A panel of community members will guide us through their reflections and responses to the films I Am Not Your Negro and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. We'll watch clips of the films and explore what it looks like to exist in the fullness of Black beauty, strength, and brilliance. Panelists Karen Rodriguez, CEO […]
A black led community discussion on Blax-sasperation. That feeling in the black experience when all exasperation is exhausted through the clips of Spike Lee. It’s “sick and tired, of being sick and tired” - tired. We’ll be discussing the state of the nation and how black folks can endure blax-sasperation as we wrap up 2020. […]
New eye-opening feature documentary The Ground Between Us explores the public lands debate in a unique way; presenting the reality of the people who live and work on public lands, but hold vastly different connections and perspectives. Through these stories, co-directors Zeppelin Zeerip and Galen Knowles ask: “Can public lands help to unite a divided […]
Produced by Brolly Arts and Salt Lake Community College as part of the Beloved Community Project, this short documentary film illuminates the lives, challenges, and experiences of 3 members of Utah's African-American community through their own words. Co-created by Amy MacDonald, Founder and Director of Brolly Arts, and Marian D. Howe-Taylor, Community and Media Outreach […]
On the streets, parking lots, and slippery floors of the Crystal Palace Roller Rink in Memphis, Tennessee, Charles “Lil Buck” Riley learned the smooth art of Memphis Jookin, igniting a lifelong passion for dance. From the time he was 12 years old, Lil Buck worked to perfect the intricate footwork of Jookin, a fluid street […]
Drawing on a wealth of recent scholarship - and based on and inspired in large part by Gretchen Sorin's recently published study of the way the automobile and highways transformed African American life across the 20th century - the film examines the history of African Americans on the road from the depths of the Depression […]
Recalling a watershed event in US politics, this compelling documentary takes an in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first to seek nomination for the highest office in the land. Following Chisholm from her own announcement of her candidacy through her historic speech […]
Watch the short film here. Join Utah Film Center for a special panel to discuss of the Beloved Community Project documentary hosted by Brolly Arts and Salt Lake Community College. Panelists Amy MacDonald Founder and Director, Brolly Arts Co-Creator, Black Social Change Utah and Beloved Community Project Film Marian Howe-Taylor Salt Lake Community College Communication […]
Westminster College's Black Excellence program presents: "On the topic of Love..." Featuring an evening of student-led discussion hosted by Victoire Soumano with panelists Kyana Hamilton and Jenessa Jimoh focusing on clips from the tv comedy 'grown-ish.' This event is a partnership between Utah Film Center and Black Excellence, which is part of the Student Diversity […]
Spirits of Rebellion: Black Independent Cinema from Los Angeles documents the lives and work of a small critically acclaimed group of black filmmakers and media artists known as the Los Angeles Rebellion, a group brought together through shared experiences as students in the UCLA film production MFA program between 1967 and 1992. Although relatively unknown, […]
Black, Bold, & Brilliant presents the next episode in our series of conversations about Black-centric films and media: Blerds. The term for Black nerds, “Blerds”, was first introduced into the mainstream in 2006 via a reference from the television show, “Scrubs”. Since then, cultural recognition for Blerds has grown exponentially. This cultural explosion, often seen […]
Unapologetic captures a tense and polarizing moment in Chicago’s fight for the livelihood of its Black residents. The film follows Janaé Bonsu and Bella BAHHS, two young abolitionist organizers, as they work within the Movement for Black Lives to seek justice for Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald, two young Black people killed by Chicago police. […]
End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock is the incredible story of a small group of indigenous women who risk their lives to stop the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline construction that desecrated their ancient burial and prayer sites and threatens their land, water, and very existence. When the population of their peaceful […]
Ahead of the Curve is the story of one of the most influential women in lesbian history you’ve never heard of and the impact her work continues to have today. Growing up, Franco Stevens never saw any representation of queer women—she didn’t even know it was possible for a woman to be gay. When she realized […]
The first documentary to explore the American family photo album through the eyes of black photographers, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history to discover images that have been suppressed, forgotten, and lost. From slavery to the present, these extraordinary images unveil a world confronting the difficult edges of citizenship and what it means to […]
The film tells the improbable story of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who couldn’t get a job despite graduating first in her law school class in a tie and making Law Review at Harvard and Columbia Law Schools, became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. It also reveals both the public and private sides of […]
In 1960s Los Angeles a trailblazing group of nuns, The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, bravely stood up to the patriarchy of the Catholic Church, fighting for equality, their livelihoods, and their own freedom against an all-powerful Cardinal who sought to keep them in their place. Their bold acts of faith, defiance, and […]
Today, women make up less than one-quarter of all those employed in STEM occupations in the United States. These numbers are much worse for women of color: Asian, black women, and Latinas made up slightly less than 10% of working scientists and engineers in the United States in 2015. Science is supposed to be built […]
(Re)current Unrest is an evening-length immersive performance installation ‘ritual’ built on the sonic foundation of Steve Reich’s three earliest works: It’s Gonna Rain (parts 1 and 2), Come Out, and Pendulum. This work, created over a two-year development period, utilizes movement, media, and powerful imagery to meditate on the “American Dream” and Black nihilism, born of the current racially […]
Laila Haidari survived child marriage and her own traumatic past to battle one of the deadliest problems in Afghanistan: heroin addiction. As the "mother of the addicts," she must prevail over a crisis of addiction and a corrupt government in a country on the verge of collapse. Post-film discussion: On local, state, federal, and international […]
A fresh, smart, and unapologetic look at the double-edged sword of racial and gender oppression that black women face in America, told through interviews from scholars, lecturers, writers, business owners, veterans, comedians, and authors. Hosted by fictional storybook character LaToya Johnson. Featuring interviews with Zanah Thirus, Chan C Smith, Maiya Sinclair, Nadirah Lugg, Veronica S. Appleton, […]
Original title: Rettet Raffi! Sammy’s hamster Raffi is cleverer than any other of his kind. He’s great at scoring goals in football and, what makes him even more precious, he was given to Sammy by his father, who left his family to take a “time off”. But one day, Raffi gets seriously ill and before […]
Original title: Le voyage de Fanny Based on a true story, Fanny's Journey is an incredible tale of bravery, strength, and survival, a story of a daring young girl who will stop at nothing and fear no one. In 1943, 13-year old Fanny and her younger sisters were sent from their home in France to an Italian […]
This is the true story of two young Jewish brothers in German-occupied France who, with a mind-boggling mix of mischievousness, courage, and ingenuity, will be forced to fend for themselves in order to survive the enemy invasion and try bring their family back together. The heartwarming adaptation of Joseph Joffo’s enduring memoir tells the story […]
Ryun-hee Kim, a North Korean housewife, was forced to come to South Korea and became its citizen against her will. She tried to smuggle herself out and even sought political asylum at the Vietnamese Embassy but all in vain. As her seven years of struggle to go back to her family in North Korea continues, […]
In 1977, with just four months left, NASA struggles to recruit scientists, engineers, and astronauts for their new Space Shuttle Program. That is when Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura, challenges them by asking the question: Where are my people? She embarks on a national blitz, recruiting 8,000 of the nation’s best and brightest, including […]
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