Producers: Phan Thanh Hao & Karen Turner Producers: Michael T. Barry, Jr & Suzanne Gottschang. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2023. 23 minutes.
Rare interviews with five female veterans of Ho Chi Minh's volunteer youth brigades, backed by archival footage from Northern Vietnamese combat cameraman, bring to life a new view of a long-contested war. These women's oral histories challenge images of Vietnamese women as passive objects of a male media and military machine. Proud of their service under fire, honest about their post war suffering, they add unique insights to ongoing debates about women in the military, and why their stories are so often overlooked when the memory work begins.
The Five Demands.
Produced and directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss. Docuseek. www.docuseek.com. 2023. 57 minutes.
This riveting story is about the student strike that changed the face of higher education forever. In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located in the heart of Harlem. Fueled by the revolutionary fervor sweeping the nation, the strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to the extended occupation of the campus, classes being canceled, students being arrested, and the resignation of the college president. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities. The film revisits the untold story of this explosive student takeover, and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and effect meaningful change.
Pretty Well Fed-Up: America’s Sit-In Movement.
Director: Sacha Shawky, NobleHeart Productions. 2023. 24 minutes.
On February 1, 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, four African American A & T college students sat down at the Woolworth’s whites-only lunch counter and demanded service. They were denied. This singular event sparked a national movement and a turning point in American history–a history which was rooted in the activism of those that had come before. The film explores the history of this movement–the citizens-turned-activists, the events and the unique role that the community of Greensboro, North Carolina played in the pursuit of social justice for all. There is also a companion nine volume multi-media social justice curriculum. The first volume of which details the life of the Honorable John Lewis and includes his own narration. The curriculum guide is available at www.Prettywellfedup.com/
Razing Liberty Square.
Director/Producer. Katja Esson. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2023. 86 minutes.
As rising seas threaten Miami’s luxurious beachfront, wealthy property owners are pushing inland to higher ground. Residents of the historically Black neighborhood of Liberty Square—the first segregated public housing project in the South—are the new target of an upcoming “revitalization” project due to their location 12 feet above sea level. This film by Academy Award nominated filmmaker is a character-driven verité documentary that weaves personal stories with the larger social justice narrative of climate gentrification. Foremost, it is about a community fighting to save itself from being erased in a rapidly changing Miami. The film begins in 2017, at the very time when the first homes of Liberty Square are razed to the ground to make way for a new $300 million mixed-income development. Initially, the community is hopeful this development will be different than past urban renewal projects, but it soon becomes clear it will be yet another instance in Miami’s long history of broken promises. Sharing the perspectives from residents, community advocates, teachers, developers, and politicians— with active resistance being led by neighborhood women, including a mother of seven who has lived in public housing all her life, the founder and principal of Liberty and a local environmental activist who educates her community about Climate Gentrification.
Unspoken Tears: Trauma Through Words.
Directed by Helene Magny. Produced by Nathalie Cloutier. Docuseek. www.docuseek.com. 2022. 52 minutes.
How can refugee children integrate into Quebec’s school system, given the unspeakable violence they’ve experienced? Following a psychologist specializing in conflict-related trauma, this film pays tribute to the admirable resilience and survival strategies of these “small adults,” whose spirit the bombs and camps have not completely crushed, at a time when it is vital to raise awareness in Western societies of migration-related issues and children’s rights.
NAME 2023 MC Film Festival Selections
54 Miles To Home. Director: Claire Haughey. Producer Phillip Howard and Michelle Formen. Southern Exposure Films. Sourthernexposurefilms.org. 2021. 25 min.
In 1965 three Black farming families risked their lives by providing refuge to the thousands of voting rights marchers on the historic five day, 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery. Nearly 60 years later, The Halls, Steeles and Gardners share for the first time what their parents and grandparents sacrificed and how their families’ legacies and this historic land can be preserved for generations to come. Their stories help unveil the rural and agricultural roots of the civil rights movement, while asking the seemingly timeless American question: how do you fight for what you know is right when the majority is against you?
80 Years Later. Director: Celine Parrenas Shimizu. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2022. 50 minutes.
Through multigenerational conversations with survivors and their descendants, this film explores the racial inheritance of Japanese American family incarceration during World War II. The film follows two cousins, Kiyo and Robert, respectively a teenager and child living in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1942 when Executive Order 9066 – which forcibly imprisoned 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II – was signed. Eighty years later, the cousins continue to grapple with the meaning of their incarceration and its impact on their lives, ancestors, and descendants.
American Justice on Trial. Directors: Andrew Abrahams and Herb Ferette. Producers: Lise Pearlman and Andrew Abrahams. Good Doc. www.gooddocs.net. 2022 40 min.
This is the forgotten story of the death penalty case that put racism on trial in a U.S. courtroom in the fall of 1968. Huey P. Newton, Black Panther Party co-founder, was accused of killing a white policeman and wounding another after a predawn car stop in Oakland. Newton himself suffered a near-fatal wound. As the trial neared its end, J. Edgar Hoover branded the Black Panthers the greatest internal threat to American security. Earlier that year, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy rocked a nation already bitterly divided over the Vietnam War. As the jury deliberated Newton’s fate, America was a tinderbox waiting to explode. At his trial, Newton and his maverick defense team defended the Panthers as a response to 400 years of racism and accused the policemen of racial profiling, insisting Newton had only acted in self-defense. Their unprecedented challenges to structural racism in the jury selection process were revolutionary and risky. But Newton’s defense team redefined a “jury of one’s peers.”
Blurring the Color Line. Director: Crystal Kwok. Executive Producers: Lisa Ling, Daniel Wu, W.Kamau Bell. Producer: Gustin Smith. Good Docs. www.gooddocs.net. 2022. 53 minutes.
What did it mean to be Chinese in Black spaces during segregation? Follow this personal journey of discovery, as the filmmaker digs into the ways her grandmother’s family navigated life as grocery store owners in the black neighborhood of Augusta, Georgia. Her film is a personal family story told alongside memories from the larger Chinese and Black communities in Georgia, which opens up uncomfortable but necessary conversations around anti-Black racism and the deeply rooted structure of white power and Chinese patriarchy. Which fountain did the Chinese drink from? Where did they sit on the bus? An important entrance into all of our connected histories which many of us never knew or dared speak about.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America. Directed by Joy Davenport. Produced by Monica Land. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2022. 60 minutes.
Fannie Lou Hamer was a leader in the civil rights movement, founder of the Freedom Democratic Party in Mississippi, and the organizer of Freedom Summer, a volunteer-based campaign launched in the summer of 1964 in order to register as many Black voters in Mississippi as possible. This documentary is a portrait of a civil rights activist and the injustices in America that made her work essential. Through public speeches, personal interviews, and powerful songs of the fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America explores and celebrates the lesser-known life of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders.
Elder Voices. Produced and Directed by David Goodman. Bullfrog Films. www.docuseek2.com. 2020. 49 minutes.
This film is a meditation about the destructiveness of hatred and the power of love, as told by Japanese-Americans, European Jews and conscientious objectors (COs) who came of age during the perilous times of the Great Depression and WWII. For each of these individuals the challenges they confronted proved even more daunting either because of what they believed or simply who they were. Residing together in a retirement community, they continue to live the values and principles of tolerance and mutual respect that were forged in their youth-- when they were confronted with anti-Semitism, internment camps, and bigotry. It questions what historical lessons can young people learn from their elders. Those watching will become immersed in a diverse and culturally enriching experience.
Generations of Pulse. Producers/Directors: Tamera Moore and Dallin Mello. U.C. Berkley. 2022. 12 minutes. (as of November 2023 this film is not available for purchase.)
As Florida politicians pass a bill that places queer youth in danger, the need to protect the LGBTQ community is ever present for Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and Andrea Drayton, the mother of one of the victims.
Never Too Young. Director: Angela Guzman. This film is not currently for sale but can be viewed for no charge at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOK-tmG_fs. 2023 .47 min.
Ethnic Studies has existed in higher education for more than fifty years. In high school, critical education researchers have recognized Ethnic Studies as vital to improving attendance, lowering suspension rates, and boosting GPAs for BIPOC students. This has given rise to the recent K-12 Ethnic Studies model curriculum adoption by the State Board of Education, and the signing of Assembly Bill 101, making California the first state to require an Ethnic Studies semester-long course in high school to graduate. Regrettably, Ethnic Studies continues to be mostly limited to higher education and grades 9-12 in public schools despite research documenting young children’s ability to analyze a racialized society. This documentary examines the existence, impact, and sustainability of Ethnic Studies in elementary school as explained by K-20 educators.
Other Side of the Wall. Directed by Michelle Plascencia. New Day Films. www.newday.com 2017. 68 minutes.
The relationship between Ale and Rocío faces a big change when their mother is unjustly imprisoned and they naturally become parents of their little brothers. First, all in good disposition and humor until their situation as illegal immigrants in Mexico is confronted with unexpected emotions and gender roles, discrimination, immigration systems and inability to enjoy their youth let alone access to education. Eventually the communication between siblings begins to fail and they learn to believe in each other to find hope on the other side of the wall that threatens to separate them.
Rwanda. Directed by Andre Versaille. Producer: Fabienne Servon-Schreiber. Cineteve. www.docuseek2.com. 2019. 52 Minutes.
Their names are Julien, Jean, Ange, Serge, François, or Assumpta. Ranging in age from 16 to 25, they belong to the new Rwandan generation, the one that was born into a legacy of genocide. They have grown up with guilt or wounds from crimes that are not their own. Their uncompromising testimonies unveil their fears, questions, and fierce determination to understand. With rare sincerity, this documentary reveals remarkable points of view, those of a country’s youth trying to rise from the ashes of a genocidal past.
Tested. Directed and Produced by Curtis Chin. www. testedfilm.com. 2015. 90 minutes.
The gap in opportunities for different races in America remains extreme. Nowhere is this more evident than our nation’s top public schools. In New York City where Blacks and Latinos make up 70% of the city’s school-aged population, they represent less than 5% of the city’s most elite public high schools. Asian Americans make up as much as 73%. This documentary follows a dozen racially and socio-economically diverse 8th graders as they fight for a seat at one of these schools. Their only way in: to ace a single standardized test. Tested includes the voices of educational experts as Pedro Noguero and Diane Ravitch as it explores such issues as access to a high quality public education, affirmative action and the model minority myth.
Vincent Who? Directed by Tony Lam. Produced by Curtis Chin. vincentwhofilm.com/store. 2009. 40 minutes.
In 1982, at the height of anti-Japanese sentiments arising from massive layoffs in the auto industry, a Chinese-American named Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by two white autoworkers. Chin’s killers, however, got off with a $3,000 fine and 3 years probation, but no jail time. Outraged by this injustice, Asian Americans around the country united for the first time across ethnic and socio-economic lines to form a pan-Asian identity and civil rights movement. Among its significant outcomes, the movement led to the historic broadening of federal civil rights protection to include all people in America, regardless of immigrant status or ethnicity. The film explores this important legacy through interviews with the key players at the time as well as a whole new generation of activists whose lives were impacted by Vincent Chin.
Winn. Directed by Erica Tanamachi and Joseph East. Women Make Movies. www.wmm.com. 2022. 17 minutes.
This powerful, short documentary exposes the horrifying experience that incarcerated pregnant women endure and documents Pamela Winn's mission to end shackling and ultimately prison birth.
You Will Be Swedish, My Daughter. Director: Claire Billet. Producer: Juliette Guigon. Andana Films. www.docuseek2.com. 2018. 58 minutes.
A Syrian refugee couple, Ahmad and Jihane, tell the story of their exile to Sweden to their youngest daughter, Sally. They recount their journey as migrants being smuggled across borders, evoke memories of their beloved Syria, and talk of the violence which is present at all times. Ahmad and Jihane then compare their differing points of view. What will they remember? What will they tell their children about the past? Between their unspoken thoughts and obsessions, the future identity of the family is being constructed.