Alexandria International Film Festival
It seems Washington DC has become an International film festival center.
There’s the big DC International Film Festival, the DC Independent Film Festival, the African-American FF, the Asian Pacific FF, DC Shorts FF, the Environmental Film Festival, and the list goes on.
This festival schedule features local indie, student, several movies that have never been screened in DC, a coupe director presentations, plus a few mainstream movies.
My recommendations include:
I am David - a story adapted from Anne Holm’s novel North to Freedom, of a distant and emotionally absent 12-year-old boy who escapes from a Communist concentration camp with instructions to carry the letter to Copenhagen. On his journey to Copenhagen and to be reunited with his mother, he slowly learns to lose his mistrust of humanity as he searches for love and home.
Out of Obscurity: the Story of the 1939 Alexandria Library Sit-I
n – This little-known civil rights sit-in, probably the first recorded deliberate and planned sit-in in the U.S., occurred at an Alexandria first “public” library (often called the Queen Street Library) in 1939, a full 16 years before the famous 1955 Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and 21 years before the now famous six-month sit-in at the Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro. Part of the lunch counter is normally on display at the National Museum of American History (closed until the summer of 2008).
Five African-American males between the ages of 18 and 22 were sent to the whites only Alexandria Library, and requested library cards. When denied, they walked to the shelves, picked up a book, than sat at a table and began to read. The youths were eventually peacefully arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.
In court, the arresting policeman testified the following upon defense questioning.
“Were they destroying property?” “No,” replied the officer.
“Were they properly attired?” queried counsel. “Yes,” the officer replied.
“Were they quiet?” “Yes,” the officer responded.
“Then they were disorderly only because they were black?” The officer admitted that the only disorder in question was because the men were members of the Race and the library was for white people.
The judge decided that he wanted to avoid an official ruling in the case and through a series of continuances and postponements, never ruled on the disorderly conduct case.
Alexandria International Film Festival
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office - Madison Building
600 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314 (map it)
Dates and Times - Thursday - Sunday, Sept. 27th - 30th
Tickets - Admission is free, based on first-come, first-served.
Nearest Metro Subway Station - King street, Blue or Yellow line, then a 3-block walk
Parking - Free parking is available at the East Parking Garage, 551 John Carlyle Street.
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POSTED IN: City History & Information, Movies
1 opinion for Alexandria International Film Festival
Marilyn Terrell
Sep 23, 2007 at 7:18 am
I didn’t know about that Alexandria Library incident– really fascinating! Thanks for highlighting it.
Don’t forget about the All Roads Film Festival at National Geographic Oct. 4-7:http://www.nationalgeographic.com/allroads/festival-events.html
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