Looking at relationships between private lives and public systems, We Shall Overcome reflects on race, gender roles, labor, and leisure. Examples of mass-media and propaganda footage are interwoven with creative interpretations of domestic issues, juxtaposing the perspectives of historical archives with cutting-edge short films. Introduced with poetry by Valérie Déus.
Postscreening conversation with Valérie Déus (artist and poet), Danielle Jackson (Walker’s Interdisciplinary Arts Fellow, Performing Arts), and Amir George (artist and filmmaker).
Tickets will be available at the Main Lobby Desk from 6:30 pm the day of the event.
Films:
So You Want to Be a Cheerleader
Sponsored by Bonne Bell, in cooperation with the National Cheerleaders Association, So You Want to Be a Cheerleader champions the honor and thrill of being part of a team. Filmed at Edina High School, the film shows what you can do to become a good cheerleader, and ultimately, a successful woman. Directed by KSTP. 1968, US, 16mm film transferred to digital, 15 minutes. Courtesy KSTP and the Minnesota Historical Society.
34 ženy (34 Women)
After the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, Czechoslovak Army soldiers stationed near Prague were transferred to military bases in eastern Slovakia. 34 ženy (34 Women) follows a group of officers’ wives as they journey from their homes to visit their husbands and as military commanders try to convince them to move east themselves. Directed by Vladimír Drha. 1969, Czechoslovakia, 35mm transfer to digital, 12 minutes. Produced by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defense, courtesy the National Film Archive and Military History Institute, Prague, and Alice Lovejoy.
The Making Of
Artur Żmijewski’s The Making of originates from a series of workshops at the Areszt Śledczy w Warszawie-Grochowie, a women’s prison on the outskirts of Warsaw. Żmijewski organized a beauty and fashion session accompanied by a hairdresser, make-up artist, stylist, and photographer. Directed by Artur Żmijewski. 2013, Poland, digital, 12 minutes. Courtesy Galerie Peter Kilchmann.
Don’t give an inch
In this animated, scratched, and damaged film, children explain what resistance means to them. Their ideas are spliced together with images of what fight, defense, and struggle can look like in everyday lives. Bouchard explains, “To resist is also to use different means of narration.” Directed by Anne-Marie Bouchard. 2014, Canada, digital, 10 minutes. Courtesy the artist and Spira, Coopérative vouée au cinéma indépendant.
Black Chains
A meditation on how oppression exacerbates interpersonal relations and mental health, using 1960s and 1970s archival footage from the Chicago Film Archive. Amir George connects chain link fences, colorful street murals, black and white neighborhood defense footage from Chicago, children in parks, and black dancers. Directed by Amir George. 2017, US, digital, 3 minutes. Courtesy the artist and Chicago Film Archives.
Black Moderates and Black Militants
Three members of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party, including future congressman Bobby Rush, debate with the principal of an African American high school on strategies for ending racism. This film is part of the series The Urban Crisis and the New Militants produced by The Film Group to “teach by raising questions rather than by attempting to answer them.” Directed by the Film Group. 1969, US, 16 mm, 10 minutes. Courtesy the Chicago Film Archives.
O, Persecuted
Commissioned by the Palestine Film Foundation to make a film in response to Kassem Hawal’s 1974 militant Palestinian film Our Small Houses, Basma Alsharif removes layers of thick paint to reveal the grainy black-and-white images. When O, Persecuted shifts dramatically with an outburst of energy and wild beach party images from Beirut, Lebanon, Alsharif reveals a troubling denial in escapism and the disconnect between the past and the present day. Directed by Basma Alsharif. 2014, Palestine/UK, digital, 12 minutes. Courtesy Video Data Bank.
