An inspiring movie about social struggle.
A historical depiction of the early 20th century.
A story about the solidarities between two worlds, despite and beyond tensions.
With a past known by every activist in the world, the United States raise important issues, thanks to its rich history and the strong commitment of its activists since the beginning of the 20th century. The fight for the emancipation of African-American people is rooted in the country’s past but also in the collective memory at a global scale. Martin Luther King’s iconic “I have a dream”, at the end of the March on Washington on August 28th 1963, still echoes in our minds.
But moving beyond symbolic phrases and moments, we quickly realize that we don’t know much about the behind-the-scenes elements that allowed these actions and demonstrations of solidarity to exist. If it makes absolute sense to tell these stories of struggle against oppression through the prism of those who are first concerned, we also believe that it makes sense to raise awareness about the alliances that nurtured this conquest of equality, in order to better understand the process as a whole.
From the legal actions of the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), created in 1909, to the Café Society, opened in 1938 and described by its owner as “the right place for the wrong people”, from the Freedom Riders to the inter- religious ties between rabbis and pastors, from Billie Holiday and his famous song Strange Fruit to the heart of the black colleges and universities of southern USA that welcomed Jewish professors who had fled Nazi Germany, and with figures such as black American leader W.E.B. Dubois, who visited the Warsaw ghetto and denounced the inhumanity that went on there, African-American and Jewish people have often united to advocate the right to equality in a violent and compartmentalized America.
If African-American and Jewish people have had a complex and ambivalent relationship in the United States, they have also shown that unity against adversity is possible. Many members of these communities understood that fighting segregation or antisemitism was like fighting the same evil.
Together, they showed the strength of solidarity, empathy and ultimately, friendship.
The film immerges the audience in the incredible and epic adventure of activism that took place in America at the turn of the 20th century. As a historical film, it is both a way of highlighting a crucial period of the United States’ contemporaneous era and a way of fulfilling our duty to remember, in order to give their dignity back to activists who may have been forgotten. The issues presented in this film are not far from the issues at stake in France as well, as they indirectly question our (in)ability to join forces against various forms of oppression.
We want to underline the efforts and merit of these heroes of contemporary history, who engaged their own identity in the service of a common cause.
