Sarah Braasch to participate in “The Call,” a new documentary by C-Line Films

Filmmaker Chico Colvard, courtesy C-Line Films

Filmmaker Chico Colvard accidentally shot his sister in the leg when he was a 10 year old boy. His sister, fearing she was going to die, blurted out that she and their other two sisters were being molested by their father. This set in motion a chain of events that Colvard’s first major film, “Family Affair,” documents over a multi-year period.

Chico Colvard and co-producer Madison O’Leary are currently working on a new documentary with the working title “The Call: America’s Gilded Age of Grievance.” The film will explore the topic of phone calls to police and their different, and sometimes very tragic, outcomes. 

One of the subjects of the film will be Yale University Ph.D. candidate Sarah Braasch, who was depicted in the international media as a racist cop caller in what is now known as the “Napping While Black” incident. (If you are unfamiliar with Braasch’s story, a background link is below.) 

Sarah Braasch, Portrayed as Racist Cop Caller at Yale, Debuts YouTube Channel

In an interview with Craig Phillips for PBS’s Independent Lens collection,  Colvard says:

“THE CALL: America’s Gilded Age of Grievance examines 911 calls that range from acts of white supremacy to displays of implicit bias and genuine concerns about suspicious behavior framed by roiling racial divides. By inviting to the conversation racial justice experts, dispatchers, law enforcement, victim/survivors and the ever-elusive callers cloaked in veils of anonymity, this project synthesizes the 911 epidemic in America’s ‘New Jim Crow.’ As with any story, the ‘truth’ is elusive. Shifting memories are compromised by implicit bias, fear and trauma. The goal is not to endorse or refute the participants’ agendas, but to expose epistemic habits and emotional dispositions that shape how we understand ‘us,’ ‘them,’ and the world around us.”

Subjects of “The Call” will include: 

Corey Lewis, made famous for “Babysitting While Black,” when a woman called the police while two children were in his care. Lewis runs an after-school program and camp for children in Marietta, Georgia.

Marc Peeples, a Detroit, Michigan native who established a community garden on an abandoned lot. In a rather complicated case, three neighborhood women repeatedly called the police accusing Peeples of a variety of misdeeds which eventually resulted in his arrest on allegations of stalking. All charges were ultimately dismissed. The incident became known as “Gardening While Black.”

Blake Murphy, a medical student, who called police when she thought she saw a man breaking into a car in Evanston, Illinois. The man turned out to be a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University getting into his own car. However, local police pursued him as he drove away and Murphy’s own dash camera caught officers violently taking him to the ground.

Stephon Clark, who was shot and killed in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento, California, when police responded to a report of someone smashing car windows and stealing loose items. Clark was shot dead when police mistook his cell phone for a gun. His family continues to pursue justice against Sacramento Police Department.

Sarah Braasch, known internationally in the “Napping While Black” incident, who is currently working on her dissertation from Yale University. Braasch has two engineering degrees from the University of Minnesota, a JD from Fordham University and is a member of the New York State Bar. Braasch has petitioned the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission to release the Yale Police Department bodycam footage from the incident. To date, the YPD refuses to release the video to the public.

Colvard’s films have a unique quality as he is able to view situations as more complex than they may appear on the surface. “Family Affair” and his second film “Black Memorabilia,” surprise the viewer by approaching taboo topics with a subtle sense of duality.

After Colvard shot his sister and she disclosed the molestation by their father, his father was arrested and sent to prison, the parents divorced, and the children were torn apart and farmed out to relatives. Colvard cut off any relationship with his father for years, but his sisters ultimately formed a new and different relationship with their father.

“Family Affair” thus documents the aftermath of this tragedy and Colvard’s deeper understanding of how this family attempted to put itself back together. Colvard writes, “Family Affair does not attempt to mitigate the long-term dysfunctional impact of incest. Instead, this documentary reshapes the commonly held view that molesters are pushed to the margins of society, never to reconnect with their victim/survivors. In the end, the film focuses on the motives, accommodations and levels of forgiveness survivors make in order to maintain some semblance of family.”

Colvard’s goal is to move beyond the obvious, taking the viewer along on a ride that is complex and emotional. He writes, “At first, this documentary ran the risk of turning into a crude indictment of my father, a figure the audience is sure to view as a ‘monster’. While that assessment might be unavoidable, I do not want the audience to only view him or other pedophiles as a one-dimensional ‘monster-like’ figure.”

More recently, Colvard made the film “Black Memorabilia,” featured as part of PBS’s Independent Films collection. Again, the film is more than a simple indictment. In his director’s statement, Colvard writes, “The goal of the film is not to demonize or blame the people that hold these objects dear, but to understand the context and background in which they came to know them. Often times black memorabilia is seen as a connection to family, heritage and ‘the good old days’ of one’s childhood. In many cases these objects aren’t even considered hateful, but rather historical or even cute.”

Again, confronting a taboo topic, the film’s goal is to educate and open a difficult discussion. In a synopsis of “Black Memorabilia,” the producers explain: “In the midst of the roiling ethnic unrest in the US today, the film’s confrontation of our feelings about these objects strikes at the heart of a pressing contemporary issue and opens a unique dialogue about the continuing legacy of racism in America.”

Chico Colvard teaches Race, Law and Media related courses in the Boston area. He was the Founding Curator of the UMB Film Series. Chico is the founding member of C-LineFilms.

Madison O’Leary is a Boston-based producer. She received her BA in Communications from UMass Amherst. After working around the country as a Trauma and Abuse Counselor in federal prisons, she came on to work as an Assistant Producer and Researcher on FAMILY AFFAIR (Sundance, 2010). She worked as a Producer on BLACK MEMORABILIA (MoMA 2018) and currently heads-up operations at C-LineFilms, LLC. 

C-LineFilms is an independent storytelling group committed to social justice documentaries. Their work screens globally at festivals, museums, broadcasts and online platforms. C-Line aims to partner with college/universities, libraries, grassroots organizations and community allies to raise awareness, provoke meaningful conversations, stimulate syllabi and enhance professional development.

 

For more about C-Line Films, visit https://www.c-linefilms.org/

For more about Sarah Braasch’s FOIA request to the Yale Police Department and the Yale investigation, visit

Sarah Braasch, Yale University, Investigation of Bias and How a Similar Incident at Smith College was Resolved

Hail Satan? Documentary is an Entertaining Civics Lesson in Separation of Church and State

Official trailer:

I found “Hail Satan?” on Hulu, and it is also streaming on various other services listed here:

http://www.magpictures.com/hailsatan/watch-at-home/

The film follows The Satanic Temple from its inception to its activities today, including a few growing pains along the way.

Simply put, The Satanic Temple is a bunch of Atheists who found standard Atheist organizations to be a bit dull at the same time as the Christian right seemed to be sneaking some questionable practices into law.

One of the more high profile projects has been confronting 10 Commandments monuments installed on government property, including disputes with Oklahoma and Arkansas. To drive home the point that the US is a secular nation, the organization has created a monument named “Baphomet,” and once one religious statue or monument is approved for display on government property, The Satanic Temple applies for a permit to place Baphomet on the property as well, demanding equal treatment under religious freedom laws.

Here’s Baphomet on a visit to the Little Rock, Arkansas State Capitol, where a 10 Commandments monument is also displayed.

All photos courtesy Magnolia Films.

Baphomet was met by angry protesters in Little Rock. Note the sign claiming “blasphemy is not free speech.”

The Satanic Temple members, many dressed in costume, showed up in Little Rock to support the placement of the Baphomet monument.

Lucien Greaves, the star of the show, mastermind and spokesman for The Satanic Temple, is a soft-spoken, intelligent and constitutionally and legally well-informed leader of the organization. When he spoke in Little Rock, he was advised to wear a bullet-proof vest.

The documentary takes an unexpected turn when one of the members who organized the Detroit Chapter went off the rails a bit in a public ceremony and was dismissed from The Satanic Temple all together. It’s an interesting segment in the flim.

The website explains in detail the difference between The Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple, as the two are often confused and have quite different missions. Neither actually believes in Satan, by the way.

https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/what-is-the-difference-between-the-satanic-temple-and-the-church-of-satan

The organization survives on donations and sale of merchandise. They are also active in legal action when necessary.

The film was featured at Sundance and has a 96 percent positive rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

The Creepy Line Documentary Warns of Social Media Manipulation & Privacy Concerns

Trailer

 

 

about the movie

An eye-opening documentary, The Creepy Line reveals the stunning degree to which society is manipulated by Google and Facebook and blows the lid off the remarkably subtle – hence powerful – manner in which they do it.

The Creepy Line is a title culled from the words of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when during a 2010 interview he explained Google’s code of conduct: “The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”

However, as Dr. Robert Epstein explains in the film, “Google crosses the creepy line everyday.” Containing ground-breaking interviews with Jordan B. Peterson, Peter Schweizer, and others, The Creepy Line offers an explosive look at the meddling and intervening done by Google and Facebook on their supposedly “neutral platforms.”

The Creepy Line takes the conversation about data privacy and control further than ever before by examining what Google and Facebook do once they control a user’s data. Not only is this data sold to the highest bidder, but it is used it to mold, massage, and manipulate the public consciousness while influencing opinion on a vast scale – all with the goal of transforming society to fit their worldview.

Offering first-hand accounts, scientific experiments and detailed analysis, The Creepy Line examines what is at risk when these two tech titans have free reign to utilize the public’s most private and personal data to manipulate society.

There is no question that the “creepy line” is getting ever-creepier, and that the tech giants have crossed it.

https://www.thecreepyline.com/ 

The documentary’s website offers useful tools to find out just what Google and Facebook know about you personally, including locations you have been to, websites you have visited, and more.

 

Human Rights Watch 2018 Must See Films

Still photo from the film A Thousand Girls Like Me

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival, now in its 29th year, has selected timely and provocative films in 2018 showcasing courageous activists in order to shine a bright light on bravery and resilience in challenging times.

Human Rights Watch has chosen films offering incisive perspectives and critical insights on human rights issues impacting people around the world.

This year’s film selections turn the spotlight on strong women who take great risks to push back against powerful forces within their respective societies. And, at a time when the use of personal data by institutions is front-page news, this year’s program explores governmental and corporate regulation of information, and how, by burying the truth and creating their own narratives, these gatekeepers are uniquely positioned to abuse their power and control the populace.

Watch out for this year’s selections available on various platforms:


Three films featuring critical human rights issues in the U.S.;

Charm City moves between community members, police and local officials during a period of heightened violence in Baltimore, exposing layers of disconnect and distrust that need to be addressed to move their city forward.

Transmilitary Trailer

https://www.facebook.com/TransMilitaryDoc/videos/2056117271111567/

TransMilitary focuses on the largest employer of transgender people in the country – the U.S. military – and the efforts of four brave people as they come forward to demand much-needed change.

The Unafraid introduces three high school students in Georgia, banned by the state from attending top state universities due to their unauthorized immigration status, and their passionate fight to pursue their dreams of higher education.

International films:


On Her Shoulders introduces Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi survivor of atrocities by ISIS who makes it her life’s mission to fight for justice and freedom for her people.

Two documentaries highlight women’s rights in Afghanistan. A Thousand Girls Like Me follows a young mother seeking justice from a legal system designed to criminalize sexual abuse survivors like her. Facing the Dragon (winner of the festival’s Nestor Almendros 2 Award) profiles two intrepid Afghan women — a member of parliament and journalist — who risk the safety of their families to bring change and accountability to their country.

Naila and the Uprising features courageous Palestinian women activists who played a pivotal role in the First Intifada.

Trailer: Women of the Venezuelan Chaos

https://youtu.be/lJexFP-50p8

Women of the Venezuelan Chaos, five resilient women find creative ways to defend their fellow citizens, their families and their own lives amid the national crisis that has enveloped their country.

In the profoundly moving and poetic Angkar, a filmmaker traces her father’s journey home to Cambodia to seek out his Khmer Rouge persecutors while confronting his country’s collective amnesia regarding their horrifying past.

In The Silence of Others, survivors of the Franco dictatorship crimes against humanity refuse to relent in their pursuit of justice, despite Spain’s “pact of forgetting,” which has denied Franco’s victims legal recourse.

The Cleaners reveals a murky world of digital “cleaning,” in which giant social media companies employ workers to delete internet content deemed inappropriate, raising essential questions over internet control and the life-threatening impact of erasing entire resistance movements from the world’s gaze.

Additional recommendations include:

Anote’s Ark

The Distant Barking of Dogs

Voices of the Sea

Marjoe Gortner, World’s Youngest Evangelist

In 1973, the Academy Award for best documentary feature film was granted to “Marjoe,” an expose of the world’s youngest preacher and evangelist.

Born in 1944, Marjoe Gortner’s parents trained their young son to preach, and had him ordained as a Pentecostal preacher at the age of four. His name, Marjoe, was a combination of the names Mary and Joseph.

Marjoe was trained by his mother in particular, and relates stories of intense practice and abusive behavior. If he failed to please his mother adequately, she would place a pillow over his face until he gasped for air, and then resume practice after he was “corrected.”

Never having experienced a faith in God, Gortner decided to reveal the truth behind his evangelism by allowing a film crew to follow him in one final revival tour in 1971. At this point in his life, he had been preaching for almost 25 years.

As a young boy, he was a curly-headed blond, well spoken and clearly verbally gifted for his age. His mother made sure he was dressed in special suits, sewing additional pockets to stash money. Extra money earned the worshipper a special kiss from the charming young man.

His preaching included pressing hard for donations, asking the audience to contribute the largest bill in their pockets to prove their devotion to Jesus.

His performances included faith healing, the laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, singing and, later on, rockstar-style moves inspired by Mick Jagger.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

At age 15, the novelty of the child preacher was wearing off and the money wasn’t rolling in as freely as it used to. He left home and lived with an older woman for the next two and a half years.

By age 18, he wanted to sue his parents, estimating they had collected about 3 million dollars and yet he was not even afforded an education or trust fund. He decided against it, feeling resentment would ultimately make him bitter.

Ultimately, he decided to return to the preaching circuit, focusing on a youth ministry, but motivated by money. In the documentary, he reveals behind the scenes tactics of tapping the audience for extra funds which can then be skimmed for personal use.

At the end of the documentary, Gortner says, “What can I say? I think religion is a drug. It’s addicting. Can God deliver a religion addict?”

While the documentary received critical accolades and heavy press coverage, it was never shown in the southern US states for fear of a backlash. It is now available on DVD and for rent at various Internet sites.

The Binding: Documentary Will Tell Story of Resistance Through Witchcraft

The Binding is now in post-production and set to be released in the Fall of 2018.
The Binding tells the story of David Salisbury, a Wiccan priest and political activist, who uses the Craft to take a stand against one of the country’s most persistent and devastating problems.
Plot Outline
For centuries, society has vilified practitioners of witchcraft, labeling them “evil” and “wicked”. Witch hysteria has fueled periods of grave violence and hatred against the pagan community throughout our country’s history. But in the wake of one of the most divisive elections in recent memory, hatred and violence are the new normal, and no one is immune from the suffering. When these attitudes precipitate from the highest branches of our government, what is good and what is evil is not so easily distinguished. In The Binding, a group of witches band together to counter the toxic political environment, combating one of our country’s most persistent issues.
Starring
David Salisbury
Directed and Produced By
Patrick J Foust

Human Zoos: America’s Forgotten History of Scientific Racism: Documentary

Courtesy Human Zoos Official Website:

In September 1906, nearly a quarter of a million people flocked to the Bronx Zoo in New York City. Many came for a startling new exhibit in the Zoo’s Monkey House. But it wasn’t a monkey they came to see. It was a man. His name was Ota Benga. A pygmy from the African Congo, Ota Benga was exhibited in a cage along with monkeys.

Benga was not alone. He was one of literally thousands of indigenous peoples who were put on public display throughout America in the early twentieth century. Often touted as “missing links” between man and apes and as examples of the “lower” stages of human evolution, these native peoples were harassed, demeaned, and jeered at. Their public display was arranged with the enthusiastic support of the most elite members of the scientific community, and it was promoted uncritically by America’s leading newspapers.

Human Zoos tells the horrifying story of this effort to dehumanize entire classes of people in the name of science. It will also tell the story of the courageous African-American ministers in New York City who tried to stop what was going on. Finally, the documentary will expose how some organizations are still trying to cover up their involvement in what happened and re-write the past.

The documentary features interviews with a number of experts, including Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Pamela Newkirk, author of Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga.

Visit humanzoos.org for additional resources and screening information.

White Right: Meeting the Enemy: Documentary Now on Netflix

Courtesy Fuuse Films: “In this authored Fuuse documentary, Emmy Award-winning film-maker Deeyah Khan joins the frontline of the race wars in America, sitting down face-to-face with Neo-Nazis and fascists and marching with them at the biggest and most violent Far Right rally in recent years. Khan, who received death threats from the Far Right movement after giving a TV interview advocating diversity and multiculturalism, tries to get behind the hatred and the violent ideology, to try to understand the personal reasons why people embrace racist extremism.”

Available to watch on NETFLIX US and UK.

This documentary takes a surprisingly humane look at fascist extremists. Filmmaker Deeyah Khan gains access to a behind the scenes look at the “White Right” and through the relationships she forges actually makes a dent in this hate-fueled ideology–in the end, some even grow to call her “friend.”

Wild Wild Country: Docuseries on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, AKA Osho, Will Not Answer All Your Questions, But it is a Must-See on Religions, Cults vs Utopias & Civil Liberties

The new docuseries released by Netflix in 2018 is provocative, insightful, sad and terribly relevant even today.

The 6-part series is the story of an experiment gone wrong, corrupted by those who may have loved Bhagwan the most, and perhaps most nefariously the story of Sheela, Bhagwan’s personal secretary, who seems to be pulling all the strings.

The series does not delve very deeply into what Bhagwan was like before the move to the United States when Bhagwan’s followers set up shop in Antelope, Oregon. It left me wondering if it missed some of the more innocent times before the Ashram became an attraction.

I did not know that Christopher Hitchens had visited the Ashram in India and was highly critical of it. In 1981, Hitchens released a BBC documentary titled “The God that Fled.” Later, he devoted a chapter to “There is No Eastern Solution” in God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

The documentary also doesn’t answer the questions, “Was it a cult? Was it a con game? Was it a religion? Was it a utopian experiment?” And probably the biggest question of all is how much did Bhagwan know about what Sheela was up to? Did he know that Sheela was committing criminal acts?

Sheela is an interesting character, both sympathetic and ruthless. She loved Bhagwan and saw her mission in life as protecting him at all costs and by any means necessary. The most telling statement she makes in the documentary (after apparently spearheading a plot to poison the residents of Antelope with salmonella) was after she was asked if she felt remorse for making so many people sick. She shrugs it off and says people get sick all the time, even though at least one person was near death and several were hospitalized. She is as cold as ice.

OSHO International, the organization that carries forward the work and legacy of Bhagwan/OSHO, has released the following statement:

Wild Wild Country, The Story Behind the Story of Rajneeshpuram

OSHO International

Apr 06, 2018, 08:30 ET

PUNE, India, April 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — “Wild Wild Country,” the recently released six-part Netflix docuseries, is capturing worldwide attention. It recounts the extraordinary story of a group of people, inspired by the vision of the mystic, Osho, creating an ecological oasis in the barren hills of the Oregon high desert.

These events trigger a political and criminal confrontation between a revolutionary vision of a new way of living versus the establishment. Unfortunately, In OSHO Internationals’ view, the docuseries fails to explore key details and so does not give a clear account of the real story behind the story.

Based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, it is clear to OSHO International that the government, from the highest levels on down, were determined to use whatever means possible to thwart Osho’s vision of a community based on conscious living. These include US Attorney Edwin Meese, both US Senators from Oregon, the governor of Oregon. All the named later admitted publicly that they had no evidence associating Osho with the crimes of Sheela Silverman, Osho’s personal secretary at the time.

The government’s attitude toward Osho is perhaps best captured by a statement, on the public record, by the District Director’s Chief INS Investigator, Thomas Casey, who stated that Osho will be “deported as an example to wetbacks and other cults.”

The attempt to create a model city in the Oregon high desert was blocked from the outset on the basis that it was “farmland” where “offices” were not legal.

Only after the community had been destroyed did the Oregon Supreme Court confirm what anybody could see with their own eyes: that the land was not in any sense “farmland.” The court confirmed that the land could only support “9 cows” and that the city’s original incorporation had been legal.

Denied even a telephone line, it was impossible for the community to grow. As the film describes, the residents of that community then bought property – that had long been for sale in Antelope, a tiny “ghost town” of 40 mainly retired residents 19 miles away – in order to have essential services. As the film shows, this was termed “the invasion” that was later used to justify ever-greater efforts to “get them out.” In response, Sheela Silverman set out on her personal road to perdition – bending and breaking laws as she saw fit in an attempt to defend the community.

A critical moment came when Sheela fell out with Osho and, as she said in the docuseries, “He lost it.” She decided only she knew how best to implement what she thought was Osho’s vision — which was the beginning of the end. When Osho became aware of Sheela’s criminal acts he immediately invited the FBI to investigate her crimes.

In the fall of ’85, the press was full of rumors, later confirmed by the Oregon Attorney General, that the National Guard and other levels of law enforcement were being mobilized. As the film describes, repeated attempts by Osho’s attorneys to cooperate with any warrant or allegations against him were rebuffed.

In OSHO International’s opinion, the risk of violence was defused at a stroke when Osho accepted the advice from those around him to leave. He flew out of Rajneeshpuram on the long journey across the country. His departure from Rajneeshpuram was a gift for the authorities who then claimed he was “fleeing.” OSHO International questions how Osho could be fleeing a non-existent arrest warrant, while filing flight plans with the FAA, and taking the longest possible route across the US when Canada was only 20 minutes away?

The attacks on Osho’s fragile health while the authorities were holding him required him to allow his lawyers to make an “Alford Plea” deal to leave the US, all the while maintaining his innocence of all charges.

Sheela was at the center of this criminal enterprise and received a 20-year prison sentence. She was released after only 39 months. A slap on the wrist compared with what OSHO International guesses would have been decades in prison for Osho had there been a trace of evidence linking him to Sheela’s crimes.

OSHO International’s summary of this story is that here was a non-white man from India, who wore a dress and an unusual hat, who drove a fleet of fancy foreign cars round a city named after him in Sanskrit, where everyone wore red, worked for no money but with only the love of a vision of a different world based on meditation, where there was no support for the family, private property or any religion, and where everyone was a vegetarian – right in the middle of conservative, Christian, cowboy country!

RBG: Highly Anticipated Documentary About Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be Released in May

The documentary is set for theater release on May 4, 2018. The film was recently screened at Sundance Film Festival, where it was picked up by Magnolia Pictures.

Synopsis

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg has created a breathtaking legal legacy for women’s rights while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. The personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior’s rise to the nation’s highest court during a hostile time for women, is revealed in this inspiring and multidimensional portrait. Now 84, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, continues to have vigorous dissenting opinions and her exercise workouts.

 

Credits

DIRECTORS: Betsy West and Julie Cohen

PRODUCERS: Julie Cohen and Betsy West

FEATURING: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Ginsburg, James Ginsburg, Clara Spera, Bill Clinton

 

http://www.magpictures.com/rbg/home

https://www.facebook.com/RBGmovie/

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the #MeToo Movement Balanced with Due Process