NYCLA’s First Annual Film Festival’s November 3 Theme: Women in Fear, Women in Strength

 

NYCLA’s First Annual Film Festival’s November 3 Theme: Women in Fear, Women in Strength

 

October 26, 2010 – New York, NY – The New York County Lawyers’ Association’s (NYCLA) Art Committee is sponsoring NYCLA’s First Annual Film Festival on Wednesday, November 3 at the Home of Law, 14 Vesey Street, at 6:00 PM. Proceeds from the film festival will help underwrite NYCLA’s pro bono programs, which assist hundreds of New Yorkers each year. The $5 admission includes beer and popcorn.

 

The films to be shown contrast women in fear and women in strength. Assata is a full-length docudrama about Assata Shakur, aka Joanne Chesimard, a revolutionary Black Panther who was falsely convicted and sentenced to life in prison in a widely publicized case involving a 1973 shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, which resulted in the deaths of a Black Panther and New Jersey state trooper, and Miranda is a short film exploring the complexities that arise when a young woman attempts to hide an abusive relationship from her friends and family.

 

Assata won the Best Feature prize at the 2009 Harlem International Film Festival and Best Docudrama prize at the 2008 San Diego International Black Film Festival. Miranda won the 2010 Audience Favorite Award at the Red Wasp Film Festival in Bryan, Texas.

 

Following the screenings, Fred Baker, who wrote, directed and produced Assata, and Kent Sutton, who wrote and directed Miranda, will participate in a question-and-answer session.

 

For reservations, send a check in the amount of $5, made payable to NYCLA, to NYCLA – Film Festival, 14 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10007.

 

The New York County Lawyers’ Association (www.nycla.org) was founded in 1908 as the first major bar association in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual identity. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.

 

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