A specially selected African-American gospel choir goes to Palestine to sing in a Palestinian play about Martin Luther King Jr. written by . The play, performed by the Palestinian National Theatre and the choir, is presented to audiences all over the West Bank. The choir members become witnesses to life under occupation and a non-violent movement for social justice. It proves to be an intense cultural exchange between two peoples encompassing the joy of new friendships, creative collaborations, and eye-opening experiences. No one who participates remains unchanged. By Connie Field | Documentary | 96 min. Wednesday, March 26, 6:00 pm First Baptist Church 633 Centre Street Jamaica Plain, MA 02139 More details This event, presented by the KAIROS FORUM, includes a Screening of the film and a Talkback with filmmaker Dr. Connie Fields and playwright Dr. Clayborne Carson. Co-presented by BPFF and Jewish Voice for Peace-Boston. Dr. Clayborne Carson is a Professor of History at Stanford University, and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. Since 1985, he has directed the Martin Luther King Papers Project, a long-term project to edit and publish the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Carson is the senior editor of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Vols. 1-6. There are additional eight more volumes to be published. Dr. Carson other books include: In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. He is also the co-editor of The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader. He recently published a memoir detailing his life’s work as the editor of The King papers—Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Connie Field’s works include Freedom on My Mind (1994), a history of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, which was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival; The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1981), which is listed in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress; and Have You Heard from Johannesburg (2010), a seven-part history of the global anti-apartheid movement. She has just finished Al Helm: Martin Luther King in Palestine, which explores cross-cultural arts collaborations between African Americans and Palestinians, collective memory, shared dreams, and theater as a cultural force for social change. Film review and more of the back story from Mondoweiss.
We traveled through the Holy Land that the Christian choir were so passionately excited to see, as they were introduced to the other side of the land where Jesus once walked: a man whose front yard has been bisected by the Security Wall and whose children have to play in the dust of its continued construction; the ease with which they as foreigners were able to pass through checkpoints while their Palestinian counterparts took hours to navigate the same distance; a home which had no water because a settlement had taken over their well, where Palestinian women teach them songs in Arabic and join them in singing American gospel songs. And yet, amidst the hardships of occupied life, the choir is greeted with food, humor, and generosity, a mixture that brought some of them to tears.
– Connie Field, Filmmaker
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