NAME FILM FESTIVAL 2005

Thursday, November 10 through Saturday, November 12 Location: Back of the Exhibit Hall NAME FILM FESTIVAL 2005 Thursday, November 10 8:00 am Let’s Get Real – Respect for All Name-calling and bullying have reached epidemic proportions in schools today. Let's Get Real gives young people the chance to speak up in their own words about the real issues behind the problem. With amazing courage and candor, the students featured in Let s Get Real discuss racial differences, perceived sexual orientation, disabilities, religious differences, sexual harassment and more. From the youth who are targeted to the students who pick on them to those who find the courage to intervene, Let s Get Real examines bullying from the full range of perspectives. This poignant film educates audiences of all ages about why we can no longer accept name-calling and bullying as just a normal rite of passage. 36 minutes (VHS) 8:40 am Freedom Road – Women Make Movies Freedom Road is a barren stretch that leads in and out of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women. Yet for the some of the women incarcerated there, freedom has been redefined through the power of the pen. A testament to the profound influence of arts and education, Lorna Johnson’s compelling film features six female prisoners who are part of a unique memoir-writing workshop called ―Woman is the Word.‖ Reading classic autobiographies such as "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Ann Jacobs and "The Cancer Journals" by Audre Lorde, the women are empowered to claim the events of their own lives and retell their own stories—ultimately liberating them from long-held secrets and silence. Moving interviews with the women inmates, their instructors and family members combined with verité footage of their fascinating classroom discussions reveal how poverty, under-education, domestic abuse have had a role in the destiny of many women in the program. Ultimately, the film examines the devastating cycle of imprisonment for the poor and underprivileged, and points to an inspired embodiment of prison reform. 35 minutes (VHS) 11:00 am February One -- California Newsreel In one remarkable day, four college freshmen changed the course of American history. February One tells the inspiring story surrounding the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins that revitalized the Civil Rights Movement and set an example of student militancy for the coming decade. This moving film shows how a small group of determined individuals can galvanize a mass movement and focus a nation’s attention on injustice. The Greensboro Four, Ezell Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil, were close friends at North Carolina A&T University before they became political activists. Two of the four had grown up where segregation was not legal, while another’s father was active in the NAACP. They recount how the idea for the sit-in grew out of those late night ―bull sessions‖ that make college years so rich. Prof. William Chafe helps set the historical context the four young men confronted: the Civil Rights Movement had stalled since the Brown decision and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On the night of January 31, 1960 the four dared each other to do something that would change the South and their own lives forever. They decided to sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro the next day. On February 1st, dressed in their Sunday best, the four men sat down at the lunch counter. Frank McCain remembers that he knew then this would be the high point of his life, ―I felt clean...I had gained my manhood by that simple act.‖ The four were refused service; when they did not leave the store the manager closed the lunch counter. In the days that followed they were joined by more students from local Black colleges and a few white students who also sat-in at other lunch counters in Greensboro. Prof. Vincent Harding reminds us that the Civil Rights Movement was the first major social movement to be Film Festival Schedule 76 NAME Conference 2005 covered by television news so word of the events in Greensboro spread across the nation like a prairie fire. Within just a few days students were sitting in at lunch counters in fifty-four cities around the South. Greensboro’s civic leadership pressured the President of North Carolina A&T to halt the protests but he counseled the students to follow their own consciences. Finally after months of protests the Woolworth management quietly integrated its lunch counter. The wave of direct action started by the Greensboro Four coalesced in the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. February One not only fills in one of the most important chapters in the Civil Rights Movement, it reminds us that this was a movement of ordinary people motivated to extraordinary deeds by the need to assert their basic human dignity. It provides an eloquent argument to today’s generation of students that involvement in the politics of our own time is a vital part of any college education. 30 minutes (DVD) 11:35 am The Long Walk to Freedom -- Bullfrog Films The Long Walk To Freedom video is a 30-minute documentary how 12 ordinary people from different racial and economic backgrounds came to accomplish extraordinary deeds, which changed the face of the nation. Together with tens of thousands of other Americans, they joined the Civil Rights Movement to protest racial inequality, segregation, and discrimination in the 1960s. The film demonstrates that the struggle for civil rights, justice, and equality is indeed a "long walk" — an ongoing challenge requiring the participation of successive generations. And it shows how ordinary people can get involved in social change. The film is principally illustrated with the photographs of Matt Herron, an award-winning photojournalist who covered the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s for Life, Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic magazines. 30 minutes (DVD) 3:00 pm New Faces on Main Street – Newist This hour-long investigative documentary provides a contemporary perspective of the situation of Latino and Hmong refugees and immigrants; why they originally came to the United States and how they are surviving in middle size and smaller communities in the Midwest. It hopes to dispel some commonly held beliefs and stereotypes about the Hmong and Latino cultures. New Faces on Main Street utilizes first person accounts of immigrants and refugees and testimonies of other people in their communities. 60 minutes (DVD) 4:30 pm For Jackson : A Time Capsule from His Two Grandmothers – Filmakers Library Seven-year-old Jackson has light skin and curly hair - and a remarkable heritage from both sides of his family. In this inspiring film, his two grandmothers look back over lives of adversity, challenges and achievement, to pass along to him their acquired wisdom. Rosemary Brown and Ruth Horricks-Sujir are his two courageous grandmothers from very different backgrounds. Both women left their home countries to forge new lives. Rosemary Brown, left Jamaica to study in Canada. After an extensive record in public service, she became the first Black woman elected to public office in Canada. Ruth Horricks-Sujir left her family's farm in Alberta to take a two-month sea voyage to India. There she met and married a handsome Hindu Brahmin pilot for Air India. A young Western bride in India, she eventually returned to Canada with three young children, only to be widowed when her husband died in an air crash As a single mother in a small prairie town, Ruth pursued a college degree and spent twenty five years as a dedicated high school teacher. Ruth's son married Rosemary¹s daughter, melding racial, cultural and religious heritages in one little boy - Jackson. Rosemary says of Jackson,"You are part of a continuum of service and compassion.". This gem of a film will enrich multicultural programs and women¹s studies. 49 minutes (VHS) NAME Conference 2005 77 Film Festival Schedule Friday, November 11 8:00 am Hardwood: A Black Family’s Story – Filmakers Library Former Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis fathered two sons. One was with a white woman with whom he was in love but felt he couldn¹t marry in the racial climate of the sixties. The other was with a black woman with whom he had an unhappy marriage. Hubert Davis, the film director, was the mixed race son who for many years did not know his father. This film movingly explores the pain of sons growing up with an absent father and its effect on their mothers. Mel eventually divorced his wife to marry Hubert's mother and the half brothers met for the first time. They bonded, revealing to one another the hurt of their childhoods. Mel explains how he too experienced the devastating effect of growing up without a father. Basketball, he says, saved him and he "gives back" by coaching young players. Hardwood is compelling in its tale of one black family reconstituting itself after coming to terms with the sorrows brought on, in part, by the racial prejudice of the time. It will resonate with many young people who grew up in single parent households, as well as the adults who try to help them heal. An important film for African -American studies, multicultural studies, psychology and sociology. 29 minutes (VHS) 8:35 am Young Voices From the Arab World – AMIDEAST This educational video, accompanied by a teacher’s guide, explores the breadth of Arab culture and history through the lives of five teenagers. Connecting each story are comprehensive and interesting lessons narrated by DJ Casey Kasim, that explain the history, industry and geography of the vast Arab world. Viewers of all ages will learn something from its clear and comprehensive introduction to the 22 diverse countries that make up the Arab world. Each teenager represents a different aspect of Arab life. Muhammad, a 14-year-old from Jordan, shares how he and his family practice their Islamic faith. Tamara, a 14-year-old Greek Orthodox, lives in Beirut. She wants to become an archeologist so she can help preserve the ancient ruins that are emerging from the rubble of the civil war. Hazem, 12 years old, is from Cairo. Both his parents work, so during the summer he is responsible for the care of his little sister and helps his mother prepare traditional Egyptian food. Twelve-year-old Sa’ud of Kuwait lives with his extended family. Several of his uncles and his grandmother help his mother raise him and his siblings since the death of his father, a policeman. He understands that he in turn will take care of his mother when he is older, just like his uncle takes care of his grandmother. Khadij, 12 years old, is from Morocco. Her mother married at 16 and didn’t finish school and her father is a teacher. Khadij is growing up in a home that values an education more than material wealth. The video points out the similarities of teenage life throughout the world, including annoying siblings and generation gaps. 30 minutes 11:00 am After Silence – Bullfrog Films This film poses the question "What does it mean to be an American in a time of uncertainty and fear?" The subject area is the fragile nature of civil rights, and it explores the Japanese-American internment through the lens of 9/11. As a child, Dr. Frank Kitamoto and his family lived on Bainbridge Island, WA, where the U.S. government first ordered Japanese-Americans to register, and leave their homes, and then interned them in detention camps - a panic-stricken reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For decades, the JapaneseAmerican community rarely spoke of the disturbing experience of their exclusion and incarceration. In AFTER SILENCE the past comes alive as Frank - who spent 3 ½ years of his childhood in a United States internment camp during WWII - and five students from his island community develop archival photographic prints in the high school darkroom. Together, Frank and the students discuss the need to safeguard the constitutional rights of those living in the United States...especially in times of crisis. 30 minutes (DVD) 11:35 am Mighty Times: The Children’s March – SPLC (Teaching Tolerance) and HBO Film Festival Schedule 78 NAME Conference 2005 The Children's March tells the story of how the young people of Birmingham, Ala., braved fire hoses and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. Their heroism complements discussions about the ability of today's young people to be catalysts for positive social change. 40 minutes (VHS) 3:00 pm Home of the Brave -- Bullfrog Films Home of the Brave is about the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement and why we hear so little about her. Told through the eyes of her children, the film follows the on-going struggle of an American family to survive the consequences of their mother's heroism and the mystery behind her killing. 75 minutes (VHS) Saturday, November 12 8:00 am By Dawns Early Light – Cinema Guild In 1996, basketball star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (formerly Chris Jackson) caused a national stir when the NBA suspended him for refusing to stand during the national anthem because of his "Muslim conscience." The documentary reexamines this controversy, the media misrepresentations and the reactions of the Muslim immigrants who responded with an embarrassed disavowal. Although Abdul Rauf's stance was consistent with the political orientation of many African American Muslims, his dissent perplexed many immigrant Muslims unfamiliar with the long history of American dissent. The film documents multiple and competing perspectives creating a complex montage of voices, including the analyses of four Muslim jurists, addresses issues of Islam in the US which take on a special urgency after 9-11and yet the film remains a simple story of one man's spiritual journey. 52 minutes (VHS) 11:00 am Tomboys! Feisty Girls and Spirited Women – Women Make Movies Are tomboys tamed once they grow up? This lively and inspiring documentary explodes that archaic myth with the stories of proud tomboys of all ages: African-American teenager Jay Gillespie; Massachusetts firefighter Tracy Driscoll, lesbian artist Nancy Brooks Brody and the inimitable political activist Doris Haddock, aka ―Granny D‖, whose walk across America in support of campaign finance reform has gained global attention. Interviews with these feisty women are intercut with personal photographs and archival footage to celebrate tomboys of all ages. Exploring the myriad ways gender identity is constructed from a very young age, Tomboys makes the connections between rebel girl and spirited women gloriously clear. With additional commentary by girls’ studies pioneer Carol Gilligan, these tales of energy and enterprise are a revelation to us all. 28 minutes (VHS) 11:35 am Chaves Ravine -- Bullfrog Films Chavez Ravine tells the bittersweet story of how an American community was betrayed by greed, political hypocrisy, and good intentions gone astray. In 1949, photographer Don Normark stumbled on Chávez Ravine, a closely-knit Mexican-American village on a hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Enchanted, he stayed for a year and took hundreds of photographs, never knowing he was capturing on film the last images of a place that was about to disappear. The following year, the city of L.A. evicted the 300 families of Chávez Ravine to make way for a low-income public housing project. The land was cleared, homes, schools, and church razed to the ground. But the real estate lobby, sensing a great opportunity, accused the LA Housing Authority's Frank Wilkinson of being a communist agent. The city folded and instead of building the promised housing, it sold the land to baseball owner Walter O'Malley, who built Dodger Stadium on the site. Fifty years later, Normark's haunting black-and-white photographs reclaim and celebrate a lost village from a simpler time. 24 minutes (VHS) NAME Conference 2005 79 Film Festival Schedule