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Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America
Mobilise These incisive documentaries amplify the voices of those on the front lines of the struggle for social justice around the globe. These films reinforce the power of the individual to stand up and push for change.
Directors: Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler USA 2021 | 118 mins With: Jeffery Robinson, Josephine Bolling McCall, Gwen Carr, Tiffany Crutcher, Carolyn Payne Producers: Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler, Jeffery Robinson Screenplay: Jeffery Robinson Cinematography: Jesse Wakeman Editor: Emily Kunstler Music: Kathryn Bostic
“If An Inconvenient Truth was an awareness campaign, then Who We Are is a rallying cry.” — Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
Festivals: SXSW, Hot Docs 2021 Awards: Audience Award (Documentary Spotlight), SXSW Film Festival 2021
“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” — George Orwell, 1984 Based on former ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jeffery Robinson’s illuminating lecture on the history of US anti-Black racism, Emily and Sarah Kunstler’s Who We Are builds upon the framework of his talk with a compelling blend of archival imagery, personal anecdotes (Memphian Robinson was 11 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and was one of the first Black students at an integrated school), plus interviews with key figures from recent watershed US race relations moments. Robinson delivers a damning account of slavery and racism in the US, aiming to help break the country’s repeating cycle of ‘two steps forward, three steps back’. The quote from George Orwell’s 1984 above speaks to false narratives that Robinson, and the film, seek to redress: the country was not founded on principles of freedom for all, rather white supremacy is enshrined in the very laws of the land. Who We Are intentionally platforms voices who’ve known direct loss due to racism (on a personal or community scale), such as Eric Garner’s mother and a 106-year-old survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. Robinson’s open and well-reasoned approach belies a simmering anger and deep sadness within, which can’t help but seep out, lending a moving urgency to the film and its theses. — Jacob Powell
“Jeffery Robinson’s guided tour through the past that anchors and divides his country is the best contextual primer for all those documentaries which came before.” — Fionnuala Halligan, Screendaily “[Robinson] presents arguably his most significant case in the excellent Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. The challenge is a tough one: to convince Americans that the USA is a nation founded on white supremacy and that it’s time to leave the past behind. This means confronting painful truths. Like any good advocate, however, Robinson anticipates counter-arguments before they arrive and comes prepared with evidence to support his claims. The result is a thoroughly compelling documentary that makes arguments both intellectual and emotional. It urges audiences to grasp the desire for change in the air. Who We Are is a significant work, both for its confrontation of a nation’s troubled past and for its hopeful look to the future.” — Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
Screenings SUT SUT
Thu 11 Nov, 1.15 pm Sat 20 Nov, 10.00 am
M Content may disturb
