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Monday, September 8th
The Generation Gap: Family and Heritage in Contemporary America
7:00p Columbus Theater, 270 Broadway, Providence. $5 admission
(event co-sponsored by Progreso Latino and the Cambodian Society)
• My American Girls: A Dominican Story
Producer / Director: Aaron Matthews
This film shows a year in the lives of the Ortiz family. It is the story
of a hard-working, first-generation Dominican immigrant family in Brooklyn,
New York and their three American-born daughters. Aaron Matthews’
film captures the rewards – and costs – of pursuing the American
Dream.*
• Split Horn: The Life of a Hmong Shaman
in America
Director: Taggart Siegel
This film portrays the life and culture of a Hmong shaman and his family,
transplanted from the mountains of Laos to America’s heartland.
It explores issues of culture, religion, identity and assimilation and
especially familial tensions that develop between generations. Split Horn
documents what may be the end of the 17-year journey of Paja Tahao who
struggles to keep his family connected to its 5,000 year-old shamanic
traditions even as his children turn their attention to cartoons, computer
games and eventually Christianity. *
Post-screening discussion with: Patricia Symonds, Adjunct Associate Professor
of Anthropology, Brown University, and Elvys Ruiz, President, Instituto
Duartino of Rhode Island
Monday, October 6th
Living in America: Stories of Culture, Conflict and Immigration.
7:00p Columbus Theater, 270 Broadway, Providence. $5 admission
(event co-sponsored by the International Institute of Rhode Island)
• In
My Own Skin: The Complexity of Living as an Arab in America
Directors: Nikki Byrd & Jennifer Jajeh
Shot in October 2001, this film captures the complex realities of ethnicity,
nationality, religious affiliation and gender for five college-age Arab-American
women. Each of the women tackles the question of what it means to be an
Arab-American in New York City following the events of September 11th.*
•
I Call Myself Persian: Iranians in America
Directors:
Tanaz Eshaghian & Sara Nodjoumi
When the Shah of Iran was deposed and Iran became an Islamic state, one
million Iranians sought religious freedom, political asylum or educational
opportunities in the US. The taking of the American Embassy in 1979, the
Gulf War in 1999 and the 9/11 attacks in 2001 each resulted in the same
pattern of bigotry and political backlash against Iranians. The unique
and common experiences of Iranian immigrants in the United States –
including a standup comic, a computer scientist, college students, a wife
and mother, and an artist – are highlighted. *
• My American Father
Director: Shawn Hainsworth
This film reveals the remarkable story of Lai, an Amerasian child born
during the Vietnam War to a Vietnamese woman, Ut, and an American GI,
Bill. The film follows Ut and Lai’s journey from Vietnam to a refugee
camp in the Philippines to their resettlement in Seattle, and eventually
to Lai’s reunion with his American father.
• Days of Waiting
Director: Steven Okazaki
Estelle Ishigo was one of the few Caucasians to be interned with 100,000
Japanese Americans in 1942. Based on Ishigo’s personal papers and
novel entitled Lone Heart Mountain, this moving biographical portrait
traces her early life and 1929 marriage to Arthur Ishigo, a Japanese American.
When the internment began in August 1942, Estelle refused to abandon her
husband of 13 years and was relocated with him to Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
*
Post-screening discussion with: Nasser Zawia, President, Masjid Alhoda
(Muslim Community Center of Kingston), and Board member of: the Muslim
Heritage Council of RI, the Islamic Council of New England (ICNE), and
the Rhode Island Detainee Response Network (RIDRN)
Filmmaker Shawn Hainsworth will be present for a Q & A post-screening.
Monday,
November 3rd
Youth Speak Out!
5:00pm URI Feinstein Campus, Shepard Building, 80 Washington St., Providence.
FREE
(event co-sponsored by URI Feinstein – Providence Campus and NCCJ)
• Rages and Rhymes
Curated by Mindy Faber, Garry Walker, and the Video Machete Youth
Distribution Team in conjunction Dan Marano of Taos Talking Pictures.
This program of youth-made media screams with life, passion, and brains.
Through spoken word poetry, experimental expression, and video diaries,
Rages and Rhymes commands attention with teen-driven cultural innovation,
expressiveness and critical analysis.
• This evening of film and video will also feature several
pieces of youth-made media from Rhode Island schools and organizations
who promote media literacy, media education, and youth empowerment through
the arts. Look for work by artists from the Carriage House Student Artists,
Scene Teens, Media SmART, youth artist Rodney Wheeler with Community Prep,
and a SCOPE Youth Council Production with Channel One Central Falls.
Post-screening discussion with: Rob Jones, Program Director, National
Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) and members of the NCCJ Youth
Action Council. Rages and Rhymes filmmakers will be in attendance.
Monday,
December 1st
Love and Freedom
7:00p Columbus Theater, 270 Broadway, Providence. $5 admission
(event co-sponsored by AIDS Project Rhode Island)
• Affirmations
Director: Marlon Riggs
This film explores black gay male experiences, desires, and hopes for
empowerment.
• Real Women Have Curves
Director: Patricia Cardoso, In Spanish with subtitles
This film tells the story of Ana, a first generation Mexican-American
teenager in the midst of defining herself and her future. Ana is torn
between her dreams of going to college and her obligations to her family.
As she struggles with her choices, Ana agrees to work in her sister’s
downtown LA sewing factory for the summer. The film explores the relationships
between family, Chicana women, and new love, as Ana begins dating a Caucasian
boy from her high school. Ana’s journey teaches us the complexity
of love, family, heritage and desire.
Post-screening discussion with: Marisela Jimenez Ramos, History Ph.D.
Candidate, Brown University.
Monday,
January 5th
American Citizens or Enemies Within? The struggle of being “American
+ Other” in times of crisis and conflict.
7:00p Columbus Theater, 270 Broadway, Providence. $5 admission
(event co-sponsored by Amnesty International - Providence Chapter)
• Come See the Paradise
Director: Alan Parker
This film tells the story of a Japanese-American family thrown into a
prison camp at the outset of WWII. It explores the relationships between
a young Japanese-American woman and her family as they struggle to understand
her marriage to a local labor organizer. Together, the family experiences
the difficulties and dangers of the internment camps, racism in an America
at war, and the struggle to find hope despite it all.
Post-screening discussion with: Glenn Kumekawa, Professor Emeritus and
Director of Intergovernmental Analysis Program of the University of Rhode
Island, and President, Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund, Inc.
Monday,
February 2nd
Color Bars: Representations of race and difference in the American
media landscape
7:00p Columbus Theater, 270 Broadway, Providence. $5 admission
(event co-sponsored by Providence Black Repertory Theatre and Rhode Island
Black Heritage Society)
• Bamboozled
Directed by Spike Lee
This controversial film and dark satire of the television industry tells
the tale of a young, black television writer developing new material for
a major network. Frustrated that the network has repeatedly rejected his
ideas for positive black programming, he decides to shake things up (in
an attempt to get himself fired) by pitching a project so outlandish that
it could only fail – a minstrel show revival with a twist –
black actors in blackface. Instead of earning his desired expulsion, the
network embraces the show and it becomes the hit of the season.
Post-screening discussion with: Dr. Russell Potter, English department,
Rhode Island College and author of the book Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop
and the Politics of the Postmodernism.
Saturday, February 7th
Marlon Riggs Film Festival: Performing/Policing Race, Gender and
Sexuality
1pm-6pm List 120, List Art Center at Brown University FREE
(event co-sponsored by Brown University's Department of Africana Studies
and the Wayland Seminar "Incarceration, Narrative, and Performance"
and Amnesty International – Providence Chapter)
Please see http://www.brown.edu/Departments/African_American_Studies/wayland_fac_seminar/
for details regarding the film festival and seminar.
Confronting racism, gender stereotypes, and homophobia were the hallmarks
of Marlon Riggs' creative work. His documentaries and films propelled
him onto the center stage of America's "cultural wars" of the
1980's. Ethnic Notions, Mr. Riggs' first major work, examines
America's history of racism by tracing the evolution of the racial stereotypes.
Several years later, Tongues Untied was pivotal to debates and
policies regarding free speech and public funding for the arts and programming
content on public television. This powerful film provided the first opportunity
for critical observations of the experiences of black, gay men to claim
space on television; the ensuing controversies led to greater attempts
to police the arts. In 1994, Marlon Riggs died of AIDS at age thirty-seven.
1:00pm - Welcome
1:15 pm - Color Adjustment
2:30pm - Ethnic Notions
3:30pm - Tongues Untied
4:30pm - Panel & Discussion
6:00pm - Close
Co-facilitators: Myron Beasley, Department of Theater, Dance, and Drama
at Brown University, Daniel Scott, English Department, Rhode Island College,
Joy Ann James, Department of Africana Studies, Brown University (moderator).
*
Descriptions paraphrased from the National Video Resources Viewing Race
Project.
For more information contact Sara Archambault @ RICH (401)273-2250 / sara@etal.uri.edu
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