California Newsreel Celebrates Forty Years of Social Justice Cinema
San Francisco , CA – Emerging out of the political and social upheavals of 1968, California Newsreel marks its 40th birthday and the distinction of being the country’s oldest non-profit producer and distributor of documentary films.
Newsreel’s films back then captured black militant protests, antiwar activism, the emerging women’s movement and the push for liberation in Africa and across the globe.
Today, California Newsreel still releases works that inspire and educate and provide social activists tools to engage their constituencies. This year, California Newsreel produced an award-winning four-hour PBS series, UNNATURAL CAUSES: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, which explores the life and death consequences of the social and economic conditions in which we are born, live and work. The series, embraced by public health agencies and more than 200 other outreach partners, is at the center of a national campaign to address our alarming health inequities. The series has generated attention in media ranging from progressive bloggers to the Today Show.
“Our hope is that our films are not just watched but used by individuals, educators and organizations to provoke critical reflection and involvement in issues of social concern,” says Cornelius Moore, co-director of California Newsreel. “We are extremely proud that our work has linked us to partners around the country struggling to build a more just and equitable world.”
Award-winning works like Black Gold, The Road to Brown, Berkeley in the Sixties, Maquilapolis, Banished, and The Business of America… are among more than 300 titles released by California Newsreel that deepen understanding of critical social issues. The late Marlon Riggs’ Emmy-winning Ethnic Notions, which traces the evolution of black stereotypes, was released in 1987 and became the core audiovisual “text” in the movement to build more inclusive curricula and welcoming campus and workplace environments.
Ethnic Notions has been shown to millions in high schools, universities, churches and corporate diversity and cultural inclusion programs and was the seminal work in California Newsreel’s African American Perspectives collection of films on African American life and history. African American Perspectives includes more than 100 of the most distinguished documentaries on black history, literature and culture of the last two decades.
In 2003 California Newsreel produced and released its widely heralded RACE: The Power of an Illusion. The PBS three-part series and its companion Web site helps viewers understand how race “lives” not in our bodies but in our social structures, institutions and practices that allocate power, wealth and status.
In 1990 California Newsreel launched its Library of African Cinema project to address the paucity of African produced films available in the United States and allow Americans to see Africa through African eyes. Today the Library includes more than 130 titles, including many of the most widely praised African films such as Ousmane Sembene’s Faat Kine, and they can now be found in video collections in every major city public library and most college campuses across the country.
In 2006, Newsreel launched a new thematic focus, the Global Economy, with documentaries emphasizing the economic, human rights and health impacts of transnational corporations on local communities. Interestingly, California Newsreel’s own production, Controlling Interest, released in 1978, had been the first documentary ever made on globalization.
Newsreel has also been active in creating space for independent producers in public broadcasting. It played a central role in the creation of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), a special public television fund dedicated to independent productions focusing on "under-represented" communities. ITVS has dispensed more than $150 million to date.
Newsreel was formed in 1968 by a filmmakers’ collective interested in stories and images "from the other side of the barricades," providing a perspective missing from the mainstream media. By 1970 there were almost a dozen Newsreels in cities across the country (Third World Newsreel in New York also continues today).
California Newsreel's first two productions in 1969 (then known as San Francisco Newsreel) were Black Panther, a film outlining the Panther's "Ten-Point Program for Self Defense," and San Francisco State: On Strike, a record of the landmark student strike that led to the country's first Ethnic Studies Department. The Woman’s Film, produced in 1971, was the country’s first film documenting the emerging women’s movement.
California Newsreel looks forward to carrying its 40 year long tradition of innovation into the digital age while retaining its commitment to thoughtful, long-form documentary films.
Interviews with the visionaries who have kept Newsreel in motion can be arranged by contacting Ajeenah Amir or Gwen McKinney at 202-833-9771.
College Campuses Commemorate National Day of Silence
The United States Student Association (USSA) has joined with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for the National Day of Silence on April 25, hoping to build greater awareness of the threats facing students and support for public tolerance.
The campaign title underscores a culture of harassment based on one’s actual or perceived sexual orientation that silences students everyday. USSA urges university officials, student body presidents, campus police, professors and students to publicly oppose anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) policies and discrimination in schools.
“Our silence is consent. It reverberates throughout campuses where LGBT students face name-calling, bullying and harassment. All students deserve to be safe from violence in the dorm room, classroom, and beyond,” cautioned USSA President Gabriel Pendas.
The National Day of Silence is aimed at protecting the open dialogue and diversity on college campuses throughout the country. The campaign focuses on addressing hateful comments to stem a culture that accepts violence.
The University of Virginia organized the first Day of Silence in 1996 in response to a class assignment on non-violent protests. The next year, organizers took their effort to nearly 100 colleges and universities across the country. In 2001, GLSEN became the official organizational sponsor for the event.
“USSA continues this effort because we believe that education is a right; and all students deserve to learn and be heard,” Pendas emphasized.
The National Day of Silence is one way to advance higher education for all students. As students across the country support this annual event, USSA continues its push in Washington to guarantee affordability and access to higher education for all students.
Founded in 1947, the United States Student Association is the nation’s oldest and largest student advocacy group. It is the recognized voice for students on Capitol Hill, the Department of Education and the White House.
Dr. Steven Pitts, a labor policy specialist at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, discusses Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s prescription for poverty during an April 2nd press brief at SEIU headquarters. He is coauthor of Beyond the Mountaintop: King's Prescription to Poverty, a policy brief written to mark the 40th anniversary of King's assassination. The policy brief concludes that America's public policy agenda should include five priorities: (1) a full employment economy (2) restoration and enforcement of basic labor market standards (3) ensuring a fair and progressive tax system including Earned Income Tax Credit (4) protection of workers' freedom of association and right to join a union and (5) adoption and enforcement of antidiscrimination laws that assure opportunities for workers traditionally denied good jobs.
In 1968, Taylor Rogers was a trash collector in Memphis, Tenn. -- "just another guy" with eight children to support and a mortgage to pay off. He became a part of history. Disgusted by racism and poor working conditions, Taylor and 1,300 fellow African-American sanitation workers in Memphis launched a strike to win recognition as a union -- and as human beings. The strike succeeded after 64 days, but it exacted a terrible toll: Workers were beaten, gassed and jailed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. paid the ultimate price: He was assassinated while in Memphis to support the strike.
Dr. William Spriggs, professor and chair of Howard University's Department of Economics discusses Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s prescription for poverty. He is coauthor of Beyond the Mountaintop: King's Prescription to Poverty, a policy brief written to mark the 40th anniversary of King's assassination. According to the brief, the three key policy levers that Dr. King helped to push (stronger anti-discrimination laws, increased unionization and an effective minimum wage) have been all but destroyed. As the nation struggles with an economic downturn, mortgage crisis and soaring joblessness, King's prescription for ending poverty 40 years ago remains as urgent now as it was then.
Craig Jones, a janitor for Professional Maintenance, a cleaning contractor that serves the Cincinnati Textile Building, talks about his experiences working poor and decries minimum wage, saying it should instead be renamed livable wage and keep up with the costs of inflation. Craig was a key leader in the Cincinnati Justice for Janitors Campaign, a city-wide property service contract that doubled the income of nearly 1200 janitors.
