CME FILM SERIES
Saturday, October 28, 2023 | 6:00 PM EDT
Nae Pasaran
Reviewed by Zach George, Center for Marxist Education
Nae Pasaran
Reviewed by Zach George, Center for Marxist Education
In a Scottish town in 1974, factory workers refuse to carry out repairs on warplane engines in an act of solidarity against the violent military coup in Chile. Four years pass before the engines, left to rust in factory yard, mysteriously disappear in the middle of the night.
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Sunday, June 30 | 6:00 PM
Get Out
Get Out
The success of Jordan Peele’s Get Out – it took $30m in its first weekend in the US – is remarkable for lots of reasons. This is a first-time film from a respected, but essentially cult comedian, with no real big-name stars and a premise that is anathema to most of middle America. Yet people came out to see it in their thousands and critics raved about a horror film, which just does not happen. The film has a A- rating from audiences on CinemaScore, which as some have pointed out is unheard of for a horror, and a rare 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Like Donald Glover’s Atlanta, almost universal praise has followed the film’s debut and as with that series, Peele has dealt with race in America in a refreshing, funny and unflinching manner. The number of things Peele manages to reference is stunning: the taboo of mixed relationships, eugenics, the slave trade, black men dying first in horror films, suburban racism, police brutality. (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/28/get-out-box-office-jordan-peele).
Sunday, May 26 | 6:00 PM
The Train to Pakistan
The Train to Pakistan
Train to Pakistan is a 1998 Indian Hindi film adapted from Khushwant Singh's 1956 classic novel by the same name set in the Partition of India of 1947 and directed by Pamela Rooks. The film is set in Mano Majra, which is a quiet village on the border of India and Pakistan, close to where the railway line crosses the Sutlej River. The film develops around the love affair of small-time dacoit Juggut Singh, with a local Muslim girl, Nooran. The villagers are a mix of Sikhs and Muslims, who live in harmony. The Sikhs own most of the land, and the Muslims work as laborer's. During the summer of 1947, when the Partition of India was taking place, the entire country was a hotbed of extremism and intolerance. The Muslims in India moved towards the newly formed Pakistan, and the Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan migrated to refugee camps in India. One day, a train arrives from Pakistan, which carries bodies of all the travelers who have been butchered while they tried to depart from Pakistan. That is when this quiet village is changed forever.
Sunday, April 21 | 6:00 PM
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
"In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past 300 years, they have asserted it in arms." -- Proclamation of the Irish Republic (1916)
It begins in the chaos of combat, men and boys wielding their weapons on the battlefield, shouting and cursing and fighting. Sure, it's only an amateur hurling match, an Irish game similar to field hockey, and the weapons are bladed wooden sticks. But this is Ireland in 1920 and there's a war going on -- a guerrilla war for the independence of the Irish Republic, pitting the freedom fighters against the British army, the impoverished Irish workers against the English land barons, and eventually brother against brother.
These lads are about to be sucked into the middle of it, for even their game of hurling is a violation of the English government's ban against public meetings by Irish citizens. Only minutes after the match, one of their number, a 17-year-old boy, will be assaulted by the brutal "Black and Tans" (primarily demobilized British soldiers from World War I) for the crime of refusing to give his own name in English. You don't have to know about the history of "the troubles" in Northern Ireland to be swept up in the human drama of Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
With almost tactile immediacy -- you almost can smell the smoke and the wild grasses in the hills, feel the rain and the fog in your bones -- this movie places you shoulder to shoulder with people who are living and dying for their country, their families, their friends and their principles. - Jim Emerson
It begins in the chaos of combat, men and boys wielding their weapons on the battlefield, shouting and cursing and fighting. Sure, it's only an amateur hurling match, an Irish game similar to field hockey, and the weapons are bladed wooden sticks. But this is Ireland in 1920 and there's a war going on -- a guerrilla war for the independence of the Irish Republic, pitting the freedom fighters against the British army, the impoverished Irish workers against the English land barons, and eventually brother against brother.
These lads are about to be sucked into the middle of it, for even their game of hurling is a violation of the English government's ban against public meetings by Irish citizens. Only minutes after the match, one of their number, a 17-year-old boy, will be assaulted by the brutal "Black and Tans" (primarily demobilized British soldiers from World War I) for the crime of refusing to give his own name in English. You don't have to know about the history of "the troubles" in Northern Ireland to be swept up in the human drama of Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
With almost tactile immediacy -- you almost can smell the smoke and the wild grasses in the hills, feel the rain and the fog in your bones -- this movie places you shoulder to shoulder with people who are living and dying for their country, their families, their friends and their principles. - Jim Emerson
Sunday, March 17 | 6:00 PM
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday
Documentary-style drama showing the events that led up to the tragic incident on January 30, 1972 in the Northern Ireland town of Derry when a protest march led by civil rights activist Ivan Cooper was fired upon by British troops, killing 13 protesters and wounding 14 more. On January 30, 1972, in the Northern Irish town of Derry, a peaceful protest march led by civil rights activist Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) turned into a slaughter. British soldiers suddenly opened fire on the defenseless crowd, killing 13 people and wounding 14 more. Shot as if a documentary, this film follows Ivan throughout the day as it chronicles the events leading up to the horrific incident and the bloodied, confused aftermath that followed.
Sunday, February 24 | 6:00 PM
I Am Not Your Negro
I Am Not Your Negro
In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends-Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript. Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for. (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_am_not_your_negro)
Sunday, January 27 | 6:00 PM
Black and Cuba
Black and Cuba
'Black and Cuba' follows street-smart students, who are outcasts at an elite Ivy League university, as they band together and adventure to Cuba to see if revolution is truly possible. While filming their poignant encounters with AfroCuban youth, breathtaking sites and moving hip-hop performances, the travelers confront realities behind myths of color-blindness and social mobility.
This edgy and artful documentary of their journey uncovers renewed hope for equality and human rights. 'Black and Cuba' is the feature film directorial debut of international human rights advocate and scholar Robin J. Hayes, PhD.
This edgy and artful documentary of their journey uncovers renewed hope for equality and human rights. 'Black and Cuba' is the feature film directorial debut of international human rights advocate and scholar Robin J. Hayes, PhD.
Sunday, December 30 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution
The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution
In the turbulent 1960s, change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored — cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails.
Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the diverse group of voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.
Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph, Ericka Huggins, and dozens of others, as well as archival footage of the late Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution tells the story of a pivotal movement that gave rise to a new revolutionary culture in America.
Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the diverse group of voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.
Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph, Ericka Huggins, and dozens of others, as well as archival footage of the late Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution tells the story of a pivotal movement that gave rise to a new revolutionary culture in America.
Sunday, October 28 | 6:00 PM
Beginning of The Great Revival
Beginning of The Great Revival
"Beginning of the Great Revival", known as "The Founding of a Party" in China and a companion piece to 2009's blockbuster The Founding of a Republic, details the historic events surrounding what is referred to as the Chinese Revolution, the period from 1911 to 1921, when Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty and planted the roots of what has become today's Chinese Communist government. The story shows the beginnings of the country's most influential first-generation leaders, including Mao Zedong, Chiang Kai-shek and Zhou Enlai. Just as The Founding of a Republic did, the film, features a cast of China's biggest box office names such as Liu Ye, Chang Chen, Chen Kun, Andy Lau, Daniel Wu and John Woo.
Sunday, September 30 | 6:00 PM
Norma Rae
Norma Rae
Norma Rae is a 1979 American drama film, directed by Martin Ritt in a screenplay written by Harrriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch. Based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton, which was told in the 1975 book Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance by New York Times reporter Henry P. Leifermann. The film stars Sally Field in the titular role. Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Pat Hingle, Barbara Baxley and Gail Strickland appear in supporting roles. Norma Rae, a young Southern woman working at a cotton mill, encounters a union organizer and decides to join the effort to reform working conditions. This Oscar-winning drama follows Norma's crusade, as she leads a shutdown despite the opposition of her family and employers.
Sunday, September 16 | 6:00 PM
The Take
The Take
In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system. But Freddy, the president of the new worker's co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory……. Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system………….
Sunday, August 26 | 6:00 PM
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Destroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure amongst architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which they resided, while tracing the personal and poignant narratives of several of the project's residents. In the post-War years, the American city changed in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake. The next time the city changes, remember Pruitt-Igoe.
Saturday, July 29 | 6:00 PM
Finally Got the News
Finally Got the News
FINALLY GOT THE NEWS is a forceful, unique documentary that reveals the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers inside and outside the auto factories of Detroit. Through interviews with the members of the movement, footage shot in the auto plants, and footage of leafleting and picketing actions, the film documents their efforts to build an independent black labor organization that, unlike the UAW, will respond to worker's problems, such as the assembly line speed-up and inadequate wages faced by both black and white workers in the industry.
Beginning with a historical montage, from the early days of slavery through the subsequent growth and organization of the working class, FINALLY GOT THE NEWS focuses on the crucial role played by the black worker in the American economy. Also explored is the educational 'tracking' system for both white and black youth, the role of African American women in the labor force, and relations between white and black workers.
Beginning with a historical montage, from the early days of slavery through the subsequent growth and organization of the working class, FINALLY GOT THE NEWS focuses on the crucial role played by the black worker in the American economy. Also explored is the educational 'tracking' system for both white and black youth, the role of African American women in the labor force, and relations between white and black workers.
Battle for Sevastopol
Saturday, June 30 | 6:00 PM
Saturday, June 30 | 6:00 PM
The breakout of the war shatters the world of a young student, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, forcing her to enlist in the army in 1941. The maiden turns out to be a natural-born sniper; her impressive skill and prowess make her stand out among men and women alike. Seeing Pavlichenko as a tangible threat, the German High Command gives orders to eliminate the girl whatever the cost. In the meanwhile, Lyudmila meets a man and falls in love. War fades into the background... Soon, however, another misfortune befalls Lyudmila leaving the man she loves on the brink of death and herself seriously wounded. The girl is pulled out of combat and later goes to the United States with a publicity visit. Eleanor Roosevelt welcomes Lyudmila in the White House and the two women soon become close. It won't be long before Pavlichenko stands before an audience in Chicago pressing for a second front. Will her words have the capacity to change the course of war?
Selma
Sunday, May 27 | 6:00 PM
Sunday, May 27 | 6:00 PM
Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernays Selma tells the real story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history. Free hot dogs, popcorn, and cokes!
Cuba: An African Odyssey
Sunday, April 29 | 6:00 PM - Part 1
Sunday, May 6 | 6:00 PM - Part 2
Sunday, April 29 | 6:00 PM - Part 1
Sunday, May 6 | 6:00 PM - Part 2
From Che Guevara's military campaign to avenge Lumumba in the Congo up to the fall of apartheid in South Africa, 300,000 Cubans fought alongside African revolutionaries. CUBA, AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY is the previously untold story of Cuba's support for African revolutions, one of the Cold War's most vigorous contests over resources and ideology. It tells the real story behind the so-called “cold” war and its clashes by proxy. An epic tale that explains the current state of the world, about the Internationalists who won all the battles but ended up losing the war.
The Coming War on China
Sunday, April 1 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sunday, April 1 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
The Coming War on China is John Pilger's 60th documentary. Pilger reveals what the news doesn't - that the world's greatest military power, the United States, and the world's second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, are on the road to war. Pilger's film is a warning and an inspiring story of resistance.
Race
Sunday, February 11 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, February 11 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Race is based on the incredible true story of Jesse Owens, the legendary athletic superstar whose quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy. Race is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one man's fight to become an Olympic legend.
EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED
Dark Girls
Sunday, February 18 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Dark Girls
Sunday, February 18 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Dark Girls is a fascinating and controversial documentary film that goes underneath the surface to explore the prejudices that dark-skinned women face throughout the world. It explores the roots of classism, racism and the lack of self-esteem within a segment of cultures that span from America to the most remote corners of the globe. Women share their personal stories, touching on deeply ingrained beliefs and attitudes of society, while allowing generations to heal as they learn to love themselves for who they are.
13th
Sunday, February 25 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, February 25 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Director Ava DuVernay’s takes an unflinching, well-informed and thoroughly researched look at the American system of incarceration, specifically how the prison industrial complex affects people of color. Her analysis could not be more timely nor more infuriating. The film builds its case piece by shattering piece, inspiring levels of shock and outrage that stun the viewer, leaving one shaken and disturbed before closing out on a visual note of hope designed to keep us on the hook as advocates for change.
Bread and Roses
Sunday, January 28 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, January 28 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Maya is a quick-witted young woman who comes over the Mexican border without papers and makes her way to the LA home of her older sister Rosa. Rosa gets Maya a job as a janitor: a non-union janitorial service has the contract, the foul-mouthed supervisor can fire workers on a whim, and the service-workers' union has assigned organizer Sam Shapiro to bring its "justice for janitors" campaign to the building. Sam finds Maya a willing listener, she's also attracted to him. Rosa resists, she has an ailing husband to consider. The workers try for public support; management intimidates workers to divide and conquer. Rosa and Maya as well as workers and management may be set to collide.
Bread and Roses |
The Mine Wars
Sunday, November 19 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, November 19 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
At the dawn of the 20th century, coal was the fuel that powered the nation. Yet few Americans thought much about the men who blasted the black rock from underground and hauled it to the surface. The Mine Wars tells the overlooked story of the miners in the mountains of southern West Virginia — native mountaineers, African American migrants, and European immigrants — who came together in a protracted struggle for their rights. Decades of violence, strikes, assassinations and marches accompanied their attempts to form a union, culminating in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. The West Virginia mine wars raised profound questions about what freedom and democracy meant to working people in an industrial society.
The Mine Wars |
Last Days in Vietnam
Sunday, October 29 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sunday, October 29 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront the same moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate U.S. citizens only—or to risk punishment and save the lives of as many South Vietnamese citizens as they can. The events recounted in the film mainly center on the US evacuation of Saigon codenamed Operation Frequent Wind.
Enjoy a discussion following the film facilitated by antiwar protesters Marilyn Levin and Duncan McFarland, and Alfred Johnson, who spent over a year in an Army stockade for refusing orders to Vietnam.
Enjoy a discussion following the film facilitated by antiwar protesters Marilyn Levin and Duncan McFarland, and Alfred Johnson, who spent over a year in an Army stockade for refusing orders to Vietnam.
Last Days of Vietnam |
The Great Debaters
Sunday, September 24 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, September 24 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Poet and professor Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) teaches at the predominately black Wiley College in 1935 Texas. He decides to start a debate team, something nearly unheard of at a black college. While at first he butts heads with the influential father (Forest Whitaker) of one of his best debators, eventually he is able to form a team of strong-minded, intelligent young students, and they become the first black debate team to challenge Harvard's prestigious debate champions.
The Great Debaters |
Mustang
Sunday, August 27 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sunday, August 27 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Nominated for 2015 Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. It's the beginning of the summer. In a village in the north of Turkey, Lale and her four sisters come home from school, innocently playing with boys. The supposed debauchery of their games causes a scandal with unintended consequences. The family home slowly turns into a prison, classes on housework and cooking replace school, and marriages begin to be arranged. The five sisters, driven by the same desire for freedom, fight back against the limits imposed on them. Turkish with English subtitles, 94 minutes.
Mustang |
The Fidel Castro Tapes
Sunday, July 30 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sunday, July 30 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
The Fidel Castro Tapes features rarely — and never-before-seen — images to tell the life story of the leader of Cuba. It chronicles how his drive and charisma catapulted him to power in Cuba and how he used these traits to maintain control of his country for nearly five decades and capture the attention of the world.
Instead of telling his story through interviews, the program relies solely on media reports, rare images and recordings to document Castro’s turbulent life. In addition, the program features footage obtained from several Cuban archives. By using an “in the moment” style of storytelling, The Fidel Castro Tapes gives viewers a sense of being present during the most significant moments of Castro’s career — and gives remarkable insight into his personality. English, 60 minutes.
Instead of telling his story through interviews, the program relies solely on media reports, rare images and recordings to document Castro’s turbulent life. In addition, the program features footage obtained from several Cuban archives. By using an “in the moment” style of storytelling, The Fidel Castro Tapes gives viewers a sense of being present during the most significant moments of Castro’s career — and gives remarkable insight into his personality. English, 60 minutes.
The Fidel Castro Tapes |
Mandela
Sunday, June 25 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, June 25 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
The remarkable life of South African revolutionary, president and world icon Nelson Mandela (Idris Elba) takes center stage. Though he had humble beginnings as a herd boy in a rural village, Mandela became involved in the anti-apartheid movement and co-founded the African National Congress Youth League. His activities eventually led to his imprisonment on Robben Island from 1964 to 1990. In 1994, Mandela became the first president of democratic South Africa.
Mandella |
Salt of the Earth
Saturday, June 3 | 3:00 PM
Joe Bernick, Director of the Salt of the Earth Labor College
Saturday, June 3 | 3:00 PM
Joe Bernick, Director of the Salt of the Earth Labor College
Salt of the Earth is a classic labor film, depicting the bitter 1950 strike by mostly-Chicano and Mexicano miners in New Mexico that challenged racist discrimination in the industry and male supremacy in the home. When an injunction was issued against the striking miners, their wives and sisters took up the struggle with a fury, leaving the men to care for home and children. It was banned and barely shown in commercial theaters in the US. But tens if not hundreds of millions viewed it in the Soviet Union, China and other civilized states. Salt of the Earth is often shown to students in Mexican American and Women's Studies courses. The Library of Congress now includes it on their list of the 100 greatest US films.
The film will be introduced by Joe Bernick, the long-time director of the Salt of the Earth Labor College. Born in Minnesota, Joe spent most of his childhood in the recently-occupied Palestine, returning to Minnesota in the early 1960s to finish high school. He became active in the civil rights, peace and Palestine justice movement, and worked in Minneapolis factories, where he was active in the Iron Workers and Teamsters unions. He and his wife, Cat Stelman, moved to Tucson in 1980. He worked for a decade as a school custodian, was Vice President of his AFT local, and remains active in Jobs with Justice. He was mentored by the great Communist leaders, Lorenzo and Anita Torrez, veterans of the strike depicted in the film, and helped found the Salt of the Earth Labor College in Tucson in 1993.
Salt of the Earth |
Lumumba
Sunday, May 28 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 28 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
"Lumumba" is a gripping political thriller which tells the story of the legendary African leader Patrice Emery Lumumba. Called "the politico of the bush" by journalists of his day, the brilliant and charismatic Lumumba rose rapidly to the office of Prime Minister when Belgium conceded the Congo's independence in June, 1960. He would last two months in office. This is a true story.
Lumumba |
Black Girl
Sunday, April 23 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, April 23 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Ousmane Sembène was one of the greatest and most groundbreaking filmmakers who ever lived, as well as the most renowned African director of the twentieth century—and yet his name still deserves to be better known in the rest of the world. He made his feature debut in 1966 with the brilliant and stirring Black Girl. Sembène, who was also an acclaimed novelist in his native Senegal, transforms a deceptively simple plot—about a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to work for a wealthy white family and finds that life in their small apartment becomes a prison, both figuratively and literally—into a complexly layered critique of the lingering colonialist mind-set of a supposedly postcolonial world. Featuring a moving central performance by MBissine Thérèse Diop, Black Girl is a harrowing human drama as well as a radical political statement—and one of the essential films of the 1960s.
Black Girl |
Althea
Sunday, March 26 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, March 26 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Althea Gibson’s life and achievements transcend sports. A truant from the rough streets of Harlem, Althea emerged as a most unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world in the 1950s. Her roots as a sharecropper’s daughter, her family’s migration north to Harlem in the 1930s, mentoring from Sugar Ray Robinson, David Dinkins and others, and fame that thrust her unwillingly into the glare of the early Civil Rights movement, all bring her story into a much broader realm of the American story.
Althea |
Magdalene Sisters (90% Rotten Tomatoes)
Sunday, February 26 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, February 26 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
The triumphant story of three extraordinary women whose courage to defy a century of injustice would inspire a nation. While women's liberation sweeps the globe, in 1960s Ireland four "fallen" women are stripped of their liberty and dignity and condemned to indefinite servitude in the Magdalene Laundries, where they'll work to atone for their "sins.“
Magdalene Sisteres |
China: A Century of Revolution
Part Three: Born Under the Red Flag 1976–1997
Sunday, January 22 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Part Three: Born Under the Red Flag 1976–1997
Sunday, January 22 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
China: A Century of Revolution is a six-hour tour de force journey through the country's most tumultuous period. First televised on PBS, this award-winning documentary series presents an astonishingly candid view of a once-secret nation with rare archival footage, insightful historical commentary and stunning eyewitness accounts from citizens who struggled through China's most decisive century. In Part 3, Born Under the Red Flag, Mao’s death begins, which follows the country’s new leadership of Deng Xiaoping and its unlikely transformation into an extraordinary hybrid of communist-centralized politics with an ever-expanding free market economy.
China: A Century of Revolution
Part Two: The Mao Years 1949-1976 (1994)
Sunday, December 18 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Part Two: The Mao Years 1949-1976 (1994)
Sunday, December 18 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
China: A Century of Revolution is a six-hour tour de force journey through the country's most tumultuous period. First televised on PBS, this award-winning documentary series presents an astonishingly candid view of a once-secret nation with rare archival footage, insightful historical commentary and stunning eyewitness accounts from citizens who struggled through China's most decisive century. Part 2: The Mao Years examines the turbulent era of Mao’s attempts to forge a “new China” from the war-ravaged and poverty-stricken nation.
China: A Century of Revolution, Part 2 |
China: A Century of Revolution
Part One: China in Revolution 1911-1949 (1989)
Sunday, November 20 | 6 – 8 PM
Part One: China in Revolution 1911-1949 (1989)
Sunday, November 20 | 6 – 8 PM
China: A Century of Revolution is a six-hour tour de force journey through the country's most tumultuous period. First televised on PBS, this award-winning documentary series presents an astonishingly candid view of a once-secret nation with rare archival footage, insightful historical commentary and stunning eyewitness accounts from citizens who struggled through China's most decisive century. Part 1: China in Revolution charts the pivotal years from the birth of the new republic to the establishment of the PRC, through foreign invasions, civil war and a bloody battle for power between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Sunday, October 30 | 6 - 8 PM
Sunday, October 30 | 6 - 8 PM
The Black Power Mixtape is an award winning compilation feature documentary that displays the story of the African-American community 1967-1975, the people, the society and the style that fueled a change. Told with sparkling, beautiful and deep footage, lost in the archives in Sweden for 30 years.
The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975 |
Morning Sun
Sunday, October 9 | 6 - 8 PM
Sunday, October 9 | 6 - 8 PM
A range of techniques and perspectives are used in the Morning Sun website to reflect on the origins and history of the Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). We approach the period not from a simplistic linear perspective, but from a panoptic one, encompassing a broad overview while allowing the user to focus in on individual histories, narratives and events that reveal the complex contradictory forces that led to an era of unrivalled revolutionary fervor and political turmoil.
Timbuktu
Sunday, September 25 | 6 - 8 PM
Sunday, September 25 | 6 - 8 PM
Gracefully assembled and ultimately disquieting,
Timbuktu is a timely film with a powerful message about a cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed.
Join Susan McLucas, an activist against female genital mutilation who has spent time in Africa, in a disucssion of the film.
Timbuktu is a timely film with a powerful message about a cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed.
Join Susan McLucas, an activist against female genital mutilation who has spent time in Africa, in a disucssion of the film.
Timbuktu |
Russian soldier Alyosha Skvortsov is granted a visit with his mother after he singlehandedly fends off two enemy tanks. As he journeys home, Alyosha encounters the devastation of his war-torn country, witnesses glimmers of hope among the people, and falls in love. With its poetic visual imagery, Grigori Chukhrai's Ballad of a Soldier is an unconventional meditation on the effects of war, and a milestone in Russian cinema.
Starring Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko.
Black and white, in Russian with English subtitles, 88 minutes.
Starring Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko.
Black and white, in Russian with English subtitles, 88 minutes.
Mao Zedong, 1969
Sunday, July 10 | 6 - 9 PM A documentary film from the CIA library shows seldom seen footage giving accurate historical background to the Chinese Revolution. Focusing on the period from the Opium War to the victory of the revolution in 1949, the documentary conveys much accurate information from the May 4, 1919 movement, the alliance with KMT in 1920s, and the anti-Japanese war and civil war periods. Importance of the united front to oppose the Japanese invasion, land reform policy of land to the tillers, and rectification campaigns are all covered. The film opens and closes with footage of the cultural revolution and exalting the leading role of Mao. Chinese politics today cannot be understand without an appreciation of Chinese history, especially the twists and turns of the revolution.
US National Film Archives, 59 minutes Welcome to Leith
Sunday, June 12 | 6 - 8 PM Welcome to Leith chronicles the attempted takeover of a small town in North Dakota by notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb. As his behavior becomes more threatening, tensions soar, and the residents desperately look for ways to expel their unwanted neighbor. With incredible access to both longtime residents of Leith and white supremacists, the film examines a small community in the plains struggling for sovereignty against an extremist vision. It can’t happen here, some might say, but it did and Americans should indeed be cautious.
In English, 86 minutes. |