Americana

Monday, April 4th, 7:00pm

Doc Watchers

Curated by Hellura Lyle

Americana  

Dir. Topaz Adizes, 2010, 91 min.

The compelling stories of two American teenagers in their last months of high school before enlisting in the U.S. Army are juxtaposed with conversations between Americans and locals overseas of what it means to be ‘American’ and ‘free’. Shot all over the world from Vietnam and Hiroshima, to Belgrade and Istanbul, Americana is an epic exploration of American identity at home and abroad.

Prep School Negro

Monday, February 7th, 7:00 pm

Doc Watchers

Curated by Hellura Lyle

A Work in Progress Screening of

Prep School Negro

Dir. Andre Robert Lee, 2011

Andre Robert Lee and his older sister grew up in the ghettos of Philadelphia while their mother struggled to support them by working in a local factory. When Andre was 14 years old he received what his family believed to be a golden ticket -- a full scholarship to attend one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country, Germantown Friends School. Elite education was Andre’s way up and out, but at what price? Yes the tuition was covered but this new world cost him and his family much more than anyone could anticipated. In Prep School Negro Andre takes a journey back in time to revisit the events of his adolescence while also spending time with current-day prep school students of color and their classmates to see how much has really changed inside the ivory tower.

Q&A with Dir. Andre Robert Lee

The Torture of Mothers: The Case of the Harlem Six

Monday, January 10th, 7:00pm
DocWatchers
Curated by Hellura Lyle
The Jena 6,
Big Noise, 2008, 28 min.

In a small town in Louisiana, six families are fighting for their sons lives. Two nooses are left as a warning to black students trying to integrate their playground, fights break out across town, a white man pulls a shotgun on black students, someone burns down most of the school, the DA puts six black students on trial for attempted murder, and the quiet town of Jena becomes the site of the largest civil rights demonstration in the South since the 1960s. The Jena 6 is a powerful symbol for, and example of, how racial justice works in America where the lynching noose has been replaced by the DA's pen. 

The Torture of Mothers: The Case of the Harlem Six

Woodie King, Jr., 1980, 52 min.

In 1963 a group of young Black boys living in Harlem were involved in an incident that earned them the nickname "The Harlem Six." Intent on protecting and clearing the names of their sons, several mothers bonded together to make their story known. This work emerges as a powerful close up of police brutality, and of power dynamics of 1960's Harlem.

Director Woodie King Jr. will be present for post-screening Q&A

Copy of The Torture of Mothers: The Case of the Harlem Six

Monday, January 10th, 7:00pm
DocWatchers
Curated by Hellura Lyle
The Jena 6,
Big Noise, 2008, 28 min.

In a small town in Louisiana, six families are fighting for their sons lives. Two nooses are left as a warning to black students trying to integrate their playground, fights break out across town, a white man pulls a shotgun on black students, someone burns down most of the school, the DA puts six black students on trial for attempted murder, and the quiet town of Jena becomes the site of the largest civil rights demonstration in the South since the 1960s. The Jena 6 is a powerful symbol for, and example of, how racial justice works in America where the lynching noose has been replaced by the DA's pen. 

The Torture of Mothers: The Case of the Harlem Six

Woodie King, Jr., 1980, 52 min.

In 1963 a group of young Black boys living in Harlem were involved in an incident that earned them the nickname "The Harlem Six." Intent on protecting and clearing the names of their sons, several mothers bonded together to make their story known. This work emerges as a powerful close up of police brutality, and of power dynamics of 1960's Harlem.

Director Woodie King Jr. will be present for post-screening Q&A