Organizing and Filmmaking Exhibition Series

Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now

Third World Newsreel is pleased to present Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now, a virtual and in-person series of free film screenings, followed by conversations with filmmakers and activists. These events explore the rich history of media arts made by and in collaboration with historically marginalized communities while highlighting the constancy of issues and the diverse community response over different generations.

To watch past talks on our Vimeo Channel, visit.vimeo.com/showcase/twn-exhibitions. To see pictures of the events visit our Flickr Album: flickr.com/photos/44748263@N04.

2025

  • Coming Soon Organizing, Filmmaking, Archiving to showcase Third World Newsreel's newly digitally preserved film collection, some of which have not been seen in decades.

2024

  • May 19, 2024 Chinatown: At the Margins and the Center present NYC Housing Justice, Past and Present film program
    • Chinatown Art Brigade, DCTV and Third World Newsreel present a selection of films highlighting past and present anti-gentrification fights led by residents of color in New York City's historical San Juan Hill community, Los Sures (also know as South Williamsburg) and Sunset Park neighborhoods. With speakers housing advocate Sam Stein, activists Esperanza Martell and Antoinette Martinez, and filmmaker Teresa Basilio, moderated by Betty Yu, TWN Board member. Read More
  • March-August 2024 Centering Palestine on Screen Film Series
    • Diverse Filmmakers Alliance and Third World Newsreel present the Centering Palestine on Screen film series. This series uplifts the voices of Palestinians, creating a space for NYC audiences to contextualize the ongoing conflicts happening abroad and at home. Four film screenings and conversation at the Brooklyn Public Library, the People's Forum in Manhattan, the Bronx Music Heritage Center and Maysles Cinema in Harlem.

The 2024 Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now season is supported in part by the Kolibri Foundation and Peace Development Fund.

2023

  • September 18, 2023, 8 PM, Black and Brown Queer Resilience: Films and Talk
    • Join us for an evening of remembrance, reaffirmation, and solidarity as we commemorate 20 years since Sakia Gunn's tragic death. This special curated program pairs two documentaries that center Black and Brown queers and delve into the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. A live panel discussion will take place virtually, featuring filmmakers Charles B. Brack (DREAMS DEFERRED) and Tina Colleen (I IDENTIFY AS ME), and Beatrice Simpkins from the Newark LGBTQ Center. Moderated by Nabin Park, Co-Founder and Executive Director, PrideFull. Co-presented by PrideFull and Third World Newsreel. This program is part of the Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now series. This program is also part of the 3rd Annual PrideFull Fest, Fearless and Fabulous: QTBIPOC on Screen. RSVP on PrideFull Festival
  • August 16, 2023, 6 PM, Ending the Korean War: Screenings and Talk
    • July 27, 2023 marked the 70th anniversary of the Armistice which stopped the fighting of the Korean War in 1953 - but did not end the war. Today, there is no peace treaty, and the dangerous possibility of renewed fighting continues. Meanwhile, families remain separated between the North and South, sanctions and a travel ban for Americans for the North, and all sides continue to build up their militaries and arms. Watch films about the human cost and the situation on the Korean peninsula and hear from activists, scholars, and filmmakers on what's at stake, and what people are doing to end the war. Speakers include Aiyoung Choi, activist, Prof. Suzy Kim, author and activist, Jamie Tyberg, activist, Hye-Jung Park, filmmaker and activist. Presented by Third World Newsreel and MU films and cosponsored by Nodutdol, the Documentary Forum at CCNY and the Asian American/Asian Research Institute at CUNY (AAARI). RSVP on Eventbrite
  • August 2, 2023, 6 PM, Not Channel Zero, The Revolution Televised
    • Streaming Exhibition and Talk with Founders and Members of the Acclaimed Video Collective Black Planet Production. Third World Newsreel and The Documentary Forum at the City College of New York are pleased to welcome the founders and members of the Black Planet Production collective for a virtual talk on August 2nd. Before the talk, audiences who register can stream six episodes of the NOT CHANNEL ZERO series from July 31st-August 2nd. During the talk, audiences will hear from folks who energized minds and movements in the pre-internet era, the lessons learned from their efforts, the cultural excitement of their work, the rebounding of progressive media collectives, and our current situation where wars continue and multiple forces are trying to dismantle the hard-earned social justice gains of the past 50 years. Black Planet Production members will be in conversation with Erica Kermani, a member of the new media collective Shadow Work Media. RSVP on Eventbrite

The 2023 Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now season is supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and Peace Development Fund.

2022

  • Fri, Nov 4, 2022 5:00 PM, Mohawk Nation: Then, Now, the Future (Part 2)
    • Speakers include filmmakers Katsitsionni Fox and Allan Siegel, Clifton Matias of the Redhawk Native American Council and Professor Annie Rochon of Paul Smith's College. This program, will feature the following films and clips: WITHOUT A WHISPER (Katsitsionni Fox, 2020) MOHAWK NATION (Allan Siegel with Third World Newsreel and the Ganienkeh, 1978), clips from YOU ARE ON INDIAN LAND (Michael Kanentakeron Mitchel, 1969) Also: images and interviews with indigenous artists Dakota Mace and Sarah Sense will stream at the beginning of the program. Free and open to the public, this program will be in person at The People's Forum in Midtown, with some speakers on Zoom. MOHAWK NATION: THEN, NOW AND THE FUTURE was organized by Professor Annie Rochon (Kanehsatake) of Paul Smith's College, Ku-Ling Yurman, Allan Siegel, Roselly Torres and Third World Newsreel. A two part program, the first part was held October 13th in Paul Smith, North Country region of New York State. This program has been made possible in part with an Action Grant from Humanities New York. Thanks to Women Make Movies for their help. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj3c5zkQ8Ws

  • Thu, Oct 13, 2022 4:00 PM Mohawk Nation: Then, Now, the Future (Part 1)
    • Ganienkeh is the independent land of the Mohawk people in upstate New York, whose sovereignty was re-established in 1974. Planned in collaboration with the Ganienkeh, this and a second program in November focus on indigenous activism and current challenges to survival. This includes discussions of the process of cultural solidarity and creating innovative media practices. This October 13 program will feature the following films and clips: MOHAWK NATION (Allan Siegel with Third World Newsreel and the Ganienkeh, 1978) YOU ARE ON INDIAN LAND (Michael Kanentakeron Mitchel, 1969) OHERO:KON - UNDER THE HUSK (Katsitsionni Fox, 2016) Speakers include member of Ganienkeh, scholars Professor Ulises Mejias (SUNY Oswego) and Dr. Curt Stager (Paul Smith's College), and filmmakers Katsitsionni Fox and Allan Siegel. Location/directions: Paul Smith's College, Pine Room, Student Center, Paul Smith, NY. See more here: www.paulsmiths.edu/visit/ A similar program will be held November 4th in NYC/Lenape land. This program has been organized by Professor Annie Rochon (Kanehsatake) of Paul Smith's College. This program has been made possible in part with an Action Grant from Humanities New York. Thanks to Jill Susice and Women Make Movies for their help.

  • Saturday, June 4, 2022, 5:30 PM, EL PUEBLO SE LEVANTA ayer & hoy (The People Are Rising Then & Now)
    • Third World Newsreel (TWN) and Pioneer Works co-presented a screening of EL PUEBLO SE LEVANTA (The People Are Rising, 1971), an iconic film which captures the compassion and militancy of the Young Lords Party and COYOLXAUQUI (2017) and HAVE YOU SEEN? (2017), two short films by Colectivo Los Ingrávidos. Colectivo Los Ingrávidos is a political media collective that claims a floating, even spectral presence, embracing the malleability and transportability of the moving image to confront the violence and corruption of contemporary Mexico. The program concluded with a discussion centered on activism-focused films both past and present, and the various forms of visual and social media now used in collective organizing. With Iris Morales, Bev Grant; Allan Siegel, a member of Colectivo Los Ingrávidos and Nitasha Dhillon and Amin Husain from MTL Collective, a collaborative that joins research, aesthetics, organizing and action in practice, will join via Zoom. Moderated by filmmaker Teresa Basilio Gaztambide. This event is the first of four being presented by Third World Newsreel in collaboration with other groups, and supported with an Action Grant from the Humanities New York. In-person, free and open to the public event at Red Hook Labs, Brooklyn, NY.

  • June 14 at 6:30 PM ¡PALANTE, SIEMPRE PALANTE! ayer y hoy
    • A free screening of the historic film by Iris Morales, ¡PALANTE, SIEMPRE PALANTE! (Forward, Forever Forward!, 1996) where members of the Young Lords Party examine their history and impact, followed by a discussion with filmmakers, activists, and community members, on activism-focused film past and present, and the various forms of visual and social media now being used in community organizing. The film will be followed by a panel with Iris Morales (former Young Lords Party member, filmmaker and author), Marisa Franco (Co-Founder/Executive Director, Mijente), Nasheli Ortiz (Director, Taller Puertorriqueño) and Christopher Rivera of NY Boricua Resistance. This program will be moderated by Dr. Yarimar Bonilla (political anthropologist, professor, writer, and director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College.) This event is the second of four being presented by Third World Newsreel in collaboration with other groups, and supported with an Action Grant from the Humanities New York. This event is being sponsored by Third World Newsreel with the New York Latino Film Festival and the Hispanic Federation. In-person, free and open to the public event at the Julia De Burgos Latino Cultural Center at 1680 Lexington Ave, New York, NY.

The 2022 Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now season was supported in part by Humanities New York, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council and Peace Development Fund.

2021

  • Wed, Sept 8 TEACH OUR CHILDREN and Christine Choy Talks
    • As part of a 3 week long event commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Attica Rebellion, TWN streamed its film on the rebellion and director Choy (who codirected with Susan Robeson) spoke about the making of the film. The film and video of Choy was presented to a live audience at Maysles Cinema, their first in person event since the pandemic. CoPresented by Third World Newsreel, Maysles Documentary Center, in collaboration with Attica is All of Us, the Freedom Archives, and the Documentary Forum at CCNY. https://vimeo.com/604988863

  • Aug 18 We Are All We Have: Screening and Discussion of the Long Term
    • A screening of the film THE LONG TERM made by incarcerated artists and co-produced by the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP), with several artists sharing their reflections on the film, on political struggles against the prison system, and their experiences; also a talk between Pablo Mendoza and Laura Whitehorn on campaigns for abolition, parole justice, and the end of death by incarceration. Presented by Third World Newsreel. the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (or PNAP), Parole Illinois, Release Aging People in Prison (or RAPP), the Documentary Forum at CCNY, and Haymarket Books.

  • July 29 THE WOMEN OUTSIDE and CAMP ARIRANG: Anti-Asian Misogyny and War
    • A week long screening of two films examining the US military in Korea and the impact on women, with a panel featuring historian Minju Bae, poet Emily Yoon, counselor Joyce Kim of Duraebang, a support center for women in the camptowns of US military bases in Korea, Salonee Bahman, writer/activist with the Asian American Feminist Collective and filmmaker JT Takagi in a program presented by Third World Newsreel. Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, Korea Policy Institute and the Documentary Forum at CCNY and the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of CUNY.

  • June 24 BLACK NATIONS/QUEER NATION?
    • A week long screening of this groundbreaking experimental documentary film about a groundbreaking 1995 conference which brought together luminaries of the global Black cultural and LGBTQIA+ world, with a panel featuring director Shari Frilot, filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris and author Jafari Allen in a program presented by Third World Newsreel and Family Pictures USA.

  • May 12 Abolition, Not Assimilation: A Retrospective of Christine Choy and Third World Newsreel
    • Four Third World Newsreel films: Teach Our Children, From Spikes to Spindles, Bittersweet Survival, and Homes Apart: Korea streamed for two weeks as part of the Asian Pacific Virtual Showcase with Visual Communications, followed by this panel with Christine Choy, Sarah Ahn of the Flushing Workers Center, Devika Girish of Film Comment, Ju-Hyun Park of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and JT Takagi or TWN. Curated and moderated by Peter Kim George, curator/critic and playwright.

The 2021 Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now season was supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council and Peace Development Fund. Third World Newsreeel thanks Humanities NY for its Action Grant in 2021/22, and is grateful for the CARES grants given by the National Endownment for the Arts and the support of the New York Community Trust during the COVID-19 pandemic.

FALL 2020

  • September 24 SUMMER 68 with Filmmakers and Activists
    • The Newsreel film, Summer 68 streamed for two days, followed by this panel with filmmakers John Douglas, Norm Fruchter and student artist/activist Michaiyla Carmichael.

  • December 3 Surviving on the Inside: Our Sisters Speak
    • A special screening of the powerful 1978 documentary Inside Women Inside, followed by a community event where women surviving incarceration will share their powerful resistance to the gender and sexual violence of this punishment system through testimony, poetry, and art. This event was a collaboration with Connecticut Bail Fund, Survived & Punished NY, and Life In My Days.

SUMMER 2020

  • June 29 The End of Policing? BLACK AND BLUE and Talk with Filmmakers and Activists
    • Presented in conjunction with the streaming of Black and Blue, which examines a decade of police violence and community response in Philadelphia in the 1980s, the program started with a screening of the short Overreaching Policing by Mark Spencer as part of the Scribe Youth Video project. Then filmmakers Hugh King and Lamar Williams, activists Candace McKinley and Meejin Seol Richart talk with moderator/filmmaker/activist Lillian Jimenez on what the two films, and past and current activism might mean for the possibility of fundamental change in society. An event in collaboration with Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia.

  • July 8 The Legacy and Power of Audre Lorde: A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL and UNSPOKEN
    • The film A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde was free streamed from July 7-9th, 2020. This event, which also screened the short film Unspoken, brought together the filmmakers of Litany, Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson, the maker of Unspoken, Patrick G. Lee and moderator TWN Board chair Dorothy Thigpen to talk about the legacy of Audre Lorde and the making of these films, on the 25th anniversary of Litany's completion. This event was presented with NewFest and the Documentary Forum at CCNY on July 8th 2020.

  • July 22 Black Families Through Queer Eyes
    • To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Thomas Allen Harris? debut film VINTAGE: FAMILIES OF VALUE, Third World Newsreel and Family Pictures USA present "Black Families Through Queer Eyes,? a virtual screening and panel discussion. Vintage director Thomas Allen Harris talks with filmmaker and Sundance programmer Shari Frilot and MOMA film curator Rajendra Roy about the historical context of Vintage and its cinematic significance.

  • July 28 The Unended Korean War: 70 Years
    • A panel on the Unended Korean War - with speakers talking about the five films being streamed: Grandmother's Flower, Homes Apart, North Korea: Beyond the DMZ, Repatriation and Memory of Forgotten War, and talking about the issues and themes and their continuing impact. Go to koreapeacenow.org for info on mobilization efforts. Speakers: Minju Bae, Hyun Lee, Hye-Jung Park. Presented by Third World Newsreel in collaboration with Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, Korea Policy Institute.

SPRING 2020

  • May 2 Liberation/Decarceration: OUT
    • Laura Whitehorn, subject of OUT: The Making of A Revolutionary, speaks along with other decarceration activists, Shameka Parrish-Wright of The Bail Project and Donna Robinson of RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison) with filmmaker Sonja de Vries.

  • May 9 The Fight for Our Barrios: EL PUEBLO SE LEVANTA and PALANTE, SIEMPRE PALANTE!
    • Talk following the screening of El Pueblo Se Levanta and Palante Siempre Palante with filmmaker/activist and former Young Lord member Iria Morales, Newsreel filmmaker/activists Bev Grant and Florence Summergrad, former YLP member and artist/activist Carlito Rovira and activist Maisha Morales.

  • May 16 The War Against Gentrification: BREAK AND ENTER and MAYDAY: THE ART OF BUILDING COMMUNITY
    • A panel that started with a screening of the short Mayday: The Art of Building Community, featuring filmmaker Carol Foresta (Newsreel, Break and Enter 1971), Esperanza Martell, activist/educator featured in that film and participant in the community effort Operation Move-In; artist/activists Pati Rodriguez of Mi Casa No Es Su Casa and Josh Carrera of Mayday Space, moderated by artist/activist Betty Yu (also TWN Board member) and organized by TWN workshop director Chrystian Rodriguez.

  • May 30 The Battle for Chinatown: FROM SPIKES TO SPINDLES and HERE TO STAY
    • A program that followed the streaming of From Spikes to Spindles (TWN,1976) and showed Here To Stay (TWN/Kong, 2007) and featuring filmmaker Christine Choy, filmmaker/activist ManSee Kong, Mei Lum of Wing on Wo & Co and the WOW Project and artist/activist Emily Mock of CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities. Presented in collaboration with the WOW project, the Chinatown Art Brigade and CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities and the New York Public Library at Chatham Square.

The 2020 Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now season was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council and Peace Development Fund.

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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

TWN is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Color Congress, MOSAIC, New York Community Trust, Peace Development Fund, Ford Foundation, Golden Globe Foundation, Kolibri Foundation and individual donors.