Creatively Speaking Films presents its annual virtual film festival on Wednesday, October 30 from 6-8pm ET. Enjoy an evening of short films on the theme of “Community Activists Making Change.” We will look at everyday activists who created change in their communities; some literally starting at their kitchen tables. The film program is curated by Savanna Washington and Myrakel Baker.

Film Program:

Black Lives Matter: How a Hashtag Defined a Movement

Producer/Editor: Sabrina Schmidt Gordon

TRT: 8 mins.

The origin story of #BlackLivesMatter told by its founders Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors.

Union

Producers: Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone

Directors: Stephen Maing, Brett Story

TRT: 16 minute excerpt of film

Up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in Staten Island, New York.

Blueprint For My People

Producer, Director, Editor: Carol Bash

TRT: 10 mins.

Blueprint For My People is a visual poem that explores the African American experience by featuring rare archival blue photographs called cyanotypes

Shame of Chicago, Shame of the Nation: Eps 1 – The Color Tax

Producer, Director: Bruce Orenstein

Producer: Chris L. Jenkins

TRT: 37 mins.

Shame of Chicago is a four-part documentary series that lays bare the story of how Chicago devised the nation’s most sweeping system of racially segregated housing-and how it diminished the lives of generations of Black families, creating the vast racial wealth gap that persists to this day. Centering Black voices and experiences, the series also brings to life the resistance Black Chicagoans mounted throughout the 20th century in the face of systemic and often violent discrimination in the private sector and at nearly every level of government.