By Dominion3
Photos: Dominion3
We are thrilled to announce Emmy award-winning filmmaker Ilana Trachtman’s (Praying with Lior, Black in Latin America, The Pursuit) groundbreaking documentary feature film AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND which will premiere at DC/DOX at the Landmark E-Street Cinema on June 16th at 6pm. TRAILER
Ten years in the making, this insightful and powerful documentary unearths the pivotal 1960 Glen Echo Amusement Park protests – likely the first organized interracial civil rights demonstration in U.S. history. The film is particularly relevant in today’s social climate, where the campus conflagration is at an all-time high.
On June 30, 1960, five Black Howard University students emboldened by the Greensboro sit-ins, took a stand by sitting on the segregated gilded horses of a Maryland carousel. This act of defiance at Glen Echo Amusement Park, a whites-only recreation spot, made waves in metropolitan Washington. The protest not only involved Black students but also garnered support from residents of the neighboring white community of Bannockburn, made up of largely Jewish labor organizers and civil servants, uniting a diverse group against segregation.
Despite facing extreme heat and violent opposition from the American Nazi Party, the students and suburbanites picketed together for ten weeks, forming unexpected alliances. The collaboration between union bosses and student leaders, along with the radicalization of young individuals, laid the foundation for future Civil Rights Movement leaders.
This untold story of resilience and unity is vividly brought to life through an immersive approach, using no narrators or experts and features never-before-seen archival footage along with interviews featuring the voices of acclaimed actors Jeffrey Wright as the Black press and Mandy Patinkin as the mainstream press. All the storytelling comes directly from the people who were there – including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Letters to the editor and other published materials are voiced by Bob Balaban, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Tracie Thoms, and Lee Grant.
|
AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND
A documentary film by
Ilana Trachtman
Featuring the voices of
Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Peter Gallagher,
Alex Joseph Grayson, Alysia Reiner, Tracie Thoms, Dominique Thorne
and Lee Grant
TRAILER
|
 |
| 89 minutes | Documentary | English | USA | Color
SYNOPSIS
AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND is the untold story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history. When 5 Howard University students sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, an extraordinary history-making partnership was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together over the sweltering summer led to partying together, and union organizers mentored student activists. Ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, were incubated on the Glen Echo picket line, and the carousel arrests were challenged in the Supreme Court case.
With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman (Praying with Lior, Black in Latin America, The Pursuit), four living protesters rescue this forgotten history, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND includes voiceover by noted actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner and Tracie Thoms.
Link to Tickets
Theater Venue
Landmark E-Street Cinema
555 11th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
|
|
