NYC PREMIERE Ike White was a musical prodigy serving life in prison since age 19. His luck changed when he had the opportunity to record in prison the album Changin’ Times (1976) with WAR producer Jerry Goldstein. Decades later, filmmaker Daniel Vernon tracks down White out of prison, living in obscurity, and the story takes […]
NYC PREMIERE Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s latest film is a timely look at the deep roots of systemic inequalities that have made possible the ever-widening income gap that threatens the fabric of our democracy. Cultural critics, academics and other notables explore the gendered nature of core American values—with “masculine” traits like individualism, power and money prioritized over […]
WORLD PREMIERE Veteran educator Peter Bergson established the Natural Creativity Center on the outskirts of Philadelphia to offer an alternative to dehumanizing formal education. His unconventional method of “unschooling” favors self-motivation, empowering students to direct their own learning. After 30 years of success with suburban children, Bergson finds his philosophy and methods—and the assumptions they […]
NYC PREMIERE Finding that traditional youth organizations aren’t directly focusing on the issues facing young girls of color, two moms, Anyavette Martinez and Marilyn Hollinquest, begin their own troop, the Radical Monarchs. Based in Oakland, a city with a long history of social justice movements, this progressive group is more likely to participate in protest […]
In 1963, more than 250,000 students boycotted Chicago’s public schools to protest racial segregation. Combining period footage with reflections from participants, ‘63 Boycott links the past with present-day concerns around inequality in the education system. Courtesy of Kartemquin.
US PREMIERE Famous Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas and renowned African-American sex educator Mollena Williams meet on a blind date. Sharing an appetite for kinky sex, they fall in love and begin a controversial journey towards radical self-determination. From their oasis in the Upper West Side, the couple disregards society’s definitions of ownership, perversion and […]
WORLD PREMIERE In July 1995, Chicago was hit by a record heat wave that claimed the lives of 739 residents, primarily among the elderly, African Americans and those living in poverty. Using this tragedy as a jumping-off point, but referencing other extreme weather catastrophes like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, Cooked provocatively reframes the politics of […]
WORLD PREMIERE In the 1970s, the Bronx was on fire. Left unprotected by the city government, nearly a half-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multiethnic neighborhood burned, reducing the community to rubble. While insidious government policies caused the devastation, Black and Latino residents bore the blame. In this story of hope and resistance, Bronx […]
NYC PREMIERE Against the backdrop of the mean streets of Compton, California, urban cowboys find joy and purpose among the horses of the Hill, the last public stable in South Central LA. Brett Fallentine follows three Black cowboys: Ghuan, who fights to rebuild the Hill after a mysterious fire and to preserve its unique culture; […]
In his lyrical directorial debut, winner of a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at this year’s Sundance, acclaimed photographer RaMell Ross rewrites familiar representational tropes of race, region and class in this impressionistic portrait of two young African-American men in the American South over five years. The film’s unique storytelling, composed of intimate, associative […]