The Beyond Boundaries Screening and Discussion Series is pleased to announce its spring 2024 schedule. All films start at 7:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Tower Auditorium and are free and open to the public. There is always a discussion after the film.
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Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (2022)
Thursday, February 15
The passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented the beginning of a crucial chapter in the Civil Rights Movement. The battle to come was epitomized in Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural, impoverished town with a vicious history of racist terrorism. In a town that was 80 percent Black but had zero Black voters, laws were just paper without power. This is the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights but for Black power in Lowndes County.
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Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (2023)
Thursday, March 14
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project pushes the boundaries of biographical documentary film to reveal the enduring influence of one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators. The film reckons with the inevitable passing of time through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings, and visually innovative treatments of Giovanni’s poetry. Featuring the voice of Taraji P. Henson. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
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Esther Newton Made Me Gay (2022)
Thursday, April 18
The life and times of cultural anthropologist Esther Newton. Her story of awakening to gay life in the 1950s, the women’s liberation movement and lesbian-feminism, drag culture, and forging a butch identity that for her is now in conversation with trans-masculinity. Keenly attuned to the cultural and societal forces that shaped her life, Newton guides us through an anthropology of herself. The tone of this film is guided by Newton’s love for a sport—competitive dog agility—that pairs her aging butch body with her beloved dog teammate on an obstacle course that is constantly changing.
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Submitted by: Meg E. Knowles
Photo courtesy of nikki-giovanni.com.