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“What if…” Film Screening: Welcome to Shelbyville

May 25, 2017 @ 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

In collaboration with the Rosamond Gifford Foundation, ArtRage Gallery screens documentary films depicting community efforts to improve their communities and the world; films that address a community or social issue and show how communities are working to bring about positive social change on this issue.We are proud to partner with them and the New American Women’s Empowerment Group to host a screening of Welcome to Shelbyville.

Synopsis: In this one small town in the heart of America’s Bible Belt, a community grapples with rapidly changing demographics. Just a stone’s throw away from Pulaski, Tennessee (the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan), longtime African American and white residents are challenged with how best to integrate with a growing Latino population and the more recent arrival of hundreds of Muslim Somali refugees. The film captures the interaction between these residents as they navigate new waters against the backdrop of a tumultuous year. The economy is in crisis, factories are closing, and jobs are hard to find. The local Tyson chicken plant is hiring hundreds of new Somali refugees, and when a local reporter initiates a series of articles about the newcomers, a flurry of controversy and debate erupts within the town. The story is an intimate portrayal of a community’s struggle to understand what it means to be American.

There will be a special presentation of the new short film America Heard: Refuge of Hope at this screening. Syracuse, New York is an unlikely home to over 10,000 former refugees. Two women at the forefront of this community reflect on what their presidential vote means to those whose only true home is the American town that took them in.

*NOTE* This event is NOT at ArtRage Gallery. It will occur at the Erie Canal Museum in the second floor gallery. Please enter the main entrance and use the elevator or stairs on the left. Free parking is available in the lot on Erie Boulevard East under routes 81 and 690.

Details

Date:
May 25, 2017
Time:
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Event Categories:
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