Multimedia Collection
Blacks & Jews
VHS
85 minutes
E185.615 .B5532 1997
The volatile faultline between blacks and Jews has become a symbol of America's racial tensions. Blacks & Jews, made collaboratively by filmmakers from both groups, goes behind the headlines and rhetoric to probe the roots of distrust and recrimination. More than simply a study of a specific inter-ethnic conflict, this film offers everyone concerned about diversity a primer on how dialogue breaks down - and what it will take to open it again.
Blacks & Jews reexamines such widely reported flashpoints as the Crown Heights conflict and the dispute over Louis Farrakan to reveal how critical issues are framed and sensationalized by the media. In contrast, this film features a full range of opinions on both sides, while filling in the backstory and reporting what happened once the news cameras left. The climax of the film is the first in-depth analysis of the national uproar which erupted after Oakland high school students' laughed during a screening of Schindler's List. We hear from students and faculty about what really happened and what was done to heal wounds.
Blacks & Jews offers no easy assurances of racial harmony but it does show clearly that healing can only start with a serious effort to understand and respect the experiences of others.
Distributed by California Newsreel (www.newsreel.org)
Contact Us
(541) 737-2538
valley.circ@oregonstate.edu
