History on Film: Black Resistance

February 4, 11, 18, 25 

1 & 3 PM 
Free for members and public / First come, first served, No ticket required  

Join Newfields every Saturday in February for a series of free double feature film screenings in The Toby Theatre and DeBoest Lecture Hall—pairing a documentary with a narrative feature—focused on Black Resistance in the American 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.   

Saturday, February 4: The Black Panthers 
1 & 3 PM | The Toby 

Founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party sought to challenge police brutality against the African American community, promote African Americans to political office, and support their communities through various social projects.  Join us for a double feature of films exploring the history of BPP- a group too often misrepresented and villainized.  

 

2-3.jpg 1:00 PM / The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015, dir. Stanley Nelson, 115 mins., NR) preceded by Jeffrey Henson Scales: In a Time of Panthers (2022, 12 mins., NR)  
 
Through rare archival footage and first-person accounts, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution shares the history of the Black Panther Party as they sought to condemn injustice and create a better world.  Preceded by a short documentary about photographer Jeffrey Henson Scales, who captured rare and intimate images of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960’s. 
   
3-1.jpg 3 PM / Judas and the Black Messiah (2021, dir. Shaka King, 126 mins., R) 
 
In 1969, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton, was killed by Chicago police in a raid on his home. Judas and the Black Messiah weaves the story of how William O’Neal, working for the FBI, became a trusted friend and security guard of Hampton before his betrayal. 

 

Saturday, February 11: James Baldwin 
1 & 3 PM | The Toby 

One of the most profound writers, orators, and activists of the Civil Rights and Post Civil Rights era, James Baldwin provided an unflinching view of race relations in America. Join us as we delve into two of Baldwin’s works, Remember This House and If Beale Street Could Talk

 

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1 PM / I Am Not Your Negro (2016, dir. Raoul Peck, 93 mins., PG-13)  
 

Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and a flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for. 

   
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3 PM / If Beale Street Could Talk (2018, dir. Berry Jenkins, 119 mins., R)  

Adapted from James Baldwin’s stunning novel by the same name, in early 1970’s Harlem, Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, is in love with a young sculptor, Fonny, the father of her unborn child. When Fonny is falsely accused of rape and imprisoned, Tish and their families race to clear his name before the baby is born. A story about love persisting in the face of racial oppression and injustice. 

 

Saturday, February 18: Ruby Dee 
1 & 3 PM | DeBoest Lecture Hall 

Actress, poet and playwright, Ruby Dee and husband Ossie Davis were pioneers of stage, screen and social activism. Join us as we explore more about her years through, Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee and Do the Right Thing.  

 

MicrosoftTeams-image (16).png 1 PM / Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee (2014, dir. Muta'Ali Muhammad, 90 mins., NR) 
 
Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee is an open-letter style documentary in which Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis’ rich lives guide their grandson on his personal quest to master lasting love, conscious art, and undying activism. Ossie & Ruby’s achievements in love (sustained marriage for 57 years), art (pioneers in black theater) and activism (always using their influence to help “the people”) parallel nearly a century of change in America. With this story being told through the lens of their grandson (filmmaker), an innate hunger to learn everything possible about Ossie & Ruby’s lives and apply it to today’s fight to preserve love, art and activism is always present. Based on candid questions, revealing conversations, and never-before-seen family archival material, Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee shares the wisdom of the ages with this present generation and carries the legacy of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee forward in history for the first time in feature documentary form. 
   
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3 PM / Do the Right Thing (1989, dir. Spike Lee, 120 mins., R)  

Set on one block of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy Do or Die neighborhood, at the height of summer, this 1989 masterpiece by Spike Lee confirmed him as a writer and filmmaker of peerless vision and passionate social engagement. Over the course of a single day, the easygoing interactions of a cast of unforgettable characters—Da Mayor, Mother Sister, Mister Señor Love Daddy, Tina, Sweet Dick Willie, Buggin Out, Radio Raheem, Sal, Pino, Vito, and Lee’s Mookie among them—give way to heated confrontations as tensions rise along racial fault lines, ultimately exploding into violence. Punctuated by the anthemic refrain of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” Do the Right Thing is a landmark in American cinema, as politically and emotionally charged and as relevant now as when it first hit the big screen. 

 

Saturday, February 25: John Lewis 
1 & 3 PM | DeBoest Lecture Hall 

Chronicling the life and career of John Lewis, who dedicated his life to protect human rights and dignity, building “the beloved community”.  Spend your Saturday diving deeper through the films John Lewis: Good Trouble and Selma.  

 

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1 PM / John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020, dir. Dawn Porter, 96 mins., PG)  

An intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’ life, legacy, and more than 60 years of extraordinary activism—from the bold teenager on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement to the legislative powerhouse he was throughout his career. After Lewis petitioned Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to help integrate a segregated school in his hometown of Troy, Alabama, King sent “the boy from Troy” a round-trip bus ticket to meet with him. From that meeting onward, Lewis became one of King’s closest allies. He organized Freedom Rides that left him bloodied or jailed and stood at the front lines in the historic marches on Washington and Selma. He never lost the spirit of the “boy from Troy” and called on his fellow Americans to get into “good trouble” until his passing on July 17, 2020. 

   
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3 PM / Selma (2014, dir. Ava DuVernay, 128 mins., PG-13) 

Selma is the story of a movement. Revered leader and visionary, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) leads his brothers and sisters in the tumultuous three-month march in 1965 to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement that altered the history of a nation.

 

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, 2015. Directed by Stanley Nelson. © Firelight Films.  
Judas and the Black Messiah, 2021. Directed by Shaka King. © Warner Bros. / HBO Max / Photofest. 
I Am Not Your Negro, 2016. Directed by Raoul Peck Shown. © Magnolia Pictures / Photofest. 
If Beale Street Could Talk, 2018. Directed by Barry Jenkins. © Annapurna Pictures / Photofest. 
Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee, 2014. Directed by Muta’Ali Muhammand. © 
Do the Right Thing, 1989. Directed by Spike Lee. © Universal Pictures / Photofest. 
John Lewis: Good Trouble, 2020. Directed by Dawn Porter. © Magnolia Pictures / Photofest. 
Selma, 2014. Directed by Ava DuVernay. © Paramount Pictures. 

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