20 years after the film was created, Liberated Lens Film Collective is honored to screen “Drylongso,” as a part of the BLACK 400 years series commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the first Africans brought to present day America.

Drylongso which comes from an old African word that means “Ordinary” is a coming of age drama which is “part love story” and “part murder mystery”. Pica is a young art student growing up in a dysfunctional household in Oakland. In order to deal with the dysfunction, she starts photographing young African American men believing they are an “endangered species” and might one day be extinct and wants to capture them as proof of their existence. At the same time, a serial killer is claiming victims in the neighborhood with some of them being the young African American men she has photographed. Pica eventually befriends another African American women who is disguising herself as a man to escape an abusive boyfriend.

Film by Cauleen Smith, 1998

Come early for the free dinner (first come, first serve) and stay for an exhibit and discussion with two East Bay photographers:

Shantré Pinkney
https://www.shantre.com/about-1/

April Martin
http://www.blackbemagic.com/

Come to our second event of the BLACK: 400 years series. We will screen a film made in, and about Oakland (20 years after it was made!), have a photo exhibit and a discussion with two rad women, photographers and filmmakers. Show up early for a free dinner.

The Resistance shares many of the principles and goals of the Zapatistas movement: autonomy from the capitalist economy, communalist self-government rooted in indigenous traditions, an end to the subordination of women, respect for the natural world. Indigenous women are at the forefront of many of these ongoing struggles.

The films we will show:

*All of This, We Are Going to Defend
2018, 15:56
by Caitlin Manning and Joe Bender
A Tzetlal community gathers in the mountains of Chiapas, one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. They share information, recuperate and develop techniques of agroecology (permaculture), while resisting the industrial farming practices promoted by the government and Monsanto/Bayer.

*Angelina Gomez Lopez
2017, 11:06
by Caitlin Manning and Joe Bender
Angelina Gomez Lopez, an indigenous woman potter from Amatenango, Chiapas, is part of “the Resistance”. Her journey towards liberation began when she joined a women’s group organized by the Diocesian Coordination of Women.

*Ik’ti Jme ‘tike (Dark Moon)
2013, 50:25
Experimental documentary by Ronyk and Thomas John
The daily life of Maya poet Angelina Suyul is portrayed using an unconventional audiovisual language that approaches both the personality and identity of its female protagonist as well as the meanings of her poetry.

The screening will be followed by Q and A with the filmmakers and a discussion on the current situation in Chiapas with members of the Chiapas Support Committee.

Chiapas Support Committee will be selling crafts by Zapatista artisans. Profits from the sales, and half of the donations at the door, will go towards a fund to build schools in Zapatista territory. For more info on this project and for updated information on Zapatistas, see https://chiapas-support.org/

$5 suggested donation- no one turned away for lack of funds— free popcorn.

Doors open at 4:30, films start at 5pm.