Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming response for this event, registration has now closed.
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Does each gesture really make a difference? Can music and dance be weapons of peace? In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and, as she saw it, heading for self-destruction. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. This is their story. From IRAN, where graffiti and rap became tools in fighting government repression, to BURMA, where monks acting in the tradition of Gandhi take on a dictatorship, moving on to BRAZIL, where musicians reach out to slum kids and transform guns into guitars, and ending in PALESTINIAN refugee camps in LEBANON, where photography, music, and film have given a voice to those rarely heard, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE explores how art and creativity can be ammunition in the battle for peace and justice.
6PM Reception, 6:30PM Screening
A panel discussion with playwright Tanya Saracho, DJ Ed Onaci and ‘live’ journalist Christopher Piatt will follow the screening.
More about the speakers
Tanya Saracho was born in Sinaloa, México, and is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, a Goodman Theatre Fellow at the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, an Artistic Associate with About Face Theatre, the founder of the Ñ Project and Founder/former Artistic Director of Teatro Luna. Her plays include Enfrascada for Clubbed Thumb; El Nogalar at the Goodman Theatre (commissioned by Teatro Vista); an adaptation of The House on Mango Street for Steppenwolf Theatre SYA; and Our Lady of the Underpass with Teatro Vista. Directing/Co-Directing credits include Jarred, S-E-X-Oh!, Maria Chronicles, Generic Latina, SOLO Tu y Dejame Contarte, and Arizona, No Roosters in the Desert. Tanya is a proud Chicago actor whose voice can be heard on radio and television commercials.
Edward Onaci is a member of the People’s DJ Collective, which he co-founded in 2009. The Collective spins at EMPACT (Everyone’s Music Politics Art and Community Throwdown) every 3rd Thursday of the month at Wicker Well and they hold down FUNemployment Tuesday, every Tuesday at Maria’s in Bridgeport. Known as Brotha Onaci by many, he is also a resident DJ at Butterfly Social Club where he hosts Sonic Diaspora every 2nd Saturday of the month with guest DJs. Aside from DJing he is currently completing his dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and works with the Chicago Freedom School, West Town Bikes and groups concerned with environmental and food justice.
Christopher Piatt (pronounced like hot apple PIE-it) is the creater and host of The Paper Machete, a free, weekly “live magazine” covering pop culture, current events and American manners. Part spoken-word show, part vaudeville revue, combining journalistic commentary with the kind of immediate cabaret performance found in Chicago’s storefrom theater and comedy scenes, The Paper Machete features comedians, journalists, storytellers and musical guests performing in the back room of north side bar. Piatt is a writer (formerly Time Out Chicago’s theater editor), an occasional public speaker around town, and an alum of Kansas State University.
More about Civic Cinema
An exhilarating series of films, forums, and conversations, Civic Cinema uses the most exceptionally creative and engaging documentary films of our times to help communities talk about the most pressing social issues facing us. The documentaries we screen and discuss challenge many of the mainstream representations of critical social issues. Art, in this case, becomes a way of thinking about how history and truth are represented and a way of promoting media literacy.
This event is free, but requires registration, which is now closed.