Special Collection

On the one year anniversary of Mike Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri, a benefit concert in commemoration of his life was organized by Hip-Hop and civil rights activists Common, Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique, Renita Lamkin, Cornell West, Rosa Clemente, Jasiri Smith, Bree Newsome, and Rahiel Tesfamariam. The concert was abruptly interrupted when the activists find out that a Black teen had been ... More

The Absent Stone

Sandra Rozental & Jesse Lerner

2013, 82 min., Color, Mexico

In 1964, a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith was taken from the town of San Miguel Coatlinchan in the state of Mexico and brought to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Since then, the absent monolith has been present in the memories of the town’s inhabitants, as well as in endless reproductions and replicas. Using animation, archival materials, and interviews, this documentary explor ... More

Against the Grain

Seyi Adebanjo & Betty Yu

2011, 6 min., Color, US

To break the mold of past documentaries about gender transformation, AGAINST THE GRAIN goes beyond the usual gender binary and linear racial focus. This short documentary follows the story of OluSeyi, a cultural organizer, artist, healer, and Queer Nigerian whose spirit is transcending gender. OluSeyi’s journey includes hormone replacement therapy (testosterone) and an understanding of identity as ... More

Coming Full Circle: The Journey of a Korean Transgendered Adoptee

Larry Tung

2015, 24 min., Color, US/Korea

Pauline Park, a transgender rights activist in New York City, was born into a poor family in post-war Korea. Adopted by white American parents, she left Korea as a 7-month old baby boy and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 54 years later, she embarked on a journey of discovering and connecting to her past in Korea. Park, also took the opportunity to share her decades of experience in activism with ... More

If You Could Walk In My Shoes

Ricardo E Causo

2016, 27 min., Color, US

Ecuadorian immigrant Roberto Marquez has been living in New York City for more than a decade, yet he has been unable to adjust his immigration status because there has been no path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the United States since 1998. Roberto left Ecuador during the immigration wave of the late 90s when more than 500,000 Ecuadorians left their country due to political and fin ... More

Invisible Roots: Afro-Mexicans in Southern California

Tiffany Walton & Lizz Mullis

Producer: Tiffany Walton, Lizz Mullis & Richard Goldlander

2015, 21 min., Color, US

More than one million Mexicans are of African descent, yet this heritage is often forgotten, denied, and many times stigmatized, both in Mexico and in Chicanx communities in the United States. INVISIBLE ROOTS is an intimate look at Afro-Mexicans living in Southern California as they discuss complex issues of racial, national and cultural identities.

The Herrera family in Pasadena proud ... More

Nana Dijo; Irresolute Radiography of Black Consciousness

Bocafloja & Cambiowashere

2015, 40 min., BW

Navigating in a cultural industry flooded with politically conservative projects about afro-descendency, with approaches that are fully subordinated to the cultural hegemonies and with the only intention to exoticize and not to empower the body of the oppressed, NANA DIJO emerges as a solid effort to affirm the Black experience narratives in first person.

NANA DIJO is an urgent historic ... More

Ori

Raquel Gerber

1989, 90 min., Color, Brazil

This documentary provides an overview of the Black Movement in Brazil during the 70s and 80s and tells the story of Beatriz Nascimento, an activist and historian searching for her African heritage. Beatriz researches the history of the Quilombos, African warrior societies reestablished in Brazil to resist slavery and colonialism. Her outlook is poetic and charged with emotion. The historical inte ... More

Re:Orientations

Richard Fung

2016, 68 min., Color, Canada

A fascinating look into the lives and thoughts of seven Queer Pan-Asian Canadians as they look back on ORIENTATIONS, a 1984 documentary in which they featured. How have they changed? And how has the world around them evolved and changed?

In 1984, Richard Fung released his seminal first documentary ORIENTATIONS: LESBIAN AND GAY ASIANS. Featuring 14 women and men in Toronto of South, East ... More

The Right to Vend

Naomi Abraham, Melissa Cox, Nseabasi Esema, Mtume Gant, Cynthia Wright, Henrietta Yuki

Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop

2016, 10 min., Color

There are as many as 20,000 street vendors in New York City including hot dog vendors, flower vendors, t-shirt vendors, street artists, food trucks and many others. This short documents the inspirations and struggles of being a street vendor in New York, how obsolete city regulations stand in the way, and the vendors’ efforts to organize through the Street Vendor Project. A TWN Production Worksho ... More

Stand-By Generation, The

Juan Carlos Davila

2016, 20 min., Color, Puerto Rico

Shot in Puerto Rico, THE STAND-BY GENERATION explores the challenges of young workers seeking secure and stable jobs. The majority of the jobs offered to the new generation of workers in Puerto Rico are precarious. This documentary follows the lives of young people caught in the ‘precariat’ world of part-time and temporary under-employment devoid of security. This new generation of university grad ... More

Vieques: An Endless Battle

Juan C Dávila

2016, 68 min., Color, Puerto Rico

For more than sixty years the United States Navy used the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, to test military weaponry and to train soldiers. Decades of opposition from the local community and international allies, lead to the withdrawal of the armed forces and the ending of all military activity on the island and its surroundings. After more than a decade of this departure, the Viequenses demand to ... More

Wave: A True Story in Hip Hop

Tony Wesley & Brian Bullock

Producer: Tony Wesley & Brian Bullock

2016, 46 min., Color, US

See how the legendary Tony "Mr. Wave" Wesley went from a kid in the Bronx to an international B-Boy superstar to entrepreneur and activist. This film includes never before seen archival pictures and interviews with not only Mr. Wave, but with legendary New York City Breakers such as Lil Lep, Powerful Pexter, as well as hip hop legends Special K, MelleMel and a host of other hip hop icons. Mr. Wave ... More