Program 8: No Neutral Territory
Sunday, February 27, 2022
1:00 p.m. Varsity Center
A slate of documentaries and one experimental film featuring ordinary people who are on the frontlines fighting for justice.
Coronaura (d. Sarah Kanouse)
Experimental – 6 minutes
“Coronaura” is an essayistic short film meditating on the challenges of solidarity at a time when a pandemic, a collapsing climate, and an ongoing racial reckoning have revealed undeniable White complicity in violence, both fast and slow. Layering found images and texts with animation and personal narration, the film is an intimate working through of the events of 2020, their long prehistory, and the possible futures just coming into view.
Hello Sunshine (d. Joe Quint)
Documentary – 13 minutes
hellosunshine-film.com
Roz Pichardo is more than a domestic violence and gun violence survivor, she’s a warrior. Despite of – or because of – being thrown off a bridge by an abusive ex-boyfriend, the unsolved murder of her brother, and the suicide of her identical twin sister, she’s able to channel her trauma into service by helping the often-forgotten people of North Philadelphia.
From giving comfort to families of murder victims to saving the lives of over 500 men and women in active opioid addiction, Roz knows that her healing and her survival depends upon healing others.
Eureka (d. Miida Chu)
Narrative – 15 minutes
miidachu.com/eureka
A young indentured Chinese prostitute must overcome her toxic dependency on the brothel madam on the eve of the 1885 anti-Chinese riot in Eureka, California.
Sound Of Judgement (d. Julia Wall)
Documentary – 20 minutes – John Michaels entry
Sound of Judgment takes viewers into the small North Carolina town of Graham, where a Confederate statue stands facing north in the popular town square .After the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, people in Graham begin speaking out about the town’s bloody past and turbulent present. They invoke the name and story of the town’s first Black elected official, Wyatt Outlaw, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1870.
Avery Harvey and Ebony Pinnix, who grew up experiencing racism in and around Alamance County where Graham is located, fight for their basic constitutional rights as they protest injustice. Counter-protesters, including Thomas May, celebrate the Confederacy and Donald Trump while antagonizing Black Lives Matter activists. As the 2020 election approaches, May finds himself on a path of radicalization that leads him to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In a place where protests are restricted and violence feels imminent, the battle for racial justice looks towards an uncertain future.
Sacrificed (d. David Sanchez)
Documentary – 13 minutes
vitormeuren.com
Flavie is a daring and opinianated 15-year-old teen who, in order to defend her social and environmental beliefs, is ready to practice civil disobedience even at the risk of facing justice. In a discussion with her parents on the consequences of her actions, they will go so far as to confront their respective visions of the future and what actions to take for things to change. A powerful debate between two generations.
Never Again (Para Nadie) (d. Anna Feder, Dan Frank, and Justin Reifert )
Documentary (John Michaels) – 20 minutes
neveragaindoc.com/
A peaceful demonstration in August, 2019 coordinated by a Jewish-led organization, Never Again Action, attempted to shut down a for-profit prison holding ICE detainees, only to be met with violence by correctional officers. In the smallest and poorest city in Rhode Island, citizens took a stand and learned how difficult it is to challenge the status quo.
Freedom Day (d. Rianne Pyle)
Documentary (John Michaels) – 24 minutes
FREEDOM DAY tells the story of the three founders of The Freedom Day Foundation, a small grassroots organization that fights for racial and social equality. The documentary opens up on the day of the foundation’s second march on July 4th, Blackout March, follows the organizers, Morgan (27), Clayton (29), and Malik (23) through the commencement of the march.