IN CINEMA

MADE IN HARLEM
THE LAFARGUE CLINIC REMIXED:
HARLEM SCHOOL 1970
Tickets: $15 General Admission / $7 Reduced Price
Thursday, March 14th at 7 PM

Phil Gries, 1970 (digitally restored in 2018), 51 min.

HARLEM SCHOOL 1970 is a Direct Cinema feature documentary conceived, produced, directed, photographed, audio recorded and edited by Phil Gries based on his observations as an elementary school teacher in Harlem, New York (1967-1970) — the only known documentary filmed inside a city elementary school from the 1960s-80s. Without narration or interviews, the film observes a “day in the life” of Community School 30, during its first school year of operation (Sept. 1969-June 1970), from morning arrival to afternoon dismissal. What unfolds contains challenges and exhaustion, gratification and joy, for students, teachers, and faculty, and offers an intimate and memorable viewing experience.

Preceded by: 

FIRST REUNION IN 50 YEARS: A VISIT WITH IRIS MAXWELL
Phil Gries, 2018, 18 min.

Phil’s former second grade and third grade student, Iris Maxwell, at her home in Syracuse, NY with her mother, five children, and 15 grandchildren on April 1, 2018.

Post-screening discussion with filmmaker Phil Gries, preservationist Ben Woolf, and film participant Iris Maxwell, moderated by Kazembe Balagun.

Made In Harlem: The LaFargue Clinic Remixed
Founded by Reverend Sheldon Hale Bishop (Pastor of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church that housed the clinic in Harlem) with co-founders Richard Wright (author of “Native Son” and former Harlem bureau chief for the Communist Party’s Daily Worker) and Fredric Wertham (German psychoanalyst who emigrated to the United States after the rise of the Nazi Party), The Lafargue Clinic was the first of its kind in Harlem: a pay-as-you-wish anti-racist mental health clinic, staffed largely by volunteers. Operating 1946-1958 out of the basement of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, The Lafargue Clinic pioneered a form of social medicine that linked patients' medical needs with the struggle for housing and economic justice. MADE IN HARLEM: THE LAFARGUE CLINIC REMIXED is a series of films, talks, and seminars on the legacy of this groundbreaking Harlem institution and its impact today on radical healthcare organizing, mutual aid, and collective wellbeing.

Curated by Kazembe Balagun