February 2, 2021 11:25 am
2016 Diverse Voices In Documentary (DVID) Alum Dr. Ava Thompson Greenwell to premiere her documentary Mandela in Chicago, February 14th at 4pm on WTTW. Before the Black Lives Matter Movement, there was the Free South Africa Movement in Chicago. This multi-racial coalition of Chicago activists organized and demonstrated with one goal in mind - ending apartheid in South Africa while reckoning with U.S. apartheid.
View the trailer for Mandela in Chicago.
2013 Diverse Voices in Documentary (DVID) Alum and Kartemquin Board Chair Pamela Sherrod Anderson to screen her Cannes International Independent Film Festival Semi-Finalist documentary The G Force on Thursday, February 14 at 7PM. Hosted by NBC5 investigative reporter Marion Brooks.
When parents are unable, grandparents often fill in to raise their children. The grandmothers and grandfathers who step up to do this are today’s G Force. The G Force documents three stories of grandparents and their grandchildren. Each story shows who is present in the lives of the grandchildren, the difference it makes, and the lessons learned by grandparents and grandchildren.
RSVP for the screening and discussion.
Watch a promo for The G Force.
Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) announced its latest funding recipients last week, including three projects funded through the Current Issues Content Fund, made possible by a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The remaining eleven projects were funded through LPB’s 2020 Public Media Content Fund.
This year’s awardees tell particularly timely stories, from North Carolina to Texas to California from Puerto Rico to Mexico to Venezuela, and many reflect the enormous impact that the past year has had on the Latino community. From the COVID-19 pandemic to a renewed focus on the devastation wrought by poverty and inequality, these films offer an on-the-ground look at the diversity of experience of Latinos here and abroad.
2020 Hulu/Kartemquin Accelerator fellow and 2017 DVID alum Colette Ghunim's project Traces of Home was among those awarded funds. A team of DVID alums, Esau Melendez (2014) and Mario Contreras (2013), were also awarded funding to support their project Mi Casa. Read more about the projects below.
Traces of Home
Director/Producer: Colette Ghunim
Funding: Public Media Content Fund
In an attempt to discover her roots, filmmaker Colette Ghunim embarks on a journey with her parents to find their ancestral homes in Mexico and Palestine after being forced to leave decades ago. While navigating physical borders in both lands, her family’s internal barriers break down, exposing the traumas that forced them to leave and continue to challenge dynamics together.
Mi Casa
Director/Producer: Esau Melendez
Producer: Mario Contreras
Funding: Public Media Content Fund
Descendants of the first Mexican immigrants in Aurora, Illinois, who came in the early 20th century to build new lives as railroad workers in nearby Chicago, recall their family stories about the boxcar communities in which they lived and thrived.