MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE Virtual Film Premiere & Talk with Activists and Filmmakers
MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE, a 35-minute film production of the Alliance for Puerto Rican Education and Empowerment, tells the story of the student-led struggle to win Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY, in the late 1960s. The film will premiere online on November 19, 2020.
What: MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE Virtual Film Premiere and Talk
When: November 19, 2020, 7 PM EST
Where: Virtual Event on Private Zoom Meeting
Who: Activists, members of APREE, and filmmakers Tami Gold and Pam Sporn
How: RSVP on Eventbrite to receive your private link with a password.
As student activist Carlos Alejandro remembers, “We saw beyond the narrowness of just one ethnic group. We saw everyone as a village. People were saying that enough is enough. “Nos han quitado tanto que nos quitaron el miedo.”
“The stories within the film awaken a new sense of self while inviting us to recognize our own collective strengths.” Explains Co-Producer/CUNY professor Gisely Colón López. “Puerto Rican history contributes to transformational and equitable changes within many sectors of society.”
Directed by award-winning filmmakers Tami Gold and Pam Sporn, MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE features music by Grammy Award-winning musicians Arturo O’Farrill and Oscar Hernández.
The film highlights the intergenerational story how students and faculty seized the moment to build upon an alliance of Puerto Rican, African American and other progressive students forged in their communities and the civil rights movement.
Together they changed the face of higher education, transforming the curriculum and expanding who gets educated. The film sheds light on the 50-year history of struggle that started with the founding of one of the first Puerto Rican Studies departments in the nation, and documents the continued movement to maintain their gains.
FEATURING:
Antonio Nadal, A.B.D. Deputy Chairperson, Department of Puerto Rican Latino Studies, Musician, Crecensio Morales, M.A., Director, Student Support Services, CCNY, CUNY, Deputy Director for Programs/ASPIRA of NY, Milga Morales Nadal, Ph.D, Former Vice President for Student Affairs, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Antonio Nieves, RPh, Pharmacist — Caribbean Health Organization, Esther Farmer, Former Ombudsman NYC Housing Authority, Leadership Team, Jewish Voice for Peace, NYC, The Rev. Baba Carlos Alejandro, Board Certified Chaplain, and Educator, César Cardona, Attorney, President, APREE, Orlando Pile, M.D. Physician — Chief Communicable Diseases (HIV) LA Sheriff Department, Medical Director, Askia Davis, Ed.D., Former Superintendent of Schools, Harlem, NYC, Virginia Sánchez Korrol, Ph.D, Former Chair, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, María E. Pérez y González, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Former Chair, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, Vanessa Santiago, Senior Nonprofit Professional.
FILM CREW:
Tami Gold is an award-winning filmmaker and educator. Her films have consistently been at the forefront of social justice, focusing on issues of race, class, Islamophobia, gender, sexual identity and criminal justice. They have reached audiences near and far, airing on PBS, HBO, Lifetime TV, The Learning Channel and on television in Nigeria, South Africa, Cuba, Germany, France, Turkey, Serbia, Lagos, Mexico, China, and Vietnam. Tami’s films include: Every Mother’s Son; Juggling Gender: Politics, Sex And Identity; Out At Work: Lesbian And Gay Men On The Job; Another Brother; Passionate Politics: The Life and Work of Charlotte Bunch; RFK In The Land of Apartheid: A Ripple Of Hope. Her work has screened at the MOMA, the Whitney, The Chicago Arts Institute, The Kennedy Center, the American and British Film Institutes, Sundance, Tribeca and The New York Film Festival, and in over 200 film festivals. She is a recipient of fellowships from The Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and a Fulbright.
Pam Sporn is a Bronx based documentary filmmaker, educator, and activist. She loves listening to people tell stories about standing up to injustice in their own unique, subtle, and not so subtle, ways. A pioneer in bringing social issue documentary making into NYC high schools in the 1980s and 1990s, Pam substantively contributed to the growth of the youth media movement. Pam’s work includes DETROIT 48202: CONVERSATIONS ALONG A POSTAL ROUTE, CUBAN ROOTS/BRONX STORIES, WITH A STROKE OF THE CHAVETA, REMEMBERING THE MAMONCILLO, and DISOBEYING ORDERS: GI RESISTANCE TO THE VIETNAM WAR. Pam has received grants and awards including JustFilms/Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Puffin Foundation, Latino Public Broadcasting, CUNY Caribbean Exchange, and the Bronx Council on the Arts.
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