Grassroots Youth Collaborative

The next movie night at 377 is on Friday, Oct. 19th. 

Vote for the movie you’d like to see!
Come out to watch the film with the most votes, pay what you can for pop/juice/pop, order pizza or whatever take out to 377 and chill out, discuss how your day went, discuss themes of the film… anything pop out to you that was problematic? let’s talk about it. anything pop out to you that you really admired or liked? let’s talk about it. OR if you just want to learn more and you’ve never heard of the topics mentioned in the film or by other ppl at 377, sit back, take it in and learn with an open mind =)

For trailers click on the film titles, VOTE for your choice ON FACEBOOK HERE! (We’re working on allowing you to vote without u having facebook, namely using Google +)

AOKI by Ben Wang & Mike Chang
AOKI is a documentary film chronicling the life of Richard Aoki (1938-2009), a third-generation Japanese American who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. Filmed over the last five years of Richard’s life, this documentary features extensive footage with Richard and exclusive interviews with his comrades, friends, and former students. Viewers will learn about Richard’s childhood in a WWII Japanese American concentration camp, growing up in West Oakland, and serving eight years in the U.S. military. The film explores previously unknown facts about the formation of the Black Panther Party such as how Richard became intimately involved in its founding and contributed the first two firearms to the Party. AOKI highlights how Richard’s leadership also made a significant impact on individuals and groups in the contemporary Asian American Movement. Richard’s contributions to the groundbreaking organization Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) and its involvement in the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) student strike led to the formation of ethnic studies at U.C. Berkeley. Above all else, AOKI is a film that demonstrates the incredible dedication to justice that one man’s life has had and how the lessons of solidarity, commitment, and discipline can carry on from one generation to the next. 

mEin Viertel 100 by Juli Rivera who just moved to Toronto and may come out for discussion =)
mEin Viertel 100 documents the 25th Annual Meeting of Black People in Germany and the personal stories of their experience meeting others in their ‘community’. This film makes you think about what exactly is a community? How do they form? What does it take to keep it alive and for it to grow?

TRANSFER by Damir Lukacevic
The movie takes place in a future where science have made it possible to rent or buy someone else’s body and transfer your mind into it. A rich old couple from Germany decides to do that and the bodies they get are from two black Africans, who by doing this makes sure that their families get money. A couple of hours every night, the owners gains control over their bodies again, and during those occasions they fall in love and after a while the hosts and the guests begin to communicate with each other. Suddenly there are four persons in the relationship and not everyone is happy about where this is going.

MOUNTAINS THAT TAKE WING by C.A. Griffith & H.L.T. Quan
MOUNTAINS THAT TAKE WING features conversations that span 13 years between two formidable women whose lives and political work remain at the epicenter of the most important civil rights struggles in the US. Through the intimacy and depth of conversations, we learn about Davis, an internationally renowned scholar-activist and 88-year-old Kochiyama, a revered grassroots community activist and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee’s shared experiences as political prisoners and their profound passion for justice. On subjects ranging from the vital but largely erased role of women in social movements of the 20th century, community empowerment, to the prison industrial complex, war and the cultural arts, Davis’ and Kochiyama’s comments offer critical lessons for understanding our nation’s most important social movements and tremendous hope for its youth and the future.  

377 Dundas St. West at the corner of Beverley St. (by the AGO)
6-9pm
Oct.19th