Not In Our Town: Northern California

 

60 minutes 

Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here takes a regional look at five Northern California communities dealing with deadly hate violence over a five-year period. Together, the stories reveal that whether the motivation is racism, anti-Semitism, or crimes motivated by gender or sexual orientation, hate is the same. But Californians are finding innovative ways to respond when hate happens here.

 

A co-production with KQED-TV. 

 

 

Highly recommended for:

This film includes a a tool kit of resources to help you promote discussion in your community about the threat of prejudice and hate violence. 
 

Not In Our Town: When Hate Happens Here 

Taken from Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here, this three-part modular series designed especially for classroom and community screenings. These videos—Staging a Response to Hate, Summer of Hate/ Season of Healing, and Welcome Signs—are particularly relevant for teachers and organizers, because they tell self-contained, varied and dynamic stories, making them ideal for short screenings in educational and community settings. Centered in urban, rural, exurban and suburban towns, the stories show that hate happen anywhere, but people everywhere can stand up and respond. Co-produced with KQED-TV.

 

Staging a Response to Hate
Program One 
24 minutes

 

Staging a Response to Hate: While rehearsing a school production of The Laramie Project, about the hate killing of gay college student Matthew Shepard, high school students are confronted with a real-life version of the story they are telling on stage. When a transgender teen is murdered, cast members apply the lessons they learned from the play. The experience becomes a catalyst for parents, residents and civic leaders to take action against hate.

 

26 minutes

 

Summer of Hate/ Season of Healing follows the 1999 fire-bombings of three synagogues, an event that jump-starts what comes to be known as "the summer of hate." Within hours, the community unites in support of the victims, culminating in a gathering of four thousand people. But two weeks later, the arsonists murder a prominent Gay couple in a nearby town, and the local residents and leaders rally against hate crimes of every kind. Five years after the arsons, with rebuilding well underway, congregants of one of the burned synagogues invite the families of the murdered men to a special Shabbat service to commemorate—and heal from—their common loss. 
 

Also on this program:
Staff at a large public library discover that hundreds of gay-oriented books from their collection have been mutilated. Reversing Vandalism chronicles the library's search for the book vandal, and the librarians' decision to offer the damaged books to artists as materials for creative expression and community healing.

 

Welcome Signs
Program Three 
27 minutes

 

Welcome Signs
Welcome Signs tells the story of how the rural town of Anderson responds when a cross is burned on an African-American family's lawn. Local leaders quickly visit the frightened family to encourage them not move away. One week later, six hundred people march through the neighborhood in the pouring rain as a demonstration of support. Town officials formally declare Anderson a "no hate" zone, installing signs at the city limits stating, "No Room for Racism, Hate, or Violence." 

 

Also on this program:
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, an Orthodox Christian church attended by Arab-Americans is consumed by fire; arson is suspected. When A Church Burns, Children Respond shows how schoolchildren from a neighboring Jewish day school work to help rebuild the church and the community. 

 

Rockford Marching Forward follows the on-going Not In Our Town Campaign in Rockford, Illinois. Students organize a Not In Our School campaign, and leaders plan a city-wide Not In Our Town effort to address an atmosphere of racial tension. More than 200 businesses and organizations sign a citywide anti-racism proclamation, and join a march across the bridge that divides the town. 
 

THREE MODULE SPECIAL OFFER
The complete set -- Programs One, Two and Three -- on one DVD for $99