As one of the most important elections in our lifetime approaches, we present this three-day series. With a nod to the 2011 art installation by New York City–based visual artist Nari Ward, “We the People: The Shoestrings of Democracy” ties together films with themes addressing one universal right: free and fair access to voting for every U.S. citizen. Shoestrings have several meanings within the cross-cultural meccas of our mostly urban existence. When sneakers are thrown over telephone wires, their shoestrings indicate the locations where the lives of young people of color have been lost. Mass incarceration require the removal of shoestrings from convicts’ sneakers, presumably to obstruct suicide attempts, though it’s more likely that a man or woman of colorwill die on the streets at the hand of law enforcement than within the confines of prison walls. From another standpoint, we see these shoestrings as a less effective but more real “bootstrap” with which immigrants and African Americans are supposed to “pull themselves up” even though the odds are often purposely stacked against them. We also see these “shoestrings” as a tool to unite citizens by collectively performing their “civic duty” to vote.

With these shoestrings of our program, we hope to at least temporarily pull you into a more inclusive, thoughtful, and just world where the art of film can encourage a productive, progressive dialogue that can ideally lead to constructive, societal change. A live conversation will follow each presentation.