The Huntsville Human Rights Film Festival will take place March 30 – April 3 on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
The Festival is a collaboration of the UAH Humanities Center, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Student Life, North Alabama School for Organizers, Southern Fried Film Festival, North Alabama Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), and other campus and community groups.
The Festival elevates the twin themes of environmental and social justice through documentaries, feature-length films, guest speakers, artists, and performances that vividly portray stories of hope, anguish, resilience, and strength--- pillars of the inexorable, global movement of marginalized peoples toward social justice.
These are voices and experiences not often heard, and the Festival opens the door for memorable film experiences and eye-opening, first-person interactions among diverse people groups.
All events are free and open to the public.
Film screening locations include Morton Hall, Chan Auditorium, and Charger Union on the campus of The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Event Map
Printable Schedule of Events
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Wednesday, March 30
Location: Morton 147
Time: 6:00 pm
A pre-Festival film screening and discussion of Anthropocene: the Human Epoch will be moderated by College of English lecturer Dr. David St. John. Dr. St. John and co-panelists Tyler Dickey, James Galliher, Sydney Lanier, and James Rogers will critically discuss the film and their work in the critical theory course, Writing the Anthropocene.
Film Description: ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is a vivid cinematic depiction of the breadth and impact of humanity’s interaction with the planet. A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award-winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky.
Thursday, March 31
Location: Charger Union Theater
Time: 7:00 pm
The Huntsville Human Rights Film Festival officially kicks off Thursday, March 31, 7:00 pm with the public premiere of Angel of Alabama, a documentary featuring Lawrence County activist Brenda Hampton who stood up to corporations and led the charge to heal her community of dangerous water contaminants. Ms. Hampton will join the Festival with documentary producer Elijah Yetter Bowman. Bowman will also preview the forthcoming feature-length film, GENX: A Chemical Cocktail.
Message from Ethereal Films:
During the production of the feature film GenX, the film crew met Brenda Hampton, a truly remarkable activist serving communities in North Alabama. Her story moved us and with her gracious permission, we decided to produce a separate short film highlighting her work. Brenda is one-of-a-kind and simply breathes love into everything she does. It is our honor to help share her story with the world. Brenda Hampton is the founder of Concerned Citizens of North Alabama Grassroots.
Friday, April 1
Location: Chan Auditorium, Business Administration Building
Time: 7:00 pm
Film Screening: Short film, Mni Wiconi: The Stand at Standing Rock (8 minutes Run Time)
Dialogue: Indigenous Voices: Water Protection, Land Back, and Sovereignty Movements.
A dialogue with award-winning Indigenous artist Christian Takes Gun Parrish, aka, Supaman, The University of Alabama’s Dr. Cindy Tekobbe, and The University of Alabama BISON student activists Katherine Johnston and Kiana Younker.
Dr. Cindy Tekobbe teaches and researches Indigenous, feminist, and digital rhetorics as an Assistant Professor at The University of Alabama.
Dr. Cindy Tekobbe teaches and researches Indigenous, feminist, and digital rhetorics as an Assistant Professor at The University of Alabama. Her work has been published in academic journals like Present Tense, Enculturation, First Monday, and Information, Communication & Society. Her current book project, Indigenous Voices in Digital Spaces is under advance contract and in review with the University Press of Colorado. Dr. Tekobbe is a member of the Alabama Indigenous Coalition, and she is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
The Bama Indigenous Student Organization Network (BISON) is intended as a space of support, advocacy, and cultural understanding for Native and Indigenous students at UA. We strive for openness, acceptance, and representation, and aim to unite Indigenous members of the campus community. We also welcome non-Indigenous allies.
Intermission
Performance: The Medicine Bundle Tour: Sacred Dance featuring Christian Takes Gun Parrish, aka, Supaman.
Supaman is an award-winning Indigenous activist, hip-hop artist, and fancy dancer who enthralls audiences with lyricism and dance.
Saturday, April 2
Film Screening: No Dumb Questions (24 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 9:30 AM
No Dumb Questions is a lighthearted and poignant documentary that profiles three sisters, ages 6, 9, and 11, struggling to understand why and how their Uncle Bill is becoming a woman. These girls love their Uncle Bill, but will they feel the same way when he becomes their new Aunt Barbara? With just weeks until Bill's first visit as Barbara, the sisters navigate the complex territories of anatomy, sexuality, personality, gender, and fashion. Their reactions are funny, touching, and distinctly different. This film offers a fresh perspective on a complex situation from a family that insists there are no dumb questions.
Event Panel: Celluloid, Coffee & Conversation
Location: Morton Hall 146
Time: 9:30 am
UAH Alumni Devin Townsend and Ray Santisteban, director of the First Rainbow Coalition, discuss filmmaking and activism and preview the historic documentary.
Ray Santisteban is an award-winning documentary filmmaker
Ray Santisteban is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has aired nationally and internationally on public television. His work gravitates toward political subjects and artist profiles, addressing the themes of justice, memory, and personal transformation.
A graduate of NYU’s film and TV production program, his subjects include NY Black Panther leader Dhoruba Bin Wahad - Passin' It On, (Co-Producer), which was Broadcast Nationally on the PBS series POV in 1993, the roots of Puerto Rican poetry, Nuyorican Poets Cafe (1994, Director, Producer), and Chicano poetry, Voices From Texas (Director, Producer). He was Senior Producer of Visiones: Latino Art And Culture In The U.S. a three-hour PBS series nationally broadcast in Oct. 2004.
In January of 2020, his hour documentary, The First Rainbow Coalition, was broadcast nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens. In October 2020, his short video Vincent Valdez: The Beginning is Near, was part of the inaugural slate of the American Masters/Firelight Media web-based series: In the Making.
Film Screening: The First Rainbow Coalition (1 Hour Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 146
Time: 10:00 AM
An account of the groundbreaking 1960’s Chicago alliance between the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Young Patriots. In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party, notably led by the charismatic Fred Hampton, began to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latino group the Young Lords Organization and the working-class young southern whites of the Young Patriots. Finding common ground, these disparate groups banded together in one of the most segregated cities in postwar America to collectively confront issues such as police brutality and substandard housing, calling themselves the Rainbow Coalition. The First Rainbow Coalition tells the movement’s little-known story through rare archival footage and interviews with former coalition members in the present day. While the coalition eventually collapsed under duress from constant harassment by local and federal law enforcement, including the murder of Fred Hampton, it had a long-term impact, breaking down barriers between communities, and creating a model for future activists and diverse politicians across America.
Event Panel: Dialogue with Hy Thurman, North Alabama School of Organizers, and friends of the Movement.
Location: Morton Hall 146
Time: 11:00 AM
A post-documentary discussion with members of the First and Second Rainbow Coalition, discussing new pathways in the movement for justice and equality, moderated by Dr. Troy Smith.
Film Screening: Always In Season (1 hour 29 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 148
Time: 10:00 am
Always In Season explores the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans and connects this form of historic racial terrorism to racial violence today. The film centers on the case of Lennon Lacy, an African American teen who was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina, on August 29, 2014. Despite inconsistencies in the case, local officials
quickly ruled Lennon’s death a suicide, but his mother, Claudia, believes Lennon was lynched. Claudia moves from paralyzing grief to leading the fight for justice for her son
As the film unfolds, Lennon’s case, and the suspicions surrounding it, intersect with stories of other communities seeking justice and reconciliation. A few hundred miles away in Monroe, Georgia, a diverse group of reenactors, including the adult daughter of a former Ku Klux Klan leader, annually dramatize a 1946 quadruple lynching to ensure the victims are never forgotten and encourage the community to come forward with information that might bring the perpetrators to justice. As the terrorism of the past bleeds into the present, the film asks: what will it take for Americans to begin building a national movement for racial justice and reconciliation?
Film Screening: Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America (81 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 10:00 am
Growing up in rural North Carolina, Moises Serrano fell in love with a country that refused to recognize his full humanity - both as an undocumented immigrant and as a gay man. The documentary Forbidden follows Moises’ personal journey as an activist fighting for the American Dream.
Moises Serrano is an openly queer and undocumented activist and storyteller
Photo Credit Moises Serrano
Event Panel: Zoom Talk with Undocumented’s Moises Serrano, activist, storyteller, producer
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 11:30 am
Moises Serrano is an openly queer and undocumented activist and storyteller who has lived most of his life in Yadkin County, NC. Since coming out as undocumented in 2010 he has relentlessly pursued equality for his community through the sharing of his narrative. His mission is to de-criminalize and humanize the issue of migration while advocating for immediate relief to migrant communities. Moises quickly became one of the most requested speakers in the state of North Carolina. Described as a “consummate orator,” his advocacy has led him to lead a Tedx talk in Greensboro and to be named a notable Latino of the triad. For the past seven years, Moises has dedicated his life to building a local and national dialogue that he envisions will one day change the way we speak about undocumented immigrants in our country. Moises is a recent undergraduate student studying Public Policy at Sarah Lawrence College. Moderator Eirian Waldron.
Film Screening: Oyate (1 hour 30 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 148
Time: 12:00 pm
In 2016, the world turned its eyes to the people of Standing Rock as they formed a coalition of unprecedented magnitude to defend their land and water from the threat of the Dakota Access Pipeline. An inflection point for human rights and environmental justice, the #NoDAPL struggle became a rallying cry for Indigenous people everywhere to take a stand against the myriad injustices committed against them for centuries.
Oyate elevates the voices of Indigenous activists, organizers, and politicians as they offer their perspective on that complicated history, contextualize the #NoDAPL movement, illuminate the interconnectivity between the issues facing Indian Country today, and look towards a more sovereign and sustainable future for their people. Featuring perspectives from Chase Iron Eyes, Phyllis Young, Secretary Deb Haaland, Tokata Iron Eyes, Stuart James, and more.
Event Panel: Oyate Talk Back Session
Location: Morton Hall 148
Time: 1:30 pm
After the screening of Oyate, join Brandon Jackson, Director/Producer, Emil Benjamin, Director/Producer, and Jennifer Martel, Producer for a post-film dialogue on activism, storytelling, and the growing Indigenous movement for social justice. Moderated by Dr. Cindy Tekobbe, The University of Alabama.
Film Screening: Ferguson Rises (1 hour 22 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 146
Time: 12:00 pm
How does a father and a community find purpose in their pain? In 2014, Michael Brown Sr.’s son was killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, an event that fueled the global Black Lives Matter movement. But his personal story of seeking justice and healing, and the story of the community, has not been told until now.
Film Screening: Deep Run (75 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 12:30 pm
Deep Run is a powerful verité portrait of trans life in rural North Carolina. Exiled by her family and rejected by an ex-partner, 17-year-old Spazz has no one to lean on for support. But when Spazz falls in love again and summons up the courage to become Cole, a strong-willed trans-man, his candid humor and steadfast, all-inclusive Christian beliefs counter the bigotry he experiences daily.
This deeply personal documentary reveals rebirth and courage within America’s deeply conservative Bible Belt as Cole struggles to find a church that will affirm his identity and the couple's relationship. With a small group of supportive friends, relatives, and his girlfriend, Ashley, Cole's search for love and belonging leads him to a radical revision of what faith and church can be. An intimate study of young outsiders in an insular Christian community, Deep Run explores the intersection of modern identity and faith in the American South.
Film Screening: Geek Girls (83 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 2:00 pm
Nerdy women - the "hidden half" of fan culture - open up about their lives in the world of conventions, video games, and other rife-with-misogyny pop culture touchstones. While geek communities have recently risen to prominence, very little attention is paid to geek women. Filmmaker Gina Hara, struggling with her own geek identity, explores the issue with a cast of women who live geek life up to the hilt: A feminist geek blogger, a convention-trotting cosplayer, a professional gamer, a video-game designer, and a NASA engineer. Through their personal experiences in the rich cultural explosion of nerdom, GEEK GIRLS shows both the exhilaration of newfound community and the ennui of being ostracized. These women, striving in their respective professions and passions, face the cyberbullying, harassment, and sexism that permeates the culture and the industry at large.
Film Screening: Judas and the Black Messiah (2 hours 6 minutes Run Time)
Location: Charger Union Theater
Time: 2:00 pm
Fred Hampton, a young, charismatic activist, becomes Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party - putting him directly in the crosshairs of the government, the FBI, and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, the authorities are going to need a man on the inside.
Event Panel: Reflections with Nancy Hollander
Location: Charger Union Theater
Time: 6:30 pm
Internationally recognized criminal defense lawyer Nancy Hollander
Internationally recognized criminal defense lawyer Nancy Hollander joins the Festival to discuss her four decades representing individuals and organizations accused of crimes, including those involving national security issues, in trial and on appeal. In her appeal, she was the lead appellate counsel for Chelsea Manning and won Ms. Manning’s release in 2017 when President Obama commuted her sentence from 35 years to seven years. Ms. Hollander has also represented two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and in 2016, she won the release of one of them – Mohamedou Ould Slahi – who had been incarcerated for 14 years without charge. His story is chronicled in his New York Times bestselling book, Guantanamo Diary, which Ms. Hollander helped facilitate and publish, and in a feature film entitled The Mauritanian. Hollander was portrayed by actress Jody Foster in the film, which will be screened Saturday, April 2, at 7:00 pm in Charger Union.
Film Screening: The Mauritanian (2 hours 9 minutes Run Time)
Location: Charger Union Theater
Time: 7:00 pm
Based on the New York Times best-selling memoir "Guantánamo Diary" by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian is the inspiring true story of Slahi's fight for freedom after being detained and imprisoned for years without charge by the U.S. Government. Slahi finds representation in defense attorney Nancy Hollander (played by Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan who battle the U.S. government in a fight for justice that tests their commitment to the law and their client at every turn. Their controversial advocacy, along with evidence uncovered by a formidable military prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), uncovers shocking truths and ultimately proves that the human spirit cannot be locked up. (From Rotten Tomatoes)
Sunday, April 3
Film Screening: The Coconut Revolution (1 hour Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 146
Time: 12:00 pm
A modern-day story of the world’s first eco-revolution and a native people's remarkable victory over Western Colonial power. A Pacific island rose up in arms against giant mining corporation Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) - and won despite a military A David and Goliath story of the 21st century, The Coconut Revolution will appeal to people of all backgrounds.
Film Screening: Gaza Fights for Freedom (1 hour 30 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 146
Time: 1:00 pm
Filmed during the height of the Great March Of Return protests, it features exclusive footage of demonstrations where 200 unarmed civilians have been killed by Israeli snipers since March 30, 2018. It is a documentary about the historic Great March Of Return protests, which occurred every week from March 2018 until December 2019, but covers so much more.
It tells the story of Gaza past and present, showing rare archival footage that explains the history never acknowledged by mass media.
Film Screening: The Boy Game (16 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 11:00 am
The Boy Game tackles bullying among boys at its core: the culture of toughness and silence boys live by. Targets need to be protected, absolutely, but rather than vilify bullies, The Boy Game looks to unpack the complex dynamics that lead some boys to bully and the majority to stand watching in silent conflict.
Film Screening: Missing Magic (10 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 11:20 am
As uprisings spread across the country, a young poet in Birmingham, Alabama becomes involved in local protests against decades of police brutality. As he tries to reconcile the city’s modern image as a diverse and welcoming metropolis with its violent and complex civil rights history, he suddenly becomes a part of the story when he’s arrested at a demonstration. Directed by Anissa Latham.
Film Screening: Uniontown (16 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 11:40 am
In the midst of a high-stakes local election, a group of grassroots activists in rural Alabama band together to take on industrial polluters and complacent politicians. Winner of Best Short Film at EarthX Film Festival and The Reel South Award at Indie Grits Film Festival. Official Selection at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and American Documentary Film Festival.
Film Screening: Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek (56 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 12:00 pm
Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who returns to his native coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Derrick is consumed by the effort to protect the community his great grandfather’s grandfather settled as a former slave. He is on the verge of a breakthrough when Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast. After years of restoration work to bring Turkey Creek back from the brink of death, the community gains significant federal support for cultural and ecological preservation. Derrick plans to return to Boston to rebuild the life he abandoned, but another disaster seals his fate as a reluctant activist. On the day Turkey Creek is featured in USA Today for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig explodes.
Film Screening: Coded Bias (1 hour 30 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 147
Time: 1:00 pm
Modern society sits at the intersection of two crucial questions: What does it mean when artificial intelligence increasingly governs our liberties? And what are the consequences for the people AI is biased against? CODED BIAS explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately,or classify the faces of women. It chronicles her journey as she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all. As it turns out, artificial intelligence is not neutral, and women are leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected.
Film Screening: Beyond Recognition, A film by Michelle Grace Steinberg (27 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 148
Time: 12:30 PM
After decades of struggling to protect her ancestors’ burial places, now engulfed by San Francisco’s sprawl, a Native woman from a non-federally recognized Ohlone tribe and her allies occupy a sacred site to prevent its desecration. When this life-altering event fails to stop the development, they vow to follow a new path- to establish the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust. BEYOND RECOGNITION explores the quest to preserve one’s culture and homeland in a society bent on erasing them.
Shattering stereotypes, the film tells the inspiring story of women creating opportunities amid a system that fractures Native communities across the nation. Through cinéma vérité, interviews, and stunning footage of the land, BEYOND RECOGNITION introduces Corrina Gould, Johnella LaRose, and Indian People Organizing for Change as they embark on an incredible journey to transform the way we see cities.
The film invites viewers to examine their own relationship to place, revealing histories that have been buried by shifting landscapes. Produced in collaboration with PBS affiliate KRCB, BEYOND RECOGNITION points to the intersection of human rights, women’s rights, and environmental protection, spotlighting a California story that has national and worldwide resonance.
Film Screening: Oyate (1 hour 30 minutes Run Time)
Location: Morton Hall 148
Time: 1:00 pm
In 2016, the world turned its eyes to the people of Standing Rock as they formed a coalition of unprecedented magnitude to defend their land and water from the threat of the Dakota Access Pipeline. An inflection point for human rights and environmental justice, the #NoDAPL struggle became a rallying cry for Indigenous people everywhere to take a stand against the myriad injustices committed against them for centuries.
Oyate elevates the voices of Indigenous activists, organizers, and politicians as they offer their perspective on that complicated history, contextualize the #NoDAPL movement, illuminate the interconnectivity between the issues facing Indian Country today, and look towards a more sovereign and sustainable future for their people. Featuring perspectives from Chase Iron Eyes, Phyllis Young, Secretary Deb Haaland, Tokata Iron Eyes, Stuart James, and more.
For more information on the festival contact:
Dr. Noelle Hunter, UAH Political Science, nh0046@uah.edu or 256-824-2397
Hy Thurman, North Alabama School for Organizers, ypo1967@gmail.com or 256-323-0068
