UPDATE: Among the award winners at the 2010 PAN AFRICAN FILM & FESTIVAL discussed belowwas the documentary on the L.A. Black Panthers 41ST & CENTRAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE L.A. BLACK PANTHERS, which won the Audience Favorite Documentary Award. Openly lesbian Jasmine Cannick is among the documentary’s producers. This year’s PAFF featured 135 films representing 36 countries, including 40 in competition, 64 feature length films, and 12 world premieres
The Pan African Film and Arts Festival opens its 18th season Wednesday night with a powerful film entitled “Blood Done Sign My Name.” The film is based on the true 1970 story of a 23 year old black Vietnam veteran murdered in cold blood and in public view – and the uprising that follows the acquittal of the white businessman and his son.
The festival closes with the documentary “Freedom Riders” about the 8 months from May to December in 1961 when more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives to end the Jim Crow laws of the Deep South.
If you are new to the LGBT movement and wonder why some African Americans get so angry when white gays compare the LGBT struggle for full equality to the Black civil rights movement for freedom from slavery, lynching, Jim Crow and institutionalized racism that contributes to the high 16.5% unemployment in the Black community – these films might help provide some perspective.
But oppression is oppression – something that Black Panthers Party founder Huey Newton understood deeply. And resistance takes many forms and requires coalition with others also struggling against the yoke of oppression.
In a speech on Aug. 15, 1970, Newton said:
“There has been some uncertainty about how to relate to these movements. Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about homosexuality and the various liberation movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as oppressed groups), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion.
[cut]
[W]e must relate to the homosexual movement because it is a real thing. And I know through reading, and through my life experience and observations that homosexuals are not given freedom and liberty by anyone in the society. They might be the most oppressed people in the society.”
In the middle of the festival on Monday, Feb. 15 at 3:30 p.m. PAFF will show their feature presentation: “41st & Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Black Panthers.”
The documentary doesn’t seem to include Huey Newton but rather focuses on the battle between the Black Panthers and the LAPD – something the LGBT community understands. But again, this is a film that helps illuminate the historical struggle faced by African Americans.
Here’s the synopsis:
41st & Central, a two part documentary series, follows the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party from its glorious Black Power beginnings through to its tragic demise.
Despite the Party’s formation of free medical clinics and a successful breakfast program for children, the L.A. chapter was also known as the most violent Black political group in the United States. 41st & Central explores The Black Panther ethos, its conflict with the L.A.P.D. and the US Organization as well as the events that shaped the complicated and often contradictory legacy of the L.A. Panthers. 41st & Central contains interviews with former Black Panther Party members along with archival footage detailing the history of racism in Los Angeles, including the Watt’s uprising from the perspective of the participants who “engaged with the L.A.P.D.”
41st & Central is the most in-depth study ever of L.A. Chapter founder Alpretice “Bunchy Carter”, with the Party’s formation told by the original surviving members and an eyewitness account of Bunchy and John Huggins murder at U.C.L.A. in 1968. The film includes exclusive interviews with Black Panther Party leaders Geronimo Ji Jagga and Elaine Brown about their membership in the L.A. Chapter and the U.C.L.A. murders. Also featured are L.A. Panthers members Ericka Huggins, Roland & Ronald Freeman, Wayne Pharr, Jeffrey Everett, Long John Washington, Muhammad Mubarak, former L.A.P.D. Chief Bernard Parks, US Organization member Wesley Kabaila, U.C.L.A. Professor Scot Brown, and many others.
The film will be shown Monday, Feb. 15 at 3:30 p.m. at the Culver Plaza Theatres, 9919 Washington Boulevard, LA
Tickets are $30 for the 120-minute film, panel discussion and after party.
And here’s the complete speech by Huey Newton, thanks to the Sons of Malcolm blog.
The Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements
Speech given by Huey Newton, founder of the Black Panthers,
August 15, 1970
During the past few years strong movements have developed among women and among homosexuals seeking their liberation.
There has been some uncertainty about how to relate to these movements. Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about homosexuality and the various liberation
movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as oppressed groups), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion. I say “whatever your insecurities are” because as we very well
know, sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the mouth, and want a woman to be quiet. We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the women or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start with.
We must gain security in ourselves and therefore have respect and feelings for all oppressed people. We must not use the racist attitude that the White racists use against our people because they are Black and poor. Many times the poorest White person is the most racist because he is afraid that he might lose something, or discover something that he does not have. So you’re some kind of a threat to
him. This kind of psychology is in operation when we view oppressed people and we are angry with them because of their particular kind of behavior, or their particular kind of deviation from the established norm.
Remember, we have not established a revolutionary value system; we are only in the process of establishing it. I do not remember our ever constituting any value that said that a revolutionary must say offensive things towards
homosexuals, or that a revolutionary should make sure that women do not speak out about their own particular kind of oppression. As a matter of fact, it is just the opposite: we say that we recognize the women’s right to be free. We
have not said much about the homosexual at all, but we must relate to the homosexual movement because it is a real thing. And I know through reading, and through my life experience and observations that homosexuals are not given
freedom and liberty by anyone in the society. They might be the most oppressed people in the society.
And what made them homosexual? Perhaps it’s a phenomenon that I don’t understand entirely. Some people say that it is the decadence of capitalism. I don’t know if that is the case; I rather doubt it. But whatever the case is, we know that homosexuality is a fact that exists, and we must understand it in its purest form: that is, a person should have the freedom to use his body in whatever way he wants.
That is not endorsing things in homosexuality that we wouldn’t view as revolutionary. But there is nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. And maybe I’m now injecting some of my prejudice by saying that “even a homosexual can be a revolutionary.” Quite the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary.
When we have revolutionary conferences, rallies, and demonstrations, there should be full participation of the gay liberation movement and the women’s liberation movement. Some groups might be more revolutionary than others. We should not use the actions of a few to say that
they are all reactionary or counterrevolutionary, because they are not.
We should deal with the factions just as we deal with any other group or party that claims to be revolutionary. We should try to judge, somehow, whether they are operating in a sincere revolutionary fashion and from a really oppressed situation. (And we will grant that if they are women they are probably oppressed.) If they do things that are unrevolutionary or counterrevolutionary, then criticize that action. If we feel that the group in spirit means to be revolutionary in practice, but they make mistakes in interpretation of the revolutionary philosophy, or they do not understand the dialectics of the social forces in operation, we should criticize that and not criticize them because they are women trying to be free. And the same is true for homosexuals. We should never say a whole movement is dishonest when in fact they are trying to be honest. They are just making honest mistakes. Friends are allowed to make mistakes. The enemy is not allowed to make mistakes because his whole existence is a mistake, and we suffer from it. But the women’s liberation front and gay liberation front are our friends, they are our potential allies, and we need as many allies as possible.
We should be willing to discuss the insecurities that many people have about homosexuality. When I say “insecurities,” I mean the fear that they are some kind of threat to our manhood. I can understand this fear. Because of the long
conditioning process which builds insecurity in the American male, homosexuality might produce certain hang-ups in us. I have hang-ups myself about male homosexuality. But on the other hand, I have no hang-up about female
homosexuality. And that is a phenomenon in itself. I think it is probably because male homosexuality is a threat to me and female homosexuality is not.
We should be careful about using those terms that might turn our friends off. The terms “faggot” and “punk” should be deleted from our vocabulary, and especially we should not attach names normally designed for homosexuals to men who are enemies of the people, such as Nixon or Mitchell. Homosexuals are not enemies of the people.
We should try to form a working coalition with the gay liberation and women’s liberation groups. We must always handle social forces in the most appropriate manner.
Subscribe to RSS
no comment until now