Pangea Films is developing a new documentary HANDS THAT FEED, which explores the agricultural collapse in Haiti and the grassroots movement to return to sustainable food production as part of the post-earthquake recovery there.

Now you have an opportunity to help support this important project, by making a donation via Kickstarter. As of today, they have just under $800 left to raise of a $15,000 goal - and they must raise this money by Monday, Aug. 2nd.

Support HANDS THAT FEED:

http://www.handsthatfeed.com/

Exciting news from Firelight Media: their groundbreaking documentary Freedom Riders will have theatrical releases in NYC and LA through the organization Docuweeks.

For Tickets and more information visit: http://www.documentary.org/docuweeks2010

View the trailer here:  http://www.freedomridersfilm.com

Show times: August 13 - August 29, 2010:

New York City

IFC Theater - 323 Avenue of the Americas @ West 4th NY, NY 10014

Fri. Aug. 13:          12PM          5:30PM

Sat. Aug. 14:         1:45PM      7:30PM

Sun. Aug. 15:        3:30PM     9:35PM

Mon. Aug. 16:      12PM          5:30PM

Tues. Aug. 17:      1:45PM      7:30PM

Wed. Aug. 18:      3:30PM     9:35PM

Thu. Aug. 19:       12PM          5:30PM

Los Angeles

ArcLight Hollywood - 6360 W Sunset Blvd @  Vine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90028

Fri. Aug. 13:          3:40PM       9:45PM
Sat. Aug. 14:         1:40PM       7:35PM

Sun. Aug. 15:        5:20PM       9:50PM

Mon. Aug. 16:      1:40PM        7:35PM

Tues. Aug. 17:      5:20PM        9:50PM

Wed. Aug. 18:      1:40PM        7:35PM

Thu. Aug. 19:       5:20PM       9:50PM

FREEDOM RIDERS screens as part of the International Documentary Association [IDA]’s 14th annual DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase. This year’s selected films includes a strong lineup of 17 features and 5 shorts to screen in New York City and Los Angeles.

                                                        * * * * * *  

FREEDOM RIDERS is scheduled to air on PBS’ acclaimed American Experience series in May 2011 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1961 freedom rides.

                                                         * * * * * *  

FREEDOM RIDERS is the first feature-length documentary to tell the story of a courageous band of civil rights activists who risked death by daring to defy the laws of Jim Crow in the Deep South in 1961. They were America’s first inter-racial and inter-religious mass movement to challenge segregation in bus and train facilities. Because of their efforts, the signs “whites only” and “colored only” were taken down forever.

                                             * * * * * *                                                         

Become the film’s Facebook friend:

http://www.facebook.com/ride

Follow PBS on Twitter:

@pbsamex

Come join AN AMERICAN PROMISE short experimental film contributor William Caballero for the world premiere screening of his new film AMERICAN DREAMS DEFERRED at the New York International Latino Film Festival.

2 Screenings:

THURSDAY, JULY 29th
…• SVA screen 2
• 2pm
• $9

and

SATURDAY, JULY 31st:
• Chelsea Clearview Cinemas
• 1:30pm
• $11

AMERICAN DREAMS DEFERRED received the 1st Annual HBO/NALIP Documentary Grant, and was chosen for the 2008 Latino Producers Academy.

A young Latino man, William Caballero, juggles unconditional family love with the challenges of breaking the cycle that has kept so many relatives from reaching their dreams. Set against a backdrop of Coney Island and Fayetteville, North Carolina, an NYU graduate student turns the camera on his Puerto Rican-American family plagued by social, medical and public health issues. U.S. health care and culture is examined through this young man’s lens, which also explores both his and family’s dreams. Many immigrants in the U.S. aspire to achieve the American dream and this Latino family comprised of immigrants to second-generation Americans is no different. As subjective as the barometer of reaching this goal is, the film begs the ultimate question: who attains their American dream?

Excerpt: http://www.cabalproductions.com/video.html

More info on the screenings:
http://nylatino.bside.com/2010/films/americandreamsdeferred_williamcaballero_nylatino2010;jsessionid=368619B503BF40E70021F26AC0910F6F

Greetings from the Rada Film Group!
School’s out for summer but (as we all know) the learning never stops. Here are some updates:

The Achievement Gap in the News

SAT Study Reveals Long-Suspected Racial Biases
On the Tuesday July 6th episode of the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, Washington Post blogger Jay Matthews discussed a study by a “rogue researcher” that showed that in the vocabulary section, African American test takers were doing better than their European American counterparts on defining the more complex Latin-based words and doing worse on the simpler Anglo Saxon definitions - that often had different connotations in communities of color. Examples included “bad” “slick” and “tight.”

New book Whistling Vivaldi by Dr. Claude Steele examines “Stereotype Threat”
Stanford and Columbia University social psychologist Claude Steele’s new book Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us further explores his groundbreaking work on “stereotype threat”: the idea that the awareness of commonly held notions about a group can affect members of that group’s performance and behavior. Listen to Dr. Steele talk about how to reshape expectations on NPR.

Anderson Cooper 360 revisits “the Doll Test”
In May, CNN host (and Dalton School alum) Anderson Cooper and Soledad O’Brien presented “Black or White: Kids on Race”  The program featured a re-staging of the famous “Doll test” created by Margaret Beale Spencer, wherein kids are surveyed on their positive or negative associations with skin color. The mixed results are both discouraging and uplifting, and moved some parents to tears.

Andre Robert Lee’s Prep School Negro Explores Culture Clash, African American Families and Independent Schools
In the 1980s, Andre Robert Lee attended high school at a prestigious prep school in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Twenty years later, he returns to his mother’s home to re-examine the journey that led him away from his mother and sister culturally, and meets teenagers today, at his high school and others, who are facing the same tensions. Learn more about the film.

Inconvenient Truth Director Tackles the Charter School Situation in Waiting for Superman
Davis Guggenheim’s new film Waiting for Superman explores the lottery system in which some students win entry to charter schools with high success rates, and the rest are left to an uncertain future. In theaters this fall. (Pledge to see the film here).

An American Promise Production Updates

The Rada Film Group hears beautiful music at Sundance
An American Promise co-producers/co-directors Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster just returned from the 2010 Sundance Composers and Documentary Lab where they met talented composers and made fantastic connections with fellow filmmakers in an idyllic natural setting. Thanks to the Sundance Documentary Fund for making this wonderful experience possible!

Ford Foundation Awards Production Grant to An American Promise
In June, the Rada Film Group was awarded a Freedom of Expression grant from the Ford Foundation. “When we got involved five years ago, we were taken with the filmmakers’ sense of boldness” said Orlando Bagwell, Director of Freedom of Expression Work at Ford, at the Britdocs GoodPitch Forum at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. An American Promise “connects to our public education and students of color initiatives… This film can help teachers think through successful strategies to change their own classroom.“

Join the campaign by making a donation through our fiscal sponsor, Third World Newsreel. (Scroll to the bottom and specify your donation for “An American Promise”)

Learn more about the film: http://americanpromisedoc.com

Get more updates on our projects:

Subscribe to our blog!