DOC TALKS: “Whose Streets?” – October 9, 1PM
Doc Studies presents a screening of “Whose Streets?“, a 2017 film by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis – featured on Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film”. Join us for this Doc Talk hosted by Deanna Kamiel with a Q&A with filmmaker Sabaah Folayan– next Monday, October 9, at 1PM at the Kellen Auditorium (Ground Floor, 66 Fifth Avenue).
About the film:
SABAAH FOLAYAN ‘”Democracy is in the streets.”– Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker
In September 2014, one month after the killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson, Sabaah Folayan, a pre-med student at Columbia University with an intense interest in community trauma, travelled to Ferguson, Missouri, intending to write about the citizen uprising and street demonstrations that followed the shooting of the unarmed black teenager. But what began as an idea for print journalism soon became an idea for a feature documentary as Folayan recognized the distinct contrast between the demonstrations she was witnessing on the ground and their representation in mainstream news media. “Sensationalist, inflammatory language was hyping the story to get ratings,” Folayan told Filmmaker Magazine, “but as a society we needed to get to the truth and positive dialogue.” The documentary that followed, in collaboration with co-director Damon Davis, a St.
Louis-based artist, and cinematographer Lucas Alvarado, a Columbia classmate of Folayan, premiered last January at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to outstanding reviews. A mix of original footage and citizen social media imagery, the film achieves its ambition to present both an activist’s and artist’s experience of bearing witness. Says The Guardian: “Its images aren’t leaked by law enforcement or stage managed for the media, but come directly from the people who lived through the violent events of 2014.”