Thursdays in January at 6:30pm
Rines Auditorium
Portland, Maine - In light of the recent resurgence in Civil Rights activism, and in honor of the birth month of the Reverend Martin Luther King, the Library presents a series in January of films from California Newsreel. Since 1968, California Newsreel has collected, produced, and distributed films documenting the movement for social justice in America. The Library is proud to own several films from their catalog, and pleased to present this series to the public.
January 8th: The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords
Produced by acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Nelson.
From the founding of the first Black newspaper, Freedom's Journal in 1827, Black abolitionists like
Frederick Douglass recognized the press as a powerful weapon against the enforced silence of slavery. This tradition of crusading journalism was carried on by pioneering scribes like Ida B. Wells, one of the first female newspaper owners in America and a leader in the fight against lynchings and Jim Crow…
The Black Press commemorates a heroic and indispensable chapter in the ongoing struggle for a diverse and democratic media. It demonstrates that the written word has been as fundamental as music or religion to the evolution of African American consciousness. And it is as important today as in the past for Black media professionals to play a vigorous role not just in print media but in the rapidly evolving information technologies of the future.
January 15th: Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice
Produced and directed by filmmaker William Greaves.
This film won more than 20 film festival awards. In it, Greaves documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, Ida B. Wells, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period.
January 22nd: A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom
Directed by Dante James.
This film chronicles the life and work of A. Philip Randolph, a founder of the National Association for the Promotion of Labor Unionism Among Negroes and organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Randolph was a force behind the 1963 March on Washington.
January 29th: The Strange Demise of Jim Crow
Produced by Thomas R. Cole and directed by David Berman.
This film tells the multi-level story of urban power and change: student demonstrators vs. segregationists; the white power structure's fear of integration vs. their greater fear of violence, embarrassing national publicity and financial losses; secret deal-making vs. freedom of the press.
Screenings will be held in the Library’s Rines Auditorium on Thursdays at 6:30 pm. They are free and open to the public.
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