Fellowship Church’s Social Justice Film Series presents award-winning documentaries on the pressing social issues of our time. The aim is “to inform and inspire” in the company of community. The monthly films are shown at 12:45 following the fellowship hour, open to the public, and free of charge.
This month’s movie:
Social Justice Film Series
The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples
The U.S. military faces a mental health crisis of historic proportions. Thank You for Your Service takes aim at our superficial understanding of war trauma and the failed policies that result. Director Tom Donahue interweaves the stories of four struggling Iraq War veterans with candid interviews of top military and civilian leaders. Observing the systemic neglect, the film argues for significant internal change and offers a roadmap of hope. Interviews include Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen, Generals David Petraeus and Loree Sutton, Nicholas Kristof, Dexter Filkins, Senator Patty Murray, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson.
Filmmaker – Tom Donahue (2015)
1 hour 28 minutes
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Release the “Souls of Poor Folk” Audit: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis join the research team to release “The Souls of Poor Folk” audit. This press conference is followed by the video of Rev. Barber’s speech delivered at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN on the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.
Sunday, August 6, 2017. 12:45 pm – Free Admission
Unfinished Business: The Japanese-American Internment Cases
Unfinished Business is a 1985 documentary film directed by Steven Okazaki which centered on Min Yasui, an attorney from Oregon, Gordon Hirabayashi, a Quaker college student in Washington, and Fred Korematsu, a San Francisco welder and how their lives were affected by Japanese American internment during World War II.
Click here to watch the trailer.
Filmmaker: Steven Okazaki
1986
58 Minutes
FIX IT: Health Care at the Tipping Point
With more than forty voices advocating for reform, including: activists, health policy experts, economists, physicians, nurses, patients, business and labor leaders, this documentary that reaches across the political and ideological divide to expand support for major healthcare reform. It takes an in-depth look into how our dysfunctional health care system is damaging our economy, suffocating our businesses, discouraging physicians and negatively impacting on the nation’s health, while remaining un-affordable for a third of our citizens.
58 minutes
2016
Filmmakers Richard Master, Vincent Mondillo
Standing On My Sisters’ Shoulders
In honor of Women’s History Month we’ll watch this award-winning documentary – the compelling story of the Mississippi Civil Rights movement from the point of view of its remarkable and courageous women who changed the course of history. Many of us have never heard of Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, Unita Blackwell, Mae Bertha Carter, or Victoria Gray Adams. But without the efforts of these women, the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi would not have been possible. This is their story of commitment, bravery and leadership in the face of a hostile and violent segregated society.
Filmmakers: Laura J. Lipson, Joan H. Sadoff, and Dr. Robert L. Sadoff (2002)
1 hour
Internationally renowned scholar, professor and writer Angela Davis and 89-year-old grassroots organizer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Yuri Kochiyama share intimate conversations about personal histories and influences that shaped them and their shared experiences in some of the most important social movements in 20th century in the part of the Planet we call United States. The film’s unique format honors the scope and depth of their knowledge on topics ranging from Jim Crow laws and Japanese internment camps, to Civil Rights, anti-war, women’s and gay liberation movements, to today’s campaigns for political prisoners and prison reform. These insights, recorded over the span of 13 years, offer critical lessons about community activism and tremendous hope for the future of social justice.
https://archive.org/details/MountainsThatTakeWingAngelaDavisYuriKochiyamaFullDocumentary
Filmmakers: C.A. Griffith & H.L.T. Quan (2010)
1 hour, 38 minutes
This historical film documents the birth of a new theater out of the Civil Rights activism of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. It is a veritable video encyclopedia of the leading figures, institutions and events of a movement that transformed the American stage. Amiri Baraka, Ossie Davis, James Earl Jones and Ntozake Shange describe their aspirations for a theatre serving the Black community. Excerpts of A Raisin in the Sun , Black Girl , Dutchman and For Colored Girls… reveal how these actors and playwrights laid the basis for the Black theater of the present. We will watch this film over the course of the two film series Sundays in June and July.
1 hr:56 mins
Filmmaker: Woodie King, Jr. (1978)
The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much
The U.S. spends twice as much per person on healthcare as the average developed nation – 17.5% of our GDP – yet our outcomes, especially for chronic diseases, are very often worse. What makes us the exception? The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that has chosen to turn medicine into a largely unregulated, for-profit business. This film offers a systemic look at the economics underlying – and often undermining — our $2.6 trillion healthcare system.
A documentary by Lee Fulkerson examines the profound claim that most, if not all, human degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled or even reversed by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and their work with people who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes. Doctors teach these patients how to adopt a whole-food, plant-based diet as the primary approach to treat their ailments—and the challenges and triumphs of their journeys are revealed.
February 14, 2016
Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed
Filmmaker: Shola Lynch, 2005
In honor of Black History Month, President’s Day and this year’s presidential election, we’ll watch the documentary of the nation’s first African-American congresswoman – the passionate Shirley Chisholm – launch a campaign for the United States presidency in the 1972 election.
Length of Film: 1 hr 17 minutes
January 10, 2016
At the River I Stand
At the River I Stand reconstructs the two eventful months in Memphis, TN in 1968 leading to the tragic death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the climax of the Civil Rights Movement. It demonstrates the integral connection between the struggle for civic and economic rights. At the River I Stand show’s how Memphis’ Black community rallied behind a stick by grossly underpaid sanitation workers. Dr. King saw an opportunity to link this struggle to his growing, nationwide Poor People’s Campaign and challenge the economic power structure of the South. His non-violent strategy was sorely tested during the bitter 65-day strick and on April 4th, he was murdered.
“An excellent film on the movement which drew Martin Luther King to Memphis and his death. It reveals how the Black and labor movements both win by struggling together.” Julian Bond
November 15, 2015 – 12:45 PM Admission: Free!
Directed by French aerial photographer, artist and activist, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and narrated by Glenn Close, HOME takes you on a visually stunning, spectacular voyage around the world. It is a unique film that approaches the current debate about climate change from a whole new angle, giving viewers the opportunity to see for themselves how our earth is changing. Going well beyond the scientific reports, charts and graphs, and spanning 54 countries and 120 locations, all seen from the air, HOME captures the Earth’s most amazing landscapes, showcasing its incomparable beauty and acknowledging its vulnerability. HOME is a compelling emotional reminder of what is at stake: the Earth, in all its beauty, and the people who live on it.
93 minutes
Here is a list of the last seven films shown at Fellowship Church.
A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet
Joanna Macy and the Great Turning
