Shared Stories
Film Series
ArtsEmerson presents Shared Stories, a monthly film series in collaboration with the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), Boston Latino International Film Festival (BLIFF), and the Roxbury International Film Festival (RoxFilm) seeking to build community, shared conversation, and experiences through cinema. This pilot series aspires to create a shared space to find commonality across experiences, and encourage the exchange of stories and ideas.
Spotlight Presentation
Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities
On Demand:
FEB 24 @ 7:00PM ET - FEB 28 @ 10:00PM ET
Pick Your Price: $5 - $25
75 mins | View Trailer
In this collection of six shorts, filmmakers gaze at themselves and their world, attempting to make sense of what they see reflected back. From gripping drama to heart-warming comedy, Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities features timely stories from Black artists that take us outside of the ordinary.
Through a mission-driven desire to highlight unseen voices and present a program that steps outside of impersonal plug-and-play virtual distribution models, the collection will rely on the film exhibition and distribution expertise of the participating organizations to engage a broad constituency of exhibitors and mentors via grassroots outreach, personal relationships, and direct conversation with the artists.
Post-film conversation with filmmaker
Film and Q&A will be Closed Captioned.
Curtis Caesar John - Curator
Love in Submission - Director, Lande Yoosuf
A Hollwood Party - Director, Toryn Seabrooks
Auntie Zariyah - Director, Zora Bikangaga
The Pandemic Chronicles - Director, Ya'Ke
The Black Banshee - Director, John D. Haley, Jr.
Nowhere - Director, Lin Que Young
Content Advisory:
Pandemic Chronicles includes full nudity/mature content
The Black Banshee includes police violence
Feature Presentations
Savages, Servants and Specialty Acts
On Demand:
FEB 24 @ 7:00PM ET - FEB 28 @ 10:00PM ET
Pick Your Price: $5 - $25
75 mins | Directed by: Michael DennisSavages, Servants and Specialty Acts (2020 - Work-In-Progress) Slavery never ended. It is time we break the chains! While the physical enslavement of Africans may have been abolished in the United States in 1865, the mental enslavement of Blacks worldwide continues. Savages, Servants and Specialty Acts demonstrates how Black Identity is largely dictated by The White Imagination. Using rare film clips and archival footage, film historian Charles Woods demonstrates how we were indoctrinated into a belief system of White Supremacy and Black Inferiority through the use of the motion picture, and how this perpetuates itself in mass media. From the Tarzan movies of the 1930s to Black Panther and Queen & Slim, the subversive tricks still exist—even when Black filmmakers are in control.
ALTERNATIVE FACTS: The Lies of Executive Order 9066
On Demand:
FEB 24 @ 7:00PM ET - FEB 28 @ 10:00PM ET
Pick Your Price: $5 - $25
65 minsAlternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066 reveals the false information and political influences which led to the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. The film sheds light on the people and politics that influenced the signing of the infamous Executive Order 9066 which authorized the mass incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans and exposse the lies used to justify the decision and the cover-up that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Alternative Facts will also examine the parallels to the current climate of fear, targeting of immigrant and religious communities, and similar attempts to abuse the powers of the government.
Post-film conversation with filmmaker
Shorts
FREE On Demand: FEB 24 @ 7:00PM ET - FEB 28 @ 10:00PM ET
The Volcano's Last Wish
25 mins | Directed by: Guenny K. Pires
A young black boy raised in a remote African village is entrusted by his great-grandfather with the mission of becoming the first visual storyteller for his homeland, the island of Fogo off the West Coast of Africa.
L'Eau Est La Vie - Water is Life
25 mins | Directed by: Sam Vinal
On the banks of Louisiana, fierce Indigenous women are ready to fight—to stop the corporate blacksnake and preserve their way of life. They are risking everything to protect Mother Earth from the predatory fossil fuel companies that seek to poison it.
Shorts
FREE On Demand: FEB 24 @ 7:00PM ET - FEB 28 @ 10:00PM ET
Without a Whisper -KONNON:KWE
25 mins | Directed by: Katsitsionni Fox
WITHOUT A WHISPER - KONNON:KWE is the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality - shaking the foundation of the established history of the women’s rights movement in the United States.
Activized
38 mins | Directed by: Eric Stange
ACTIVIZED profiles a handful of ordinary Americans who – for the first time in their lives – have left their comfort zones and thrown themselves into a political cause. We follow their motivations, their goals, successes and failures, and how and why such activists are the embodiment of positive citizen participation in the best American tradition.
Post-film conversation with filmmaker
Shorts
FREE On Demand: FEB 24 @ 7:00PM ET - FEB 28 @ 10:00PM ET
Acuitzeramo
15 mins | Directed by: Miguel Angel Caballero
After losing his gay partner of 15 years, Salvador must confront his late partner’s estranged son, Anthony, who was unaware of their relationship.
Dancing on my Own
14 mins | Directed by: Alexandra Cueurdo
Dancing On My Own is a love letter to the queer Asian experience, inspired by New York's radical dance party Bubble_T.
SCREENING INFO
- Virtual Event - On Demand Viewing
- Features: Pick Your Price: $5 - $25
Shorts: FREE - For group sales of 10+ please contact 617.824.8400 or tickets@artsemerson.org
