We are pleased to announce our 2024 film series and discussions! This year we partner with the Little Carver at 226 N. Hackberry to ensure your consistent comfort. The theatre opens at 6:00 PM and showtime is at 6:30 PM for each screening. This series is sponsored in part by Humanities Texas.
ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE BUT REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.
Wednesday Jan. 24, 2024 – “Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land” (NR)(Eternal Polk, Director). This film examines the causes, effects, and what is being done to fight the exploitation of the law of “Heirs’ Property”, along with various other factors that have been employed to take Black land including violence, eminent domain and government discrimination. The director addresses how landowners are reclaiming their agricultural legacy and creating paths to generational wealth. This screening is in partnership with Sustainable G’s Inc. REGISTER HERE
Friday Feb. 2, 2024 – “How Does It Feel To Be A Problem?” (NR)(2021)(Thomas Keith, Director). This film traces the phenomenon of othering in America, how marginalized groups of people are mistreated in a nation that allegedly cares about justice and equality. REGISTER HERE
Wednesday March 6, 2024 – “Woman In Motion” (NR)(2019)(Todd Thompson, Director)(96 mins). In 1977, NASA struggled to recruit scientists, engineers and astronauts for their new Space Shuttle Program. That’s when Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura, challenged NASA by asking the question: “Where are my people?”Nichelle Nichols’ daunting task to launch a national blitz for NASA, recruiting 8,000 of the nation’s best and brightest, including the trailblazing astronauts who became the first Black, Asian and Latino men and women to fly in space. REGISTER HERE
Thursday April 11, 2024 – “The Deadliest Disease In America” (NR)((2010)(Crystal Emery, Director)(66 mins). The film features commentary from medical and public health experts including Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Dr. Camara Jones, Dr. Harlan Krumholz and Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez.[2] This documentary reveals the history of racism in American healthcare and brutal scientific experiments done by using African slaves. It also explains the Black and Brown inequalities and biases that continue to plague the medical community in care and treatment methodologies. REGISTER HERE
Thursday May 2, 2024 – “Till” (PG-13)(2022)(Chinonye Chukwu)(130 mins). In 1955, after Emmett Till is murdered in a brutal lynching, his mother vows to expose the racism behind the attack while working to have those involved brought to justice. Till is a profoundly emotional and cinematic film about the true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14 year old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. In Mamie’s poignant journey of grief turned to action, this film shows the universal power of a mother’s ability to change the world. REGISTER HERE
Friday June 7, 2024 – “The League” (PG)(2023)(Sam Pollard, Director)(143 mins). The League is a contemporary documentary based on the journey of the Negro Baseball League and its huge societal impact. In this film, baseball hall-of-famers Hank Aaron and Monte Irvin share how they played the game as kids, even when they had nothing more than broomsticks. As footage rolls of Black kids playing on a sandlot rush by, what’s being discussed isn’t merely successful men reminiscing about their past hardships, they’re talking about how they overcame those obstacles through resourcefulness and guile. Pollard’s newest incisive documentary about one of the largest Black-owned businesses in America, the Negro Leagues, is filled with those gems of perseverance and adaptation.Stars Maya Angelou, Sam Pollard, Jabari Gray. REGISTER HERE
Friday July 5, 2024 – “She Did That” (NR)(2019)(Renae Bluitt & Sterling Milan, Directors)(77 mins). An extension of Renae Bluitt’s In Her Shoes blog, “She Did That.” offers an intimate peek inside the lives of four Black women who continuously raise the glass ceiling for future generations. The film features vulnerable conversations with four change agents – Luvvie Ajayi (NYT best-selling author), Lisa Price (founder, Carol’s Daughter), Melissa Butler (founder, The Lip Bar) and Tonya Rapley (founder, My Fab Finance.) Their powerful testimonies as to how grit and perseverance set the stage for success reminds audiences that Black women are indeed bosses in business, embarking on their own ventures at six times the national average. REGISTER HERE
Wednesday August 7, 2024 – “My Nappy Roots: A Journey Through Black Hair-itage” (NR)(2010)(Regina Kimbell & Jay Bluemke, Directors)(90 mins). “My Nappy Roots” explores the politics, culture and history of African American hair. Is there such a thing as “Good and Bad” hair? How has the Eurocentric ideal of beauty influenced black hair through modern history? “My Nappy Roots” will vibrantly depict some of the complex social, political and cultural influences that have dominated the dialogue surrounding African and African American hairstyles from styling patterns and cultural trends to the business of black hair care products, services and advertising. The film will use the evolution of black hairstyles as a touchstone to address the broader struggle of African American people in their search for social control, identity and economic independence. REGISTER HERE
Friday September 6, 2024 – “On These Grounds” (NR)(2021)(Garrett Zevgetis, Director)(108 mins). A viral video shows a white policeman throwing a Black teenager from her school desk. One woman helps the girl, faces the officer, and dismantles the system. REGISTER HERE
Friday October 4, 2024 – “The Green Book” (PG-13)(2018)(Peter Farrelly)(130 mins). In 1962, tough bouncer Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga searches for work while his nightclub is closed for renovations. The most promising offer turns out to be the driver for African-American classical pianist Don Shirley for a concert tour into the Deep South states. Although hardly enthused at working for a Black man, Tony accepts the job and they begin their trek armed with “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” a guide for safe travel through America’s racial segregation. The snobbishly erudite pianist and the crudely practical bouncer can barely get along with their clashing attitudes to life and ideals. However, as the disparate pair witness and endure America’s appalling injustices on the road, they find a newfound respect for each other’s talents and start to face them together. In doing so, they nurture an understanding and a friendship that would change both their lives. REGISTER HERE
Friday November 1, 2024 – “Something The Lord Made” (TV-PG)(2004)(Joseph Sargent, Director)(110 mins). Alfred Blalock (1899-1964), a cardiologist (therefore, self-confident to the point of arrogance), leaves Vanderbilt for Johns Hopkins taking with him his lab technician, Vivien Thomas (1910-1985). Thomas, an African-American without a college degree, is a gifted mechanic and tool-maker with hands splendidly adept at surgery. In 1941, Blalock and Thomas take on the challenge of blue babies and invent bypass surgery. After trials on dogs, their first patient is baby Eileen, sure to die without the surgery. In defiance of custom and Jim Crow, Blalock brings Thomas into the surgery to advise him, but when Life Magazine and kudos come, Thomas is excluded. Will he receive his due? REGISTER HERE
Wednesday December 6, 2024 – “The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975” (NR)(2011)(Göran Olsson, Director)(100 mins). THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish filmmakers, after languishing in a basement of a TV station for 30 years, into an irresistible mosaic of images, music, and narration chronicling the evolution one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Featuring candid interviews with the movement’s most explosive revolutionary minds, including Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Stokely Carmichael, and Kathleen Cleaver, the film explores the community, people and radical ideas of the movement. Music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from and modern voices including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, and Melvin Van Peebles give the historical footage a fresh sound and make THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-75 an exhilarating, unprecedented account of an American revolution. REGISTER HERE